Whole Nine Yards, The

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

It provides the first genuine laughs I've had at the movies in this young year.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A subtle but unmistakable aura of jolliness sneaks from the screen.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Light on its feet and reveling in its deviousness, it stays one step ahead of us .

New York Post Lou Lumenick

An offer you shouldn't refuse: It's laugh-out-loud, side-splitting funny.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

This Matt Perry vehicle is funnier than anyone could hope to expect.

Film.com Sean Means

A funny, frenetic and surprising comedy.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

A sometimes clever, sometimes clumsy movie.

San Francisco Examiner Edvins Beitiks

It's not easy to wrench belly laughs out of contract killing, but Nine Yards does just that.

Variety Todd McCarthy

A crudely funny farce that covers no new ground but sees its talented players running some surefire plays.

LA Weekly F. X. Feeney

Well-tuned wisecracks and clever plot twists.

USA Today Mike Clark

A comedy without much zing but with an occasional zing-er that enables the film to pick up . . . well, if not nine yards, maybe an inch or two on the gridiron.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Underwhelming, amusing only in fits and starts.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

A pedestrian movie with a predictable romance at its heart.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Wacky and heartless, bloody and silly -- and it ends in a flourish of grotesque sentimentality.

Time Richard Schickel

You're entitled to ask for more than that in a comedy, but these days you're often obliged to settle for a lot less.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Runs out of good ideas long before it's over, falling below "Prizzi's Honor" and "The Freshman" in the dubious genre of contract-killer comedies.

Slate David Edelstein

A second-rate but bearable black comedy.

Miami Herald Curtis Morgan

Sporadically amusing.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The film falls short; only Peet goes the whole nine yards.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A peppy affair that works in fits and starts but is unable to put its successful moments together in any consistently satisfying way.

Film.com Tom Keogh

A dark comedy that squanders its potential and never quite, as they say, suspends disbelief.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

For quite of few of The Whole Nine Yards, it appears that the most clever thing in the movie is going to be the opening credits, monstrous close-ups of the morning toothbrushing routine.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

It's so plot heavy it never finds its nimble comic rhythm.

TNT RoughCut Graham Verdon

It's a sad day when good ideas turn into bad movies.

Film.com John Hartl

The script seems flimsy and disposable when compared with such similar takes on the subject as "Analyze This,""The Sopranos" and the upcoming "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai."

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Bruce Willis's marvelous performance as a contract killer only makes everything else about this comedy seem more pathetic.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Director Jonathan Lynn sets the pace at several notches below frantic—which only leaves the many tepid gags stranded in a vacuum and the actors compelled to overcompensate.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Goofy and surprisingly slow-moving.

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

(Perry and Willis) are blown off the screen by Amanda Peet and Natasha Henstridge.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Stupid, empty and -- worst of all -- fantastically boring.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A convoluted ''dweeb meets the Mob'' farce in which everyone is trying to kill everyone else, but it's the movie that's the real corpse -- albeit a busy, twitching one.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

No matter your standard of measurement, this production falls short.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A witless, listless muck-up that sends you reeling from the theater with thoughts of suicide instead of a chipper grin.