Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Jonathon Dabell Undeterred by his largely mediocre directorial debut in Gator, Burt Reynolds once again plants his behind in the director's chair for The End, a dark comedy about terminal illness and death. As in the case of Gator, here we have a film which fails to fulfil its potential – sure, it rises to a few comic highlights and features a pretty good performance from Reynolds himself, but overall the film is tediously drawn-out and can't seem to make up its mind what it wants to be.Young, good-looking Wendell 'Sonny' Lawson (Burt Reynolds) learns that he has a toxic blood syndrome and will soon die. Taking the most negative estimates of his remaining life expectancy for fact, he believes he will be gone within three months. Sonny visits his young girlfriend (Sally Field) for one final tender interlude (or "a pity f@ck" as he phrases it); he visits his odd-couple parents, his ex-wife, his estranged daughter. He even attempts to attend a confession at church, only to end up seeing a novice priest who envies his hell-raising lifestyle rather than helping him to clear his conscience with God. Ultimately, Sonny decides to commit suicide… but his attempt to do so is unsuccessful and he ends up in a lunatic asylum where he befriends schizophrenic Marlon Borunki (Dom DeLuise). Marlon helps Sonny time and again to end his life, each attempt becoming more farcical and over-the-top than the one before. Could t be that Sonny doesn't really want to end his life after all? The first half of the movie is better than the second, with some philosophical black comedy concerning the preciousness of life and the inevitability of death. Several scenes are painfully unspooled during this first half, but at least in these early scenes the film seems to have a sense of its own morbid fascination. The second half descends into uneven and ill-fitting slapstick, with DeLuise mugging away madly as Reynolds' comrade-in-lunacy. DeLuise is OK in the role but the entire second section seems strangely unconnected to the first half, creating a jarring swing in mood and style from which the film never truly recovers. The notion that 'death is funny' as a cinematic theme is a strange beast which needs to be handled with an expert touch to have any chance of working. In this case, it nearly works but ultimately doesn't quite pull it off. The End is a near-miss… but a miss nonetheless.

jessedorjeirwin Then at all costs avoid this movie. I wasn't surprised to see this Burt Reynolds vehicle was directed by auteur Burt Reynolds: it takes a particular kind of vanity project to stink this badly. The fact that both he and costar Dom Deluise continued to thrive in Hollywood after this stinker is proof either of their prodigious personal charisma or the profound unjustness of the universe. Flatly lit and shot like a sitcom. Drastically unfunny. Perhaps if edited down to 10 or 15 minutes this would have made a merry jaunt, but as it is the story moves like glue. Peppered with casual racism. I saw this for free and still wanted a refund. The bright side is that compared to 'The End,' other movies seem just that much better. Also, Mr. Reynolds wears some nice-looking tracksuits.

mm-39 Funny in a dark sort of way. I like the ending, and Burt Reynolds is funny in a sick way. This film is dated, and looks very 70's. The material is older, but still has some laughs. I caught about a quarter of it, after not seeing it for 10 years, and found it ok, but it depend what mood I am in when I watch it. I would watch it again on TBS but probably chanel surf at the same time. 6/10

gazzo-2 Everyone remembers this one, esp the scene at the loony bin window where Dom Delouise is hellbent of finishing Burt off, Burt has second thoughts about plummetting to his death, and so on. That alone is great. Kirsty McNichols was also very good too. (I was too young when I saw it to appreciate the presence of Myrna Loy and Joanne Woodward, and so I do look forwards to seeing it again in fact)I also can remember seeing David Steinberg doing his whacked out shrink routine-'Get off of me!', etc. too. He is kinda forgotten now but a funny guy nonetheless.So yeah, I do recommend this to anyone who wants to see an underrated Reynolds flick, it really is pretty good.***