It is nothing but a chase, turning a structural device of early movies into the total substance, and without anywhere to go. Help! is all climax, but nothing is prepared for; finally it just exhausts itself and stops.

| Sep 20, 2023

Help! is stylistically different from its predecessor but The Beatles sure know how to put on a performance.

| Nov 22, 2021

A witless orgy of expensive production that strangles the Beatles, so fresh and spontaneous in [A Hard Day's Night], in a laboriously foolish plot line and smothers them under tons of handsomely colored feathers.

| Aug 14, 2019

Fresher than anything else around. Help! the second Beatle flick, is not so much a movie as a way of life.

| Jul 16, 2019

In colour, and with plenty of exotic backgrounds, Help! is a joke-thriller, a send-up of thrillers, Bond ones especially, funnier and prettier than the other but not moving and personal as the other was.

| Jul 20, 2018

Help! is a Beatles movie, but even without the fab four, it would be an important film.

| Apr 26, 2017

Madcap, nonsensical romp with the Beatles.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 15, 2010

A fascinatingly manic adventure-comedy that doesn't always work as well as it might, but has worn much better than some of the other films made in the same vein at the same time.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Sep 15, 2010

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 1, 2008

For casual viewers, the whole thing has a retro charm. For Beatles fans, it's a flawed but essential film.

| Nov 15, 2007

Beatles fans have always been too kind in overlooking the film's obvious flaws.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 8, 2007

Nonsensical fun.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 6, 2007

Already dated, but still a fun romp with the legendary Beatles.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 18, 2006

A Hard Day's Night may be more primitive, but it also seems more spontaneous.

| Feb 9, 2006

Lester's anarchic absurdity and quick cut camera gags make for a pretty good whole.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 6, 2005

The boys themselves are exuberant and uninhibited in their own genial way. They just become awfully redundant and -- dare I say it? -- dull.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 9, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 25, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 22, 2003

A cheerful and cheeky death-knell for traditional standards of well-crafted filmmaking from the previous decade.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 21, 2003

Quirky but uneven musical-comedy

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 18, 2003