Roger Ebert gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars and called it "new and fresh and not shy of taking chances"; the film "achieves a kind of magnificent goofiness. Hanks and Ryan are the right actors to inhabit it, because you can never catch them going for a gag that isn't there: They inhabit the logic of this bizarre world and play by its rules." He later brought the film to Ebertfest 2012 and wondered "why he gave 3.5 stars instead of 4."