"Mr. Adler surely knows his way around the music business, but the film reflects none of that expertise."
– Janet Maslin, The New York Times, March 6, 1985

"Adler has tacked on a happy ending, in what seems to have been a desperate attempt to salvage the film's commercial prospects, but he needn't have bothered: this "exposé" is too familiar and too sloppily filmed to shock anyone. Diane Lane stars, and there's something magnetic about her even though what she's doing can't really be described as acting."
- Dave Kehr, The Chicago Reader

"Ladies and Gentleman, the Fabulous Stains includes some clever satire of TV magazine shows and happytalk news programs, but this rock movie rings hollow and false. Lane's female, Americanized Johnny Rotten character makes surly pronouncements that are cartoonishly simple and arrogant (although maybe that's the point), and a tantrum thrown by the band's mellow, Rastafarian bus driver (Don Letts inspired?) is unintentionally hilarious....Waybill steals the show as the burned-out heavy metal singer..."
- Jay Schwartz, Hollywood Rock

"Unlike most riot girl movies, this was made for a major studio, Paramount, but the execs were so unhinged by the film's strange, bitter tone that they refused to release it...That said, Stains deserves notice first and foremost as a welcome respite from all those mush-brained John Hughes teen epics of the '80s...The tone of the film is sometimes hokey and often sour, with director Adler taking nervous potshots at a number of targets. With the Metal Corpses, led by the Tubes's Fee Waybill, he skewers those wretched old rockers who continue to play long after their spandex has lost its snap. He hits the media in droll scenes of two brainless newscasters arguing the merits of the Stains. Most merciless is the film's take on the music industry. In Adler's view, everyone's a fake, from the self-absorbed rockers to fickle audiences to conniving manager to Corinne herself."
- Gary Morris, Bright Lights Film Journal

"Though slowed by some vapid melodrama, this is tons of silly, proto-feminist fun, as they tour local malls, filled to capacity with legions of lemming-like girls. Happily, the movie also shows how fast fans can turn ugly when they realize they've been ripped off. Musically, the only halfway decent tune, "The Professionals" (by Cook and Jones) is played to death, while nothing from The Stains is remotely listenable outside of the context of this movie. This pic has authenticity to spare, especially when it comes to the sh*tty little towns bands are forced to play. I only wish Lane was a better actress, because although her shower scene with Winstone accomplishes its desired goal, her anti-social speeches are limp. Slick but surprisingly savvy, it knows the territory, pisses on it with a sharp sense of humor, and captures the period better than most studio pics of that era."
- Steven Puchalski, Shock Cinema

"...strident and unappealing despite good cast. Lahti shines in her two scenes."
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide

"While Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains falls short of being the word on the movement, it is a fascinating, entertaining and authentically grimy trawl through the seamy side of the music-biz."
- Channel 4 Film