Boys on the Side
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: February 3, 1995 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
5
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
78
Austin ChronicleSteve Davis
Boys on the Side is surprisingly effective, although its narrative often advances awkwardly. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
This movie is not a collection of parts from other films. It's an original, and what it does best is show how strangers can become friends, and friends can become like family. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The movie is generally entertaining, if only because the three primary characters capture the audience's sympathy, but the story doesn't contain much honest drama. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Its one flaw occurs when the film concocts a fake conflict between the women in an attempt to add some drama. The plot device doesn't do great damage, but it is enough to keep the film from being a hands-down four-star movie. Read full review
50
San Francisco ExaminerBarbara Shulgasser
Here he has Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker, Drew Barrymore and James Remar to distract us from the depths to which Ross habitually stoops in the never-ending quest to reacquaint an audience with its cheapest emotions. Read full review
80
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
What matters more is that Ms. Goldberg, along with her co-stars Mary-Louise Parker and Drew Barrymore, is so sharp, funny and wholehearted that this film creates an unexpected groundswell of real emotion. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Roos and director Herbert Ross pave the long and grinding road to self-fulfillment with miles and miles of counterfeit poignancy. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The movie tries to outdo "Thelma and Louise" by upping the number of heroines, but it lacks the moral seriousness to tackle its sensitive material. Read full review
80
EmpireJulian Ketchum
There are no real surprises, and it's arguable whether three such disparate souls as these would, in reality, bond so well. But the acting is flawless, the principals fleshing out their characters far beyond their hastily sketched stereotypes. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesPeter Rainer
It's so shamelessly obliging that just about every audience of whatever stripe will find something to like in it at least some of the time. It's a confoundingly enjoyable movie because, by all rights, it should be terrible. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Goldberg, for all her character's tough bluster, is sweet too: Her performance here is contained, modulated, dignified without cushioning the Whoopi edge that makes her work so interesting and uncategorizable. Read full review
30
NewsweekKaren Schoemer
Once the film devolves into teary hospital scenes and courtroom shtik, you might pine for Thelma and Louise's daring road to oblivion. [20 Feb 1995, Pg.72]
40
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
The entire film feels like the result of a market study. Tests were held (it seems) to determine which problems would have the most audience-grab, particularly when combined with two other problems. [06 Mar 1995 Pg.30]
50
The New YorkerMichael Sragow
The picture is schmaltzy and phallus-shrivelling, too. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
The film's occasional jarring shifts in tone are a liability, but not a fatal one: It's a character-driven piece and the beautifully-crafted characters mask the narrative flaws. Read full review
50
USA TodaySusan Wloszczyna
Too bad Boys has more gas than wind beneath its wings. [03 Feb 1995, Pg.04.D]
90
VarietyBrian Lowry
Yet even with those slightly different chords, Ross manages to pluck the right heartstrings, in the process delivering a grade-A tear-jerker. Read full review
70
Washington PostRita Kempley
Like the male-bonding movies upon which it's modeled, it celebrates letting down your hair with your own gender. Read full review
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