Metacritic reviews

More than anything, though, It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World embodies comic hugeness, for better or for worse. It isn’t the best comedy of all time, but it’s one of the largest and broadest.

It's a wonderfully crazy and colorful collection of "chase" comedy, so crowded with plot and people that it almost splits the seams of its huge Cinerama packing and its 3-hour-and-12-minute length.

Being a picture of extravagant proportions, even its few flaws are king-sized, but the plusses outweigh by far the minuses. It is a throwback to the wild, wacky and wondrous time of the silent screen comedy, a kind of Keystone Kop Kaper with modern conveniences.

There are enough giddy highs that it’s had a strong cult following ever since its release in 1963.

For a three-hour, epoch-ending epic made by a comedy neophyte, it yields a treasure of showbiz lore.

Kramer's 'comedy to end all comedy' stretches its material to snapping point but offers happy hours of star-spotting.

This comic extravaganza starts off funny, but exhausts rather than delights.

Though It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World struggles to justify its ludicrous length, there are just enough laughs, cameos and memorable set pieces to garner a recommendation.

The definitive wacky screwball comedy that spawned a genre.

Even Cinerama (its original format) can't expand on the poverty of comic invention.