The End

United Artists | Release Date: May 10, 1978

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

46	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 8 Critic Reviews

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

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Staff (Not Credited)

An engaging attempt to take the piss out of the crocodile tears that have been gleefully exploited since Love Story. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Eventually, the film’s old-fashioned, shtick-friendly tone stops seeming charming and becomes exhausting because DeLuise exerts so much effort where none is necessary. Read full review

Vincent Canby

This is half-heartedly satiric material that's been directed by Mr. Reynolds as if it were broad, knock-about comedy sometimes and, at other times, as if it were meant to evoke pathos, which it never does. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

The film veers wildly from decent black comedy to dumb slapstick, and director Reynolds seems unsure of his own intentions. In a few places this film is quite funny, however, although De Luise and all the scenes he's in are unbearable. Read full review

Jay Scott

An absurdist comedy such as The End, with the tone teetering from slapstick to sorrow, is quite another matter, requiring a sophistication Reynolds simply doesn't have. [27 May 1978]

David Ansen

The End initially promises to answer in disturbing comic form, mixing pathos and pratfalls to fashion a pitch-black comedy about a man freaking out on the edge of oblivion. But in the face of such a risky subject, director-star Reynolds and writer Jerry Belson get cold feet. [22 May 1978, p.72]

K.C. Summers

The End never really lives up to its beginning. It's much too long and, after a while, the one-track theme - how a man reacts when he's suddenly told he has less than three months to live - begins to get old. [26 May 1978, p.20]

Staff (Not Credited)

Production is a tasteless and overripe comedy that disintegrates very early into hysterical, undisciplined hamming. Read full review