However, "The Village Voice" called the film "so embarrassingly and extensively bad that it achieves a kind of excruciating consistency with the rest of his [Russell's] career." Charles Champlin of the "Los Angeles Times" dismissed the film as "superficial and silly". Although Gene Siskel of the "Chicago Tribune" gave a three-star rating to the film, sensing that it was a critique of the Hollywood studio machine, he noted that it suffered from what he felt was Russell's apparent dislike and disregard for Valentino.