The Back-up Plan
Metascore
34 out of 100

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 32 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 32
  3. Negative: 10 out of 32
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  1. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Amy Biancolli
    75
    I laughed hysterically, but in the interest of balanced reporting, I should add that the guy parked next to me at the screening - a boyfriend who was there under duress - emitted a series of low guttural noises suggesting profound psychological anguish.
  2. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    67
    As a romantic comedy, The Back-up Plan is friendly but also a bit drab.
  3. Tampa Bay Times
    Reviewed by: Steve Persall
    67
    Even stock characters -- Zoe's tirelessly supportive friends and relatives -- get style points for giving jobs to old pros Klein, Linda Lavin (Alice) and "Mr. C" himself, Tom Bosley. Of course, the babies are adorable.
  4. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Dan Kois
    63
    A not-as-bad-as-you-think-it-is romantic comedy.
  5. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    60
    Jennifer Lopez carries this thin concept about as far and as well as she can, with Alex O'Loughlin in his first leading-man outing managing not to get lost in the shuffle.
  6. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    50
    Lopez, appearing in her first rom-com since “Monster-in-Law” five years ago, is still a likable screen presence who throws herself into the movie’s slapstick sequences with unwarranted enthusiasm.
  7. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    50
    Cutesy and formulaic and has the approximate depth of a cookie sheet.
  8. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    50
    When it comes to comedies about pregnancy, "Knocked Up" and "Baby Mama" delivered more. This sitcom style exercise in planned parenthood is blandly predictable. If it were a cheese, it would be Velveeta.
  9. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    50
    Lopez smiles, whines, and blinks her way through this movie. She seems more relaxed than she ever has. And yet it seems like she’s hiding in romantic comedies, lest we discover that she doesn’t have a “Monster’s Ball’’ or even a “Blind Side’’ in her.
  10. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    50
    This is the film to watch when pretty much everything else has been sold out and the only remaining choices are The Back-Up Plan and the latest Rob Schneider opus.
  11. Orlando Sentinel
    Reviewed by: Roger Moore
    50
    O’Loughlin is the very definition of comic dead weight. Imagine making Greg Kinnear carry half of "Baby Mama," or sending Tina Fey out with Matthew Fox on "Date Night" and you’ll get the picture.
  12. New Orleans Times-Picayune
    Reviewed by: Mike Scott
    50
    Even at its worst moments, it's better than "awful." But at its best, it's never comes close to "incredible."
  13. Boxoffice Magazine
    Reviewed by: Pete Hammond
    50
    Although it’s formulaic in the extreme, The Back-up Plan is an easygoing romantic comedy treat for fans of Jennifer Lopez.
  14. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    50
    Suffers from sludgy pacing, flat writing and acting, and a strange and puzzling fondness for scatology and coarse language.
  15. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    50
    A not very good and yet painless waste of time.
  16. Variety
    Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    50
    This tepid romantic comedy falls somewhere between a weak sitcom pilot and a second-tier Hallmark movie.
  17. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    50
    A film divided against itself. It’s really two movies, one silly and one serious. Too bad neither is particularly compelling.
  18. Empire
    Reviewed by: Anna Smith
    40
    Sporadically amusing but rarely inspired.
  19. Arizona Republic
    Reviewed by: Bill Goodykoontz
    40
    It's not as if every funny movie has to offer something in the way of social commentary or greater insight. Sometimes funny is just funny. Sometimes, as is too often the case here, it's not.
  20. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    40
    A dispiriting and thoroughly ineffective romantic comedy, with some juicy morsels provided around the edges by a great supporting cast but no heat whatever in the central coupling between Lopez and Aussie TV hunk Alex O'Loughlin.
  21. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Betsy Sharkey
    40
    Good slapstick is actually an art -- unfortunately not one practiced here -- and bad slapstick is just tedious.
  22. Slate
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    40
    I wouldn't go so far as to recommend this movie, but if you were tied down and forced to watch it, you wouldn't necessarily have to chew off your own leg to get away.
  23. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    38
    A weak romantic comedy.
  24. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Kevin C. Johnson
    38
    With movies like this, Lopez might want to start leaving low-end romantic comedies alone and look at her movie career's backup plan.
  25. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    25
    Some movies are no better than second-rate sitcoms. Other movies are no better than third-rate sitcoms. The Back-up Plan doesn't deserve comparison with sitcoms. It plays like an unendurable TV commercial about beautiful people with great lifestyles and not a thought in their empty little heads.
  26. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Connie Ogle
    25
    The Back-up Plan is about as much fun as 36 hours of labor, only you don't get to go home with a baby at the end. Instead, you leave with a throbbing headache and a lot of questions about why anybody still thinks Jennifer Lopez can anchor a movie.
  27. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    25
    Mostly though, The Back-up Plan feels like a movie aimed right at the funny bones of four-year-olds.
  28. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    20
    Charmless and derivative.
  29. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Joshua Rothkopf
    20
    The only aspects marking The Back-Up Plan as modern (not fresh) are its skanky wallowings in hormonal urges and an equally sour penchant for potshots at the target audience: women who want to be mothers.
  30. Time
    Reviewed by: Mary Pols
    20
    My pregnancy lasted 41 weeks and five days, involved morning, afternoon and night sickness and culminated in 25 hours of labor capped off by an emergency C-section. Yet all that seems like a walk in the park compared with the 100 minutes I spent watching Jennifer Lopez mug her way through The Back-Up Plan.
  31. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    0
    Part unfunny sitcom, part post-"Gigli" career resurrection strategy, and all bad.
  32. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    0
    As romantic comedies go, this is the worst drivel I've seen since Nia Vardalos's "I Hate Valentine's Day."

