Several high spots stand out as notable examples of Chaplin's expert timing of slapstick burlesque, scenes that are apt to make the spectator shed tears from the strain of laughter.

Full Review | May 6, 2021

There are reminders of every Chaplin picture that was ever made all through Modern Times and there are enough brand new comic inventions to explain why Charlie takes such a long time between pictures and why they are so superlatively worth waiting for.

Full Review | May 6, 2021

What most amazes you about Modern Times, is the fact that, in this day of superfine sound films, it says everything without saying anything.

Full Review | May 6, 2021

In many ways Modern Times is old-fashioned film comedy, but it is the kind of comedy which has made millions of people laugh all over the world and which has won Mr. Chaplin the great affection and love.

Full Review | May 6, 2021

While he has borrowed a few symbolic touches from the Russian picture makers, there is nothing of real significance in Chaplin s work except his earnest desire, and his really great ability, to entertain.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 6, 2021

The monotony of this Job "gets" Charlie and he runs wild, attacking everything and everybody in view with his brandished wrenches in one of the funniest scenes ever filmed.

Full Review | May 6, 2021

There are many sequences which will become famous. The philosophy is evident. It is clear that Chaplin's answer to modern times is that if the individual does not conform he is taken away in a van to prison or to hospital.

Full Review | May 6, 2021

The full revelation of [Paulette Goddard] is not to be detected in this production, but there is unusual promise in her work -- perhaps more than in the instance of any other Chaplin leading woman.

Full Review | May 6, 2021

It is sufficient to say that Chaplin is the king of pantomime artists, that this picture is one of his best and that it whets the appetite for more Chaplin films.

Full Review | May 6, 2021

It has no story to give coherence to its incidents... but it has Mr. Chaplin's abiding genius for fantastic detail and for seeing the common happenings of life not so much through a distorting glass as through the other end of truth's telescope.

Full Review | May 6, 2021

Charlie Chaplin has not only done it again. He has done it several times better than ever before.

Full Review | May 6, 2021

Modern Times is a film worth waiting for, and a worthy successor of City Lights. Chaplin's outlook has not changed, and he uses the cinema as a medium with marvellous dexterity.

Full Review | May 6, 2021

Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin's comedy masterpiece about the perils of the Machine Age and the Great Depression, is one of his best-loved movies, a true classic of sublime slapstick, sentimentality and poetic political protest.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | May 6, 2021

Corny or not, Chaplin keeps his sights set on the audience that initially embraced him and made him a superstar. In the swan song that is Modern Times, the Little Tramp displays the silliness, but also dignity, of the common man.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | May 6, 2021

The act of even making a Tramp film that deep into the sound era is radical in a way that complements the themes of Modern Times, a film that views the march of progress through jaundiced eyes.

Full Review | Original Score: A | May 6, 2021

The whole of this satirical fantasy is flawlessly exact, down to -- or rather up to -- the gadgety feeder: a wonderful piece of imagery that breathlessly amuses and whacks hard.

Full Review | May 6, 2021

Families will cherish Chaplin's silent slapstick.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 26, 2010

It is a gay, impudent and sentimental pantomimic comedy in which even the anachronisms are often as becoming as Charlie Chaplin's cane.

Full Review | Apr 27, 2009

One of the many remarkable things about Charlie Chaplin is that his films continue to hold up, to attract and delight audiences.

Full Review | Apr 1, 2008

The picture is grand fun and sound entertainment, though silent. It's the old Chaplin at his best, looking at his best -- young, pathetic and a very funny guy.

Full Review | Jun 26, 2007