Well, Shirish Kunder has done the impossible; he has outdone himself at bad filmmaking, 'Joker' is worse than 'Tees Maar Khan'. I guess it's time that Kunder considered outsourcing some of his work because clearly, story, direction and editing was too much on his plate.
Raja Sen in his review says that 'Joker' is a daft comedy:
So what happens if a film -- one ostensibly in the guise of a comedy -- doesn't try too hard? The humour here isn't grating, overdone, outrageous, offensive, excruciating, unwatchable. This, then, may just be an approach that could be called a step forward in an Akshay Kumar comedy if only the aforementioned humour wasn't also nonexistent. There isn't a single line in Kunder's film that actually works, leaving us with a film that, while commendably brisk in a 100-minute package, refuses to get going at all.
Maybe you thought star power would make this film work but even Sonakshi Sinha's good luck charm seems to have failed this time. Anupama Chopra writes:
Akshay is no stranger to bad movies so he gamely ambles through the film. Sonakshi Sinha, playing his girlfriend, is barely there; I think Asrani has more screen time than her. The biggest tragedy is that writer-director Shirish Kunder hasn't even made one of those sublimely bad films that become unintentionally funny. Joker is just exhausting. This time, the joke's on us.
Rajeev Masand is the only critic who was willing to overlook some of the flaws:
It's easy to write off Joker as a complete failure, but to give credit where it's due, the film is less offensive than many Akshay Kumar films we've seen recently. Devoid of double-meaning dialogues and sexist jokes, there is stuff here that might have made for an engaging children's film, had Kunder not fallen prey to that oldest mistake — of treating his audience like fools.
Taran Adarsh is totally unforgiving and says, "JOKER is a joke of a film,":
JAAN-E-MANN, Kunder's directorial debut, had style and substance both, but Kunder's intention of making an entertainer that hits the right notes fails this time. Choosing an unconventional story is great, but coming up with a gripping 2-hour film is nothing short of a challenge and that's where this film boomerangs [thankfully, the run time of the film is less than 2 hours!]. In fact, it gets cumbersome to sit through the film after a point, since what unfurls is ridiculous and bizarre.