| 75 |
Chicago Sun-Times
Sweet and kind of touching, and I liked it. The difference, I think, is that the new one is lower on cynicism and higher on wisdom, and might actually contain some truth about the agonies of high school insecurity.
|
| 70 |
Los Angeles Times
Often rowdy and uproarious, the film also has surprising depth and subtext.
|
| 70 |
Film Threat
Kevin Carr
A fun movie. It accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. It’s a great first date movie.
|
| 60 |
Chicago Reader
Kids who are still subject to the slings and arrows of high school will find this a lot funnier than I did, though I did get a bang out of Kal Penn, Kevin Christy, and Kenan Thompson as Cannon's car-crazy pals.
|
| 58 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Director Troy Beyer, who adapted the original screenplay, can't seem to decide if this is a morality play or a music-video fantasy.
|
| 50 |
Boston Globe
The movie is so dependant on its source material that it fails to put Carter, Thompson, Penn, and Christy to better use.
|
| 50 |
Washington Post
I can't recall the original, or even if I saw it or not. But this variation certainly makes its points effectively, in what must be a more superheated milieu.
|
| 50 |
The New York Times
The cast is uniformly high spirited and attractive, and Ms. Beyer's direction, apart from a few over-weighted Wellesian camera angles, is functional.
|
| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Carla Meyer
Clocking in at 105 minutes, Love Don't Cost a Thing drags for stretches. The nicest thing about most standardized teen movies is their brevity. When we all know where it's going, it shouldn't take so long to get there.
|
| 50 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
The music, at least, is welcome.
|
| 40 |
Dallas Observer
Sadly, though, the movie as a whole feels blatantly dedicated to fleecin' da kidz.
|
| 40 |
The Hollywood Reporter
Instantly forgettable.
|
| 40 |
LA Weekly
Remains short on charm, purpose or laughs.
|
| 40 |
Austin Chronicle
Looks mostly like the same-old, same-old.
|
| 38 |
New York Daily News
But where the original was slight but sweet, the remake is depressingly superficial and cynical.
|
| 30 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
This is teen product at its most generic.
|
| 30 |
Variety
Stuffed with attitude but just as hackneyed as the original, Love Don't Cost a Thing brings a year of exceptionally lame youth comedies to a fitting conclusion.
|
| 30 |
TV Guide
All the money in the world couldn't have saved actress-turned-filmmaker Troy Beyer's lewd, obnoxious, product placement-laden remake of the sweet and simple romantic comedy "Can't Buy Me Love."
|
| 25 |
ReelViews
The result is an atrociously unfunny, unromantic, and unpleasant product.
|
| 25 |
Entertainment Weekly
Scott Brown
You realize you're watching a snuff film, where the victim isn't just teen innocence but teen romance.
|
| 25 |
Chicago Tribune
Allison Benedikt
About as sharp an updated version of the original as is Jennifer Lopez's song of the same name a modern, Latina version of the Beatles classic.
|
| 20 |
Village Voice
Even in the teen-flick "Sweet Valley" of 1987, there were few places outside John Hughes's brain where paying somebody to be your girl didn't look like prostitution. Yet somebody made the Slow-Times-at-Clueless-High stinker Can't Buy Me Love.
|
| 0 |
New York Post
A sexed-up Afterschool Special pretty much guaranteed to render audiences comatose.
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