Love Don't Cost a Thing

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

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.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Often rowdy and uproarious, the film also has surprising depth and subtext.

Film Threat Kevin Carr

A fun movie. It accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. It’s a great first date movie.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Director Troy Beyer, who adapted the original screenplay, can't seem to decide if this is a morality play or a music-video fantasy.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The movie is so dependant on its source material that it fails to put Carter, Thompson, Penn, and Christy to better use.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

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.

The New York Times Dave Kehr

The cast is uniformly high spirited and attractive, and Ms. Beyer's direction, apart from a few over-weighted Wellesian camera angles, is functional.

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.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

The music, at least, is welcome.

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

Sadly, though, the movie as a whole feels blatantly dedicated to fleecin' da kidz.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Instantly forgettable.

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

Remains short on charm, purpose or laughs.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Looks mostly like the same-old, same-old.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

But where the original was slight but sweet, the remake is depressingly superficial and cynical.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

This is teen product at its most generic.

Variety Robert Koehler

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.

TV Guide Angel Cohn

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."

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The result is an atrociously unfunny, unromantic, and unpleasant product.

Entertainment Weekly Scott Brown

You realize you're watching a snuff film, where the victim isn't just teen innocence but teen romance.

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.

Village Voice Laura Sinagra

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.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A sexed-up Afterschool Special pretty much guaranteed to render audiences comatose.