Bride Wars
Fox 2000 Pictures | Release Date: January 9, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
24
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
5
Negative:
23
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
PremiereOlivia Putnal
Sometimes the only funny stuff is in the trailers, but not so here. Kristen Johnson was especially adept at stealing some scenes. Read full review
70
Film ThreatStina Chyn
A chick flick in the purest sense--it's not about men or falling in love--and is quite funny. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Bride Wars pretends to be a satire of wedding mania, but since there's virtually nothing else to the movie, the satire comes depressingly close to endorsement. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Bride Wars is pretty thin soup. The characters have no depth or personality, no quirks or complications, no conversation. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleReyhan Harmanci
If you came to see two pretty girls in wedding dresses wrestle, you won't be disappointed. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyRobert Wilonsky
A step backward for Hathaway, Bride Wars is one more step into the quicksand for Hudson, who's spent the nine years since ""Almost Famous wandering the rom-com wasteland in search of an exit strategy; this movie, which she exec produced, ain't it. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
A dopey if largely painless romantic comedy. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Bride Wars really does not capture the mood of the moment. It comes from a different time, a different planet. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Like moussed hair and inverted-pyramid shoulder pads, this sloppy, sloppy slapstick is an artifact from the 1980s. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy Burr
A chick flick that makes its chick characters - and by extension its chick audience - look like hateful, backward toddlers, and there is something wrong with that. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
It represents a missed opportunity on every level. As a black comedy, it fails. As a satire of the bloated wedding industry, it fails. As a drama about friendship triumphing over all, it fails. Read full review
30
VarietyTodd McCarthy
A shrill, mechanical comedy. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
No cues are needed to understand the plot, which feels computer-generated and barely serves to sustain an hour and a half running time. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
The idea of a revenge comedy isn't necessarily a bad one, Bride Wars simply fails at it despite having the formidable duo of Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway, who in their own distinctive ways usually command the screen. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
With artifice as layered as the tiers of a marzipan cake, this resembles nothing so much as a stale Rock Hudson-Doris Day comedy. Read full review
25
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
A girlie romantic comedy with tired slapstick pranks but not an ounce of self-respect or intelligence. Read full review
25
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Bride Wars is about as funny as a cringingly awkward wedding toast. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
An insipid comedy in which the women are shallow, acquisitive, backstabbing, selfish harridans. Read full review
25
New York PostLou Lumenick
Exceedingly lame. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
The movie pretty much blows. Read full review
25
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Bride Wars has possibly the worst comedy idea since "Springtime for Hitler," with almost no room for redeeming camp. Read full review
25
TV Guide MagazinePerry Seibert
All in all, that's not a bad premise for a lightweight chick flick, but director Gary Winick and an army of three screenwriters can't come up with a single fresh comedic idea. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
By comparison, Bride Wars makes "Sex and the City" seem like Jane Austen. Read full review
20
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Predictable, lazy and as overprocessed as Kate Hudson's hair, this thoroughly joyless movie also possesses a deep nasty streak, making it loathsome when it might have been merely annoying. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Hudson has, if nothing else, traded up: last winter she was stuck in "Fool's Gold." Read full review
20
SalonStephanie Zacharek
It's both slack and bloated; I've been to Catholic wedding masses that had more zip. I think it clocked in at fewer than 90 minutes, but it seemed to last longer than most marriages do. Read full review
20
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Never gets off its high-concept stool long enough to explore what makes weddings so exciting and nerve-racking and treacherous. It flounders instead in juvenilia and bitchiness. Read full review
16
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
There may be a trenchant satire to be mined from our culture's materialism-warped wedding madness, but Bride Wars instead opts for graceless, flailing, poorly choreographed slapstick performed by characters who suggest a dumbed-down tour production of "Sex And The City." Read full review
0
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The first big-studio movie released in 2009 has a damn fine chance of being the worst. Bride Wars isn't just chick-flick hell for guys, it should numb the skulls of moviegoers of all sexes and ages. Read full review
0
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
I'd be hard-pressed to name another recent film so deeply noxious, soul-sick, and unfunny. Read full review
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