Deliver Us from Eva
Focus Features | Release Date: February 7, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
46
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
13
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Flows smoothly, looks great and probably cost lots less than it looks. One can't help resist saying it delivers the goods. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Presents itself as a sassy twist on "Taming of a Shrew," but what looks like just another contrived sex comedy becomes, surprisingly, an insightful and sensitive look at knots that family ties create in adult romance. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneLoren King
A welcome respite from verbal nastiness and sexual cynicism. It's nice to see characters who enjoy falling in love, even if it's to a schmaltzy light-soul score. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
The film’s major drawback is the broad strokes with which the henpecked trio of males is presented -- they’re not quite caricatures, but their individual quirks feel as though they were cribbed from other, better films. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Lightweight, likable buppie romantic comedy. Read full review
63
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
It lands the characters in a shambles of farce, melodrama and forced chivalry. For all its promise and accomplishment, the screenplay, like Eva, needs a knight on a white horse. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Union is a brilliant spitfire, though one wishes the script had been run past an English major. But the movie's flaws are smoothed over by a rousing soundtrack, some excellent comic performances and the star-making moves of LL Cool J. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyErnest Hardy
Hardwick doesn't have the chops yet to give the movie the caffeinated zip that it needs to really fly. There are too many dull, flat stretches…(however) the soundtrack kicks ass. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineFrank Lovece
It would have been nice if Hardwick had a bigger budget for retakes to work out some of the supporting actors' stiffness, but he does keep the story moving, finding the humor in characters caught up in their own machinations rather than cheap wisecracks. Read full review
60
VarietyJoe Leydon
Well-cast relationship comedy-drama is played too broadly in the early going, but gradually settles into a more appealing groove as a glossy date-movie. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
A not-insubstantial comedy. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
May be dumb, but it must be noted that the screenwriters of this slight, silly comedy have borrowed from the best. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
In every way but one, this is just another genre pic on another mundane outing. Read full review
50
New York PostMegan Lehmann
Scriptwriters behind Deliver Us From Eva obviously expended all their creative energy on the catchy title and then promptly ran out of steam. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
It proceeds so deliberately from one plot point to the next that we want to stand next to the camera, holding up cards upon which we have lettered clues and suggestions. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Deliver us from directors who think that asking cast members to overact is the only way he can cover us the numerous ludicrous weaknesses of his screenplay. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Dawdles amiably and can't quite decide what it wants to be. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen Holden
If Deliver Us From Eva is amusing, it is not uproarious. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Union, who looks so chic and can talk so bitchy-funny, doesn't so much establish a character as roll out a series of attitudes. That's all she's called on to do. That's all anyone is called on to do: Be very tame, and make much ado about zilch. Read full review
40
Village VoiceLaura Sinagra
As wrathful health inspector, possessed choir director, and general castrating angel, Union wrecks store with a slew of ass-chapping teardowns that would make Cam'ron curdle. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Melvin Van Peebles wrote and directed the biting "Don't Play Us Cheap" 30 years ago to complain about racial stereotyping in films. But Hollywood never listened. It kept playing African -Americans cheap in mainstream comedies, whether the directors were white or black. Deliver Us From Eva -- is one of the worst recent offenders. Read full review
30
Dallas ObserverLuke Y. Thompson
Not that there aren't funny moments in the film, but they're cobbled together so awkwardly that you'd never suspect the director had made a film before. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
One-dimensional archetypes, too much predictability and not enough comedy. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
So stale and complacent that it could be a rerun of "Love American Style." Read full review
30
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Hardwick switches gears from wacky comedy to romantic drama about halfway through Deliver Us, but it's too late, and what follows is far too dull to make any difference. Read full review
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