Snappy newsletters. Simple Facebook sharing. Spirited comments. Sweet features are waiting… GET THEM NOW!

No Honors for Post Grad

Unoriginal comedy leaves no mark

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 21, 2009 9:53 AM CDT

(Newser) – Post Grad tells the story of the tribulations of a recent graduate unable to land a job. Critics give it poor grades:

Star Alexis Bledel “works her Gilmore Girls charm to the hilt, but no amount of cerulean-eyed sparkle can transcend this level of thudding mediocrity," writes Jeannette Catsoulis in the New York Times. It’s “a weightless dramedy directed without a single imaginative shot or fresh idea.”

In USA Today, Claudia Puig says the film “doesn’t even reach hackneyed sitcom status,” calling it “a collection of unfunny, insipid and predictable vignettes in search of a movie."
But Roger Ebert, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, found it a welcome relief. “Sometimes you get out of a movie and feel like you've just worked a desperate overnight shift on the homicide detail. You get out of this film, and you have a good feeling.”

[Videos (1)]

In this film publicity image released by Fox Searchlight, Rodrigo Santoro, left, and Alexis Bledel are shown in a scene from "Post Grad." (AP Photo/Fox Searchlight, Suzanne Tenner)

In this film publicity image released by Fox Searchlight, Alexis Bledel, left, and Zach Gilford are shown in a scene from "Post Grad." (AP Photo/Fox Searchlight, Suzanne Tenner)

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

A trailer for the film. (YouTube)

View larger videos >>

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next »

To report an error on this story, notify our editors.

More Newser Stories

Ghost Rider Pretty Much a Joke

But Nicolas Cage seems to get it: critics

(NEWSER) - Critics agree: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is ridiculous. But they're divided over whether the silliness of the sequel, once again starring Nicolas Cage as the devilish superhero, is funny or just bad.

In the Merced Sun-Star , Roger Moore calls the movie "a profoundly silly mash-up of comic book and quasi-religious 'prophecy' about a motorcyclist who sold his soul to the devil." It beats the original: "This time around, Cage and everybody else on board are in on the joke," and that makes it "almost a great bad movie."

The Vow Pure Schlock

Movie reviews: Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum can't save amnesia romance

(NEWSER) - In The Vow, Rachel McAdams plays a woman who must learn to love her husband again after amnesia wipes her memory. It's no surprise it was released ahead of Valentine's Day: It's pure mushiness, critics say.

In the New York Daily News , Elizabeth Weitzman calls the film a "down-the-middle, by-the-numbers fantasy, in which no one is too quirky or interesting or challenging in any way." Still, "there’s no shortage of viewers ready to embrace an old-fashioned, guilty-pleasure romance."

Woman in Black Offers Old-School Thrills

Daniel Radcliffe makes post-Hogwarts debut

(NEWSER) - The boy wizard is back—but this time, he's a 19th-century gentleman. Daniel Radcliffe is generally successful playing a spooked lawyer in The Woman in Black, a throwback haunted house thriller. What the critics are saying:

The film "makes the most of its old-fashioned virtues," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times . It "isn’t especially scary, but it keeps you on edge, and without the usual vivisectionist imagery." For his part, Radcliffe "has the haunted eyes of the eternal mourner."

The Grey a 'Lyrical' Thriller

Liam Neeson stars in survival thriller

(NEWSER) - The Grey, a survival-in-the-wilderness thriller starring Liam Neeson, is earning a wealth of literary comparisons. The film tells the story of a group of men stranded in the snow after a plane crash, and critics are mostly impressed.

In the New York Times , AO Scott applauds the "fine, tough little movie, technically assured and brutally efficient, with a simple story that ventures into some profound existential territory without making a big fuss about it." The film is "as blunt and effective—and also, at times, as lyrical—as a tale by Jack London or Ernest Hemingway."

Streep Wows as Iron Lady

Helps redeem otherwise mediocre film

(NEWSER) - As a biopic, The Iron Lady is nothing to write home about—but critics are blown away by Meryl Streep's typically excellent performance as Margaret Thatcher:

The film contains "little sense of the outside world, the human cost, or the ripple effect of divisive government policies. It is a movie that gives us Thatcher without Thatcherism," writes Xan Brooks in the Guardian . But Streep "is the one great weapon of this often silly and suspect picture." She offers "a masterpiece of mimicry."

NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS

What is Newser?

Face it: there's too much news. At Newser, we choose the most thought-provoking and entertaining stories from hundreds of US and international sources and reduce them to a headline, picture, and two paragraphs. And we do it 24/7—you can come back morning, noon, night (and in between) for something new that matters. Read less, know more.

Learn more »

Partnering with: Slate

View Newser on the mobile website

No Honors for Post Grad

Unoriginal comedy leaves no mark