Bridesmaids 2011

Tom Charity, CNN.com: Bridesmaids is a stiletto-sharp, raunchy, no-holds-barred yuk-fest that stands as a worthy female counterpart to the likes of Wedding Crashers and The Hangover. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: It goes pretty much as expected, but it does seem earned, in part because the writing is so sharp. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: The movie is smart about a lot of things, including the vital importance of female friendships. And it's nice to see so many actresses taking up space while making fun of something besides other women. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Must every funny sequence end abruptly with a generic cut to a city skyline scored to a pop song? Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Bridesmaids is likely to be a hit with both women and men, being half formula chick-flick, half raunchy comedy of humiliation. It's hilarious -- and too bifurcated to be satisfying. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: If this is only a chick flick, then call me a chick. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: [It's] a female-centered ensemble comedy that's ultimately about the importance and power of friendship. And, yes, it's funny as hell. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Bridemaids sputters, coughs, and lurches, but it's a winning shambles, buoyed by a sharp, balanced comedic ensemble and some truthful observations about how close friends adapt when their lives fall out of step. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: "Bridesmaids" proves two things conclusively: Women are every bit as adept as men at gross-out comedy antics, and Kristen Wiig is a bona-fide comedy star. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: "Bridesmaids'' openly, comfortably turns the stress of being girlfriends into comedy. It's really about the single friend backing away from the edge of temporary insanity. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The brilliant Saturday Night Live player Kristen Wiig finally gets the big-screen vehicle she deserves. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: No one has explored the inner workings of a passive-aggressive frenemy the way Wiig has. She has the Midas touch for activating a character's petty streak while still making audiences like her. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: A film of great hilarity, humanity, idiosyncrasy and grade-A, eyebrow-singeing raunch. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Wiig has terrific audience rapport, a prerequisite for comics, and a squiggly way of seeming totally reasonable and altogether daft at the same time. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Bridesmaids has a couple of X chromosomes up its sleeve, and you're wrong if you think that's merely a cosmetic difference. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Onetime Saturday Night Live castmates Wiig and Rudolph make Annie and Lillian's friendship believable. Which is why Annie's shenanigans are sad -- and hilarious. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The only question is: Will Kristen Wiig ever be this good again? The answer is, let's hope so. Bridesmaids rocks. Hopefully, a movie star is born. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: In this movie, romantic envy and class envy coalesce, because Bridesmaids understands just how they're linked. Even if money can't buy you love, being broke puts you at a distinct disadvantage. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Kristen Wiig scores in an erratic gross comedy that truthfully connects where it counts. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: That rarest of treats: an R-rated romantic comedy from the Venus point of view. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Bridesmaids is the sort of movie in which you know exactly how everything is going to turn out by the end, but the characterizations are strong enough to overcome the formulaic template. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: The star and co-writer of Bridesmaids, Kristen Wiig, puts herself and her female co-stars through the comedy wringer. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: The movie is uneven and lurching, but it provides many laughs. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It's not a movie for people looking for a decorous night at the movies. It is a film, though, for folks eager for some good dirty jokes, some refreshingly real female characters - and, just maybe, a new comic voice. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: The warring impulses within Wiig set a wonderfully skittish tone for the painfully hilarious new movie Bridesmaids, a screwy tale of female friendship and wedding planning from hell. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Just as Apatow redefined leading men in a more realistic manner, Wiig may well change the way Hollywood looks at ladies. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: By the time two hours had dragged by, I felt a lot like I had sat through a five-hour wedding. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Think of it as The 40-Year-Old Nonvirgin in taffeta. Or the Kristen Wiig movie that her fans have been waiting for. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The setup is ripe for a black comedy but the movie never fully embraces the darkness and the level of humor is on par with the limp skits for which Wiig is responsible on Saturday Night Live. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: "Bridesmaids" is a female version of "The Hangover"--from the coarse language to the cringe-inducing grossout gags to the Vegas road trip that goes horribly wrong. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It definitively proves that women are the equal of men in vulgarity, sexual frankness, lust, vulnerability, overdrinking and insecurity. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Kristen Wiig is an indisputable goddess of comedy. This rowdy fem-friendship movie she stars in and wrote with Annie Mumolo is infused with the Wiig brand of wicked mischief. Read more

Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon.com: It's a movie that succeeds, often beautifully, not by forcing its characters to be as naughty and gross and pathetic as men are. It soars by letting them be as naughty and gross and pathetic as women are. Three cheers for equality. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Bridesmaids surely doesn't mark the end of conventional female-centric comedies, but it works on so many levels, it'll hopefully make future filmmakers stop and think twice before approaching this kind of project and realize it can be done [better]. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Hallelujah and praise the Lord for Paul Feig's Bridesmaids, a movie we've been awaiting for what feels like forever. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Bridesmaids" is bust-a-gut funny, a high-adrenaline string of slapstick gags and verbal hysteria. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Kristen Wiig is the best sketch comic alive, and "Bridesmaids" should finally make her a movie star. Read more

Siri Agrell, Globe and Mail: In the end, Bridesmaids is touching and funny and a tiny bit sickening. Just like a real wedding. Read more

Leah Rozen, TheWrap: The movie won't change your life or grab a fistful of Oscar nominations come next winter. But it will make you laugh, hard and often, and it proves that sometimes girls just want to have fun. Read more

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: This might be a turning point in feminism and comedy, provided that both sexes can embrace it. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: An effortless blend of bad taste and good humour with a wholly believable, often very touching emotional core, all centred around one of the finest star-making comic performances in recent memory. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: This is one very funny flick, which may require a second viewing, lest loud laughter rob you of hearing some of the lines - especially during an eye-popping pivotal scene that was once the purview of the boys: the big gross-out. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: After shining on SNL, Kristen Wiig finally has a lead role worthy of her comic talents. And wedding prep gets the absurdly humorous treatment it deserves. Read more

Joe Leydon, Variety: Bridesmaids sorely lacks the saving grace of being consistently funny. Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: This supposed great experiment in femme-com bears the distinct scars of having been "fixed" -- out of fear or financial imperative -- by and for dudes. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: It's the smaller, more observant moments in "Bridesmaids" that make it worth savoring. Read more