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THE UGLY TRUTHMovie Reviews
Romantic comedy about the fireworks between a romantically challenged morning show producer and a TV personality who's bent on spilling the ugly truth about what makes men and women tick. Cast:Katherine Heigl, Gerard Butler, Cheryl Hines, John Michael Higgins, Nick SearcyDirector:Robert LuketicRelease Date:July 24, 2009DVD Release:November 10, 2009From:Columbia PicturesRating:RLength:1 hr 36 min
The Ugly Truth played to poor reviews. Reviews were mixed. • Leah Rozen wrote in People, "...doesn't know when to stop milking a joke.... Heigl works too hard to be primly cute, while Butler leans heavily on chest-thumping charm." • And Carrie Rickey wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer, "...lacking in chemistry.... here's hoping that this unfunny comedy doesn't set both sexes back by 50 years." More Reviews Below...
The Ugly Truth Positive Reviews (37 Reviews, reviews below)
Leah Rozen, People: WEAK(cg) "...doesn't know when to stop milking a joke.... Heigl works too hard to be primly cute, while Butler leans heavily on chest-thumping charm."(See all of Leah Rozen's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 183 words, 07/23/09
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...the two main characters aren't so much human beings as walking, talking extremes of he said/she said psychobabble.... it's vacuously snappy."(See all of Owen Gleiberman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 748 words, 07/24/09
Christy Lemire, Associated Press: WEAK(cg) "The idea of a woman being so rigid and frigid is purely archaic -- which is why it's so disheartening that the script comes from three women..."(See all of Christy Lemire's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 272 words, 07/23/09
Claudia Puig, USA Today: POOR(cg) "...a charmless romantic comedy. The film is so predictable that it might as well have been written as a test classroom exercise in RomCom 101."(See all of Claudia Puig's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 357 words, 07/24/09
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Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: MODERATE(cg) "...bogs down in relentless predictability and the puzzling overuse of naughty words.... Amazing that this raunchy screenplay was written by three women."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 670 words, 07/23/09
Michael Phillips, Los Angeles Times/Chicago Tribune: POOR "...squanders the on-screen talent while perpetuating the image of career women as harpies with nice clothes and no dates."(See all of Michael Phillips's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 636 words, 07/24/09
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: POOR(cg) "Romantic comedies are an increasingly debased genre, but few recent Hollywood products have been anywhere near as crass and contrived..."(See all of Lou Lumenick's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 538 words, 07/24/09
Rafer Guzman, New York Newsday: WEAK(cg) "Its crass sex jokes feel like chum for mentally stunted males, while its dimwitted storyline seems aimed at females who find paperback romances overly nuanced."(See all of Rafer Guzman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 261 words, 07/24/09
Liam Lacey, Toronto Globe & Mail: POOR(cg) "Contrived as a crossover between a female-friendly romantic comedy and a male-targeted, anti-political correctness jab... veers between crude and cloying."(See all of Liam Lacey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 576 words, 07/24/09
Susan G. Cole, Toronto Now: WEAK(cg) "...the script, which already strains credulity, collapses entirely in the last 15 minutes during a hot-air balloon ride that gets broadcast live."(See all of Susan G. Cole's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 181 words, 07/23/09
Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle/San Francisco Chronicle: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...doesn't waste much time on subtlety, mining its biggest laughs -- and there are several -- from rude, crude verbal combat and a pair of vibrating panties."(See all of Amy Biancolli's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 600 words, 07/24/09
Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: WEAK(cg) "Working with material this weak and poorly constructed, Heigl is helpless and adrift.... Butler turns on the easygoing charm, but it's not enough..."(See all of Tom Maurstad's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 389 words, 07/24/09
Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: WEAK(cg) "So strong is the quicksand of mediocrity that it sucks down great comic talent like John Michael Higgins and Cheryl Hines, who play a husband-and-wife anchor team."(See all of Bill Goodykoontz's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 465 words, 07/24/09
