Critics Just Not That Into Flick

Romantic comedy attracts female movie-goers

(NEWSER) - He's Just Not That Into You got plenty of attention from the ladies this weekend, earning $27.5 million to top the box office, Entertainment Weekly reports. The romantic comedy, which stars Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Ben Affleck, and Scarlett Johansson, attracted a crowd that was—not surprisingly—80% female. Other winners this weekend: Taken ($20.3 million), Coraline ($16.3 million), Pink Panther 2 ($12 million), and Paul Blart: Mall Cop ($11 million). More»

Joss Whedon directs Robert Downey Jr. in superhero blowout

(NEWSER) - Sure, it's an effective moneymaking scheme: release movies about individual superheroes, then one about all of them. But with Joss Whedon at the helm, The Avengers really works. What critics are saying:

• "Even if you don't particularly like comic-book adaptations, this film just might make a believer of you," writes Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times . "Whedon is the key reason why this $220 million behemoth of a movie is smartly thought out and executed with verve and precision."

Jasons Bateman, Sudeikis star in Seth Gordon's comedy

(NEWSER) - Horrible Bosses is shockingly crude and a bit “uneven,” but it’s also amusing, critics say—because we can all identify with such workplace horrors. (Except maybe Jennifer Aniston as a crude, harassing dentist.)

• The film is “frequently very funny,” writes AO Scott in the New York Times . For one thing, it “does not bother to cut its coarseness with a hypocritical dose of sweetness or respectability,” he notes. “The laughter is mean but also oddly pure: it expels shame and leaves you feeling dizzy, a little embarrassed and also exhilarated.”

Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis star in Todd Phillips' film

(NEWSER) - If the first Hangover was a wild party, the second is, well, the hangover. Critics are savaging the latest effort from Todd Phillips:

• Writing in Salon , Andrew O’Hehir smacks the film’s “mind-boggling awfulness.” It’s a “clumsy, homophobic, cliché-ridden, and terminally unfunny sequel” that “takes dude comedy to its Sex and the City 2 nadir.” The guy who tried ( and failed ) to stop the film with a lawsuit was “accidentally trying to perform a public service.” (Read more of O'Hehir's fuming and funny review .)

Bradley Cooper, Abbie Cornish, Robert De Niro star in Neil Burger film

(NEWSER) - Limitless, in which Bradley Cooper plays a struggling writer who takes a pill to vastly expand his brain power, may not exactly be award-worthy—but critics agree it's a fun ride:

• In the New York Times , AO Scott calls the movie “an energetic, enjoyably preposterous compound—it’s a paranoid thriller blended with pseudo-neuro-science fiction and catalyzed by a jolting dose of satire.” But, he notes, sometimes “the filmmakers seem to have misplaced their supply of coherence pills.”