Taika Waititi's Jojo Rabbit slammed by top reviewer

Taika Waititi's Jojo Rabbit may have just received its most scathing review yet, with the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw calling it "intensely unfunny" and "bland and misjudged."

Since its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, Waititi's comedic rendition of Hitler couldn't have gathered more mixed reviews.

Entertainment Weekly awarded it a 91% rating and called it "an audacious piece of Third Reich whimsy that almost definitely shouldn't work as well as it does".

But The Guardian's recent review condemned it as "a pointless Hitler-spoofy YA adventure with a 12A certificate, obtusely accentuating little-kid cuteness and optimism amid the quaintly imagined non-horror".

The film tells the story of 10-year-old Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) who struggles to fit in with the Hiter Youth as he's ridiculed for being too squeamish to kill a rabbit - hence the name of the film.

Since the film's release, reviews have been mixed. Photo / File

After a grenade accident Jojo is packed off to the admin office run by Nazis Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell) and Fräulein Rahm (Rebel Wilson). He then discovers his mum is hiding a teenage Jewish girl in the attic - New Zealand's own Thomasin McKenzie - and forms a tentative friendship.

But that's not the only friendship portrayed in the film - director Waititi plays an imaginary Hitler who becomes Jojo's secret best friend.

The film features big names Scarlett Johanson and Rebel Wilson, but that's not enough to save it in the eyes of critics who called it "disposable" and "inconsequential".

The Guardian criticised the film for failing to "attack or even really notice evil".

"The moments when people are shown hanged in the streets serve only to point up the gluten-free ahistorical silliness of everything else.

"There are no insights to be had - and no laughs."