66
Metascore
6 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88The Seattle TimesJohn HartlThe Seattle TimesJohn HartlCaptivating 1972 adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's novel, starring Michael Sacks as the time-tripping hero. [09 Jul 1998]
- 75Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumGeorge Roy Hill's very professional, very entertaining 1972 adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's time-traveling novel, with the pseudoprofundities nicely tucked into place as peppy one-liners and narrative tricks.
- 70The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyA wild, noisy, sometimes very funny film that eventually becomes as unstuck in its own exuberance as its hero, Billy Pilgrim, the Illium, N. Y., optometrist, is unstuck in time.
- 60EmpireWilliam ThomasEmpireWilliam ThomasWeird, but kind of cool.
- 50Time OutTime OutOccasionally Hill comes up with some nice touches of the unexpected: a few moments of black humour, the suggestion of a deliberate pastiche here and there, but on the whole he's too resolutely fashionable a director to really get behind Vonnegut's idea of time-tripping. It ends up the wrong side of unadventurous.
- 50Slaughterhouse-Five is a mechanically slick, dramatically sterile commentary about World War II and afterward, as seen through the eyes of a boob Everyman. Director George Roy Hill's arch achievement emphasizes the diffused cant to the detriment of characterizations, which are stiff, unsympathetic and skin-deep.