54
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80EmpireColin KennedyEmpireColin KennedyA key film from the movie brats-era, and quite possibly Milius best.
- 80The GuardianThe GuardianMaybe in the end it's just an exuberant collection of great scenes – but what Big Wednesday has is heart.
- 70Chicago ReaderDave KehrChicago ReaderDave KehrMilius can be faulted for reviving a number of ostensibly dead macho myths, but in the context of the subculture his film deftly re-creates, they take on the aura of eternal values. The breathtaking surfing footage, rather than the slightly stunted characters, makes his most eloquent argument.
- 60Time OutTime OutAll this, along with the tremulous romanticism, might seem unbearably portentous were it not for some lovely comic moments - notably, Busey in the draft-dodging scenes - and the sheer exhilaration of the surfing footage.
- 50The Globe and Mail (Toronto)The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Big Wednesday is American writer-director John Milius' attempt to use surfing as a metaphor for life. It doesn't work. [27 June 1978]
- 40The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinThe movie often seems even more uneventful than material like this need make it, and Mr. Milius's attention to his actors focuses more closely on their pectorals than on their performances.
- 40NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenThe whole movie has the air of a sermon delivered over an empty grave. In surfers' terms, Big Wednesday is a wipe-out. [14 Aug 1978, p.62]
- 25TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineAlthough Brown (Endless Summer) captured the beauty and fun of his favorite sport in his "surfumentaries," Milius, whose work always seems underlain with weighty symbolic intent, infuses Big Wednesday with heavy-handed philosophy and all-around stupidity.