Scoop
Focus Features | Release Date: July 28, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
48
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
17
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
The film is a pleasure that doesn't rank with Allen's best but satisfies far more than most American comedies. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
The collision of sleek melodrama and old Woody Allen stand-up routines is at times oddly effective and at other times just odd. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
It's far from his (Allen) career best, but it's funny and he comes off well. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
It's really, really funny. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
No more than a beguiling trifle. But in the dog days of summer, it's a perk to wallow in inspired silliness. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
A light-hearted if ghostly murder mystery that for all the contemporary English locations feels like a 1930s studio film including a plot that bears little scrutiny. Along with the delectable Johansson, the film offers fun roles for Allen, Hugh Jackman and Ian McShane. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Mr. Allen's invocation of the "Thin Man" films in an interview makes sense, even if he’s no William Powell and Ms. Johansson is certainly no Myrna Loy. Scoop was made by someone who understands that what makes the "Thin Man" series enduring isn't whodunit and why, but the way Nick and Nora look at each other as they sip their martinis, Asta nipping at their heels. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
An odd but agreeable little comedy.
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
It's the kind of small pleasure that can make you feel intensely grateful. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Johansson is not Allen's new Diane Keaton. She's closer to Mariel Hemingway -- though even Allen couldn't attempt to pull off a romance between his septuagenarian self and a girl in college. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Decidedly minor Woody. Read full review
60
VarietyTodd McCarthy
After the accomplished smoothness of "Match Point," it's back to more ragged form in Scoop, despite the almost identical posh settings, and the return of Scarlett Johansson as leading lady. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
The first Allen picture since "Sweet and Lowdown" that doesn't leave a bad odor in its wake. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
The rapport between Allen and Johansson (pretending to be father and daughter) is lively, and the variations on the same old jokes are plentiful. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
A companion piece to "Match Point" that suffers all the more in comparison. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
A blend of lackluster comedy and lazy plotting, the film feels a lot like bad Hitchcock. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Scoop isn't going for complexity. It's a trifle. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
To see Allen, now 70, trying to reclaim the persona he's been handing off is like watching Willie Mays fall down trying to hit a slow curve during his last season. Woody may go on to direct many great films, but it's time for him to retire Alvy Singer. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
For the first time, Allen's trademark shtick sounds less like the anxious kvetching of an endearingly neurotic New Yorker and more like the ramblings of a tired, elderly man fumbling for the right words. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
A marginally funny comedy at best, recycles themes, scenes and even lines from Allen's own old movies - like many of Allen's later efforts. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Scoop is distinctly minor Allen, with less weight to it than one of his old humor doodles in The New Yorker. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Rather than providing flashes of one-of-a-kind humor, Allen has reached the point where his critical and movie-going fans are humoring him. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Cobbled together from memorable parts of Allen's own (not to mention Hitchcock's) classics, Scoop doesn't establish its own identity. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
The differences between the two movies are, first, that Scoop is a comedy and, second, unlike "Match Point," it's not very good, as Allen also returns to pre-Match Point mediocre form. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
As it is, the film perpetually teeters on the edge between a functional vehicle and a train wreck, and whenever Allen opens his mouth, he pushes it violently in the latter direction. Read full review
40
Village VoiceBill Gallo
So flat, dull, and off form that it seems to have been conceived in a fog. It not only lacks the verve and energy of Allen's best New York–based work, it feels culturally adrift, like some bewildered tourist trying to read a city map held upside down. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleBrian Clark
Years ago, when Allen's inimitable comedy style still seemed fresh, Scoop may have joined the ranks of "Sleeper" and "Take the Money and Run" as a comedy classic. Today it provides a pleasant diversion. Read full review
40
TimeRichard Corliss
At this late stage in a long career, Allen might consider not trying to make films like the early, funny ones. Instead he should aim simply to match "Match Point." Read full review
38
PremiereAaron Hillis
What once was a gifted comic's fluid improvisation is now a doddering old man so embarrassing he's uncomfortable to watch, and the surrogate father-daughter needling he has with Johansson is creepy when you realize Woody the director is shooting her seductively in that skintight bathing suit. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
When Allen revives his plodding "Manhattan Murder Mystery" as the even duller Scoop, I snore. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
The direction is lazy and the script thoroughly witless, from its token Bergman references to dialogue that suggests a night in borscht-belt hell. Read full review
30
Washington PostStephen Hunter
This gives nobody, least of all me, any pleasure, but a truth must be faced: Scoop is the worst movie Woody Allen has ever made. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Allen doesn't get us to care much about any of the characters here. Read full review
30
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Scoop is about 50 minutes of plot padded with 40 minutes of Woody being Woody. Read full review
30
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Allen is wretched. It is no kind of pleasure to say so, especially with the memory of the good things he has done; but here he simply plunks front and center the fact that he cannot act and never could. Read full review
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