Gentlemen Broncos
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: October 30, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
28
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
7
Negative:
13
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Teeming with socially awkward misfits, Gentlemen Broncos is not without its absurdist charms, although Hess (who co-scripted with his wife, Jerusha) pushes the envelope in ways it doesn't need pushing. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
The best part is Jemaine Clement as Benjamin’s grandiose genre hero, Dr. Ronald Chevalier. Even if you love him on "Flight of the Conchords," you’ll be unprepared for his genius--and charisma. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
As the struggle toward something new and different overwhelms the film, it becomes less and less human, less and less funny and less and less worth the effort to meet it on its own terms. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
Fitfully amusing. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The director, Jared Hess, who made "Napoleon Dynamite," a film I admit I didn't get, has made a film I don't even begin to get. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterFrank Scheck
Has little to offer besides unrelenting strangeness. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter Debruge
Napoleon Dynamite seems perfectly well-adjusted (not to mention downright charismatic) compared to homeschooled mama's boy Benjamin Purvis in Gentlemen Broncos, the latest oddball character portrait from one-trick helmer Jared Hess. Read full review
40
Time OutDavid Fear
It’s unfair to blame Hess solely for condescension comedy’s bad aftertaste--he’s not the only perpetrator--but his particular brand is the most graceless. Read full review
38
USA TodayClaudia Puig
If you didn't know otherwise, you'd swear that Gentlemen Broncos was made by a disaffected high school student – and not a particularly talented one. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy Burr
A comedy that can’t even admit to its own overwhelming sense of disgust. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubSean O'Neal
Crammed with so much deliberate tackiness that it borders on exhausting self-parody. Read full review
30
Village VoiceScott Foundas
Hess deserves credit, I suppose, for so effectively channeling his inner seven-year-old. Personally, I preferred spending two hours in the company of Spike Jonze's. Read full review
30
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Timing, good jokes and characters you can laugh with and at are mostly missing from Gentlemen Broncos. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesGary Goldstein
Satire aside, what the oddball folks here never feel is real, despite the filmmakers' claims of autobiographical parallels. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderCliff Doerksen
A witless whack at sci-fi fanboys. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Setting out to make a cult movie is almost as strange as setting out to make a camp movie. Or setting out to make a movie that's so bad it's good. If you know you're doing it, you're not really doing it. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
There's a lesson behind Gentlemen Broncos , the new film from director Jared Hess: Don't try to mock above your talent level. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Yep, Hess wrote and directed "Dynamite," and here's proof we shouldn't have rewarded him. The hollow "Broncos" is even more cruelly disdainful, designed primarily to scorn the pathetic lives within. Read full review
16
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The audience may have bought the act in "Napoleon Dynamite." But this time, the act bombs. Read full review
12
Washington PostJohn Anderson
What Michael Bay did for the Hollywood blockbuster with his second "Transformers" movie, Jared Hess has now done for the low-budget indie with Gentlemen Broncos -- namely, stain an entire genre with a sense of soulless calculation. Read full review
0
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
White is cast in this film as a “guardian angel” and adds another level of painful homosexual confusion and stereotyping to the film. Ultimately, all the chafing caused by Gentlemen Broncos is likely to leave you saddlesore. Read full review
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