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The Cookout
Metascore
15 out of 100

Overwhelming dislike - based on 14 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 14
  3. Negative: 13 out of 14
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  1. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    40
    Wants to be an outdoor, barbecue-grilled "Barbershop" but lacks the pungency and honesty of its prototype.
  2. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Akiva Gottlieb
    30
    Eventually, the pointlessness of The Cookout exudes a modicum of charm, but the simple-minded mess still lacks the wit and moral weight of an episode of "Family Matters."
  3. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    30
    Good-natured but it's a dud.
  4. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    30
    This is one dull party.
  5. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Robert Dominguez
    25
    There isn't a genuine laugh or a character who isn't a stereotype in The Cookout, a lifeless comedy featuring a cast of familiar faces who must have needed the paycheck.
  6. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    25
    Sends comedy backward in time, and we're in the 1970s, ethno-sitcom style: These Andersons in their out-of-date white, snooty gated community apparently confuse themselves with their forebears on The Jeffersons.
  7. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Angel Cohn
    20
    It took a village of screenwriters and story creators - including costar Queen Latifah and first-time director Lance Rivera - to cram just about every imaginable stereotype about African-Americans and white people ever conceived into this short, unappetizing comedy.
  8. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Chuck Wilson
    20
    Queen Latifah gets co-producer and scenarist credits for this anemic comedy, and also a supporting role that amounts to the worst performance of her career.
  9. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    20
    Gives virtually every cast member a shot at humiliation.
  10. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Luke Y. Thompson
    20
    There might have been a decent comedy here if someone had remembered to insert some actual humor.
  11. Variety
    Reviewed by: Joe Leydon
    20
    Loosely plotted and wildly uneven farce.
  12. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Kimberley Jones
    11
    Everything else here – from the gross caricatures to the so-called comic mayhem – is sour to taste.
  13. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Frank Scheck
    10
    A painfully unfunny, would-be comedy.
  14. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Megan Lehmann
    0
    Nasty, borderline bigoted, stunningly amateurish film.
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