Metacritic reviews

For a movie that's mostly a plotless mix of old sci-fi flicks and Bowie-esque gender-bending, Rocky Horror continues to charm. That's due in part to the honest delight we take in the freedoms this movie so cheerfully flaunts.

The powerhouse of the film is Tim Curry's cross-dressing alien, Frank N. Furter, who would never reach these kinds of gloriously demented heights again.

The material inspires affection, given its knowing pastiche of everything from Universal horrors to '50s grade-Z sci-fi, and a shamelessly hedonistic, fiercely independent sensibility that must have seemed a welcome relief from the mainstream bombast of other '70s musicals.

The film itself is filled with great tunes and a slightly loopy plot. So it's just like your common-or-garden musical in that way. Where the film really takes off is in its subversion of sexual mores as Brad and Janet break free from their normality.

If you've never been to a midnight screening of Rocky Horror, please go. It's a delight. And if you can't make it, this Blu-ray attempts to bring that experience home. Just don't watch the film without, at least, some form of audience participation. It's just not much fun without it.

The film itself is a lot of fun--but the audience-participation phenomenon has turned it into a one-of-a-kind cinematic experience.

The plot is only semi-comprehensible, but the nearly non-stop musical numbers-brilliant conflations of glam-rock and showtunes-and transgressive sexual energy keep things moving.

Dr. Furter is played by a British actor named Tim Curry, who bears a certain resemblance to Loretta Young in drag. He's the best thing in the movie, maybe because he seems to be having the most fun.

Most of the jokes that might have seemed jolly fun on stage now appear obvious and even flat. The sparkle's gone.

The wit is too weak to sustain a film, and the songs all sound the same.