RottenTomatoes.com
Log In | Register | What is RT?
Check out the new RT Community
  • Home
  • Movies
  • DVD
  • Celebrities
  • News
  • Critics
  • Trailers & Pictures
  • CommunityBeta
  • Box Office
  • | In Theaters
  • | Opening
  • | Upcoming
  • | Best Of
  • | Certified Fresh
  • | Showtimes
RT Search Powered by Google
help icon Enhanced RT
searches on Google
Click here to turn on enhanced search results from RT on your Google searches.
 
Movies / On DVD / It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Rate this Movie Help Icon

  • Write a Review
  • Read Reviews
  • Add to List
  • Get this Movie
  • Buy Poster External Icon
  • Bookmark and Share

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
77 %
Tomatometer

How does the Tomatometer work Help Icon

Reviews Counted: 26

Fresh: 20

Rotten:6

Average Rating: 6.7/10

Runtime: 3 hrs 12 mins

Genre: Comedies

Synopsis: This wacky comedy classic directed by Stanley Kramer features one of the largest collections of American comedians ever brought together on celluloid, resulting in the kind of far-out comic gem... This wacky comedy classic directed by Stanley Kramer features one of the largest collections of American comedians ever brought together on celluloid, resulting in the kind of far-out comic gem that only the 1960s could dish out. Filled with sharp one-liners, plenty of pratfalls and double takes, and unstoppable slapstick humor, this film never stops entertaining. The laughs come mostly from vehicle accidents of all kinds: car crashes, bike accidents, airplane failures, and almost everything else imaginable. But a good amount of humor is also lent to major wrestling matches, terrible mix-ups and misunderstandings, and increasingly absurd personalities such as Mrs. Marcus (Ethel Merman), the screeching and impossible mother-in-law. The film even laughs at itself, showing its flimsy cardboard sets as characters punch out walls or accidentally explode whole boxes of dynamite. The cast includes such favorites as Jonathan Winters, Phil Silvers, Milton Berle, Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, Sid Caesar, Spencer Tracey, Terry-Thomas, and Dick Shawn, among countless others. Brilliantly simple, the plot concerns a caravan of motorists who witness a terrible accident on a dangerously windy California highway. The auto-crash victim (Jimmy Durante) reveals in his dying words that he has hidden a fortune of stolen cash, sending the drivers on a rambunctious race to see who can claim the loot first! [More]

Starring: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Ethel Merman, Buddy Hackett

Starring: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Ethel Merman, Buddy Hackett, Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Jimmy Durante, Dick Shawn, Jonathan Winters, Terry-Thomas, Phil Silvers, Carl Reiner, Dorothy Provine, ZaSu Pitts, Buster Keaton, Sterling Holloway, Leo Gorcey, Paul Ford, Peter Falk, Edward Everett Horton, William Demarest

Director: Stanley Kramer

Director: Stanley Kramer
Screenwriter: William Rose, Tania Rose
Producer: Stanley Kramer
Composer: Ernest Gold

[See More Credits]

Get This Movie

Rent DVD
 
 

Click on the "ADD" button to put this movie into your Netflix queue.

 
 
Buy DVD
 
 
Release:

Aug 5, 2008

[DVD Details]
 
 
  • Spencer Tracy heads a hilariously zany cast that stars Hollywood's greatest comedians (Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas and Jonathan Winters) and features cameo appearances by every joker and jester in the business from DonKnotts and Jerry Lewis to The Three Stooges. Nominated* for 6 Oscars®, It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is "an explosive motion picture experience" (Variety)! On a winding desert highway, eight vacation-bound motorists share an experience that alters their plansand their lives! After a mysterious stranger divulges the location of a stolen fortune, they each speed off in a mind-bending, car-bashing race for the loot and the most side-splitting laughfest in history.
  • Source: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
  •  
     
     
     

    Reviews for It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

    • T-Meter Critics
    • Top Critics
    • RT Community
    • My Critics
    • My Friends
    • DVD
     
     
    1 - 20 (sorted by date)
    Text View | 1 2 >> >|
    Arrange By: Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
     
     
    N/R

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
    10/18/08
    Urban Cinefile Critics
    Urban Cinefile

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    07/23/08
    Frank Swietek
    One Guy's Opinion

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    12/11/07
    John A. Nesbit
    Old School Reviews

    Stanley Kramer strikes out again with this elephantine 1963 attempt at uproarious comedy.

    Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment 1 Comment
    11/07/07
    Don Druker
    Chicago Reader
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Spencer Tracy, Sid Caesar, Mickey Rooney and host of good-old-fashioned-comedy chums cram in the action, but miss the laughs in this frantic bank caper comedy.

    Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
    11/07/07
    Channel 4 Film

    This comic extravaganza starts off funny, but exhausts rather than delights.

    Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
    11/07/07
    TV Guide's Movie Guide

    The comic competition is so keen that it is impossible to single out any one participant as outstanding.

    Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
    11/07/07
    Variety Staff
    Variety
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Kramer's 'comedy to end all comedy' stretches its material to snapping point but offers happy hours of star-spotting.

    Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
    02/09/06
    Time Out

    This movie defines the words "comic romp."

    comment Comment
    12/05/05
    Cole Smithey
    ColeSmithey.com

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    07/04/05
    Emanuel Levy
    EmanuelLevy.Com

    So many excellent actors and stunt men do so much in this film that it is beyond my space allowance to begin to credit them.

    Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
    05/09/05
    Bosley Crowther
    New York Times
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Bloated mega-comedy best for its many cameos

    comment Comment
    02/11/05
    Daniel Eagan
    Film Journal International

    Still the funniest star packed comedy ever.

    comment Comment
    01/02/05
    Steve Crum
    Kansas City Kansan

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    12/28/04
    Michael Dequina
    Mr. Brown's Movies

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    07/23/04
    Daniel M. Kimmel
    Worcester Telegram & Gazette

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    11/07/03
    Jon Niccum
    Lawrence Journal-World

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    04/18/03
    Nell Minow
    Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    02/17/03
    Jeffrey Westhoff
    Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    11/01/02
    Rob Vaux
    Flipside Movie Emporium

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    10/03/02
    Philip Martin
    Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
     
     
    1 - 20 (sorted by date)
    Text View | 1 2 >> >|
    all

    Latest News for It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

    February 14, 2007: Zombie Keeps Adding Bodies to His "Halloween" Cast
    At this point it feels like Rob Zombie is doing a remake of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" instead of a "Halloween" reboot. We have some more casting news... More...

    See More Topics...

    Related Forums for It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

    Click here to be the first to post a message on this forum.

    See All

    More DVDs

    Close
    Top Rentals
    Tomatometer Percentage Movie
    79%
    79%
    Gran Torino
    30%
    30%
    12 Rounds
    23%
    23%
    Confessions of a Shopa…
    —
    The Code
    39%
    39%
    Inkheart

    More Rentals…

    New On DVD This Week
    Tomatometer Percentage Movie
    22%
    22%
    Push
    12%
    12%
    The Unborn

    More New Releases…

    RT On Current TV

    What’s Hot On RT

    Deconstructing Harry

    Deconstructing Harry

    Pt. 3: Cuaron's darker Prisoner of Azkaban

    Best Mockumentaries

    Best Mockumentaries

    From Borat to Spinal Tap, this one goes to 11

    Humpday Clip

    Humpday Clip

    An exclusive peek at the indie comedy!

    Half-Blood Prince

    Half-Blood Prince

    How good is the 6th Harry Potter?

    Other News

    Close
    • Top Stories
    • Popular
    • Interviews
     
     

    Comments

     
     
    Top Stories
    Headlines Comments
      
    • Weekly Ketchup: T.J. Hooker Film in Development
    18
    • Warners Shortens Green Lantern Wishlist Source: Hollywood Reporter
    94
    • Harold Ramis Talks Ghostbusters 3 Source: MakingOf.com
    32
    • Spider-Man 4 Gets Its Third Writer Source: Latino Review
    60
    • Warners Wins Favorable Ruling in Superman Case Source: Variety
    18
    • Remo Williams Rides Again Source: Risky Biz
    10
    • Mortal Kombat 3 Filming in September? Source: Slashfilm
    82
    • MacGruber Gets a Director Source: Variety
    39
    • PG-13 Turns 25 Source: VideoETA
    8
    • Weekly Ketchup: Universal Takes on Asteroids
    92
    Popular
    Headlines Comments
      
    • Deconstructing Harry, Day 1: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
    67
    • Box Office Guru Wrapup: Transformers and Ice Age Tie for Top Spot
    59
    • Deconstructing Harry, Day 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
    51
    • Weekly Ketchup: Universal Takes on Asteroids
    46
    • Total Recall: Mock Docs That Rock
    41
    • Critics Consensus: Bruno is Certified Fresh
    41
    • Five Favorite Films with Kathryn Bigelow
    39
    • RT on DVD: Knowing, Push, The Unborn Unleashed
    26
    • Five Favourite Films with Jaime Winstone
    19
    • Deconstructing Harry, Day 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
    16
    Interviews
    Headlines Comments
      
    • RT Interview: Director Carlos Cuaron on Rudo and Cursi
    0
    • RT Interview: Tony Scott on The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
    10
    • Cannes 2009: RT Interview - Sally Hawkins on We Want Sex
    2
    • RT Interview: Tilda Swinton on Julia
    5
    • Hollywood Legend Debbie Reynolds Reflects On her Life in Showbiz
    10
    • Exclusive: McG Talks Terminator Salvation
    24
    • Georgia Groome - Fresh Talent on RT
    5
    • RT Interview: Reading The Reader with Stephen Daldry
    11
    • RT Interview: Oscar Nominee Melissa Leo
    7
    • Carey Mulligan - Fresh Talent on RT
    7
     
     

    Sponsored Links

    Around The Network

    • It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World at Rotten Tomatoes
    • It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World at IGN

    Fresh Links

    Featured
    Point-Counterpoint: Bruno
    Point-Counterpoint: Bruno External Link

    MSN's David Fear and Frank Paiva go head to head discussing the pros and cons of Bruno star Sacha Baron Cohen.

    The New Cult Canon
    The New Cult Canon External Link

    The AV Club's Scott Tobias takes a second look at David Lynch's cult classic, Lost Highway.

    Tom Cruise's 10 Best Roles
    Tom Cruise's 10 Best Roles External Link

    TIME takes us on a 25-year long journey into the superstar's career, giving us a look at his 10 best roles.

    A Baywatch Comedy?
    A Baywatch Comedy? External Link

    BuzzSugar reports on Paramount's plans to rebirth the iconic TV show as a comedy film.

     
     
    About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Games| Celebs List| Newsletter
    IGN Logo

    IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | GameSpy Technology
    TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
    AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive | Green Pixels


    By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
    Copyright 1998-2009, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
    IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
    Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.