72
Metascore
19 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanA madcap gem.
- 90L.A. WeeklyF. X. FeeneyL.A. WeeklyF. X. FeeneyYet Waiting for Guffman is never mean-spirited. Its weird warmth is perfectly embodied by Guest himself, whose flamboyant, stagestruck choreographer, Corky St. Clair, could have (in less ingenious hands) been a cruel, gay-bashing caricature, but instead becomes a hallucinatory Everyman.
- 90NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenThe movie is, from start to finish, a hoot... Both a savvy satire of smalltown boosterism and an affectionate salute to the performing spirit. [10 Feb 1987, p.66]
- 88ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliThirty minutes into Waiting for Guffman, my stomach hurt from laughing.
- 80The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinThe don't quite do for "Oklahoma!" what they did for heavy metal, but they come close. [31 Jan 1997, p.C6]
- 80Film ThreatRon WellsFilm ThreatRon WellsI saw this movie in a room full of San Francisco movie critics, and I haven't heard that much laughter since, well, the piano duet in "Island of Dr. Moreau" (which you must admit, was pretty funny.)
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThe movie doesn't bludgeon us with gags. It proceeds with a certain comic relentlessness from setup to payoff, and its deliberation is part of the fun.
- Such a funny mess that it keeps you laughing even when you realize it's not much better directed than a cable-access talk show.
- 63San Francisco ExaminerSan Francisco ExaminerNowhere near as funny as "Spinal Tap," but fans of this kind of deadpan humor are guaranteed to get a few chuckles out of this one. All of the actors are marvelously horrible, and in this movie, bad equals good.
- 40TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghTV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghThe result isn't very funny: There are clever bits, sure, but they're embedded in long, painfully obvious sequences built around one-shot gags.