Heartbreakers

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Heartbreakers is "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" plus Gene Hackman as W.C. Fields. I guess that's enough to recommend it. It's not a great comedy, but it's a raucous one, hard-working and ribald, and I like its spirit.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Mirkin hits just the right note between naughty and raunchy.

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

Although the film is a tad long, Mirkin ("Romy and Michele's High School Reunion") has managed to pull off a classy, gently funny movie in which no one throws up, a rare blessing these days.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

It's not a pretty picture, but it is a pretty funny one when Gene Hackman shows up as William B. Tensy, a Palm Beach tobacco tycoon.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

As Hollywood diversions go, this gleaming MGM release still leaves you wishing the filmmakers took as many risks as their grifters do.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Naughty is an outdated word in an era of proud nastiness, but Heartbreakers has a slinky, teasing quality that recalls the dressed-up comedies of the studio era.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Crudely entertaining comedy.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Heartbreakers is too long by a half-hour, and there are entire sketches (including a horrid nightclub sequence with Weaver trying to sing in Russian) that could be mercifully sacrificed.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Heartbreakers itself is something of a con game: an expensive imitation of older, better films from older, often better times.

Chicago Reader Reece Pendleton

Despite its nasty facade, this comedy is surprisingly good-natured.

Slate David Edelstein

Con-artist caper comedies are almost always piffle, but there's a fierce, cruel competition at the heart of Heartbreakers that gives it some bite.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It's an obvious effort through and through, but that doesn't seem to dampen its ridiculous charm one bit.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

To its credit, Heartbreakers lives up to expectations. Almost.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Never tickles your nasty bone, perhaps because, in an era when the gossip pages are dotted with news of celebrity prenups, the prospect of marriage as a route to instant fortune seems less scandalous than it does like business as usual.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Cries out for the brisk pacing of a Sturges or a Wilder. As is, it's too lumpish, languid, and lukewarm to hit even the guilty pleasure zone.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

A sporadically amusing romp modeled on "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels."

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

Heartbreakers' implausible level of comedy just grows tedious, as it's neither smartly witty nor full-throttle absurd.

Film.com Sean Means

Hewitt's twin assets may be enough for a lot of moviegoers -- which may be the biggest con Heartbreakers pulls off.

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

The nasty, overlong and undisciplined sourball of a sex farce about a mother-daughter con team will nonetheless satisfy bigenerational libidinous fantasies.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

Lacks the kind of rhythm and snap to make it work -- and allows this fitfully entertaining romp to dribble on way too long.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

If you're going to serve up a half-baked idea, you might as well have Sigourney Weaver do the cooking.

Miami Herald Curtis Morgan

When the youngsters are out of the way and old pros Hackman and Weaver work, it's hard to really dislike Heartbreakers. Sometimes, it's even a little bit of harmless fun.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

While in her earlier movies Jennifer Love Hewitt made an impression by spilling out of her tops, in this one she spills out of her clothes at both ends. This could, if one were feeling charitable, be construed as a broadening of her range.

Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark

Folks who are desperate to ogle Hewitt and Weaver probably can't be warned off this turkey.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Trust me, you'll want to leave these people to get on with their tedious scams alone.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Overstays its welcome by at least a half-hour after never getting very high off the ground in the first place.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Despite its talented and/or attractive cast, Heartbreakers is an ugly movie: The kind that makes you feel slightly soiled afterwards.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A limp and annoying picture.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

There's nothing wrong with the structure of Heartbreakers, but David Mirkin's direction is woefully clumsy -- and the movie's tone is nasty.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Heartbreakers gives redemption a bad name, but gives conniving misanthropy a worse one.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It's a sorry specimen if ever there was one, and could even stand as an argument for how the movies have deteriorated in recent years.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

What is the great Gene Hackman doing in the dingbat con-artist comedy Heartbreakers.