Metascore
45 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 31 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 31
  2. Negative: 7 out of 31
  1. It's about as close to French farce as romantic comedies get, and the closer the better.
  2. 75
    Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey don't simply star in this movie; they tag-team it out of the Freddie Prinze Jr. --Julia Stiles puppy-love ghetto.
  3. McConaughey and (especially) Hudson manage to make it all work, maintaining their likability even in situations where they inevitably end up acting like jerks.
  4. At least it's a pleasant walk, with attractive people and nice conversation
  5. Playful, predictable and more than a little precious, this entertaining if slight romantic farce makes it's hard not to mourn the loss of the adult romantic comedy.
  6. 63
    Eventually loses its cheerful goofiness and its momentum, climaxing with a lengthy and embarrassing showdown scene at a big party. But it gets worse.
  7. 63
    What's missing? Simple: the romance. This movie is so intent upon getting cheap laughs and putting the protagonists in uncomfortable situations that it forgets they're supposed to be falling in love.
  8. The picture is actually watchable. What's more, as romance comedies go, it's something of a novelty.
  9. 60
    There's a pleasantly malevolent ridiculousness hovering around How to Lose a Guy. But the movie would have been so much better if it had jumped into its mean-spiritedness with gusto and passion, instead of just splashing around in it halfheartedly.
  10. 60
    As her character resorts to increasingly cruel and devious pranks, Hudson only seems funnier and more endearing.
  11. It does have its tart, fizzy moments.
  12. Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    60
    It's totally implausible, and yet it gets at something unnervingly real: the way that people can blow a budding relationship by being too honest with each other.
  13. 60
    The plot contrivances that bring them together to torture each other are so deftly handled that I almost bought them, and the two leads are charming and funny enough to offset the characters' obnoxious motives.
  14. With its ungainly double-deception premise, How to Lose a Guy feels like it was made out of two connect-the-dots drawings laid haphazardly on top of one another.
  15. Some of the scenarios are funny. But they're uniformly overplayed.
  16. There is no shape or pacing to Daniel Petrie's movie. It's like a bottle of soda left uncapped. So thus a story that promised effervescence ends up being flat.
  17. Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    50
    How to lose an audience in 10 minutes: Cobble together a predictable and forced romantic comedy that should have been funnier.
  18. 50
    Though something less than a masterpiece of the genre, this good-natured skirmish in the war between men and women benefits from Hudson's thoroughly charming performance.
  19. 50
    With a premise this screwy, nobody has any choice but to follow the savvy lead of Bebe Neuwirth, who, as Hudson's "Composure" editor, hams her queen-bitch-mother-hen role to glazed perfection.
  20. 50
    Both lead players are appealing and attractive enough to make an otherwise tepid movie at least un-excruciating.
  21. 42
    The few chuckles the film affords come early, and too often the script desperately tries to repeat them. By the end, it's not funny or happy -- just over. And you're glad for it, the one true emotion you feel in the whole two hours.
  22. In the end, we know Andie and Ben will kiss and make up -– how could too alliteratively aligned pretty people not? -– but first we must wade through the protracted and wholly unwarranted period in which both huffs about the other’s deceptions.
  23. A concept, no matter how promising, is not a movie, and this picture has the bad luck to illustrate the difference.
  24. The movie isn't all bad, and it's sure to succeed with its target audience.
  25. 38
    I am just about ready to write off movies in which people make bets about whether they will, or will not, fall in love.
  26. I can't think of much that might happen on a date evening that could be more annoying than this movie.
  27. Large chunks of the film seem like a record played at the wrong speed: The tempo of the dialogue as delivered doesn't match the lines as written, and the filmmakers are too lazy or too inept to make their convoluted premise jibe with any recognizable idea of human nature.
  28. Reviewed by: Robert Koehler
    30
    This is the kind of movie that was doomed on the page, both by an inherently problematic premise and ill-conceived character motivations.
  29. 25
    When a chick flick goes wrong -- and this one hits a dead end in hell -- it's a wipeout.
  30. Directed by Donald Petrie ("Miss Congeniality") with about as much substance and style as a ham sandwich. It's a heavy hand that damps down such airy creatures as Hudson and McConaughey.
  31. All in all, the only lesson here is how to irritate. This is a stupid movie for stupid people. If you're a stupid person, knock yourself out. Please