Jerry Seinfeld is having an odd time lately.
Fans and critics really enjoyed his appearance in HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm series finale — which creator Larry David used to both comment on, and improve upon, the much-maligned Seinfeld closer. But this week, the 70-year-old comedy legend was slammed on social media for a recent interview where he declared “the extreme left” has hurt the comedy industry. Now here comes his new Netflix movie which is getting a sharply divided reaction from critics and overall a pretty low average score.
Seinfeld’s Unfrosted (trailer below) is a zany star-filled comedy that tells the story of rival cereal companies, Kellogg’s and Post, “racing to create a pastry that will change the face of breakfast forever”— Pop-Tarts. Seinfeld stars in, co-wrote and directed the film, which also stars Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Hugh Grant, Amy Schumer, Max Greenfield, Christian Slater, Sarah Cooper and Bill Burr.
Out of the gate this morning, the film has only a 46 percent positive critics score on Rotten Tomatoes which — as Tony the Tiger would say — isn’t exactly g-r-r-reat! Some reviews are downright scathing, as you’ll soon read.
And yet, some of the country’s top critics at publications like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle gave the film modestly positive reviews.
But let’s start with a few notices that won’t be lucky charms for the film.
The Chicago Sun-Times declared Unfrosted “one of the decade’s worst movies. I’m surprised … Seinfeld, one of the sharpest and most observant comedic minds of his generation, didn’t halt production halfway through, call time of death and apologize to everyone for wasting their time. Unfrosted is so consistently awful it makes the aforementioned Flamin’ Hot seem like The Social Network. If there was a thing called the IMDB Witness Protection Program whereby you could get your name taken off the credits of a particular project, this would be that project.”
The Daily Globe and Mail called it “one big steaming pile … a distressingly laugh-free affair … like a long-lost Lorne Michaels-produced SNL feature from the ’90s … jokes so hacky that Kenny Bania wouldn’t touch ’em, and the pacing slo slow it rivals Elaine’s experience enduring The English Patient.”
The Daily Beast called the film “as bad as you’d expect.” “Superior to Seinfeld’s prior cinematic offering, 2007’s animated Bee Movie, it’s content to be childishly silly rather than legitimately weird, veering between gags concerning age-old products and Jan. 6 with a mildness that keeps things pleasantly pedestrian. There’s nothing particularly awful about it, but there’s also very little that’s memorable.”
Collider wrote: “Considering we’re in a world where Barbie can make $1.4 billion and become a commentary on feminism and the patriarchy, or Tetris, Air Jordans, and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos can get their own halfway decent biopics, it’s a shame Unfrosted doesn’t try a bit harder. Again, even a film like Weird managed to make its jokes and cameos work as part of a larger story, whereas Unfrosted always puts the story itself on the back burner.”
But comedy is, if nothing else, subjective, and several top outlets rather enjoyed Unfrosted.
The San Francisco Chronicle wrote “Seinfeld’s over-the-top, throw-in-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach makes for an uneven film, with some gags inspired, others groan-inducing. But its 1960s period detail and constant parade of familiar faces keeps things rolling. In fact, the most revelatory takeaway from Unfrosted is that Seinfeld is a really good director — he knows where to put the camera, and the film is excellently paced.”
The Guardian wrote “there’s a steady stream of excellent gags, creating a rising crescendo of silliness similar in effect to Seinfeld’s own distinctive falsetto-hysterical declamation at the moment of ultimate joke-awareness …As a whole, it’s not exactly a masterpiece, but amiable and funny in a way that’s much harder to achieve than it looks.”
The Washington Post gave the movie 2.5 stars and wrote, “Unfrosted may be the Platonic ideal of the Netflix movie: ephemeral, edible, enjoyable, forgettable. It’s essentially Jerry Seinfeld inviting everyone in his Rolodex to come on over for an extended hang to parody the current craze for trademark biopics … The hit-to-miss joke ratio is decent — about three gags land for every one that gets stuck in the toaster.”
And, yes, The Hollywood Reporter was among the positive reviews, calling the film “gleefully silly,” and writing, “For those willing to put aside reality for 90 minutes, as Unfrosted does with gusto, the Netflix movie whips up a frothy sendup of storytelling tropes and clichés … At the helm of a cast filled with virtuosos of comic timing, Seinfeld draws performances that are, for the most part, understated, effectively heightening the ridiculousness of the setup by playing it straight … Best of all, there’s not a drop of corporate mythologizing in the mishmash of factoid and fantasy.”
Seinfeld, by and by, was asked in an interview with NPR this week what he hopes audiences take from Unfrosted. The comedian replied: “I don’t want them to take anything away from it. I want them to just watch it and hopefully get a laugh or two. That’s it.”
Unfrosted was released today on Netflix, so feel free to Chex it out yourself.
