Contemporary reviews were very positive. Frank Nugent of "The New York Times" wrote, "'Modern Times' has still the same old Charlie, the lovable little fellow whose hands and feet and prankish eyebrows can beat an irresistible tattoo upon an audience's funnybone or hold it still, taut beneath the spell of human tragedy ... Time has not changed his genius." "Variety" called it "grand fun and sound entertainment." "Film Daily" wrote, "Charlie Chaplin has scored one of his greatest triumphs." John Mosher of "The New Yorker" wrote that Chaplin "manufactures some superb laughs ... In all, it's a rambling sketch, a little at loose ends at times, sometimes rather slight in effect, and now and then secure in its rich, old-fashioned funniness." Burns Mantle called the film "another hilariously rowdy success."