The Ugly Truth
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: July 24, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
28
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
12
Negative:
17
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
Washington PostRuth McCann
Pleasingly glossy, refreshingly snarky and startlingly sexy. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The only thing that differentiates it from far too many other uninspired rom-coms is that some of the material is funny and there is an occasional edge to the repartee. Beyond that, however, it's a cookie-cutter movie, and the cookies are pretty stale. Read full review
60
VarietyTodd McCarthy
The Ugly Truth is an arch, contrived, entirely predictable romantic comedy assembled with sufficient audience-friendly elements to put it over as both a good girls' night attraction and a date-night lure raunchy enough to leave couples in the right mood afterward. Read full review
60
Dallas ObserverChuck Wilson
Heigl and Butler have genuine chemistry, and the writers have given the duo some bitchy, snappy dialogue. They probably had in mind such workplace comedies as "Desk Set," starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, but in this day and age, witty banter and stars with chemistry aren't enough to catch an audience's attention. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The Ugly Truth isn't fizzy and fun -- it's vacuously snappy. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterStephen Farber
A romantic comedy depends, of course, on the chemistry between the leads, and here the film is more successful. Both Heigl and Butler find the appeal in very flawed characters. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The comedy bogs down in relentless predictability and the puzzling overuse of naughty words. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The movie has embarrassingly limited ideas about both the sexes and sex. Like Sandra Bullock’s career woman in “The Proposal,’’ Abby appears to have never heard of intercourse, much less experienced it. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleAmy Biancolli
Funny though it is - is it could have been a whole lot funnier. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineAlaina O'Connor
At the end of the day, people who want to see this movie aren't looking for something original. There's a certain familiarity that makes the romantic comedy a perennial favorite among audiences. Read full review
50
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike Scott
It feels like a desperate attempt at edginess -- and desperation is never becoming, whether in real-life romance or in a romantic comedy. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
A highly calculated attempt to recalibrate with raunch the family entertainment template and cash in. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Williams
Mired in phoniness up to its neck. And above that, there's nothing. Read full review
40
EmpireHelen O'Hara
It's not as risqué as it wishes it were, nor as likable as it should be. Butler's rarely been better-cast, but the material's too patchy to support him . Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Screenwriters Nicole Eastman and the "Blonde" team of Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith provide dialogue that has the propriety of the locker room. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Feels about 150 years out of date. Read full review
38
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
But The Ugly Truth can't escape its own ugly truth, that the central characters are written to extremes both ludicrous and tiring. Read full review
35
NPRElla Taylor
The Ugly Truth serves up yet another tightly wound career woman, ripe for chopping up, tenderizing and ravishing by an alpha male who knows what's good for her. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderCliff Doerksen
Director Robert Luketic telegraphs every dismal comic beat from Venus and Mars, then reinforces them with a twinkling, leering score. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
The sort of rom-com apparatus that no relationship can overcome. Read full review
25
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Despite its appealing stars, The Ugly Truth is a charmless romantic comedy. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Veers between crude and cloying. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Taken as a whole, The Ugly Truth is much like its orgasms: phony and unsatisfying. Read full review
20
TimeRichard Corliss
In its wan attempt to be raunchy, the picture fails where Judd Apatow has usually succeeded; written by three women, this is a girl's mistaken idea of an R-rated comedy. Read full review
20
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
A cynical, clumsy, aptly titled attempt to cross the female-oriented romantic comedy with the male-oriented gross-out comedy that is interesting on several levels, none having to do with cinema. Read full review
20
Wall Street JournalJoanne Kaufman
If the movie had even a moment of freshness or wit, one honest laugh. It doesn't--and that's the ugly truth. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
A movie without a moment of truth to be found. Read full review
12
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Toss this ugly-ass crap to the curb, along with the other multiplex garbage, and see a romance that gets it right. I'm talking "(500) Days of Summer." Read full review
10
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Until that final, inevitable kiss, we have to listen to them, and the clatter of their crude, brainless exchanges is unbearable. Read full review
0
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The Ugly Truth is insulting to women, men and even goldfish. Read full review
0
New York PostLou Lumenick
This is the sort of comedy that requires you not only to suspend disbelief, but your sanity as well. Read full review
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