| Orion Pictures | Release Date: February 16, 1990 | CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
0
Mixed:
6
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews
It has the simple charm of being mindless fun with nary a worry that there are several pockets of lame gags or far-fetched comedy bits that refuse to register on the giggle meter. [16 Feb 1990, p.E3]
In Madhouse, writer-director Tom Ropelewski doesn't so much serve up an idea as force-feed it down our gullets. It takes a game bird to sit through the entire movie. [16 Feb 1990, p.K]
There's probably a fall-out-of-your-seat, laugh-your-head-off comedy to be made about house guests. Meanwhile, the maddeningly mediocre Madhouse will have to do. [16 Feb 1990, p.4D]
Though the material in Madhouse is intentionally sophomoric, though slapstick comedies can be funny, and though there's nothing wrong with a bit of good silliness, assured, deftly paced direction and adroit, lively performances are necessary to pull such broad comic romps off. Madhouse fails to deliver on both these crucial counts.
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The madness of Madhouse simply eludes me. [16 Feb 1990]
It's supposed to be funny, and first-time writer-director Tom Ropelewski wastes no time in making this known, by banging the audience over the head with gags that range from brainless to crude. [16 Feb 1990, p.G5]
As a film, it's as crass and awful as the house guests from hell to which it so unwarrantedly feels superior. How bad is Madhouse? Bad enough to make a critic think that the similarly themed National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is art, right down to its fried cat. [16 Feb 1990, p.87p]
It's depressing to see attractive performers like Alley and Larroquette work so hard to such little effect on their vacations from TV. [16 Feb 1990, p.G14]
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