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The Gods Must Be Crazy

Play trailer Poster for The Gods Must Be Crazy PG 1981 1h 48m Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
86% Tomatometer 28 Reviews 84% Popcornmeter 25,000+ Ratings
The tribal people in a remote African desert live a happy life, but it is all torn to pieces when a Coca-Cola bottle falls from a plane. With the villagers fighting over the strange foreign object, tribal leader Xi (N!xau) decides to take the bottle back to the gods to restore peace. His journey to the "end of the world" eventually has him crossing paths with a bumbling scientist (Marius Weyers) and a band of guerrillas who take a schoolteacher (Sandra Prinsloo) and her class hostage.

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The Gods Must Be Crazy

Critics Reviews

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Catharine Rambeau Detroit Free Press Dec 8, 2025
8/10
A weird, enchanting, utterly original movie. Go to Full Review Variety Staff Variety Jul 6, 2010
Film's main virtues are its striking, widescreen visuals of unusual locations, and the sheer educational value of its narration. Go to Full Review Sheila Johnston Time Out Feb 9, 2006
Offensively racist and too gormless even for the kids at whom it is evidently aimed: Third World cinema of a quite... uncommon kind. Go to Full Review Dan Webster Spokesman-Review (Washington) Jul 27, 2024
4/4
The issue of existence, and how we define it, has been explored before, but never in a funnier -- or more poignant -- fashion than South African director Jamie Uys does it here. Go to Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Sep 10, 2023
B-
It became a surprise hit in America. Go to Full Review Austin Kennedy Sin Magazine May 13, 2012
3/4
The comedy has a Keystone Cops feel and the film is also occasionally touching. These kinds of silly movies just aren't made anymore and that's too bad. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Matthew C @RT23791614 Jul 16, 2026 This should be up there with The Neverending Story as one of the biggest non American films of the 80s. The story, the narration (think Endless Summer parody) and the almost Benny Hill esque comedy and camera work make this higjly rewatchable. An 80s/90s HBO classic See more I F @RT45707636 Jul 10, 2026 Mom rented this movie on VHS back in the day. Probably 30+ years ago. I never forgot about it. Click pick tick click click tock. , (translation: don’t litter) See more alan G @agenser Mar 18, 2026 A very strange small art house film. See more CodyZamboni Z @CodyZamboni Jan 9, 2026 Movie is an amusing tale of a bushman taking evil Coke bottle to the end of the earth, but he gets arrested and he's faced with 20th century tech and culture, But he's soon helped by a klutzy scientist and a city girl, Movie works due to endearing characters, But the overuse of speeding up scenes, and the startling use terrorist attacks in comical fashion, especially when thugs point guns at kids heads, puts a chill on the good time vibe See more g j @g.username Sep 6, 2024 The section set with the Kalhari Bushman tribe is something quite special. The rest of the film is a silly, meandering and fairly puerile 'comedy', bereft of any real humour that must have felt dated even by 80's standards. See more Fer S @RT07531533 Sep 1, 2024 Out-of-the-box but I could not get into it, not my type of humor. It is a short movie yet it fet like hours and I only found one joke funny. However I am giving it 2 stars because of the story on how it was made. See more Read all reviews
The Gods Must Be Crazy

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Cast & Crew

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Jamie Uys

Director

Marius Weyers

Andrew Steyn

Sandra Prinsloo

Kate Thompson

N!xau

Xi

Louw Verwey

Sam Boga

Michael Thys

Mpudi

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The Gods Must Be Crazy

The Gods Must Be Crazy (1981) The Gods Must Be Crazy (1981) The Gods Must Be Crazy (1981) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis The tribal people in a remote African desert live a happy life, but it is all torn to pieces when a Coca-Cola bottle falls from a plane. With the villagers fighting over the strange foreign object, tribal leader Xi (N!xau) decides to take the bottle back to the gods to restore peace. His journey to the "end of the world" eventually has him crossing paths with a bumbling scientist (Marius Weyers) and a band of guerrillas who take a schoolteacher (Sandra Prinsloo) and her class hostage.
Director
Jamie Uys
Producer
Jamie Uys
Screenwriter
Jamie Uys
Distributor
Jensen Farley Pictures, 20th Century Fox
Production Co
CAT Films
Rating
PG
Genre
Comedy
Original Language
Afrikaans
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 28, 1981, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Jan 1, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA)
$30.0M
Runtime
1h 48m
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