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Runaway Bride

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 33 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 7 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Romance
Written by:
Josann McGibbon
Sara Parriott
Directed by: Garry Marshall
Release Date:
Theatrical: July 30, 1999
DVD: January 25, 2000
Running Time: 116 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG for language and some suggestive dialogue
Starring Julia Roberts, Richard Gere, Joan Cusack, Hector Elizondo, Rita Wilson, Paul Dooley, Christopher Meloni, and Donal Logue
In a last-ditch effort to save his tarnished career, a big-city reporter (Gere) chases a scoop about a mercurial, small-town girl (Roberts) known as the Runaway Bride due to her habit of leaving her grooms-to-be at the altar.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Georgia Rule Pretty Woman Raising Helen The Other Sister The Princess Diaries The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
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...
Variety Todd McCarthy
The central idea is quite clever and appealing, and that the charm meter is turned up all the way.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack
Wonderful characters keep the movie from gagging on sweetness.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
The movie-calendar equivalent of last July's "Six Days, Seven Nights," this star-powered romance overcomes a shaky start to outpace that passable confection by several runaway laps.
Slate David Edelstein
Once the premise had been established and the leads began to interact, I stopped totting up the inanities and had a good time.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
But the movie's vital signs improve remarkably in the second half, and especially in the last act. The proceedings suddenly pick up some screwball charm, the writing improves (with several truly inspired one-liners tossed in here and there) and the secondary characters begin to click.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris
A movie drunk on its very existence, one that misses more frequently than it hits and couldn't care less.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
It's no Runaway success, but Gere and Roberts still glow.
The New York Times Elvis Mitchell
More often, the film is like a ride through a car wash: forward motion, familiar phases in the same old order and a sense of being carried along steadily on a well-used track. It works without exactly showing signs of life.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The difference between "Pretty Woman" and Runaway Bride is that we can no longer buy Roberts in her tearful romantic-melancholy mode. It seems vaguely patronizing now.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The screenplay provides enough cute one-liners and love-struck speeches to give the comedy intermittent charm.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Lack of chemistry between Richard Gere and Julia Roberts sinks this souffle.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
A shiny bauble full of dead weight, gloppy good feeling and airless cliches. And every time you try to grab onto "Bride's" characters, they run away. [30 July 1999]
Washington Post Rita Kempley
Fans of Gere and Roberts may not care about the movie's many implausibilities and other shortcomings because the stars do indeed sparkle like the bubbles in wedding champagne. But the rest of us will find the vintage too sweet.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
After seeing Gere and Roberts play much smarter people (even in romantic comedies), it is painful to see them dumbed down here. The screenplay is so sluggish, they're like Derby winners made to carry extra weight.
Read Full Review >Film.com Robert Horton
It's all safe and sane and bland.
ReelViews James Berardinelli
A clumsy motion picture that strives so hard for the perfect romantic ending that it triggers a gag reflex along the way.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Runaway Bride's Josann McGibbon & Sara Parriott script is so muddled and contrived, raising issues only to ignore them or throw them away, you wonder why so many people embraced it.
Read Full Review >Film.com John Hartl
It doesn't generate enough laughs to make up for the fact that you never figure out what he (a misogynistic USA Today columnist played by Richard Gere) sees in her (a dizzy small-town hairdresser played by Roberts). Or, for that matter, what she could ever see in him.
Austin Chronicle Sarah Hepola
Too bad their characters are comprised of nothing but the most hackneyed clichés and that it apparently never occurred to anyone to add even sketches of believable character development.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
It's not just that the movie is formulaic; it's disingenuous. It relies on Roberts's smile to erase all misgivings. But all the stardust in the world can't disguise the fact that this is more package than picture.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Amy Taubin
Runaway Bride isn't as offensive as most studio romantic comedies—just pointless and dull.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Other than a few gratuitous montage sequences, plus a patently clumsy echo of the shopping scene in "Pretty Woman," Marshall refuses to pull his share of the load, forcing his beleaguered cast to fend for themselves.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Hal Hinson
Marshall is the very definition of a hack; his one and only desire is to play to the lowest common denominator. This is the secret of his success: He aspires to mediocrity. With Runaway Bride, he has scored another bull's-eye.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
In "Pretty Woman" Roberts played a tough whore with a soft heart. Here, she's a business owner whose sense of self is so tenuous she doesn't even know how she likes her eggs done.
Read Full Review >Film.com Moira Macdonald
Comes off as nothing more than a PG-rated excuse to showcase Roberts in a variety of wedding gowns (five, by my count) and an exhausting number of comedy cliches.
Salon.com Mary Elizabeth Williams
You would never have predicted it from the breakout success of "Pretty Woman" nearly a decade ago, but it turns out that the pairing of Richard Gere and Julia Roberts has ripened over the years into something resembling month-old brie.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Ron Wells
I completely dreaded sitting through this movie...Two-hour purgatory.
Read Full Review >New York Post Rob Dreher
A runaway bore.
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Maybe writers Josann McGibbon and Sara Parriott were thinking of Tracy and Hepburn--assuming they were thinking of anything--but not even Roberts's smile can put this one over.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
Another contrived, unconvincing romantic comedy that once again mixes stale sitcom humor with laughable attempts at pathos and emotional depth.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
[Gere] seemed to be improvising his way from beginning to end, like he was disgusted with the actual script.
Read Full Review >Film.com Ernest Hardy
Atrocious bit of by-the-numbers screen filler. And anyone who easily lapses into sugar comas is advised to stay far, far away.
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Matan C. gave it a6:
If it's a comedy, it's not funny. If it's a drama, it's not dramatic. If it's a romance, it's not romantic. The only excuse for this film was getting Julia Roberts and Richard Gere on the same movie, and if you could throw in some of their Pretty Woman sidekicks, well, the more the merrier. But it's not all exploitation: some smart lines, good acting, and a mostly original storyline saves it from the depths of a complete failure. And by the name of god, that dress was UGLY!
Christian G. gave it a 4:
So this wasn't the worst movie i've seen, but it's just average. julia and richard have no chemistry anymore (he is way too old for her), which i find FUNDAMENTAL in a romantic comedy. Although there were some good scenes and the supporting characters were good it's not what i expected to be.
Pat C. gave it a 1:
Hopelessly unbelievable. And why do chicks like Roberts always fall for dorks like Gere? (because they actually find the meaning of life embedded in films such as this)
Jenna W. gave it a 10:
This is my all time fav movie.
PAULINA O. gave it a 10:
IT'S SMASHIN'!!!!!
Kristina gave it a 9:
Once again I think Julia Roberts and Richard Gere have made an EXCELLENT pair! Richard and Julia light up the screen each time they perform and they are both amazingly talented actors. Although this movie was good I don't think that the two of them will ever come up with anyhting as good as the orignal classic "Pretty Woman" Richard and Julia keep it up you huys are doing great!!!!
