Among contemporary reviews from critics, Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four and called it "a curiously flat movie. It functions like clockwork and it looks right, but it doesn't feel like much. The laughs are telegraphed, the actors are lifeless (with the exception of Burt Reynolds), and the movie does an abrupt turnabout, from comedy to elegy, about two-thirds of the way through." Richard Eder of The New York Times called the film "two hours and two minutes of impersonations. Some of them are very good impersonations—deft and funny—but they lack a life to string them together."Eder, Richard (December 22, 1976). "'Nickelodeon': Not Much Movie for the Money". The New York Times. 34. Arthur D. Murphy of Variety called it "an okay comedy-drama about the early days of motion pictures. Recreating a cultural era in terms of some of its artistic forms and cliches emerges as an uneven dramatic device though it sometimes works."Murphy, Arthur D. (December 22, 1976). "Film Reviews: Nickelodeon". Variety. 22. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two stars out of four and wrote that it "really bogs down with incessantly inept pratfall comedy" and "is successful only when it captures the innocence of the period."Siskel, Gene (December 24, 1976). "'Nickelodeon' has only flickering joys". Chicago Tribune. 13. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "In the first part of the film O'Neal, Reynolds and Miss Hitchcock often seem merely silly as they carry on like the exaggerated characters in their own movies. Alas, the effect is to make the latter portion of the movie unduly static and drawn out in comparison to its frenetic beginning. However, the more aware one is of what Bogdanovich is trying to do and the more knowledgeable one is about the era he is trying to evoke, the more enjoyable the movie. Indeed, 'Nickelodeon' is most affecting for the cineaste, and its culminating tribute to D. W. Griffith as the screen's first great artist brings tears to the eyes."Thomas, Kevin (December 23, 1976). "'Nickelodeon': Birth of an Industry". Los Angeles Times. Part IV, p. 1. Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote that while Bogdanovich's new film was not quite a disaster on par with his previous flop At Long Last Love, "this elaborate, rambling and ultimately tedious period comedy about the pioneering years of the movie business in Hollywood does not lack for crippling deficiencies, miscalculations and self-indulgences."Arnold, Gary (December 22, 1976). "'Nickelodeon': Pretentious Slapschtick From Bogdanovich". The Washington Post. B6.
