Cedar Rapids
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: February 11, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
30
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumFeb 9, 2011
Sweetness makes the raunch in this honestly funny movie even funnier. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisFeb 10, 2011
Tim isn't super anything (though he proves heroic), and what makes Cedar Rapids a low-wattage pleasure is its insistence that his ordinariness - with his decency and sense of wonder - is pretty extraordinary. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsFeb 18, 2011
To ensure customer loyalty, Hollywood should promote more movies about workaday life in the provinces, but until there's a new wave of midcoast comedies, Cedar Rapids is the big kahuna. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMar 9, 2011
This movie embraces its inner yokel. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnFeb 9, 2011
Helms plays angelic insurance agent Tim Lippe with gentle nobility and hilarious naivete. Read full review
80
EmpireNick de SemlyenApr 25, 2011
One of those sunny-natured indie comedies that comes out of nowhere to put a smile on your face. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzFeb 17, 2011
A really entertaining effort, aided by some terrific performances. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternFeb 10, 2011
The main thing about Cedar Rapids is that it makes you laugh-often and out loud. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyFeb 10, 2011
If that all sounds like a lot of good, clean fun, a word of warning. In what seems to have become the genre's raison d'etre, the dialogue is so blue at times that you'll probably feel the heat of the blushing cheeks on either side of you, especially whenever Reilly's fast-talking savant of smut shows up. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovFeb 17, 2011
This is smart, quirky, frequently laugh-out-loud comedy, in all seriousness. Read full review
75
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreMar 2, 2011
It's a farce with sexual come-ons and actual sex - the Boy Scout Tim's first encounter with a hooker and a crack pipe - but Cedar Rapids never loses track of the humanity of its characters. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerFeb 17, 2011
Has an inordinate number of good laughs mixed in with the not-so-good ones. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn LevyFeb 17, 2011
The ensemble rolls gleefully with the script's twists (which aren't all that twisty, to be fair), and the film piles up laugh after laugh agreeably. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyFeb 17, 2011
For a movie loaded with ear-scorching profanity, oceans of booze, and illegal drugs enough to keep all of Cedar Rapids in high spirits for a month, there is something fundamentally decent about the film. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisFeb 17, 2011
The movie shouldn't work, yet it does. Read full review
75
NPRElla TaylorFeb 15, 2011
As a satire of the insurance industry, and more implicitly of religious hypocrisy, Cedar Rapids is mild stuff. But the movie has a nice lived-in feel, and a sense that its comedy has been earned. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliFeb 12, 2011
Nothing if not versatile. And, although perhaps not as funny as one might expect given the setup, it successfully grows the main characters beyond their stereotype roots. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversFeb 11, 2011
Cedar Rapids had me smiling at hello. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigFeb 10, 2011
This is a Frank Capra-meets-Judd Apatow comedy with a sweetness-laced ribaldry. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 10, 2011
In addition to being funny and endearing and having a lively script and lots of nicely observed performances - is something of an education. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasFeb 10, 2011
The cast, anchored by sweetly goofy Ed Helms, redeems the film at every turn, adding humor and dimension to characters who might have otherwise drowned in tacky grotesquerie. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 10, 2011
Modest in every way, the screenplay by Phil Johnston is enjoyable in the telling even when the details smack of contrivance. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertFeb 9, 2011
Cedar Rapids has something of the same spirit of "Fargo" in its approach to the earnest natures of its small-towners. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneFeb 25, 2011
Cedar Rapids is certainly a guys' movie, yet it leaves us with the unmistakable impression that men are simple engines. [28 Feb. 2011, p. 80]
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirFeb 11, 2011
Often hilarious, although I found it so amped-up and overly broad that I was exhausted before the movie was over. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinFeb 7, 2011
It helps that Reilly is the opposite of a slob-comic. With his hangdog melancholy, he makes even the nonstop cunnilingus allusions poignant-the product of emotional longing. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyFeb 7, 2011
It's not exactly "The Hangover," but the dialogue and situations often get distinctly gamey. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeFeb 7, 2011
Though not as uproarious as "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," director Miguel Arteta's consistently entertaining white-collar laffer could do for Helms what that film did for Steve Carell. Read full review
63
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMar 11, 2011
It's a decent comedy, mind you, one with its fair share of chuckles. But it's really more amusing than it is fall-out-of-your-seat funny. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithFeb 11, 2011
Maybe the Midwest isn't actually like this, but if it were, would that be so bad? Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanFeb 11, 2011
Its appeal comes almost entirely from the cast members, who appear genuinely excited to invite us to their party. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineSteve RamosFeb 10, 2011
Reilly delivers another one of his trademark "nutty pal" performances that continue to win him fans. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesFeb 10, 2011
Helms's screen persona-the stiff-necked nerd who triumphs through sheer doggedness-is heavily reminiscent of Harold Lloyd's, though Lloyd was handsome and endearing enough to succeed as a romantic lead. Read full review
60
Time OutDavid FearFeb 9, 2011
The movie just ping-pongs between empathetic chuckles at Helms's charming social awkwardness and putting him through a raunchfest ringer. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayFeb 11, 2011
Like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton before him, Helms plays a lamb trotting hopefully through the abattoir, blessedly unaware of the blades hanging just above his head. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyFeb 11, 2011
This is the reliable raunch-plus-sweetness comic formula that goes back through the Farrelly brothers, Adam Sandler's comedies, "Revenge of the Nerds," "Porky's" and "Animal House." Read full review
50
MovielineStephanie ZacharekFeb 8, 2011
It's a movie that needs to look down its nose for its laughs, which generally isn't the best place to find them. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJ. HobermanFeb 8, 2011
A mild comedy of embarrassment. Read full review
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