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Original Kings of Comedy, The
Paramount Pictures

Original Kings of Comedy, The reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 76 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.6 out of 10
based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 3 votes
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Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for language and sex related humor

Starring Cedric the Entertainer, Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, and Bernie Mac

Concert film that captures segments of "Kings of Comedy," a tour running from 1997-1999.


GENRE(S): Documentary  
DIRECTED BY: Spike Lee  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: February 27, 2001 
Video: February 27, 2001 
Theatrical: August 18, 2000 
RUNNING TIME: 115 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Boston Globe Jay Carr
Not only exhilarating and cathartic. It's too funny to be ignored.
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90
The New York Times A.O. Scott
Their comedy gives audiences that have never seen anything like it a hilarious window on a new world.
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90
Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
Lee performs magic. He's preserved and expanded the experience of an adrenaline-pumping, uproarious night of racism-, classism-, and sexism-subverting humor.
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90
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
Turns a hysterical night of African-American humor into the hottest little picture of the summer.
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90
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
A dynamite concert film.
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90
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
A tornado of laughs based on the black experience as lived by these four insightful jokers, instead of as filtered through the Hollywood formula.
88
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
It's not so much good material as divinely inspired delivery.
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88
USA Today Mike Clark
Both the material and the way it's delivered by the movie's comic quartet are so funny.
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80
Dallas Observer Bill Gallo
A fresh, intimate, gloriously unpolished performance film that measures up to the classics of the genre.
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80
Film.com Ernest Hardy
It's a very funny film, one of the most enjoyable of the summer.
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80
Variety Scott Foundas
Consistently hilarious.
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80
LA Weekly Paul Malcolm
Both funny and furious -- on why black people are different from white people.
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80
Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
A decidedly grown-up affair.
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78
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The most articulate and entertaining commentary on racial differences to have come down the pike in quite a while.
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75
San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack
Can make a person sick in two ways at once -- through its lowdown raunch and through the spasms of laughter that use stomach muscles one might not have known existed.
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75
San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris
Crassly funny passages.
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75
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Side-splitting concert film.
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75
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Exuberant, often hilarious.
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75
Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday
These guys are funny.
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75
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Doesn't have the theatrical subtext or, let it be said, the genius of Richard Pryor.
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75
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
This picture won't attract white audiences. I doubt that blacks would flock to a Jerry Seinfeld concert film. But we'd all get along better if we realized we had the right to laugh at each other's foibles
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75
Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Racy, obscene, spirited and infectious.
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70
Film.com Gemma Files
A two-hour slice --of comedy pie.
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70
Village Voice Gary Dauphin
Simultaneously hilarious and reprehensible.
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67
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The routines are charged, even between jokes, with anticipatory hilarity.
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65
Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
Gets to the funny bone, but it could've cut deeper.
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63
New York Post Jonathan Foreman
Unashamedly vulgar and exuberantly politically incorrect.
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63
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
One funny movie - for at least half the time.
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55
TNT RoughCut Susannah Breslin
Solidly entertaining if not remarkably innovative.
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50
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Sometimes they're truly hilarious; sometimes they're lazy enough to milk laughs from scattershot vulgarity.
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30
TV Guide Steve Simels
The relentlessly self-congratulatory tone is oppressive.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Pat C. gave it a 6:
Unintelligible at times. So. It is possible to present generally clean black comedy in the post-Cosby era.

Bobby N gave it a 10:
Funny as hell...they take a look at themsleves and everyone else and make you laugh about everything! Very cool.

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