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
5.5 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 55 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 22
  3. Negative: 8 out of 22
  1. jogger91
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. Shamefully predictable. Formulaic. Typical boy meets girl (typcical meets 'cute'), boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy get girl back. Why does every American chick flick have to follow the same formula. Quite unoriginal.… Full Review »
  2. cherimich
    5
    Alex O'Loughlin is a wonderful actor, but even he can't overcome the horrendous writing and direction in this turkey. I watched it anyway, which is why I got to see one of the most unfunny birthing scenes in the history of film.… Full Review »
  3. bluescorp
    0
    Even though the ticket to J-Lo's 'The Back-Up Plan' was offered to me free of charge, I immediately declined. The second time it was offered, for whatever reason, it seems I was in a more agreeable mood and caved in.

    Ok, it was ALWAYS going to be a bad film experience, let's be clear. But nothing, I repeat NOTHING could prepare me for the sheer, unadulterated, spine chillingly horrific scenes proffered by Alan Poul and Columbia Pictures.

    I'll admit, I don't watch a large number of Hollywood films these days, much less this genre, however, I'm quite sure there cannot be any serious competition come RAZZIE® Awards time.

    At the present time, Hollywood studios are producing more garbage than ever - this is widely accepted with metrics freely available. But THIS?!! Surely someone with authority, somewhere along the production line could have stood up and said 'STOP'!!

    With a few strokes of the pen, the studio signed off on this mindlessly insipid, unskilfully contrived fragment of tripe. In today's market, it's conceivable that they may even recoup their costs. As for myself however, I'm forced to deal with the scars on a daily basis, both psychological and physical (I suffered a grade 4 whiplash due to high intensity, involuntary 'wincing').

    I can only imagine the further damage I may have inflicted upon myself if I had remained in the theatre any longer than I did. This was without question, the longest twenty-five minutes of my life - time I might add, that I can never reclaim.

    Disaster witnesses often talk about the sensation of viewing events from 'outside their body' - I now have a very real and first-hand experience of this phenomena.

    May the Lord God have mercy on our souls.    … Full Review »
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