Metacritic Film

Coyote Ugly

Starring Piper Perabo, Adam Garcia, Maria Bello, Tyra Banks, and John Goodman

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for sensuality

Buena Vista Pictures
Romance
100 minutes | Color
USA
Released In Theaters August 4, 2000

Graced with a velvet voice, 21-year-old Violet Sanford (Perabo) heads to New York to pursue her dream of becoming a songwriter only to find her aspirations sidelined by the accolades and notoriety she receives at her "day" job as a barmaid at Coyote Ugly. (Touchstone Pictures)

WRITTEN BY
Gina Wendkos

DIRECTED BY
David McNally

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

27 / 100

Critic Reviews

75 USA Today
As shallow as a shot glass.
75 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
A rather likable and very sweet-spirited story.
75 San Francisco Chronicle
It's amazing how far a movie can go on nothing but speed and directness.
50 Chicago Tribune
Meant to be appreciated solely for its gleaming surfaces.
50 Film.com
An authentically spirited popcorn movie.
50 Baltimore Sun
Doesn't display a single deep thought, or even a middlingly profound one.
50 Chicago Sun-Times
There is a reason to see the movie, and that reason is Piper Perabo.
50 Austin Chronicle
Failed feminist statement or not, Coyote Ugly is a likable, if confused film.
50 Entertainment Weekly
Welcome to the brave new world of slut-chic cosmetic feminism.
50 San Francisco Examiner
Doesn't have what it takes to be truly terrible.
40 TV Guide
The bar scenes are the only reason to sit through this jello shot of a movie.
40 Variety
The latest and most calculated re-do on the formulaic fantasy of an innocent conquering Gotham.
39 Mr. Showbiz
Plays out like a raunchy episode of "Felicity."
38 New York Daily News
Completely false, manipulative, exploitative and insulting.
38 Boston Globe
Such an utter piece of fluff so conceptually barren it might as well be a music video.
38 Charlotte Observer
Should appeal to anyone who likes films as mushy and unsurprising as baby food.
30 Rolling Stone
It's soft-core pap for horny boys and their hornier dads.
30 Los Angeles Times
A bad movie for connoisseurs of the genre.
25 Miami Herald
The bar scenes do make for a great, although brief, package.
25 New York Post
There's no limit to Coyote Ugly's crass shamelessness.
20 Film.com
It probably helps to be loaded while you're watching this movie.
20 TNT RoughCut
Miss Piper single-handedly destroys what could have been a competent little movie about chicks being naughty and getting ahead.
20 Washington Post
I liked Coyote Ugly better when it was called "Flashdance," although I didn't like it very much then.
20 Salon.com
A weaselly little thing.
10 LA Weekly
A work of top-shelf schlock.
10 Chicago Reader
Another piece of phony uplift from producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
10 The New York Times
Looks like a big-budget version of a Miller's Genuine Draft commercial.
10 Village Voice
I'd rather eat ball bearings.
0 Dallas Observer
Cinematic flat-lining.

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