The Critic

Though it never really becomes more than the sum of its parts (hindered by quite a few rather generic plot lines and unimaginative film parodies) `The Critic' does contain more than its share of memorable laugh-out-loud moments, generally due to the brilliant voice acting of Maurice LaMarche, who performs most of the celebrity voice impersonations. His Orson Welles impression (`Rosebud... yes, Rosebud frozen peas'), one of the show's standout moments, has to be heard to be believed – it's no wonder Tim Burton hired him to overdub D'Onofrio's voice in `Ed Wood'.

Other highlights include the many cameo appearances by film critics Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel, Gene Shalit and Rex Reed. Seeing Siskel and Jay re-enact the `wig' scene from Hitchcock's `Vertigo' is heartwarming, and though I could never stand Rex Reed's reviews, he is a fabulous voice actor. His delivery of the Savvy Indian Chewing Tobacco commercial jingle still makes me laugh out loud any time I hear it.

Not a knockout show, but definitely worth watching. It's a bloody shame this was cancelled.

Like most Simpsons watching fanatics that are also latched tightly to the Family Guy, I couldn't help but walk (never run) to buy this series when it came out. Jay Sherman is my inspiration for my excessive amounts of film reviews. He was never afraid to speak his mind about the garbage distributed by Hollywood ever week. His classic line, 'It stinks' inspired me to find those horrible films and make sure I warned others before it was too late. He is a God among Gods in my book!

Created by the same team that did The Simpsons, Sherman great to life through not only the witty banter that leapt from his mouth, but also his surrounding characters. Parodying some of cinema's finest, you cannot help but laugh at this obese critic that wants nothing more than to have respect and eat his Charleston Chew. Duke Phillips is one of the funniest characters created and provides some of the funniest social commentary on the extremely wealthy in our country. Sherman, in my eyes, represents the little man. While making $270,000 a year, he doesn't rise above anyone else. He reminds all of us of who we are, whether it would be running a marathon or trying to clean-up his hometown of New York, Sherman represents our desires and wants. One of our biggest desires is to see good cinema. We pay top dollar to see good movies, why does Hollywood continually fill our plate with all the bread we can eat before giving us the main course? Suddenly, we are too full to enjoy it.

I would like to applaud Jay Sherman for his fight against a repetitive and uncreative Hollywood. As an avid film-goer it is nice to see the battle being fought in the animated world. Sadly, I only wish this series could have lasted long enough to endure some of the garbage released today. We need a new Jay Sherman to help us wade through and poke fun of today's Hollywood.

I HIGHLY recommend this series to anyone that is as upset with Hollywood as I. This series will make you laugh at a large man that loves food and life.

He is our, and especially my, hero!

Grade: ***** out of *****

23 episodes on DVD, plus the webisodes. The first 12 or so episodes are worth the price of admission. All of it is watchable, but the series did indeed start slipping. The remarkable excellence of the first half should not be missed - and you'll want to watch the rest, just because they do show glimmers of the early magic through the rest of it.

It really does help to be a film buff - they do bits from lots of different movies, and part of the fun is spotting the homage (and sniping) at a wide selection of movies. Some of them appear in the opening/closing credits, and change from episode to episode. The 'films' he reviews for his show are, thankfully, collected in the special features on the third DVD, and are well worth watching just by themselves.

This show was hilarious. I loved Jon Lovitz and all the other voice actors. Jay Sherman is such a comically brilliant character. As a film buff, I thought the movie parodies in the show "Coming Attractions" were amazing. I also liked the shows send up on the entertainment industry and films and actors in general I think Al Jean and Mike Reiss did an excellent job with this series. Sadly, most Simpsons personnel don't get as lucky with their own projects, even Groening had problems keeping Futurama on the air, which I also loved. I still can't believe it only lasted two seasons. I think it would be awesome if someday they would come out with more episodes or even a feature film.

This show is for the intelligent viewer. It not only went after Marlon Brando, but almost everybody in the business. It lampooned Bones from Star Trek, poked at Arnold, and really made fun at Ted Turner (Duke Phillips) It's a shame that Fox, then ABC didn't give it a chance.