Who Is Cletis Tout?
Paramount Classics | Release Date: July 26, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
36
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
7
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
A caper film of such postmodernist pretense that it's almost a parody of itself. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
A gem of a romantic crime comedy that turns out to be clever, amusing and unpredictable. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
There was a lot I liked in Cletis Tout, including the performances and the very audacity of details like the magic tricks and the carrier pigeons. But it seemed a shame that the writer and director, Chris Ver Wiel, took a perfectly sound story idea and complicated it into an exercise in style. Less is more. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Harmless, mildly enjoyable. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderBill Stamets
Writer-director Chris Ver Wiel stocks this diverting crime comedy with familar characters and formulas. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The yarn itself is a winning one. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeJanice Page
Ladling in so much schmaltz that even his in-house critic says, ''This thing's worse than `Terms of Endearment.''' Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Screenwriter Chris ver Weil's directing debut is good-natured and never dull, but its virtues are small and easily overshadowed by its predictability. It's the kind of film that plays better on video than in theaters. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
It's almost worth the price of admission to see Allen paying homage to "Singin' in the Rain" in the final sequence. Almost. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
It's a respectable B- movie -- airy, inconsequential and a little too cute at times, but fairly entertaining all the same. Read full review
40
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Cletis Tout is both in love with and able to laugh at the conventions it adopts, which is exactly where it goes wrong. It's just a little too self-satisfied. Read full review
30
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
This mistaken-identity picture is so film-culture referential that the final product is a ghost. Read full review
30
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
In the absence of sincerity, Cletis Tout creates a vacuum that flushes out the entire story, leaving nothing but its own hollow cleverness. Read full review
25
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Who is Cletis Tout? Who cares? Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Allen is no more convincing than the writer-director, Chris Ver Wiel, who strings together faux-QT, faux-Elmore Leonard clichés like so many necklace beads and pretends that's the same thing as making a movie. Read full review
25
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
It all makes the head spin -- in the direction of the exit sign. Read full review
20
L.A. WeeklyJohn Dentino
What should have been a smart, stylish crime caper that nourishes film buffs with its multiple cinema references feels more like force-feeding. Read full review
20
New Times (L.A.)Luke Y. Thompson
What it lacks are solid performances, save Slater's game attempt to take everything seriously.
10
VarietyScott Foundas
A convoluted comic caper that labors to affect a lighthearted, off-the-cuff feel, and winds up being a copy of a copy of a bad Tarantino-Elmore Leonard forgery, with Tim Allen as a glib cinephile hitman. Read full review
10
Village VoiceLaura Sinagra
This charmless nonsense ensues amid clanging film references that make "Jay and Silent Bob's Excellent Adventure" seem understated. Read full review
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