Dinner for Schmucks 2010

James Rocchi, MSN Movies: ...it's hard not to think the portion offered here is just enough to satisfy anyone looking for a few laughs. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: In some ways an exemplary modern Hollywood comedy. Read more

John Anderson, Wall Street Journal: The point of the movie is how miserable Tim's life is made by Barry, and audiences will know exactly how he feels. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Give these two a better script, and you just might have a comedy classic. Instead, we have here a tolerable near-miss; enough to keep the hunger pangs away until a real meal arrives. Read more

Genevieve Koski, AV Club: Dinner For Schmucks is leagues ahead of its forebear in terms of mass appeal, but its laughs are more silly than scathing. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Steve Carell is the best comic actor working today. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: A number of bits don't work, some of the characters wear out their welcome, but the whole suckers you into an agreeable state of idiot bliss. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: A perfect example of the modern comedy mill gone wrong, a prolonged muddle whose plot, specific situations, and improvised quips never line up. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: I think I'll be in the minority on this one, but you know comedy: Nothing's more personal. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Veber's comic conceit, which stopped short of actually showing the dinner, doesn't really cross the Atlantic intact. Read more

Christopher Kelly, Dallas Morning News: It's lurching, desperate and borderline incomprehensible -- a movie whose characters act according to no known precept of recognizable human behavior. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: The movie has a slew of goofball moments that don't add up to a consistently hilarious outing. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Pure, tasteless slapstick silliness with little on its mind beyond cheap yuks. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: A bland, summer-sloppy comedy that never risks actually swimming with schmucks and letting characters bruise themselves on outcroppings of mean fun. Read more

MaryAnn Johanson, Film.com: The same overall effect... could be achieved by intercutting Three Stooges shorts with YouTube videos of adorable kittens rolling around with baby bunnies... Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Whereas The Dinner Game from celebrated writer-director Francis Veber was a tight, sharp satire of societal pretension, this remake seems more interested in easy, broad slapstick. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: Steve Carell finds a character more clueless than Michael Scott in broad laffer redeemed by occasional quirks. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Against all reason and expectation, the result is a distinctly unfunny film. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: You know you're in trouble when the best thing in your movie is a bunch of dead rodents. Read more

Jennie Yabroff, Newsweek: Though the premise of Dinner for Schmucks is deeply cruel, we are supposed to laugh, because we trust that by the closing credits the characters will have matured into upstanding men. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Most of the problem is in the performance of Steve Carell. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Despite its schticky title, the trick to Dinner for Schmucks isn't the schmucks, although director Jay Roach's funny comedy, adapted from a 1998 French film, makes sure every group of oddballs is represented. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Dinner With Schmucks may actually be the funniest movie currently in the marketplace -- but that's pretty much by default. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Like a four-star desert at the end of a hit-or-miss four-course meal, the finale is worth the wait. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Jay Roach has cast his picture with standout comic talents... Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The film is sporadically amusing but gives the impression it should be generating more laughs than it does. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The genius of this version depends on the performance by Steve Carell, who plays Barry Speck as a man impervious to insult and utterly at peace with himself. He's truly a transcendent idiot. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: When Hollywood decides to remake French farce by Francis Veber, the result can be a champagne cocktail or pate de merde. Dinner for Schmucks falls somewhere in the middle. What makes the souffle rise is the actors. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: All the disorderly or anarchistic possibilities of its premise get channeled back toward a message of symbolic pseudo-redemption, which is what Hollywood movies have to deliver at all costs. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It's funny from the beginning, and it stays funny, even as it beats scenes to death and overstays its welcome. Read more

Tom Shone, Slate: Roach may be the least organic director of comedy currently working in Hollywood. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: With moments of fitful hilarity, the pairing of Paul Rudd, Steve Carell and a talented cast of secondary actors, there's plenty here to keep summer comedy fans satiated, if not entirely satisfied. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: In adapting Francis Veber's 1998 French farce Le Diner des cons (The Dinner Game), Roach and his writers David Guion and Michael Handelman have completely defanged it. Read more

Leah Rozen, TheWrap: Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: This may not be the highest achievement of the director's art -- to exceed minimal expectations -- but it's an honorable one, and Roach makes the grade. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: A decent cast wrestle with a crummy script in this loose and creaky Hollywood spin on Le Diner de Cons... Read more

Aaron Hillis, Time Out: The mismatched buddy shtick with a tender resolution is on autopilot. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Where the French leads were nasty, Steve Carell and Paul Rudd have an inherently likable quality even when playing a foolish sap and a cutthroat businessman. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: An uproarious odd-couple remake of Francis Veber's hit French farce The Dinner Game. Read more

Dan Kois, Village Voice: Paramount Pictures and director Jay Roach would like to invite you to a dinner they're hosting, at which you are welcome to laugh at these poor jerks. That's a little messed up. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Dinner for Schmucks may be as broad as the proverbial groaning board, but Rudd and Carell bring out its most toothsome delights. Read more