Bad Words
Focus Features | Release Date: March 14, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
7
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanMar 12, 2014
Bateman deserves props for sustaining Bad Words as a little balancing act between sulfurously funny hatred and humanity. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 19, 2014
Bad Words is the kind of pitch-black dark comedy that makes you wince even as you give up on stifling the chuckles. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 13, 2014
Bad Words, starring Jason Bateman in a tour de force of comic wickedness, takes sinful pleasure in rubbing our noses in the toxic joys of revenge. Read full review
83
HitfixDrew McWeenyApr 18, 2014
[Bateman] proves himself just as comfortable behind the camera as he in in front of it, and "Bad Words" is very, very good as a result. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMar 14, 2014
Bad Words does to spelling bees what “Bad Santa” did to Santa Claus. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyMar 13, 2014
Sarcastic, sanctimonious, salacious, sly, slight and surprisingly sweet, the black comedy of Bad Words, starring and directed by Jason Bateman, is high-minded, foul-mouthed good nonsense. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeDec 12, 2013
Choosing it for his debut as director, Bateman demonstrates the same knack for timing and fine shadings of attitude as he does onscreen. Read full review
80
VarietyJustin ChangSep 14, 2013
This exuberantly foul-mouthed and mean-spirited comedy goes somewhat soft in the final stretch but remains an often uproarious model of sharp scripting and spirited acting. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMar 20, 2014
Bad Words isn't an entirely auspicious beginning to Bateman's career behind the camera, but a riotous performance suggests what a wonderful louse he can be. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMar 20, 2014
Bad Words is often very funny, thanks to Bateman’s brick-wall malevolence and screenwriter Andrew Dodge’s inventively rude dialogue. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedMar 12, 2014
Although the going is so sluggish at times that the film often looks like it needs artificial respiration, stick it out. The end result is oddly entertaining. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMar 12, 2014
The film is full of sharp observations about academic contests today, with Tiger Moms and tough-love Dads browbeating the kids from the wings. The ending is kind of a tap-out, but Bateman keeps this clipping along, maintaining the mean streak and potty mouth that makes Bad Words the dirtiest and funniest comedy of the new year. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 20, 2014
Where this falls on your personal line between funny and abusive may vary. Either way, what makes the comedy work is that Bateman doesn't relent. Guy is, simply, a loathsome person. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 13, 2014
It would be something to see Mr. Bateman go authentically dark (perhaps not that dark), but it’s also enough just to watch him as he widens his eyes, furrows his brow and shows off his excellent timing. Read full review
68
Film.comJordan HoffmanSep 14, 2013
While Bad Words is a little too dopey to take seriously, this is compensated for with a handful of truly amusing sequences. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenMar 19, 2014
Although Bad Words never quite achieves Bad Santa’s level of misanthropy, the movie is chock-full of racist, sexist, and generally antisocial barbs – not to mention a slew of bad words. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Mar 12, 2014
Even when Bad Words is bad in the wrong way, it tends to be bad in the right way, too. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnSep 14, 2013
It's less of a showcase for Bateman's ability to direct comedic storytelling than simply to make people laugh, which makes Bad Words a sufficiently vulgar playground. Read full review
63
Washington PostStephanie MerryMar 20, 2014
Although his character might be a one-trick pony, Bateman’s directing proves he’s got skills to spare. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 20, 2014
There's no debating that Bad Words contains some big, politically incorrect laughs. The movie isn't awash in them but there are enough to keep the chuckles coming. The film's problem is that, despite obvious aspirations to be more than just a profane joke factory, it never fulfills its dramatic ambitions. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMar 17, 2014
The film itself is uneven, but it’s kind of awesome seeing Bateman act so vile. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanMar 13, 2014
For his directorial debut, Bateman returns to his bad-boy beginnings. And the results are predictably amusing. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfMar 11, 2014
Bad Words soars in the bits of riotously offensive chitchat between Guy and a young Indian hopeful (Rohan Chand); it wobbles in plot developments involving the effortlessly starchy Allison Janney as the contest’s “queen bee”; and it splats in the I’m-secretly-hurting conclusion. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianMarc MohanMar 20, 2014
In a movie that strives to offend with every spat profanity and cruel insult, the most shocking thing about Bad Words is that it expects us to care about its main character at all. Read full review
50
The DissolveScott TobiasMar 13, 2014
Nearly everything good about Bad Words plays off the yin-and-yang dynamic between Guy and Chaitanya—one an endless wellspring of belligerence, the other grinning, excitable, and impossible to rattle. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMar 28, 2014
The problems here are more with the story, which, even at just 89 minutes, feels a touch repetitive at times. Read full review
40
TimeRichard CorlissMar 13, 2014
Bad Words seems to be heading into the creepy realm of a sociopath’s case study, yet it’s presented as a breezy satire about a rebel against the system. It must be the Dictionary-Industrious Complex. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireMar 14, 2014
A little bit of nuance, which might seem out of place in such raunchy environs, actually goes a long way. Read full review
38
USA TodayClaudia PuigMar 13, 2014
It's tough to summon sufficiently negative language to describe the unfunny, desperate mess that is Bad Words. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChris CabinMar 8, 2014
The meager comeuppance and hasty notes of sweetness that end the film feel pre-approved rather than organically realized. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMar 13, 2014
For precursors of Guy's perversity, one would have to go back to W.C. Fields, who made antic art out of his characters' abhorrence of children. Read full review
30
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekMar 11, 2014
Bateman, as both director and star, digs his heels in too hard to make the movie's points, using lots of ho-hum close-ups and wriggly camera work along the way. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Robert Everett GreenMar 27, 2014
The laughs in this film are all mean-spirited or just frat-boy gross. Read full review
25
Boston GlobePeter KeoughMar 20, 2014
Misogynistic, homophobic, scatological — none of these words come up in any of the spelling bees that take place in Jason Bateman’s directorial debut, but they apply to the film. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithMar 13, 2014
A young Jack Nicholson might have pulled this off, but Jason Bateman is not Jack Nicholson. Pity the actor who thinks he’s edgier than he actually is. Read full review
25
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthSep 14, 2013
Bad Words wants so desperately to be funny that there isn't much time left to make any logic out of the story. Read full review
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