The film was met with underwhelming reviews in its original release, with criticism towards the disorganized plot, though Dangerfield and Murray's comic performances were well received. Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, ""Caddyshack" feels more like a movie that was written rather loosely, so that when shooting began there was freedom—too much freedom—for it to wander off in all directions in search of comic inspiration." Gene Siskel gave the film three out of four stars, saying it was "funny about half of the time it tries to be, which is a pretty good average for a comedy." Dave Kehr, in his review for the "Chicago Reader", wrote, "The first-time director, Harold Ramis, can't hold it together: the picture lurches from style to style (including some ill-placed whimsy with a gopher puppet) and collapses somewhere between sitcom and sketch farce." Vincent Canby gave it a mixed review in "The New York Times", describing it as "A pleasantly loose-limbed sort of movie with some comic moments, most of them belonging to Mr. Dangerfield."