Yellowbeard - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

The film received some praise, The Los Angeles Times writing that "There are many moments of hilarity here". But it was not a big box office success and received mostly negative reviews. Various reasons are suggested, such as the peculiar combination of British and American humor, and it being poorly timed given the movie climate with other kinds of comedy being popular. DVD Verdict gives it 75 out of 100 and points out that if the film isn't a comedy classic, that it's still funny, at times hilarious. Roger Ebert on the other hand gave the film one and a half stars and said "Yellowbeard is soon over and soon forgotten." Yellowbeard currently has a 22% rating at Rotten Tomatoes indicating a "Rotten" overall reception by the critics.

Cleese played a part out of loyalty to Graham Chapman. He said he found the script to be one of the worst he'd read, although it is unclear which version he was referring to. In a 2001 interview, Cleese described Yellowbeard as "one of the six worst films made in the history of the world."

Although Eric Idle names other movies as the worst he's made, he includes Yellowbeard in that list. However, "sometimes, the best times can be on the worst movies and vice versa, e.g., Yellowbeard, which I wouldn't have missed for the world."