Haiku Tunnel
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: September 14, 2001 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
8
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Rolling StonePeter Travers
A ragtag charmer. You will laugh. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
A sly and captivating comedy of imaginative leaps and gently orchestrated pandemonium. Read full review
80
Mr. ShowbizKevin Maynard
Not all of the jokes hit, but enough of them do that anyone who's ever filed, collated, or played Mixmaster DJ with the transcribing machine will find cathartic giggles in this breakout debut.
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The result is a winning comedy. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Delivers deliciously low blows at corporate America, office politics and the lengths people will go to avoid work.
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The vision of office work that's offered up by Haiku Tunnel is as chilling as it is funny.
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
There are a few weak spots -- the ending could have used some fine tuning -- but otherwise its a solid sleeper: unassuming, unexpected and wholly entertaining. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
It's unpretentiously low-tech and humorously offbeat. And against all odds, the filmmaker emerges as a star. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
The charm and the shoddiness of Haiku Tunnel stem from the same source. It's basically a San Francisco underground theater production that somehow escaped onto the movie screen without losing any of its eccentric, insular qualities. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
They try too hard to be funny. It's hardly a damning fault, but it has a tendency to drown out their satiric observations. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
However refreshing it is to see a movie about the secretary rather than the lawyer -- there is a long wait for the light at the end of the Haiku Tunnel. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeJay Carr
They're a far cry from the Coen brothers, or even the Polish brothers, but Josh and Jacob Kornbluth emerge intact from their first filmmaking venture and score more hits than misses in this comedy.
60
VarietyDavid Rooney
While it plays more like stage or TV sketch-comedy shtick than film material, this modest, visually unimposing production remains entertaining thanks to its ironic observations and winning sense of folly. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Pleasant and light and builds nicely within its own self-circumscribed intent. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A funny movie, but like "Josh" himself, it's too self-absorbed, and maybe too nice, for its own good. Read full review
50
USA TodayMike Clark
Already too long. It makes you want to start moving globs of dirt to tunnel out of the theater as the movie ends with the famous theme to "The Great Escape." Read full review
50
New Times (L.A.)Andy Klein
After a few very funny early sequences, tricked up with grotesque, surreal editing and camerawork, the movie gets bogged down a bit during the first third. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyPaul Malcolm
The Kornbluths don't offer much visual style -- the film is as flat and sterile as its corporate environs -- but they build an excruciating tension from Kornbluth's confounding inability to lick a few stamps. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
No doubt this effort will find its fans, as it should, but there's a lot of lost potential. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Some of the gags here are funny, but they aren't executed effectively enough to score. Read full review
20
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Can a feature-length movie be built on minutiae like jammed copying machines, unsent business letters and orientation programs for new employees? This innocuous wisp of a film, as weighty as a scrap of fax paper caught in an updraft, suggests that the answer is no. Read full review
12
New York PostJonathan Foreman
Amazingly amateurish, the film lands wide of satirical targets that should be impossible to miss. Read full review
10
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Let's not waste any time: This movie is just awful. Prime problem: Josh Kornbluth, the chubby, wild-haired, bug-eyed star. Read full review
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