Back on the Strip: reviews

What the critics say average 4.8 from 11 outlets

• 7.0 NYC Movie GuruAvi Offer At a running time of just under 2 hours, Back on the Strip is a funny, raunchy, and crowd-pleasing comedy despite an uneven tone and a cheesy romantic subplot. Read
• 6.3 Roger EbertMatt Zoller Seitz “Back on the Strip” is qualitatively somewhere between a mid-level “Saturday Night Live” cash-in movie and a ’90s indie comedy where the cast greatly outclasses the screenplay. Read
• 6.3 Aisle SeatMike McGranaghan Back on the Strip is an example of a bad movie constantly intruding on a good one. When it stays in the Magic Mike/The Full Monty lane, it’s very enjoyable. Read
• 6.0 VarietyPeter Debruge Despite wall-to-wall narration by Haddish (at her most raunchy), the movie does a clumsy job of telling a not-very-complicated story. Then again, this lean team effort is Spencer’s directorial debut, and he gets the laughs. Read
• 5.0 Original-CinLiam Lacey A bawdy comedy about male strippers that lives up to mediocre expectations, Back On the Strip is directed and co-written by Chris Spencer who has previously worked with the Wayan Brothers comedy team. Read
• 5.0 Boston HeraldJames Verniere The supporting cast is so talented that it could have worked if the writing by director Spencer and Eric Daniel wasn’t so mediocre. Read
• 4.0 New York TimesBrandon Yu It’s both a shame and a wonder that the film managed to assemble such a beefed-up roster of talent — Snipes, Haddish, J.B. Smoove, Faizon Love and, in a cameo, Kevin Hart — for what amounts to a stilted, factory-line comedy. Read
• 4.0 The Hollywood ReporterFrank Scheck The independent film receiving a wide release definitely leans toward the funnier end of the spectrum, with its overqualified cast including many formidable comedic talents. But despite some amusing moments, it never really takes off, burdened by a tiresome romantic subplot that periodically stops the movie dead in its tracks. Read
• 4.0 Common Sense MediaMonique Jones Unfortunately, this comedy is hampered by jokes that seem both stale (as in they would have been fresher in the early 1990s) and off-putting. Read
• 4.0 The GateAndrew Parker Back on the Strip doesn’t know when to leave well enough alone, and while some of this stuff works in fits and starts – particularly the romantic rivalry between Desmond and Amos – most of it struggles to rise above everything else going on. Read
• 1.5 Culture MixCarla Hay The filmmakers of “Back on the Strip” should have put this rotten screenplay back in the garbage where it belongs. This very unfunny comedy panders to negative racial stereotypes and looks like it’s from the mind of an emotionally stunted teenager. Read