America's Sweethearts

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.