Do you have a video playback issues?
Please disable AdBlocker in your browser for our website.
Due to a high volume of active users and service overload, we had to decrease the quality of video streaming. Premium users remains with the highest video quality available. Sorry for the inconvinience it may cause. Donate to keep project running.
Five most famous literary detective characters and their sidekicks have been invited to dinner. But when murder is on the menu, who will make it to dessert? While struggling for their lives, the vainglorious gumshoes continue to try to one-up one another.
Director Moore and writer Neil Simon seem to have no real affection for either the characters they plunder mercilessly for laughs, or the locked room puzzle they turn on its head. Introductions over, the film slides downhill.
So it all doesn't amount to much, and -- some knuckle-dragging 'he's gay'/'no I'm not' humor aside -- it's more Scooby Doo than Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Still, it's an amusing tea-cozy of a spoof with an enjoyable cast.
...pokes fun at every old fictional detective you can think of and every cliché you've ever wanted to red pencil out of a script.
December 19, 2001
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Generally successful send-up of classic mysteries with a lame finale.
June 16, 2003
Variety
Murder by Death is a very good silly-funny Neil Simon satirical comedy, with a super all-star cast cavorting as recognizable pulp fiction detectives gathered at the home of Truman Capote, wealthy hedonist fed up with contrived gumshoe plots.