Andrew Bergman's The Freshman is a charmed comedy, the kind of seemingly effortless movie in which everything falls neatly into place, as if ordained by nature.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 1, 2013

Brando does a wonderful sendup of Corleone that manages to play off the Don's entrenched place in pop culture. But The Freshman is no copycat comedy.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 1, 2013

Though writer-director Andrew Bergman sets up potentially funny situations, the payoffs aren't nearly as clever as they need to be. Many situations don't pay off at all.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 1, 2013

Just when you've had it with the mistimed scenes and the clunky direction, writer-director Andrew Bergman comes through with an inspired piece of lunacy.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 1, 2013

It's the kind of material that could easily fly apart into silliness, yet Brando and Broderick help the director to keep it anchored in a certain emotional reality, which is always the source of the richest comedy.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 1, 2013

Marlon Brando returns to the movies with one of his funniest performances as, in essence, Don Corleone with a screw loose.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 1, 2013

An underrated hidden treasure.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 8, 2010

No film offering the spectacle of a Komodo dragon being transported across a state line for immoral purposes can be lightly dismissed.

| Sep 8, 2010

Marlon Brando's sublime comedy performance elevates The Freshman from screwball comedy to a quirky niche in film history.

| Mar 26, 2009

The Freshman has a preposterous plot even the writer's mother couldn't believe, and it strains and creaks down the runway, but when this baby gets off the ground, we're talking seriously funny.

| Oct 18, 2008

Sweet and warm as well as manic, this is full of loopy surprises.

| Oct 13, 2007

The casting, needless to say, is perfect, and Bergman keeps the various escalating intrigues clipping along at a brisk pace.

| Jan 26, 2006

A witty and enchanted comedy.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 20, 2003

With Brando around, The Freshman has a snappy madness that's hard to resist.

| May 12, 2001

A great actor's self-parody might be fascinating, especially if the actor is Brando. But the performance Brando gives here is anything but a good-natured goof on himself.

| Jan 1, 2000

There have been a lot of movies where stars have repeated the triumphs of their parts - but has any star ever done it more triumphantly than Marlon Brando does in The Freshman?

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 1, 2000

A quirky sleeper with something truly unexpected around every corner.

| Jan 1, 2000

The Freshman is a dawdling, occasionally amusing stunt.

| Original Score: B- | Jul 20, 1990