Metascore
46 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 30 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 30
  2. Negative: 9 out of 30
  1. Reviewed by: Lisa Nesselson
    80
    Uproarious romp, grounded in believable if gleefully implausible human behavior, is a model of comic timing.
  2. You can expect to fall about, snort and hoot, at times hard enough to hurt inner body parts that only doctors can identify.
  3. 78
    This is a Farrelly film for adults, if not the entire family, and its a charmer, honest both to the nature of the loves we choose in haste, and the fear that makes us so hasty so often.
  4. Though the sitcom humor of this is much broader and funnier than in May's film, it is also the part most faithful in spirit to the original.
  5. The Farrellys manage to have their cake and scarf it down, disgustingly, too.
  6. Farrelly brothers films are looking better and better, but aren't nearly as funny as their grungy early films that hit with the stealth and vigor of guerrilla commandos. Maybe there is a kind of heartbreak here after all.
  7. Grodin always seems like a real guy, whereas Stiller, even working it, is just the designated loser-clown of the megaplex era. He's too harmless to break any hearts.
  8. 63
    The movie earns its R-rating with some graphic (and hilarious) sex scenes and a torrent of four-letter words, but this is a much more sophisticated enterprise than a mere gross-out comedy.
  9. Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    63
    The results feel slack – sometimes funny, but slack.
  10. Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    63
    Though not as engaging as "Knocked Up," there is enough humor to keeps us entertained.
  11. This remake is distinctly a Farrelly brothers' flick -- sentimental, rambling and raunchy.
  12. Reviewed by: Michelle Orange
    60
    The Heartbreak Kid is funniest when it leaves the body-humor behind for something truly subversive: a sequence of Eddie's repeated attempts to cross the Mexico/U.S. border with a bunch of illegals and get back home is wicked, ticklish and inspired--all of the things the Farrellys should get home to themselves.
  13. It also has been retooled to be a Farrelly brothers comedy, which means most of Simon's wit has been replaced with gags involving S&M cruelty, explicit bestiality, flatulence, nose mucous, people urinating on each other, and foul-mouthed old men (Stiller's father, Jerry).
  14. 50
    There are small moments of real humor.
  15. It's funny in spots if you can tune out the Farrellys' ultra-crass jokes - along with any memory of the first movie.
  16. 50
    This remake is ultimately content to be repugnant.
  17. 50
    The occasional laughs provided aren't frequent enough or uproarious enough to warrant an investment of nearly two hours of a viewer's time.
  18. Reviewed by: Glenn Kenny
    50
    It's the sourest and most borderline misogynist picture the Farrellys have yet made.
  19. The Farrellys have always danced along the tightrope between funny-disgusting and just plain gross in "There's Something About Mary" and "Shallow Hal." If the ratio was about 50-50 at the best of times, it's now 30-70 in favor of crassness.
  20. 50
    Embellishments to Neil Simon's original script were inevitable, but when you're adding an "Uncle Tito," you're definitely on the wrong track.
  21. 42
    This Heartbreak Kid makes the mistake of trying to be semi-heartwarming.
  22. 38
    So laugh-poor that it shoves all its comedy chips on a bet that you can build a movie around nose gags.
  23. Even by Farrelly standards, the film is a washout.
  24. 30
    Better than I expected, but since I expected it to be a horrific failure, that isn't saying much.
  25. 30
    Ben Stiller, the movie's star, pretty much sinks the whole enterprise.
  26. 30
    Lame, long, ugly joke of a movie.
  27. Monaghan's comic timing saves this go-nowhere affair from 100 percent lousiness.
  28. A grim, shrill, deluded and incredibly depressing movie, so bewilderingly mean-spirited that the trademark Farrelly Brothers gross-out scenes feel like the sweetest.
  29. Reviewed by: Colin Covert
    0
    The results are not endearing. Eddie comes off not as a beleaguered Everyman but a heedless, dishonest knob trying to undo a deal that gave him exactly what he deserved. The real surprise is Carlos Mencia, playing an exuberant clerk at the resort hotel. But when Carlos Mencia is the funniest thing in your movie, you've got serious problems.
  30. The ethnic humor that gave May's movie its charge is replaced by crass mean-spiritedness. If I were in movie hell, I'd rather see "Good Luck Chuck" again than return to this atrocity.
User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 63 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 36
  2. Negative: 15 out of 36
  1. 7
    It seems that the Farrelly brothers got quite a bit right with The Heartbreak Kid. Eddie (Ben Stiller) is a guy who falls in love with and marries a woman, Lila, only to realise on their honeymoon that she is a nightmare, meanwhile falling head over heels for another. This is a ricidulous story but there are so many things in this film that are just damn funny, most of all Eddie's best friend (Rob Corrdry) and father (Stiller's real father) who are so hopelessly off-the-mark in their advice, that these simple exchanges provide some of the funniest moments throughout. The entire Mexican sequence reeks of charm and Monaghan likewise, despite the fact that she is annoying in basically every other role she has played. The soundtrack, featuring a great mix of Bowie tracks keeps the film suitably up-beat. Despite the generally weak storyline there are too many laughs to call this another ordinary film. At times the comedy is subtle and at others profane - either suits in this light-hearted laugh fest.… Full Review »
  2. JonathonW.
    0
    Worst film ever, cant believe they even bothered making it! If you love films dont even bother wasting youre life!
  3. KevinC.
    10
    Absolutely hilarious. If you liked Meet the Parents, this is up your alley. Where is the acclaim for this movie? I can't believe it hasn't gotten more attention. Full Review »