42
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 63Washington PostWashington PostUnexpectedly likeable, thanks to the high-spirited performances of stars James Belushi and Charles Grodin, under the relaxed direction by Arthur Hiller.
- 63Boston GlobeMatthew GilbertBoston GlobeMatthew GilbertTaking Care of Business could be a lot worse. It's a swift, if entirely predictable, identity-switch movie that wastes little time on the way to its morality play conclusion. [17 Aug 1990, p.36p]
- 60Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumThis is a pretty stupid comedy in spots, with holes wide enough to drive trucks through, and director Arthur Hiller is as clunky as ever, but the cast is so funny and likable—above all, costars Jim Belushi and Charles Grodin, and newcomer Loryn Locklin—that they almost bring it off in spite of itself.
- 50Chicago TribuneJohanna SteinmetzChicago TribuneJohanna SteinmetzVeteran director Arthur Hiller keeps the vehicle galloping along with a sure hand, careful not to let any of it sink to a fatal level of believability and always on the prowl for whatever wit can be harvested from any gizmo at hand. [17 Aug 1990, p.B]
- 40Washington PostRita KempleyWashington PostRita KempleyBanal performances -- Jim is still not John and Grodin is playing a second-rate variation of the uptight guy in Midnight Express -- combine with derivative plot to tell us that yuppies are too grasping for their own good.
- 40Los Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonLos Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonTaking Care of Business is a curious achievement: a laughless comedy starring Belushi and Grodin, two actors who are almost always funny.
- The real problem with Taking Care of Business is that it doesn't even get much mileage out of what it does have going for it. Grodin and Belushi have both done their best work in buddy-buddy pairings (Midnight Run and Red Heat, respectively), but while the two demonstrate some comedy chemistry here, they aren't brought together onscreen until the film is virtually over.
- 30Time OutTime OutThrough crass over-emphasis and sloppy continuity errors, Hiller fumbles most of the jokes away. The roles fit Belushi/Grodin like rubber, but the rest is second-rate.
- 30The New York TimesCaryn JamesThe New York TimesCaryn JamesThis is the old, old trading places gag, and while a good idea can always be reinvented, invention is precisely what Taking Care of Business lacks.
- 25Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanThe plot is déjà vu all over again, another variation on the proletarian-joker-goes-yuppie formula used in Trading Places, The Secret of My Success, and Opportunity Knocks. In Taking Care of Business, the formula gets boiled down to its bare bones. The movie is nothing but a series of executive signifiers — it should have been called The Trappings of My Success.