| 80 |
Wall Street Journal
It's very funny, terrifically lively and, considering how awful it might have been, surprisingly tender in its portrait of a young guy who learns sensitivity the hard way.
|
| 80 |
Los Angeles Times
Can be taken as a mildly risque frothy date movie, but there's serious subtext for those who choose to look beneath surface sheen.
|
| 80 |
LA Weekly
Hartnett's pitch-perfect sexual panic can be hilariously funny.
|
| 80 |
Washington Post
It's funny! It's not Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" or anything, but it's pretty darned good!
|
| 80 |
Chicago Reader
This is smooth and at times even sensual -- a well-oiled machine.
|
| 75 |
Chicago Sun-Times
Hartnett shows here a breezy command of his charming, likable character. It is a reminder of his talent and versatility.
|
| 75 |
Miami Herald
The quality writing, delivered by likable Hartnett and his talented co-stars, makes up for the sometimes flat production. A richly humorous background is provided by well-played eccentric minor characters.
|
| 70 |
Variety
A self-described abstinence comedy that is funny, sexy and silly in equal measure.
|
| 70 |
Washington Post
The movie is both exhilarating and depressing. The trouble is, I can't figure out which is more important.
|
| 67 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Mostly fun to watch, buoyed by some strong dialogue and performances by the supporting cast.
|
| 67 |
Entertainment Weekly
A kinder, gentler teensploitation comedy, but Hartnett's Matt, at least, invites the audience to graduate to something better.
|
| 63 |
USA Today
Within a certain narrow range, Hartnett shows some comic flair -- though not enough to carry the picture over its considerable rough spots.
|
| 63 |
New York Daily News
A curious entry in the current wave of raunchy youth comedies. It's refreshingly free of scatological humor, but even while aiming higher, it can't raise its focus above the belt.
|
| 60 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Runs more smoothly and stylishly than the average teen comedy.
|
| 60 |
Film Threat
Any romantic comedy that lacks Meg Ryan can’t be faulted too hard.
|
| 60 |
Rolling Stone
Yup, director Michael Lehmann, far from the glory days of "Heathers," has made a movie about a hard-on, in which he relentlessly pounds a flaccid premise.
|
| 50 |
Baltimore Sun
Eventually becomes cliched, predictable and crude. And that's a real sin.
|
| 50 |
TV Guide
This is a smart and witty romantic farce that mixes sweet and sexy with surprising aplomb.
|
| 50 |
New York Magazine
Sets out to demonstrate that life is about more than having sex. Inadvertently -- I think -- it ends up showing us just the opposite. As if we didn't already know.
|
| 50 |
Chicago Tribune
This pretty but witless movie is well-produced, slickly directed -- full of jokes about hot dudes and hot babes pitched right at the "American Pie" crowd.
|
| 50 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
All this holding back is a bad idea, especially as the subject of an entire movie.
|
| 50 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
It's rare that a movie is so graceful and so gross.
|
| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Carla Meyer
Builds up comic force in its first half. But then it blows it, leaving the audience feeling unsatisfied.
|
| 50 |
Boston Globe
The film's biggest problem, however, is its naive inability to understand that sex comedies, to amuse, must be about more than sex.
|
| 50 |
Portland Oregonian
Strictly for boys -- grown-up boys -- the more boyish and less grown-up the better.
|
| 50 |
New Times (L.A.)
Even Hartnett, designated Next Big Thing last year, seems like he's barely trying.
|
| 50 |
ReelViews
If you're desperate to give something up for Lent, make it movies like this one.
|
| 40 |
The New York Times
Mildly amusing but wholly unnecessary comedy.
|
| 40 |
Austin Chronicle
Doesn't do much to further distinguish Lehmann's career. As for those of us waiting for the year's first worthwhile date movie, the wait continues.
|
| 40 |
Village Voice
Roughly splits the difference between "Six Days, Seven Nights" and "9 1/2 Weeks." Which is something like the nth-order derivative of an infinite regression.
|
| 30 |
The New Yorker
The sensibility of the movie is naggingly adolescent -- less erotic than squeamish and giggly. [11 Mar 2002, p. 92]
|
| 30 |
Salon.com
It's too mild to be crass; it's clumsy. Lehmann has made what amounts to an anti-sex sex comedy, the first youth sex comedy made to be enjoyed by those creepy abstinence teens.
|
| 0 |
New York Post
So eyeball-gougingly awful that you're tempted to give up movies for Lent.
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