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Monster-in-Law
New Line Cinema


4.9

based on 38 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 42 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for sex references and language

Starring Jennifer Lopez, Jane Fonda, Michael Vartan, Wanda Sykes, Adam Scott, Annie Parisse, Monet Mazur, Will Arnett, and Elaine Stritch

After years of looking for Mr. Right, Charlotte 'Charlie' Cantilini (Lopez) finally finds the man of her dreams (Vartan) only to discover that his mother (Fonda) is the woman of her nightmares. (New Line Cinema)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Anya Kochoff
DIRECTED BY:	Robert Luketic
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 30, 2005 Theatrical: May 13, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	102 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...

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

It's a hoot to watch Fonda cut loose and mix it up with J. Lo, even when the laughs turn mean-spirited.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A generational spectacle that's fun to witness.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Isn't a particularly good movie if what interests you is the art of film -- cinematography, editing, screenwriting, staging, little things like that. But if you're chiefly interested in turning off the upstairs lights and relaxing with a few laughs, you could do a lot worse.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Fonda is a hoot and a half.

Premiere Peter Debruge

Imagine what someone like Danny DeVito might have done with the material, taking it in that darker "War of the Roses" direction instead of languishing in this sunny, not-nearly-sinister-enough "Legally Blonde" territory.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

By Hollywood standards, a movie carried with such gusto by a 67-year-old woman has to be considered a miracle. And I'm not sorry to say I enjoyed watching her do it.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

"Legally Blonde" director Robert Luketic bumbles along with typically clumsy blocking and framing, and the misogyny inherent in the three-ring spectacle of bitch slaps, barbiturate covert ops, and wedding plan hysteria does rankle.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It would take the dark wit of a Billy Wilder or a Coen brother--or at least a Neil Simon--to put across this kind of material.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The movie briefly suggests Viola is an incestuous psychotic.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

This is a gay men's movie whose primary function is to doll Fonda up like a drag queen and let her rip.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

As for Monster-in-Law, it's tripe on a plate.

Empire Angie Errigo

A note to Fonda: even thin, fabulous 67-year-olds shouldn't wear strapless gowns. It's scary.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

All I could think about while watching Jennifer Lopez prance through Monster-in-Law was how cool and poised she was in "Out of Sight."

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Fonda and Sykes are made for each other, and their incessant bickering and arguing are about the only things that give Monster-in-Law any life.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Ultimately one flat-footed beast.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Doesn't make the movie worth watching -- even if you're monstrously bored.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Fonda's performance is a perfect storm of histrionics, and she leaves nothing and no one standing.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Add them up and the sum has a certain mathematical inevitability: Really annoying characters, really annoying movie.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

A fairly tedious, stupid picture.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Monster-in-Law, where Bridezilla meets Godzilla, is a comedy so anemic, so toxic, that even Dracula wouldn't bite.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Monster-in-Law is appalling misfire of a comedy - a motion picture that takes a situation ripe for the blackest vein of satire and reduces it to a puerile and edgeless pile of goo

Variety Todd McCarthy

Shrill, undermotivated, feature-length catfight.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

Billed as a comedy, this low-wattage sitcom is both ill-tempered and mean-spirited.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

So tame and limp, it may actually give mothers-in-law a good name.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

To boost this movie's rating to "worth seeing" would make me feel like a publicist or simply a dope.

Slate David Edelstein

A depressing comeback for Jane Fonda, but it's still nice to see her in movies again, and in something that isn't dripping with self-actualizing virtue like her last projects.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

How much better this would have been had someone like Brian De Palma stepped behind the camera.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

This vapid, mean-spirited comedy is Lopez's show, and though she is utterly unconvincing as a paragon of down-to-earth virtues, the last laugh was hers from the outset.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Monster-in-Law fails the Gene Siskel Test: "Is this film more interesting than a documentary of the same actors having lunch?"

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Jane Fonda coming back to the screen after a decade-and-a-half absence in Monster-in-Law is like Brando returning from the dead to star in a Police Academy movie.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It's incorrigibly unfunny.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The comedy is shamelessly stupid and flagrantly vulgar by turns.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

A shrunken, cowardly movie in deep denial of its true nature, which is far uglier than it is ever willing to admit.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

A deeply dispiriting movie, not just because it is grindingly bad but because Jane Fonda actually chose this for her comeback after a 15-year absence from the screen. But it's worse than that. Fonda, one of the best actors of her generation, is downright awful in a role she could have -- and probably should have -- sleepwalked through.

The New Yorker David Denby

The self-confident fatuity and condescension of the movie is offensive.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

Fonda believed in acting. She doesn't seem to believe in it anymore. Her performance in this film is a collection of reactions, vocal whoops, and pouncings that we have seen often before in lesser actors.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The movie itself is grotesque, and may drive you nuts as it makes you laugh, mostly at the stupidity of the thing.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

It's not hard to imagine the militant Jane Fonda of 1972 angrily denouncing Monster-In-Law as insulting Hollywood claptrap trafficking in regressive, reactionary, blatantly sexist gender codes. And she'd be right.

The average user rating for this movie is 4.9 (out of 10) based on 42 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Angelica G. gave it a10:
It couldn't have been any better...now the real question is...is there going to be a part 2 to this movie?

Glenn M. gave it a0:
An absolute atrocity, this is the worst I have ever seen by a long shot, who could possibly say Jane Fonda was good, the most annoying acting Ive ever seen. Wow I am still stunned it was pitiful.

Crow Robot gave it a0:
Gosh, this was a really bad movie. This is a new low for J-Lo, and that's saying something. The gags run from mildly annoying to downright life-threatening. Notice 'funny' was no where in there. The plot is especially thin and uninvolving, even for this kind of movie. I found my attention wandering while I watched it, which I don't think has ever happened to me before while I watched a movie. Wanda Sykes puts in a pitiable performance as the comic relief. Her Greyhound commercials were funnier. Every actor and actress in this has done much better work. Avoid this film at all costs.

Barb M. gave it a7:
Loved it. Don't look for perfection. Just a fun movie, that doesn't get too absurd. Almost tho!

Cheriff L. gave it an8:
Pros: Hilarious, not very mean spirited, great acting. Cons: predictbale, too many "romantic-comedy" cliches. Overview: a great movie, not worthy for any awards, but its a fun watch.

Greg gave it a5:
This movie was sort of fun, but I say that reservedly. It was okay but was not up to the potential of Ms. Fonda nor Ms. Lopez. I watched this movie to completion but could not recommend it to my co-workers on Monday morning.

Susan M. gave it a4:
Great acting by Fonda, Lopez and the very hot Michael Vartan but that doesn't stop the story from totally sucking!!! I thought it was poorly written and strung together, a total cheesy let down and not at all heartwarming.

Monster-in-Law New Line Cinema

Monster-in-Law
New Line Cinema