| 80 |
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
Apart from the deja vu all over again, Lucky Break is no worse a film than "Breaking Out," and "Breaking Out" was utterly charming.
|
| 80 |
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
A minor comedy, though a major delight.
|
| 75 |
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
There is not much here that comes as a blinding plot revelation, but the movie has a raffish charm and good-hearted characters, and like "The Full Monty" it makes good use of the desperation beneath the comedy.
|
| 70 |
Film Threat
Ron Wells
Overall, it's good, not great.
|
| 70 |
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
It's what the Brits themselves might call fair to middling.
|
| 70 |
Chicago Reader
Hank Sartin
Cattaneo proceeds gamely, though without much spark, through this familiar fare, but at least Nesbitt, with his sly, oddball charm, is fun to watch.
|
| 63 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Ray Conlogue
Isn't quite funny enough to make it as a comedy, or touching enough to make it as a romance. It's a pleasant effort that doesn't hit any of its targets.
|
| 60 |
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
Lightly reflective and consistently entertaining, Lucky Break is an easy-to-take diversion.
|
| 60 |
Village Voice
Ed Park
Mike Leigh mainstay Timothy Spall deftly shades in the designated goner, fellow "Still Crazy" alum Bill Nighy is sweetly wispy as the capable fop, and anger-management counselor Olivia Williams trembles pleasantly as usual.
|
| 50 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
The big musical setpiece, rife with possibilities for humor and uplift, needed to be funnier and more energetic than the half-hearted lyrics and choreography bother to muster.
|
| 50 |
New Times (L.A.)
Andy Klein
This is mostly well-constructed fluff, which is all it seems intended to be.
|
| 50 |
Chicago Tribune
Loren King
The movie moves predictably to its feel-good finale.
|
| 50 |
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
Without the surprise, realism, audacity and upstart cheekiness -- pun intended -- that made "The Full Monty's" blue-collar strippers so irresistible.
|
| 50 |
Boston Globe
Loren King
The movie moves predictably to its formulaic finale, which -- unwittingly perhaps -- reprises Plummer's own sugary classic, ''The Sound of Music.''
|
| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
Pleasing but routine British comedy.
|
| 50 |
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Pleasant and has not a few laughs.
|
| 40 |
LA Weekly
John Patterson
The end result is like cold porridge with only the odd enjoyably chewy lump.
|
| 40 |
TV Guide
Ken Fox
Neither the appealing cast nor the bouncing, ska-inflected soundtrack can keep the party going.
|
| 33 |
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Every porridgy inmate in this instantly forgettable romp warbles in the prison's amateur musical, and one of them demonstrates a rather extreme devotion to the tomatoes he grows in the on-site greenhouse.
|
| 30 |
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Perfectly inoffensive and harmless, but it's also drab and inert.
|
| 30 |
The New York Times
Dave Kehr
Mr. Cattaneo restricts himself to the smiling blandness that has become the stock in trade of British comedies made for export, turning in a film that is forced, familiar and thoroughly condescending.
|
| 30 |
Variety
Derek Elley
Chained to the floor by a script that isn't particularly funny, direction that goes for realism rather than stylization and an almost complete lack of comic timing.
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