Serving Sara 2002

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: How inept is Serving Sara? It makes even Elizabeth Hurley seem graceless and ugly. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Serving Sara is downright terrible: impossible to enjoy, impossible to believe. Read more

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: Unfunny and lacking any sense of commitment to or affection for its characters, the Reginald Hudlin comedy relies on toilet humor, ethnic slurs. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: While Serving Sara does have a long way to go before it reaches the level of crudity in the latest Austin Powers extravaganza, there's nothing here to match that movie's intermittent moments of inspiration. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Crass and joyless. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Serving Sara is such a miserable excuse for a movie that the constant ringing of a cellphone at its preview screening served only to improve it. Read more

Susan Stark, Detroit News: Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: With the dog days of August upon us, think of this dog of a movie as the cinematic equivalent of high humidity. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Sometimes it feels as if it might have been made in the '70s or '80s, and starred Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Even dumber than Perry's Three to Tango, this latest sitcommy exercise is sporadically funny in spite of itself. Read more

Hank Sartin, Chicago Reader: Romantic comedy ought to have some romance and laughs, but this extraordinarily flat effort has neither. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: A third-rate conflation of Midnight Run and It Happened One Night, Serving Sara relies heavily on Perry's perpetually exasperated shtick, which fits more comfortably among the democratic ensemble of TV's Friends. Read more

Robert K. Elder, Chicago Tribune: Stars Matthew Perry and Elizabeth Hurley illicit more than a chuckle, and more jokes land than crash, but ultimately Serving Sara doesn't distinguish itself from the herd. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The movie itself is a cattle ranch full of joke droppings and mooing shtick not worth stepping in. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Aiming only to be amiably stupid, the movie still manages to fall short of the target. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: The entire movie is in need of a scented bath. Read more

John Patterson, L.A. Weekly: The plot fluctuations unfold as predictably as any other cross-country buddy-buddy flick you care to mention. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: [There's] nary a laugh to be found. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Filmmakers have to dig deep to sink this low. Fortunately for all involved, this movie is likely to disappear as quickly as an ice cube thrown into a pot of boiling water. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: You know a movie is DOA when not even the sight of Liz Hurley in a 'Trailer Trash' glitter T-shirt, tartan miniskirt and lace-up python boots can revive it. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Perry isn't the only thing wrong with Serving Sara, but he's the thing that takes a pleasantly mediocre movie and turns it into an unpleasantly mediocre one. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The spectacularly bland comedy Serving Sara offers us a TV actor and a fashion mannequin in lieu of actual movie stars. Read more

Susan Walker, Toronto Star: The script is clever enough to give Perry a somewhat dignified role as a sarcastic, educated charmer down on his luck. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Late summer is often the dumping ground for comedies that go flat or romances that fizzle. Sara is both. Read more

Robert Koehler, Variety: Serving Sara is little more than a mall movie designed to kill time. Read more

Laura Sinagra, Village Voice: With Vicodin-sharp timing, Perry wavers from glib to glazed, seeming to openly rue his miscasting as palookaville process server Joe Tyler. Read more