The reviews lean favourable, though qualified approval is more common than enthusiasm. Praise centres on the inventive visual jokes, playful physical comedy and sheer frequency of the gags, with Val Kilmer’s energetic, straight-faced performance also drawing approval. The spoof’s range of targets and its pastiche songs earn further credit. The AV Club offers the strongest endorsement, calling it the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team’s most consistent work and praising the precision of its surreal comedy.
Reservations concern how often the jokes land and how well the whole thing holds together. Empire finds plenty to enjoy in the songs and individual conceits but considers the film less coherent than the team’s better-known work, with many jokes misfiring. Radio Times is cooler about the comedy generally, while singling out Omar Sharif’s cameo for praise. The spread is fairly narrow: the critics differ over consistency and comparisons with earlier films rather than dividing into admirers and detractors.