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America's Sweethearts
Sony Pictures Entertainment


5.5

based on 32 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 28 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for language and some crude and sexual humor

Starring Julia Roberts, Billy Crystal, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cusack, and Hank Azaria

For an awkward, self-conscious girl like Kiki (Roberts), being the personal assistant to a beautiful mega-star like Gwen (Zeta-Jones) isn't easy. But when she dutifully accepts the task of helping Gwen and her estranged mega-star husband Eddie (Cusack) make it through one last public appearance masterminded by legendary press agent Lee Phillips (Crystal), forever devoted Kiki finds that her job is about to get even harder. (Sony Pictures Entertainment)

GENRE(S):	Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Billy Crystal Peter Tolan
DIRECTED BY:	Joe Roth
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: November 13, 2001 Video: November 13, 2001 Theatrical: July 20, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	109 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Turns the kleig lights around to produce a wry and dead-on commentary on the film industry and the journalists who cover it.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Terrifically funny romantic comedy, is a slam-dunk for Julia Roberts, the Michael Jordan of cuteness.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The result is a back-lot studio tour that's not exactly good-natured, but terrific fun and it gives the ensemble cast plenty of clowning opportunities.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Surprisingly funny and sweet, despite some missed comic opportunities and curious casting choices.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

At its heart the film wants nothing more than to make you giggle, and at that it succeeds admirably.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Though an uneven, often confused, mixed bag -- the movie gradually comes together to be a fairly hilarious inside-Hollywood farce.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

You keep waiting for it to go into orbit, to be really fizzy and outrageous, like the screwball farce it wants to be. Instead, the film settles for the merely serviceable.

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

This movie is a cookie. A slightly stale generic-brand cookie.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Christopher Walken has the best moments in the whole thing, portraying the wacked-out auteur of the Gwen-and-Eddie vehicle. Sadly, he's only in America's Sweethearts a few hilarious minutes.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

For the farce it so desperately wants to be, the film often feels slack and too reliant on so-so punch lines for laughs.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

All these good actors and all Crystal's sass and witty candor can't bring back the heyday of Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges. Or even, most of the time, their off-days.

Wall Street Journal Ed Epstein

Amusing enough, especially with its uniquely credible premise of a media fraud, to recommend.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

As enjoyable as this film is in parts, it's not nearly as successful as a whole. Enormously engaging in its opening segments, it's unable to sustain that good feeling over the long haul.

Portland Oregonian Barry Johnson

Surprise! Crystal has given himself most of the best lines, though he also allows a Doberman to have its way with him.

Newsweek David Ansen

Resoundingly so-so.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

While the film delivers some sharp dialogue, overall it's soft and slightly unfocused.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Too eager to please to be truly dislikable, and Roberts and Cusack have a fine rapport.

Slate David Edelstein

The movie is a polished muddle, fitfully amusing but with no spine.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

America's Sweethearts recycles "Singin' in the Rain" but lacks the sassy genius of that 1952 musical, which is still the best comedy ever made about Hollywood.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

No excuse for the bitterness and crudity in America's Sweethearts -- a noxious combination that erodes the 1930s and '40s screwball-comedy armature on which this mirthless movie is based.

Variety Robert Koehler

Begins as a smartly promising, gently farcical comedy of manners and ends as sourly and haphazardly as the lives it is poking fun at.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

It's dull, two-dimensional, and totally toothless.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Like a bottle of lukewarm Champagne -- an expensive one, judging by the label -- America's Sweethearts opens with a promising burst of effervescence and quickly goes flat.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

It's mostly terrible. The movie has no sparkle, no charm, nothing to sweep us off our feet.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

A lackluster screwball comedy.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Chockablock with things we're not supposed to notice: that Roberts is wasted; that she and Cusack have no characters to play, so it's virtually impossible to understand why she loves him or vice versa; that the script provides comedy without bite and romance without resonance.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

The sparks don't fly -- they fall down and they can't get up.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Falls flat on screen, weighed down by far-fetched plot twists.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

This is the downside of Roberts' giant success and her dazzling ability to charm: Every time she goes plain, as she did in the little-seen "Mary Reilly" and "Michael Collins," our princess simply fizzles.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

The film isn't just banal, it's aggressively, arrogantly banal.

New Times (L.A.) Robert Wilonsky

Obnoxious, transparent cornball comedy.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Overwritten by Billy Crystal and Peter Tolan, overdirected by Joe Roth, overplayed by most of the cast, yet typically undernourished.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.5 (out of 10) based on 28 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jennifer L. gave it a2:
One of my all-time top 20 worst movies, right up there with Batman and Robin, and VI Warshawski…writhingly banal and aggressively unfunny. You can't believe a film can manage to waste the combined talents it has on tap (Crystal himself and Julia Roberts are the least of it…try Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cusack, Hank Azaria, Stanley Tucci and even Christopher Walken), but this one does. Primarily Crystal's fault, for a genuinely dreadful script, but also a good deal of the blame can be attributed to producer and former Disney chairman Joe Roth, who somehow talked people who should have known better (including Crystal) into letting him direct (Christmas at the Kranks, anyone?). Bad, bad, bad.

Pat C. gave it a 6:
What is this? As a romantic comedy it's a bomb, but as a parody of a romantic comedy it's fun and light as a feather. I choose to see it as a paid vacation for the star power involved, so who cares if it's a little off balance. Zeta-Jones is her usual hot self, Cusack maintains the usual inferiority complex, and Crystal again hilariously dabbles in not taking other people's lives seriously. But you know what, Julia Roberts is surprisingly entertaining in a supporting role. Sometimes less is more. Of course when she becomes the central love interest, the movie (like all her other romantic comedies) must end - it is not possible for anything funny to ensue. Such is the nature of the genre.

Jade B. gave it an 8:
The average score is probably a little low because no one is going to say that "this is the greatest movie ever!" But I was pleasantly suprised. I usually balk a little at romantic comedies and given this one is more comedy than romance, but it's quite a good movie!

Jeremy gave it a 2:
I'm not one of the world's bigger Julia Roberts fans, but how does a alleged satire with John Cusack, Billy Crystal, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Stanley Tucci, and Christopher Walken fail so miserably.....perhaps because they got a studio head to direct a film that's supposed to take shots about Hollywood.

Gilbert's Gotta Do Better Than That gave it a 7:
Hey, hey, hey. T'int that bad. It's got a great cast, and some really rather funny bits - although Roberts is not dowdy enough. Or at all. Cameron Diaz in Being John Malkovich. That's how it should be done.

Deborah L. gave it a 9:
Very funny and charming, with excellent characterizations.

John W. gave it a 9:
I can't understand why this movie got critically panned except perhaps the professional film reviewers can't see it from the eyes of a regular person. This film wasn't "about" Hollywood any more than "Caddyshack" was "about" golfing, "Animal House" was "about" frats, or "My Cousin Vinny" was "about" lawyers . . . When it hits $100M the critics will be dumbfounded.

America's Sweethearts Sony Pictures Entertainment

America's Sweethearts
Sony Pictures Entertainment