"It's a love letter to the stylistic excess of that time, only it's been penned by illiterates with terrible handwriting. It's an awful movie, to be sure, but it's never boring, if only because they find something absolutely stupefying to point the camera at in every second of film."
The G-Line

"An inane Science Fiction musical from the dedicated team who've inflicted umpteen versions of Lemon Popsicle (1978) on the world... The flashily mounted farrago of nonsense is not even enlivened by such patent absurdities as the casting of (Joss) Ackland as an aged, outlawed hippie; and the film's production values would be disdained by almost any disco."
The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction edited by Phil Hardy

"In the far future year of 1994, gold lame, helmets and underwear-as-outerwear are everywhere, and disco - which apparently merged with glam rock and Rollerball during some lost night in the Studio 54 men's room - is plowing ahead, stronger than ever."
Nathan Rabin, The Onion A/V Club

"... ridiculous PG musical fantasy... steals ideas from The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)."
Michael J. Weldon, The Psychotronic Video Guide

"Shot in Berlin and set in the far-off future of 1994, The Apple was clearly designed to duplicate the success of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and failed dismally, in large part because the music is so stupendously banal... The lesson: Making a cult hit is harder than it looks."
TV Guide

"Apparently inspired by The Rocky Horror Picture Show, its tunes and staging bear a resemblance to that cult hit, but without being troubled by its wit or imagination, with a childishly silly storyline and daft character names."
Graeme Clark, The Spinning Image

"... Can't Stop the Music (1980) meets Logan's Run (1976)... The choreography is reminiscent of brain tumor seizures, the sets look like a third-world shopping mall, and the entire project has that undeniable stench of chintzy, foreign-lensed tripe... everything here is fake, puddle-deep and flaccid."
Steve Puchalski, Shock Cinema

"... a lovably incoherent vision from writer-director Menahem Golan, which has amassed a minor cult following because, best I can tell, it cribs from every other synthetic guilty pleasure of the entire decade that preceded it, and can't be bothered to actually make sense of it all... an Old Testament movie in more ways than one, and its relentless bad taste is sure to appeal to the same audience that won't even realize they're being slapped in the face."
Eric Henderson, Slant Magazine

"... a camp classic for all the wrong reasons. The Apple is fascinating because it takes a conceptual wrong turn at every angle: the 'futuristic' production design looks garish and cheap instead of sleek, the tone constantly veers back and forth between comedy and melodrama and the script is a mind-boggling muddle of religious overtones, heavy-handed "showbiz" satire and silly attempts at an anti-totalitarian message... The finished product seldom makes sense but delivers so much sheer oddness at such a high speed that it is virtually impossible to be bored by this film."
Donald Guarisco, The All Movie Guide

"... this surreal seminar on the abuse of filmmaking power is in a deranged category all its own... Perhaps the best way to watch this film is to turn on the English subtitles and read along with the kindergarten song craft as game performers belt out completely incompetent brain busters. It may be worth a look, and there could be a few who actually tune in, turn on, and drop out - of the gene pool, that is - based on the befuddling film before them."
Bill Gibron, DVD Verdict

"... makes Ishtar (1987) look like Raging Bull (1980)."
John Edward Kilduff, 80s Movies Rewind

Compiled by Richard Harland Smith