The result remains the funniest film of Martin’s career: a rags-to-riches riot of visual gags, oddball wit and, of course, outrageous silliness.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 12, 2024

The Jerk is uneven with a capital U.

| Jan 17, 2024

…doesn’t tick the boxes required of a rounded drama, but it’s hard to complain when so many gags land…

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 30, 2023

Every scene offers something funny; every scene subverts expectations.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 22, 2022

With comedy legend Carl Reiner directing and unforgettable supporting roles from Jackie Mason and Bernadette Peters, the result is an incredible mix of barbed satire, silly pratfalls, and, at its core, sweetness.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 14, 2021

There are some heavenly jokes (especially the one where he makes a fortune inventing an absurd nose support for spectacles), and Martin is in best "manic" mode.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 14, 2021

The verbal and conceptual gags... belong wholly to Martin's own brand of goofiness, and some of them are pretty funny.

| Mar 14, 2021

This is Martin at his absolute silliest, and therefore most brilliant.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Mar 14, 2021

The ingenious thing about this film is the way it can take serious situations and drastically interfere with them using an unexpected comedy device.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Aug 30, 2020

Carl Reiner, who has made his own contributions to comedy with Sid Caesar, Mel Brooks and Dick Van Dyke, does little to set a mood or rhythm or even an aura of good feeling that will carry audiences over the slow spots.

| Jul 19, 2019

It's just a strange little movie.

| Apr 12, 2019

Basically a series of skits that are barely tethered to a plot, this works better than expected, thanks primarily to Martin's infectious performance.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 22, 2018

Bernadette Peters...nearly steals the show from Martin's over-the-top antics. It's sweet, and funny, and includes one of the most quotable exit lines in film history.

| Jun 8, 2018

Within ts limitations, The Jerk is a capably produced entertainment, seasoned by deft bit performances from several actors...

| Apr 24, 2018

An oddball odyssey so strange, filled with non-sequiturs so funny, and decorated by a romance so sweet, it was an inevitable star-maker.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 12, 2012

92 minutes of direct and sweet surrealism

| Feb 13, 2010

Its humor is successful and unsuccessful by turns, and although Comedian Carl Reiner is the director, the instinct here is to give most of both credit and blame to Martin.

| Feb 2, 2009

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 2, 2009

An artless, non-stop barrage of off-the-wall situations, funny and unfunny jokes, generally effective and sometimes hilarious sight gags and bawdy non sequiturs.

| Feb 2, 2009

If only he could have satisfied himself with this area of expertise, people would still talk of Steve Martin as one of the kings of comic cinema.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 2, 2009