View from the Top 2003

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Who on earth is this embarrassment -- easily the worst film of the year to date -- aimed at? Read more

John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: A sputtering prop plane with a Concorde cast. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Trades primarily on gags about towering hairdos and the sight of Paltrow squeezed into a procession of Hooters-tight uniforms. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: It's just sweet and light, but it's got kind of giddy charm to it ... Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Just sits there, barely bubbling, substituting Day-Glo costumes for wit. Read more

Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune: View From the Top is an apt title for this sorta-comedy, which always seems to be looking down on its characters. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: This satire of flight attendants and their career problems is so toothless and scatterbrained that it doesn't really deserve to be called a satire. Read more

Hap Erstein, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Paltrow cannot begin to save this unfunny flight attendant comedy that should have gone direct to video. Read more

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: Worth commenting on only for its shocking ineptitude. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: Given the weakness of the script, it's surprising how many top-flight performers participated. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It's stuck in a faux nostalgia for upwardly mobile second-class citizenship for women. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Comedies don't come much flatter. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Virtually every cliche and stereotype is on parade, culminating in the career-vs.-love choice. Read more

Chuck Wilson, L.A. Weekly: Poorly lit and tone-deaf. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: You might need to recycle your popcorn cup as a flight sickness bag, as View From the Top swoops and nose-dives between Myers' mugging and Bergen's high-comedy professionalism. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: The characters have no wit or charm, the plot has no conflict or development, nothing happens for any reason other than script requirements. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: A mediocre diversion -- a movie better watched at home where the remote control can be used (if necessary) to fast forward to the film's best part: the obligatory end credit outtakes. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Paltrow is lovable in the right roles, and here she's joined by two others who are sunny on the screen: Candice Bergen, as the best-selling flight attendant who becomes her mentor, and Mark Ruffalo. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: A light airplane comedy that's actually funny. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: This is a comedy with only one genuinely funny scene. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Might be productively -- and quite reasonably -- assaulted on a number of fronts (for its class condescension, its lack of humour, its waste of talent or even its sheer visual ugliness), but it seems both cruel and unnecessary to do so. Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: One of those misfires that seems like a comedy but never convinces you for sure. Read more

Robert Koehler, Variety: Given that its wings have been severely clipped since it finished lensing two years ago, View From the Top flubs nearly every opportunity to be the comedy it wanted to be. Read more

Dennis Lim, Village Voice: Eventually, the exhaust roar of condescending affirmation drowns all else out. Read more