I can legitimately say that Noises Off is one of my favorite movies of all time. If you have never seen it, be prepared for what you're about to experience. The first time I watched this with my extended family we were all crying with laughter.It takes a few minutes to get going. The first act is funny in its own right. It has lots of well-written lines, the "play within the play" is enjoyable and it lays the necessary groundwork for what is to come: the second and third acts. And even with all that preparation, when that second act gets rolling and everything starts to go wrong, the laughs absolutely do not stop. The physical comedy in this movie is sublime: tightly choreographed and timed to perfection. Every actor has a great part to play. My personal favorite has to be John Ritter's character. All of his "you know"s and "I don't know"s kill me. Michael Caine and Carol Burnett are also standouts. But every cast member gets laughs, and for good reason. There are so many quotable lines from this movie. I think my sister and I could literally quote 75% of this movie. There are a couple of dings that I have to mention. The framing narrative, with its rushed "happy ending" on Broadway, wasn't in the original play and feels totally out of place. After you've watched it 20+ times you may want to fast forward to the second act. But even so, Noises Off is a hidden 90's classic. Highly recommended.

I actually saw a live performance of this in Summer Stock which I found slightly better than the film because ALL the performers were American rather than as here, a hybrid with Caine and Elliott representing the Old Country and Americans sounding mostly unconvincing as Brits. The work itself is solid and constructed to within an inch of its life but it's undeniable that once blue-eyed boy Bogdanovich hit into a triple play after starting off with great promise and this is one of his also-rans - there is not, for example, a bigger Cole Porter fan walking the planet than yours truly but Bogdanovich's 'At Long Last Love' was, if anything, more execrable than 'It's DeLovely'. On the other hand this does preserve a fine sub-Feydeau farce on celluloid.

This is by far the funniest movie I've seen! A tribute to the actors participating in the film, since half of them are dead (this was actually Denholm Elliott's last film, may he R.I.P.), the film brings out the best talent in everyone, without exaggerations or pompous displays.A group of fantastic actors play in this film and, curious enough, this is not a well known film. I had to see the film four times, in order to finally watch a scene I've always missed due to uncontrollable nervous laughter! The mess created due to human urges and needs provides this film an extraordinaire plot that will KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF!!!

There's no sense arguing over whether something's funny or not, but let me at least cast my vote that "Noises Off" was a disappointing bore when I saw it on the Broadway stage (and I generally love British comedies), and it's equally unfunny as a film. Anyone who finds this movie amusing may be a sweet, well-meaning, decent human being, but they could never be my friend, because they clearly have no sense of humor. The surprising thing is how awful almost everyone in the cast is. Michael Caine, Julie Hagerty, Marilu Henner, and Denholm Elliott do what they can -- I mean, I didn't have to look away when they were on -- but Carol Burnett? Amazingly, she's not funny at all in this tiresome farce. She's positively grim. Whatever happened to her gift? John Ritter? Close to unwatchable. And Christopher Reeve? Totally miscast, a complete embarrassment. (It's painful to say this, considering the tragedy that befell him, but he was always a terrible actor, stiff and awkward and artificial in every role, and had no comedic ability at all. The only movie he was creditable in was a 1987 thriller called "Street Smart," in which he was very well cast as a naive Ivy League doofus.) The single genuinely enjoyable thing in "Noises Off" is Nicollette Sheridan, who's beautiful and sexy as she runs around the stage in her white underwear. God bless her. (Note: If you want to see a really superb comedy written by Michael Frayn, try "Clockwise" starring John Cleese and a lovely ingenue named Sharon Maiden; it's virtually unknown in the States, but it's delightful -- which makes the tedium of "Noises Off" all the more mystifying.)