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Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
EMAILPRINTNew Line Cinema (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 29 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 24 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Romance
Written by:
Scott Moore
John Lucas
Directed by: Mark Waters
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 1, 2009
DVD: September 22, 2009
Running Time: 115 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for sexual content throughout, some language and a drug reference
Starring Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Breckin Meyer, Lacey Chabert, Robert Forster, Anne Archer, Emma Stone, and Michael Douglas
Celebrity photographer Connor Mead loves freedom, fun and women...in that order. A committed bachelor with a no-strings policy, he thinks nothing of breaking up with multiple women on a conference call while prepping his next date. Connor's brother Paul is more the romantic type; in fact, he's about to be married. Unfortunately, on the eve of the big event, Connor's mockery of romance proves a real buzz-kill. Just when it looks like Connor may single-handedly ruin the wedding, he gets a wake-up call from the ghost of his late Uncle Wayne, the hard-partying, legendary ladies man upon whose exploits Connor has modeled his lifestyle. Uncle Wayne has an urgent message for his protege, which he delivers through the ghosts of Connor's jilted girlfriends--past, present and future--who take him on a revealing and hilarious odyssey through a lifetime of failed relationships. Together, they will discover what turned Connor into such a shameless player and whether he has a second chance to find - and this time, keep - the love of his life. (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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...
Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall
Writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore steal from the best, gleefully cribbing from "A Christmas Carol" to fashion a screenplay with heart and sharp one-liners.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The movie is cheesy, tacky, and gimmicky. But as directed by Mark Waters (Mean Girls), it's also prankish and inventive enough to be kind of fun.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Lacks the kind of forceful, attention-grabbing chemistry that elevates a movie in this genre from a passable diversion to a lasting source of entertainment.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Roger Moore
Ghosts finishes well, and the familiar McConaughey heel-grows-a-heart story arc is engaging.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
In terms of character, McConaughey is the toxin and Garner the antitoxin. It's not exactly chemistry, but as pharmacology it's effective.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Despite my McConaughey resistance I got more guilty chuckles from Ghosts of Girlfriends Past than "Failure to Launch" or "Four Christmases."
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Betsy Sharkey
An amusingly sentimental whiff of a romantic comedy.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Ghosts is better-than-average McConaughey swill, but not by much - that's its pleasure and its curse.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
At least Douglas has a good time bringing the smarminess that McConaughey so studiously avoids.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It's not particularly funny to hear women described and valued exclusively in terms of their function as disposable sexual partners. A lot of Connor's dialogue is just plain sadistic and qualifies him as that part of an ass it shares with a doughnut.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Ghosts can't make up its mind whether it wants to be a racy raunchfest or a sentimental celebration of soul mates. So it ends up being a sappy, sleazy hybrid.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Perry Seibert
It's the movie equivalent of fast food -- nobody needs this to be good, just adequate. And Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is nothing if not thoroughly adequate.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
The dialogue is almost primitive at times, almost every female character is an idiot and McConaughey grossly overplays the bachelor-sleazeball antics at the beginning.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Has some laughs - more than a few thanks to Michael Douglas as a dead swinger (the movie's Jacob Marley) - and some moments of tenderness, too.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
The movie clumps through one witless if not wince-evoking sequence after another without the relief of laughter.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
I guarantee you, if Charles Dickens were alive today, he might well be writing movies but he sure as shootin' wouldn't have written "Ghosts."
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
Ghosts indeed: This romantic comedy by name alone attempts to make funny – not to mention culturally relevant – the kind of swinging-dick misogyny that went out of fashion years ago.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Never comes as close as spitting distance to a laugh.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Isn't just ordinarily lame, it easily exceeds any normal requirements for witless sleaze.
Read Full Review >Premiere Staff (Not credited)
We don't needlessly hate on the romantic comedies, but this one takes the corniness and predictability of the genre to a whole new level.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
A bizarre conflation of chick flick and "A Christmas Carol."
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Staff (Not credited)
Douglas is the only one who looks like he's actually having fun with the dim-witted script.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
A junky-looking romantic comedy that’s neither remotely romantic nor passably comic.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Jan Stuart
The relentless vulgarities in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past would be almost tolerable if they were amusing, but Mark Waters's direction is so tentative that the film's single laugh happens more than an hour in.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past displays nary a wisp of life, let alone an afterlife.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Melissa Anderson
Above all, it will make you long for a day when studio movies about relationships feel like they are by and for adults who have actually been in one.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 4.7 (out of 10) based on 24 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
ma lop gave it an8:
They make a really nice couple, i enjoyed the movie and i would also recommend it.. even though it is a copy of a Christmas movie i think.
Glenn J gave it an8:
Loved it. A bit raunchy, stupid, predictable but very funny, endearing and lovable.
Jay H gave it a4:
The thing about Matthew McConaughey is he thinks he is hotter than just about anyone else and his conceit is quite irritating. This is a very predictable romantic comedy, not very well written and few performances that stand out. Nothing special at all.
Sergey I gave it a0:
I've seen many movies in my nearly 40 years of age, but this one shocked me with its utter stupidity and moronic content, forgive my French. Every woman in this movie is portrayed as a complete whore and a prostitue while each man is depicted there as a sex deprived and preoccupided narrow minded maniac with only one idea in their shallow mind: humping, humping and humping again. Does it sound anything like real people around us? I mean there are people like that but by far not EVERYONE around us! Nasty, disgusting, immoral, repulsive, much like stepping on a slug with your bare foot. Watching this movie was not only a complete waste of time but also a whole world of negative emotions. If you wanna puke, that's your movie!
lauren gave it a3:
My friend and I went to see this after school one day. You'd think that just because their was a lot of people in 1 room, you think the movie would've been good. Well, it failed. I'm a movie kind of girl, i enjoy Oscars, but none-the-less, i enjoy a cool chick flick. But this was stupid! I mean, really, this womanizing jerk, AKA Matthew's character Connor is just as predictable. AWFUL. AWFUL. AND AWFUL!
Diego gave it a2:
I would give it a 0 or a 1 except it has SOME redeemingly funny parts with the the woman who plays Gretchen from Mean Girls (I dont know her name). Besides that, as David H said... "Here's a novel idea; cast Matthew McConaughey in a romantic comedy as an over-confident womanizer... wait, how many times have we seen this?" I simply don't understand how anyone working on this movie THOUGHT it could be successful.
Luke A gave it a2:
I took my mom to see this for mother's day as it was her pick being her day... I absolutely hated this movie. Typical predictable manufactured Hollywood garbage. I completely LOVE Jennifer Garner but even so, I found the flick painful to sit through... The only reason it got a 2, mom loved it; and I love my mom.
