Heavy Metal (film) - Critical Reaction and Cult Status

Critical Reaction and Cult Status

Critical response to the film was generally dismissive with some reviewers making positive comments; review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 60% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 25 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10 and the critical consensus: "It's sexist, juvenile, and dated, but Heavy Metal makes up for its flaws with eye-popping animation and a classic, smartly used soundtrack." Janet Maslin of The New York Times noted that the film "was scored very well, with music much less ear-splitting than the title would suggest." Film historian and critic Leonard Maltin gave the film 3 stars out of 4 in his Movie Guide, calling the feature "...uneven, but great fun on a mindless, adolescent level."

The film enjoyed only limited appeal in its initial run, but became a popular cult attraction for midnight theatrical showings, much like The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Legal problems with the copyrights for some of the music used in the film prevented a commercial home video release for 15 years, although the film was in rotation on some cable channels, including Cinemax, HBO, and TBS, which allowed fans to record it and circulate bootleg copies. Heavy Metal may be the canonical example of a popular film or album that was unavailable to consumers for a long time for obscure reasons, despite popular acclaim or success.

Read more about this topic:  Heavy Metal (film)

Famous quotes containing the words critical, reaction, cult and/or status:

    The male has been persuaded to assume a certain onerous and disagreeable rĂ´le with the promise of rewards—material and psychological. Women may in the first place even have put it into his head. BE A MAN! may have been, metaphorically, what Eve uttered at the critical moment in the Garden of Eden.
    Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957)

    More and more, when faced with the world of men, the only reaction is one of individualism. Man alone is an end unto himself. Everything one tries to do for the common good ends in failure.
    Albert Camus (1913–1960)

    By Modernism I mean the positive rejection of the past and the blind belief in the process of change, in novelty for its own sake, in the idea that progress through time equates with cultural progress; in the cult of individuality, originality and self-expression.
    Dan Cruickshank (b. 1949)

    His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
    —A.J. (Arthur James)