42
Metascore
7 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- A brazen, irreverent, and wild satire that hits more often than it misses, THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN seeks to prove that people will do anything, absolutely anything, for money--if there's enough of it.
- A superb realization of the book.
- 50The New YorkerPauline KaelThe New YorkerPauline KaelThere are funny moments, but they don't add up to enough.
- 40Time OutTime OutThe Magic Christian is all too clearly representative of the impasse independent mainstream film-making found itself in when given its head by the industry in the '60s. The result is a variety concert of a film in which most of the acts/jokes fall flat.
- 40Village VoiceVillage VoiceFor Southern to be funny at all, jokes must be carried too far and decorum exploded at every turn. Even if McGrath were inclined to handle the material this way, mush of it has dated, and the screenplay by Southern, McGrath, and Peter Sellers does not so much update it as displace it. [26 Feb 1970, p.60]
- 30Chicago ReaderDave KehrChicago ReaderDave KehrA curdled, unfunny satire made more painful by McGrath’s inappropriately jubilant style.