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: MODERATE(cg) "The movie has embarrassingly limited ideas about both the sexes and sex.... Abby appears to have never heard of intercourse, much less experienced it."(See all of Wesley Morris's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 868 words, 07/24/09
Kara Nesvig, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...smart, sexy... neither writers, nor actors, nor director Robert Luketic shy away from the truth about the complicated state of affairs between men and women."(See all of Kara Nesvig's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 608 words, 07/24/09
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: MODERATE(cg) "...mired in phoniness up to its neck. And above that, there's nothing.... While it elicits a few titters, 'The Ugly Truth' is deeply false."(See all of Joe Williams's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 295 words, 07/24/09
Steve Persall, St. Petersburg Times: GOOD(cg) "...treads on well-trampled turf: the driven professional woman unlucky in love, thrown together with someone she can't stand until the last reel."(See all of Steve Persall's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 453 words, 07/24/09
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: POOR(cg) "There isn't a single moment that bears a remote resemblance to real life. This is an artificial, antiseptic movie about artificial, antiseptic people."(See all of Rene Rodriguez's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 433 words, 07/24/09
Tom Meek, Boston Phoenix: MODERATE(cg) "Heigl has honed her sexy naïveté. She even delivers a dinner-table-orgasm scene worthy of Meg Ryan. Too bad it's wasted on this jerk-off."(See all of Tom Meek's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 136 words, 07/23/09
Susan G. Cole, Toronto Now: WEAK(cg) "...the script, which already strains credulity, collapses entirely in the last 15 minutes during a hot-air balloon ride that gets broadcast live."(See all of Susan G. Cole's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 181 words, 07/23/09
Joanne Kaufman, Wall Street Journal: POOR "...none of this would matter, or wouldn't matter as much, if the movie had even a moment of freshness or wit, one honest laugh. It doesn't -- and that's the ugly truth."(See all of Joanne Kaufman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 297 words, 07/24/09
Todd McCarthy, Daily Variety: WEAK "Wrap-up is inevitable but needlessly hokey and undercut by awfully artificial process photography and visual effects, and a cloying musical score."(See all of Todd McCarthy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 814 words, 07/20/09
Stephen Farber, Hollywood Reporter: FAIR "Hit-and-miss comedy delivers the unsurprising news that opposites attract.... has just enough laughs to squeak by.... wildly uneven."(See all of Stephen Farber's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 700 words, 07/20/09
Joanne Kaufman, Wall Street Journal: POOR "...none of this would matter, or wouldn't matter as much, if the movie had even a moment of freshness or wit, one honest laugh. It doesn't -- and that's the ugly truth."(See all of Joanne Kaufman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 297 words, 07/24/09
23.6 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
The Ugly Truth's reviews are separated by an average 23.6 percentage points. The norm for this measure is 18.4 percentage points. Less than 18.4 indicates more consistent reviews; greater than 18.4 indicates more mixed reviews. In the chart below, each dot represents a review, with the dots at the top more positive than the dots at the bottom. From left to right, the dots represent reviews in big, bigger and biggest publications. Roll over each dot for more detail.
The Ugly Truth (37 reviews) Roll over dots for each review
Coverage:The Ugly Truth's reviews cover 76.5% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 18,103 words involume (average is 20,194 words). Length:The film's reviews average 489 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
The Ugly Truth Coverage, Volume & Length (37 Reviews, reviews below)
Reviews Broke 6.9 Hours Before Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
The Ugly Truth's reviews on average broke 6.9 hours before opening. Norm for this measure is 1.2 hours before. The chart below shows reviews on opening day and the days before and after opening; the left side is earlier and the right side is later. The red bars extending above the horizontal mid-line represent more positive reviews, and the red bars extending below represent more negative reviews. The white space/red bar in the middle is The Ugly Truth's opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
The Ugly Truth (37 reviews, click on bars for reviews)
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