CNET Networks Entertainment GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer | Metacritic | MP3.com | TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games Books TV
Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

DVD and Video

Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Recent Releases in DVD and Video

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.



My Best Friend's Wedding
Sony Pictures Entertainment

My Best Friend's Wedding reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 50 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
9.1 out of 10
based on 23 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 12 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for one use of strong language and brief sex-related humor

Starring Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, Cameron Diaz, Rupert Everett, Philip Bosco, M. Emmet Walsh, Rachel Griffiths, and Susan Sullivan

Best friends since college, Jules (Roberts) and Michael (Mulroney) made a pact that if neither had found someone to love by the age of 28, they would marry each other. Now it's their 28th year of life, and Michael just popped the question. There's only one problem: he popped it to someone else. (Sony Pictures Entertainment)


GENRE(S): Romance  
WRITTEN BY: Ronald Bass  
DIRECTED BY: P.J. Hogan  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: August 28, 2001 
Video: December 28, 1999 
Theatrical: June 20, 1997 
RUNNING TIME: 105 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

80
Variety Leonard Klady
Ultimately, My Best Friend's Wedding works for some very old-fashioned reasons: It skillfully engages us in the story and its characters. And, for no additional cost, it has something to say about how we live, act, commit and relate.
75
San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
The real casting disaster is Mulroney. His blandness in the role makes it impossible to believe two beautiful women would fight over him.
Read Full Review
75
Chicago Tribune Mark Caro
More thoughtful than advertised. And as a confection, it's less sweet and more flavorful than your average wedding cake. [20 June 1997]
75
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
One of the pleasures of Ronald Bass' screenplay is the way it subverts the usual comic formulas that would fuel a plot like this.
Read Full Review
75
ReelViews James Berardinelli
The film makers understand that it's possible for a romantic comedy to appeal not only to the heart, but to the mind as well.
Read Full Review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Although there are definite lags here, those "glittering" set-pieces are funny enough (at least one is hilarious) to stave off any prolonged yawns.
Read Full Review
75
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Julia Roberts is brighter and spunkier than usual, and Rupert Everett steals the show.
Read Full Review
70
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Feels repetitive at times, but its star power and willingness to undercut convention come through at the end.
Read Full Review
70
Film.com Sean Means
Best of all are the supporting players. Everett (who played the Prince of Wales in "The Madness of King George") is smartly urbane, giving a polished refinement to the stereotypical "gay best buddy'' role.
67
Austin Chronicle Russell Smith
It does effectively recall those bygone days when impossibly attractive, charming, and endearingly flawed characters dressed to kill, smoked like creosote plants, and behaved atrociously on the way to rapturous romantic consummation.
Read Full Review
63
USA Today Susan Wloszczyna
Mulroney is a drip with not a milliliter of chemistry with either woman. Roberts doesn't really seem to care about him so much as the fact that life is passing her by. Though, that may be the point.
Read Full Review
60
Newsweek David Ansen
A romantic comedy for an era of diminished expectations.
Read Full Review
60
TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)
This amiable comedy may not be hugely sophisticated, but Hogan does manage to make his attractive leads look like complete idiots, no mean achievement in image-obsessed Hollywood.
Read Full Review
60
Rolling Stone Staff (Not Credited)
Julia Roberts glitters like gold dust, and she is ideally partnered with Rupert Everett, who gives a witty, wicked, bust-out performance.
Read Full Review
58
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
And when [Roberts is] on screen with Mulroney, who seems a frat-house jerk -- all dimples and a perma-tan -- we don't feel much of anything.
Read Full Review
40
Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
The draggy narrative of this 1997 comedy is tough to sit through--there are even several overproduced musical numbers--but it does have an intriguing subversive element that I don't want to give away.
Read Full Review
40
Time Richard Schickel
When our sympathies shift to [Cameron Diaz's Kimmy], the movie sours. It is no help either that Ronald Bass neglected to write (or Mulroney was unable to find) a character in Michael. Why all this fuss over this lox, we keep wondering.
Read Full Review
40
The Onion (A.V. Club) Stephen Thompson
Just as crippling is the movie's tendency to waver back and forth between black comedy and Nora Ephron-esque schmaltz.
Read Full Review
40
The New York Times Elvis Mitchell
Obtuse, prettily decorative comedy. Characters burst gaily into song when, as often happens, they don't have anything better to do.
Read Full Review
40
LA Weekly Ella Taylor
As [Roberts'] gay best friend, Rupert Everett is the only one with any backbone, any sense of humor or any decent lines.
Read Full Review
30
Washington Post Rita Kempley
The story isn’t bright enough or grand enough to contain all of Roberts’s star power.
Read Full Review
30
The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
We get the feeling that, about nine-tenths of the way along, after he had all the characters knotted up, Bass suddenly thought, "Good heavens! I've got to find some way to finish off this thing." The way that he found is lame and makes a hash of what precedes it. [28 July 1997]
20
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
Poor Roberts, pretty and perky as the day is long, hasn't a hoot in hell of bringing Julianne off. She's simply not actress enough, she doesn't have that suppleness that would enable her to sell the complexity of emotion, the jealousy, the irrationality, the meanness and the intelligence.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 9.1 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Brandon d. gave it an8:
Ten years after the movie came out in theaters, I am watching it on TBS television while on vacation in Orlando, FL. Movies on TV usually do not interest me, but MBFW is funny, bright, well acted, and just a good romantic movie. I guess a gorgeous Julie Roberts held my attention and that's good since she had the camera for most of the picture. The plot is a pre-wedding love triangle and it easy to get caught up in the threesome's predicament and try to figure out who is going to win the cute boy. I had seen the movie before, but never did figure out who, since none of three were models of honesty in their relationships.

Autumn M. gave it a7:
I agree that Rupert commands the screen. I think the movie soured as it said sexual desire is more important then promises and best friends. I also agree that it felt like they had to end the movie and they chose the wrong characters. It left me feeling that it didn't fullfill the silver screen " girl gets boy , boy gets girl scenario". It should have been Julia Robert, then it would have had the makings of " happily ever after".

frank bentez gave it a10:
loved it....smartest romantic comedy in many years in all respects

Joe B. gave it a9:
This proves that the critics don't count. The critics were very blah on this movie but the people who saw it loved it. It's very good.

Christian G. gave it a9:
I'm really impressed it got a 50 in the metascore. Julia Roberts and Rupert Everett are charming to death. Off course is not a deep movie, but surely it's entertaining and engaging. Something that not most movies can say.

Boo I. gave it a 10:
Definitely a 10 for me.. all thumbs up... my favourite movie ever! love it.. and still loving it..

Gilbert gave it an 8:
51? FIFTY-ONE? Nuh-uh. It's not a masterpiece of cinematic complexity, but it's a wonderfully watchable, frequently very funny little rom-com (pauses to wash mouth out with soap). Catch it if you can. With a rope.

Read more user comments...

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | BOOKS | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

About CNET Networks | Jobs | Advertise | Partnerships                                Visit other CNET Networks sites:

Copyright ©2007 CNET Networks, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use