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
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