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Isn't She Great
Metascore
34 out of 100

Generally unfavorable - based on 34 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 34
  3. Negative: 16 out of 34
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  1. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    Unexpectedly entertaining, if you're willing to put up with the picture's stagy look, over-the-top moods, and heavy doses of vulgarity.
  2. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    75
    Isn't great, but it's an enjoyable if overly discreet and romanticized look at a long-vanished show-business world.
  3. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    75
    A surprisingly warm and engaging entertainment - brassy, schmaltzy, funny.
  4. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    70
    A cupcake of a movie, a sweet and lightweight little thing that's all but served up in a ruffled paper cup.
  5. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    70
    Ah, what glorious casting!
    All this critic's reviews
  6. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Russel Smith
    67
    An ideal diversion for one of those evenings when low expectations feel more like a state of grace than a surrender to vice.
  7. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    67
    It's peppy and cheesy and filled with life and humor in just the way, you imagine, that Susann might have enjoyed.
  8. TNT RoughCut
    Reviewed by: Sarah Raskin
    65
    As brain candy goes, Isn't She Great is just that and a little bit more.
  9. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    63
    Intermittently funny.
  10. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Robert Horton
    60
    Good enough in spots to make you wish it could have sustained its campier inclinations.
  11. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Paula Nechak
    42
    Though it does present the facts of Susann's life, it skims them so quickly and with such glorious glee that we never get a sense of who this woman really was.
  12. Mr. Showbiz
    Reviewed by: Kevin Maynard
    40
    A watery cocktail of second-rate, Ab Fab-style bitchery and shameless schmaltz.
  13. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    40
    Contains several profanely amusing moments, but they don't add up to much.
  14. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    40
    Just isn't enough.
    All this critic's reviews
  15. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    40
    Aspires to be both stylish and coarse, camp and vulgar -- which is pretty much how Bette Midler plays it.
  16. Film.com
    Reviewed by: John Hartl
    40
    Curiously bland and flavorless.
  17. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Moira MacDonald
    40
    What on earth is Stockard Channing doing in this mess?
  18. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: Ann-Rebecca Laschever
    40
    Midler's performance does not stand out. She remains very much Bette Midler.
  19. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    38
    A flabbergasting waste of time and talent.
  20. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Peter Stack
    38
    Leaves an unintentional unpleasant aftertaste.
  21. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: Walter Addiego
    38
    Second-banana material.
  22. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    38
    A bottom-rung Bette Midler vehicle disguised as a biopic of novelist Jacqueline Susann, the movie is a wannabe satire shackled by misplaced reverence.
  23. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    30
    Lame comic-strip excuse for a biopic.
  24. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    30
    If you're looking for laughs, give "Valley of the Dolls" another read instead.
  25. Variety
    Reviewed by: Emanuel Levy
    30
    Isn't even unintentionally funny enough to qualify as guilty pleasure a la "Valley of the Dolls."
  26. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    25
    A flat and peculiar film.
  27. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    25
    Just plain bad. Really, really bad.
  28. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Robert Wilonsky
    20
    An utter drag, a tepid and sterilized telling of Susann's life.
  29. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    20
    It used to be that Midler was a life force, but whenever she tries to play one, she looks like she's floating in formaldehyde.
  30. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    20
    A major washout.
  31. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Schickel
    10
    One of the worst messes in years.
  32. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    0
    Has to be among the worst movies ever made.
  33. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    0
    As bumbling and mindless, as naively misconceived, as that clapping-through-tears moniker.
  34. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    0
    If it were the last videotape available in the only video store in the remotest corner of Alaska, I'd take one last slug of Jack Daniels and start walking directly into the howling snows.
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