Leatherheads
Universal Pictures | Release Date: April 4, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
16
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Football, they say, is a game of inches, and so can be moviemaking, and Leatherheads is a completely charming film that comes a few inches from being a great one. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
More amiable than witty and relying heavily on the likability and charm of its lead actors, Leatherheads scores more points as a retro romantic comedy than a football saga. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Feisty and good-humored, and if it doesn't have deep characters, it is chock-full of personality. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
It's a pleasant time-killer, nothing more. But nothing less, either. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Clooney and Zellweger play off each other perfectly, delivering their dialogue with the rhythm of a well-choreographed dance and falling in love in the time-honored tradition of '40s romantic comedies. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Leatherheads is most on its game when it's in the game, and in the zone of Clooney's no-bull affection for the faces of his actors. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
In the end, Leatherheads recalls the gloriously dated sentiments of Grantland Rice, one of that era's beloved sportswriters, expressed 17 years earlier in the poem "Alumnus Football." Read full review
70
TimeRichard Schickel
Maybe the film loses a little steam as it rolls along, but it is still puffing and tooting as Clooney and Zellweger ride off into the sunset -- on a comically raffish period motorcycle, free as the wind. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
Leatherheads proceeds agreeably, hitting occasional high notes when it isn't getting bogged down in forced slapstick hi-jinks. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Too much of Leatherheads feels like studied motions, and its charms never plaster over a story that takes forever to get going, and doesn't go too far once it does. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
For all its other virtues, the supporting casting is lackluster, the script never quite kicks into place as a sports movie and Clooney the director seems to lack the touch that might have set the proceedings on fire as a zany ensemble comedy. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
You can’t read one of Clooney’s endless People profiles without hearing the Cary Grant comparison, but here, he’s all Gable – same rakishness and stubble and tanned-leather basso profundo. Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
Far from a touchdown, but you gotta give points to any movie where a character describes its climactic game as a "muddy snoozefest." Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Leatherheads goes on a good 20 minutes too long, and there's very little in it that makes a lasting impression, but it's easy to watch while it's unspooling -- much like, you know, a lot of Cary Grant comedies. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The film moves slowly and steadily, but it's never exactly dull, just mild. Read full review
63
PremiereRyan Stewart
If the raison d'être of Leatherheads was not to add something to the football movie canon but to have Clooney and Zellweger engage in a screwball banter-fest, then there's no excusing the paltry number of zinger missiles fired over the course of the film. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A larky throwback to the breakneck screwballs of Frank Capra and Preston Sturges. Problem is, it isn't breakneck enough. Read full review
60
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Leatherheads is as trifling as Clooney’s second movie (“Good Night and Good Luck”) was significant, but that’s okay. It succeeds where so many other romantic comedies fail because of a superior script and because everyone involved has the good sense not to take themselves too seriously. Read full review
60
SlateDana Stevens
Better than a finger in your eye. It's a perfectly passable, if instantly forgettable, date movie, lushly shot by Newton Thomas Sigel and with a script intelligently versed in American classics like "His Girl Friday" and "Hail the Conquering Hero." Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Sidelined by a script that plays like an imitation of another era’s artifacts. It’s an oxymoron: a mild screwball romance. Read full review
50
Washington PostJohn Anderson
There's a flatness about the whole enterprise -- like drinking champagne, but from an old house slipper. Re: his performance, Clooney is terrific. His comparison to old movie stars is not just hype. He really does possess the combination of supreme confidence and humility that has been the hallmark of the biggest male Hollywood stars. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
A screwball comedy without a charismatic, smart-talking dame is no screwball comedy at all. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Leatherhead's a comedy of stock setups and kooky digressions in which nothing really comes to a head, and running at close to two hours, it lacks the essential brevity of the form. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoanne Kaufman
There's a jaunty score by Randy Newman, and Clooney, as always, has charm to burn, but here, he's off his game. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Frankly, Zellweger shouldn't have to compete with the ghosts of Rosalind Russell and Carole Lombard, as Clooney forces her to do. It's one thing to evoke the Champagne sophistication of the screwball era; it's another to try to emulate it. Inevitably, the harder you work at capturing madcap fizz, the flatter things are going to feel. Read full review
50
SalonStephanie Zacharek
You have to give Leatherheads this much: It's like no other comedy, or movie, out there these days. Clooney, one of our few old-style Hollywood movie stars himself, obviously loves old-fashioned moviemaking. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
It exudes goodwill and high spirits, occasionally makes you feel really good, and yet here and there and in some definite ways, it kinda sorta stinks. Read full review
50
NewsweekDavid Ansen
The great '30s comedies had edge, bite and relentless forward momentum. Leatherheads is laid-back, amiable and terminally tepid. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Clooney, the film's director and star, can't make up his mind how to approach the story. One minute it's a romantic comedy. Then it switches to slapstick, then to screwball comedy before sliding into Frank Capra territory. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Arch and funny in equal measure, this looks like a theatrical non-starter that Clooney fans and football devotees might be tempted to check out down the line on DVD or on the tube. Read full review
50
Village VoiceScott Foundas
For its entire two hours, Leatherheads is rarely less than very promising--and also rarely more. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Reproducing a period-piece screwball comedy for a modern audience turns out to be one playful, self-deprecating wink too many for the star, who also directed Leatherheads. Read full review
40
EmpireSimon Braund
On paper it looks like a gem – roaring 20s setting, verbal fireworks and a silly sport in its rude infancy. In practice, it's way off the pace, far too slow for its screwball pretensions and the kind of film that confuses pastiche with period detail. Read full review
30
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
What is harder to comprehend is how Mr. Clooney turned out such a sloppy, haphazard and tonally incoherent piece of work. Leatherheads lurches hectically between Coen brothers-style pastiche and John Saylesian didacticism, while Mr. Clooney works his brow and his jaw and waits in vain for his charm to kick in and save the day. Read full review
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