Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

spooky24 This show had incredible amounts of potential. Although the timing and editing was a little awkward and jerky in the beginning they really began to hit their stride in the end of the first season/beginning of the second. The jokes are topical and very funny (although a bit dated at this point). It was by no means a perfect show, but if you look back at the first season of some TV favorites (The Simpsons, Seinfeld, etc..) the first few seasons do seem a bit rougher. Overall, I think this show was unfairly canceled and had potential to be a great show for at least a few more seasons. I have the entire series on DVD and still pop it in when I need a laugh!

Guy Lanoue This little gem was perhaps ahead of its time, or perhaps a bit too clever for a mass audience, lasting only a couple of seasons. Unfortunately, the premise – an eccentric but honest movie critic – doesn't age well, since the script is of course locked into the movies of the time. This little trick is what made The Critic so good, that it didn't depend on characterisation or weirdness, or weird characterisation (astronaut Homer, Peter Griffin versus a giant chicken, Roger the alien in the attic), though these aspects are of course not entirely absent – Jay has a son he worries about, a younger sister, weird WASP parents incapable of showing they love him, and so on. Its charm was more in the movies that were reviewed, usually formulaic Hollywood stinkers that allowed the writers to have a lot of fun sending up the idols du jour – Schwarzenegger, Willis, Godzilla, T-Rex. Jay's Ted Turneresque boss, who is supposed to be narcissistic, greedy and cynical, is a pussycat compared to today's more faceless moguls. The main thing is that The Critic played directly into one of pop-culture's most important traits that was still a hip novelty twenty years ago: auto-referencing, playing on meaning alternating between two levels, the overt and its subtle reference to another pop culture icon. People who are adept at the name game inevitably gain hipster status, since their ability to wink every time they drop a name means they are masters of two levels of meaning, the overt and the subtextual reference; or does it? That's the hook, one never knows what level on which pop cultural communication operates. But within the terms of this genre and this culture, The Critic stands out since it also worked within a more traditional and pre-pop culture, in its avoidance of profanity and of references to body parts and fluids that came to define "funny" 15 years later. Worth watching, especially since getting the dated movie references makes the show even more iconic for its cultish audience.

gangstahippie The critic is a fairly old show which has started playing again on teletoon.I never saw it during its original run, but I am watching it now and realize its a very intelligent and funny show.It got cancelled after maybe 2 seasons like most good shows.The show is basically about a critic named Jay Sherman who is harsh(and ugly).He also dislikes most Hollywood films and likes movies normal people would consider over-long or boring.The show also involves his usually unlucky searches in finding true love while coping with his adoptive parents and his younger sister.The Critic also features plenty of funny pop-culture references.The Critic is a great show, it plays on teletoon Wednesday and Thursday nights at 10pm and if you don't have teletoon, you could find the show on DVD.

lauraeileen894 Even though I own "The Critic" on DVD, I'll always dearly miss it. It was one of the greatest "brilliant but canceled" series of all time, a little gem of a show that didn't get enough of a chance. Besides, like "Mystery Science Theater 3000" before it, parodying movies is a formula that can never age, because every year there is something ripe for ribbing. I'll always have a soft spot for chubby, pathetic protagonist Jay Sherman (Jon Lovitz), a film critic who is bombarded by dreadful Hollywood sequels or remakes, such as "Robo-Beverly Hills Cop and a Half 2" or "Apocolypse Wow!". As Jay struggles to maintain his integrity and his sanity, he thankfully has support from his sweet, spunky girlfriend Alice (Park Overall, who joined the show in its second season)and his Australian movie star friend Jeremy Hawke (Maurice LaMarche). Other supporting characters included Jay's unscrupulous boss Duke Phillips (Charles Napier, a hoot), and Jay's WASP-y stepparents Eleanor (Judity Ivey), a heartless matriarch, and Franklin (Gerrit Graham), a liquor-swilling lunatic. The show featured side-splitting movie parodies that, unfortunately, aren't too far off from the junk Hollywood spits out (one is a film version of "Family Affair" with Marlon Brando as Mr. French). It also employed cut-aways that, unlike recent seasons of "Family Guy", never felt too knee-jerk or gratuitous. The majority of celebrity voices are provided by La Marche ("Pinky and the Brain"), who brilliantly mimics an endless array of actors: Al Pacino, Dudley Moore, and, his trademark, Orson Welles ("Oh, what luck, there's a french fry stuck in my beard!"). Even though "The Critic" only lasted 2 seasons, it developed enough of a cult following to warrant the 2000-2001 "webisodes", which are featured on the DVD. I personally don't care for them... they make Jay too soft and they replace spitfire Alice with dull-as-tombs bimbo Jennifer as Jay's love interest. As Jay would say, "Feh! It stinks!" But "The Critic", in its original glory, doesn't. I'd say it was just as good as "The Simpsons" at its peak. I want to say I wish it lasted longer, but maybe it's just as well it ended when it did. All the better to remember a fine little animated series that could make a parody like "Hee Haw: The Next Generation" actually worthy of a chuckle.