Metacritic reviews

The particular brand of slapstick comedy and barbed romance in What’s Up, Doc? is an homage to a bygone era of Hollywood cinema that in 1972 was considered outdated. But Bogdanovich embraced it without irony.

Only a director in complete control can fashion something so effortlessly chaotic. What’s Up Doc? is one of the signature comedies of the 1970s whose throwback mixture of madcap hijinks and rat-a-tat-tat dialogue still works for a generation twice removed from its influences.

In Bogdanovich’s analytical twist on the genre, even joyous liberation leaves a huge mess.

Trying too hard and generally too trying. Seek out Howard Hawke's Bringing up Baby instead and be done with it.

It has a soul of its own, which reflects the changes, for good and evil, in American life in the last 40 years.

The movie works. It is food at last for we who hunger for a screwball comedy utterly lacking in redeeming social importance.

The hyperactive humor grates at times, but is rarely as labored as many '60s comedies, thanks mainly to Bogdanovich's indulgence of the spontaneously absurd, and his inventive way of letting gags work their way across long, wide sets.

The jokes in What’s Up, Doc? will scratch a nostalgic itch, but what’s most refreshing about the film is that it shows a lighthearted side of San Francisco, without any superhero spectacle, looming natural disaster or hard-boiled noir themes. It’s a sunny and silly side of the city that rarely gets captured on film anymore, a view of San Francisco that’s worth revisiting.

Streisand sings a fabulous version of “You’re the Top” behind the credits, and the busy script by Buck Henry, Robert Benton, and David Newman keeps things moving, but the spirit of pastiche keeps this romp from truly rivaling its sources.

The result is a comedy made by a man who has seen a lot of movies, knows all the mechanics, and has absolutely no sense of humor.