They Might Be Giants

Universal Pictures | Release Date: June 9, 1971

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

51	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 11 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

The GuardianStaff (Not Credited)

Offbeat comedy-drama about a former New York judge convinced he is Sherlock Holmes. Amiable, if a little too clever for its own good. [04 Jan 2000, p.36]

Vincent Canby

A mushy movie with occasional, isolated moments of legitimate comedy, all provided by Mr. Scott with an assist by Mr. Goldman, whose sense of humor seems to surface in peripheral incidents only. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

A strange movie that doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. Sentimental, biting, satirical, whimsical, and self-righteous, it begins with a romp at high speed, then goes straight into a hole from which it never emerges. Read full review

Stefan Kanfer

The pretense cannot mask the film's pusillanimous ideas. They might be giants, but in truth they are not even windmills. Just wind. Read full review

Molly Haskell

The wit turns into Christmas Card cuteness, and the film winds up, in the blinding bathos of the last scene, in a veritable miasma of mush. [24 Jun 1971, p.60]

Dennis Hunt

George C. Scott plays a gentle wacko who thinks he's Sherlock Holmes. He's being treated by a psychiatrist (Joanne Woodward) named Dr. Watson. If you think that's funny, then this movie is for you. The point of all this is that losers can be winners. The cast labors valiantly in a lost cause. [24 Apr 1987, p.19]