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Whatever It Takes
Metascore
20 out of 100

Generally unfavorable - based on 22 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 22
  3. Negative: 15 out of 22
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  1. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    50
    You haven't heard anything until you've heard "Play That Funky Music" on the accordion.
  2. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: Walter Addiego
    50
    Whatever It Takes is DOA -- dated on arrival.
  3. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    50
    Didn't work this time, David. Maybe next season.
  4. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    50
    It's larded with blinding glimpse-of-the-obvious homilies.
  5. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    42
    Populated by ersatz versions of stars who, in this case, are fairly vanilla to begin with.
  6. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Robert Horton
    40
    It's a notch above average, but Whatever It Takes can't get too far above that notch.
  7. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    40
    It's still got some panache.
  8. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    38
    It involves teenagers who have never existed, doing things no teenager has ever done, for reasons no teenager would understand. Of course, it's aimed at the teenage market.
  9. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    38
    A teen comedy so stupid that a long nose -- perhaps with a red bulb on it -- actually would have helped.
  10. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Chuck Wilson
    30
    If the teen in your life drags you along to this movie, act like you're doing him a favor -- and try not to let on that you sort of liked it.
  11. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Marc Caro
    25
    So derivative and crass that it's far more entertaining to try to think of the dozens of films it's ripping off than it is to take any of it at face value.
  12. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    25
    An assembly-line high-school comedy that flunks miserably in all three subjects.
  13. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    25
    Pretty lame stuff. Already it seems to be passing with the speed of light into the limbo of utterly forgettable "who-will-I-take-to-the-prom?" movies.
  14. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Hewitt
    25
    There's a movie opening today that is so indistinctive I can barely remember its name.
  15. Mr. Showbiz
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    20
    Yet another leaden, witless, cliché-drunk, teen romantic comedy starring the preposterously good-looking stars of mediocre TV series.
  16. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Robert Wilonsky
    20
    Bearable only because, unlike the recent spate of teen films, it's so breezy it barely even registers.
  17. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: John Anderson
    10
    It's guys like Floyd who make a movie like Whatever It Takes feel like high school. And the rest of the losers make it feel like a movie.
  18. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A. O. Scott
    10
    A thinly veiled "Cyrano," with the prom in mind.
  19. Variety
    Reviewed by: Robert Koehler
    10
    Makes little impression and is sure to leave few memories for a teen.
  20. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Phoebe Flowers
    0
    If you can summon up the resolve to search, there is not a single honest moment in all of Whatever It Takes.
  21. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    0
    Drivel of the purest ray serene.
  22. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Lisa Alspector
    0
    Disingenuously naive romantic comedy.
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