Average Rating: 5.4/10
Reviews Counted: 112
Fresh: 54 | Rotten: 58
With its large cast and frantic comic pacing, Big Trouble labors for slapstick-style hilarity, but it never really gains steam.
Average Rating: 4.8/10
Critic Reviews: 31
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 22
With its large cast and frantic comic pacing, Big Trouble labors for slapstick-style hilarity, but it never really gains steam.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 20,372
Barry Sonnenfeld directs this kissing cousin of his own 1995 hit Get Shorty, a comic caper adapted by Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone from the novel by newspaper humorist Dave Barry. When two New Jersey hitmen (Dennis Farina and Jack Kehler) show up in Miami to whack crooked businessman Arthur Herk (Stanley Tucci), they happen to creep into his backyard at the same time as Matt (Ben Foster), a high school kid with his own assassination plans. Only, Matt plans to use nothing heavier than a squirt
Apr 5, 2002 Wide
Oct 8, 2002
$7.3M
Touchstone Pictures
All Critics (122) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (54) | Rotten (60) | DVD (19)
In this clumsy attempt to merge farce with satire, the jokes repeatedly miss the mark.
Mostly ... Sonnenfeld mishandles the broad part of the comedic formula, preferring repetition to thematic development.
Because the tone is so light, so genial and eager to please, the whole enterprise seems the opposite of prescient. It seems naive, almost delusional.
Makes for distinctly uneasy viewing, as Big Trouble's massive subtext repeatedly threatens to overwhelm its haphazardly stylized diegesis.
... Big Trouble produces only a very few small chuckles.
Like an overloaded aircraft at that security-challenged airport, Big Trouble moves forward in fits and starts but never manages to achieve sufficient momentum for a smooth, satisfying liftoff.
Sharp, funny movie for high schoolers and up.
Faithful to the events in Barry's novel, lifts a good deal of his witty dialogue, and recruits a proven cast of laugh-winners. Why, then, is it so resolutely unfunny?
The worst thing someone could say about "Big Trouble" is that it's too much like "Get Shorty," which is one of the best reasons to go see the film
Sprawling comedy has a few laughs in it -- and the specter of recent events hanging over it.
Director Barry Sonnenfeld unites an incredibly unique and charismatic ensemble cast for this witty adaptation of Dave Barry's 1998 novel.
...a highly enjoyable romp that is as multi-faceted as it is tightly constructed.
Big Trouble is one of those great big silly capers that fails at juggling its dark humor while feeling cutesy in its ability to dance around the plot contrivances...derivative, offensive, stylish and smirky crime caper.
Tim Allen is great in his role but never hogs the scenes from his fellow cast, as there are plenty of laughs and good lines for everyone in this comedy.
very funny, jason lee steals the show
January 25, 2007
Super Reviewer
It was wild and crazy. Pretty funny but did get a little boring too.
October 23, 2008Super Reviewer
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