So many funny scenes. Ethel Merman steals the movie

| Mar 23, 2025

This is a grim new variant of the old knockabout form, a comedy that deliberately brutalises every convention that makes people laugh. What it be comes, not surprisingly, is a comedy hat makes people feel battered and bleak.

| Mar 6, 2024

It's a comic's field day. We haven't seen such a salute to the gift of lunacy for decades.

| Aug 8, 2022

Despite the spectacular nature of the stunts in the first half, by the time the intermission and entr'acte come around, the visuals get even more complexly outrageous.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 24, 2020

Three-and-a-half hours of tiresome proof that Stanley Kramer should stick to dramas and leave comedies to his competitors.

| Oct 14, 2019

Simply too much for the human eye and ear to respond to, let alone the funny bone.

| Aug 13, 2019

It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is one of the best ensemble comedies and the star-studded film remains a classic to this day.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 23, 2019

It's an interesting example of the evacuated shell of a bad comedy being seized by seriousness and turned over to the service of a deadly Puritan theme.

| Mar 12, 2018

For every inspired set-piece, there are one or two that don't work, making this a frequently frustrating watch.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 18, 2014

lives up to its intentions as an epic madcap farce, and it offers enough comic variation through the multiple characters and situations that it never feels overlong or monotonous

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 9, 2014

It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World remains a technological and creative marvel for reasons beyond its sometimes fitful ability to make audiences laugh.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 7, 2014

There's a documentary-like pleasure in watching so many legends of comedy share the screen... along with the disappointment of watching so many very funny people fail to be funny at all.

| Original Score: 3/10 | Jan 23, 2014

[VIDEO ESSAY] A classic example of the Screwball Comedy genre.

| Original Score: A | Jan 22, 2012

What can you say about a comedy where the Three Stooges are the most sedate people on screen?

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 12, 2010

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 23, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 11, 2007

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

| Nov 7, 2007

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.

| Nov 7, 2007

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

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 7, 2007

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

| Nov 7, 2007