"Bride Wars" Reviews: "A Time Waster" And "A Dog"

"Bride Wars" is opening to reviews that range from bad to terrible. The Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway film, also produced by Hudson, opens today nationwide. The film has been registering just 11% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The New York Times ended its Bride Wars review with "Die, Bridezilla, die!" in one of the less-scathing reviews out there, calling the film "a dopey if largely painless romantic comedy." The review also singled out Hudson's work of late, calling it "often as inconsequential as almost every other Kate Hudson movie of the last decade."

More typical was the NY Post's Bride Wars review. The paper gave it just one star and singles out Hudson:

GARY Winick's exceedingly lame "Bride Wars," a truly inauspicious start to 2009 at the movies, is interesting only - and very slightly, at that - as a cautionary tale about Hollywood stardom.

It's a minor blip on the soaring career of Anne Hathaway, who should be receiving an Oscar nomination for her work in the infinitely superior marital comedy "Rachel Getting Married" in a couple of weeks.

But it's another nail in the coffin for Kate Hudson, whose career has long been headed in the other direction... I've seen funnier direct-to-video comedies.

The New York Daily News also gave Bride Wars just one star:

Gary Winick's new comedy offers a handy guide to the ever-mysterious fairer sex. We are, according to "Bride Wars," "obnoxious," "overbearing," "crazy," "pathetic," "bitchy," and "basket cases."

Then again, who could blame us? Judging from this January time-waster, it's not easy being a woman... it would be depressing to think that people like this might actually exist. But it's also a little depressing to think that movies like this actually exist, so you can never be too sure.

Though "Wars" is the sort of superficial fluff Kate Hudson is too often drawn to, it's surprising that she's joined by Anne Hathaway -- who's likely to earn an Oscar nomination for "Rachel Getting Married," a wedding film that is this one's opposite in every way.

Variety doesn't give out stars, but still clearly panned Bride Wars:

Even the climactic catfight in chiffon doesn't pay off in "Bride Wars," a shrill, mechanical comedy dedicated to the proposition that a wedding that doesn't take place at the Plaza Hotel is scarcely worth having at all. As top-billed Kate Hudson takes a producer credit here, she can no longer blame anyone else for poor scripts she accepts with uncanny consistency -- 10 in a row at this point -- whereas co-star Anne Hathaway can chalk it up to a well-accoutered payday.

The Hollywood Reporter's one sentence "Bottom Line" in its Bride Wars review echoes every other:

It's about a catfight, but this movie's a dog.

Comments

[Rivermont]

Can Hudson's face get any fatter?

[getalong]

I like Anne Hathaway, but there is no way I'm going near this thing, and I didn't need this article to tell me something I didn't already know.

Me thinks that Anne took the part for $, or because it was the prudent thing to do (probably according to her agent).

[rachelwebster]

she needs a new agent

[JinMN]

rental.

[Agentlady007]

Thanks for the review, now I won't rush to the theater to see it. Frankly Kate looks older than her mother in this picture.

[GalaxieGal]

I totally didn't get the casting in this flick. If they were supposed to be friends since grade school, did Kate's character get held back 10 times to make the age thing work?

I understand now that I know it was Kate's own project, there was no one else telling her she was too old for the role. Rather similar to Diane Keaton casting herself as a young unwed/divorced mother when she was in her laaate 50s (On Thin Ice) or Barbara Striesand casting herself as a adolesent boy in Yentil.

[nextproject2]

My friend's daughter and her cousin just got into a huge fight and neither family is talking to each other now because they planned their weddings a week apart!! So I think it does exist in today's young brides. In fact, isn't the wedding business booming, $10-30,000 a pop! Or rather was before the crunch. So what if it is light fluff... you need light fluff from time to time. There is a place for everything in the movie business. Hudson does not have the greatest gift of comedy, but perhaps it is the directors who keep trying to mold her into that zany, cutsie cookie cutter character. Seems to be the way of many actresses path these. Oh where are the Carol Lombards, etc.... But, I do not think Ms. Hathaway is so deserving of great praise. I happen to think the only one who deserves a nod from Rachel Getting Married is Debra Winger. A real actress who by the way has the drama and the good comedic timing to go with. The other girls, well, lets just say, if I could have understood what they were saying, with the new style of acting without moving your lips or annunciating, perhaps I would have thought one of them more worthy!

[DixieMelody]

Oliver Hudson is cute and believable as the character he plays on Rules of Engagement, but his sister gets/demands all the attention.

[trisha08]

If I see that Kate Hudson is "starring" in a movie, I immediately tune it and and will NOT watch it. I will watch a good romantic comedy, but every movie with Kate is exactly the same. She has one character and she has played it to death.

It also seems that she is trying to be her mother instead of herself (or the actual character she is hired to play). Her hair, her nose, her laugh----all Goldie. But, a bad imitation.

[DCCommuter]

The commercial for this movie made it look real stupid, unoriginal and a waste of 2 hours. What a waste of talented actresses--just like that movie Monster in Law with Jane Fonda, JLo, and Wanda Sykes. A lot of money invested in a dumb cartoon script.

[lauriemann]

Exactly. When a movie looks that horrible based on the trailer or the commercial (like Bride Wars, The Unborn, Bedtime Stories or Yes Man) it shows that not only can't people in Hollywood make a movie, they have no clue how to market a bad movie to make it look good. I'll give Sex in the City and Mama Mia credit - both had excellent trailers/c­ommercials even if the movies themselves proved to be so-so.

[LoRiseAntlers]

Why am I not shocked?

[LMPE]

I have no plans to see this movie. Kate Hudson needs to take some serious advice from her mother. Actually, she shouldn't. Let her career fail so that her mother's career can continue. We should also bring back Stella Stevens.

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

Stellaaaa !

[auramac]

Kate Hudson is not her mother, and there's far too much giggling in that family. Seems like she keeps doing the same movie over and over again. Anne Hathaway is pretty damn good.

[oldeschool]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but can one still get married at the Plaza? I mean, didn't they go condo or something a few years ago?

[sjones66]

I wonder if people don't realize that the only reason kate was any good in "almost famous" is because the script and direction were exquisite. Anyone breathing could have pulled that off...

Sorry, but she's not her mom- she's a cheap imitation, lacking the real genuine feeling her mom brought to her parts. Goldie played a lot of fluff, but you always FELT her pain, her joy -- she was infectious. she had that thing.

Along comes Kate-- she dyes her hair and gets a nose job and the industry buys her as Goldie II. How long will it be before they realize she isn't?

Anne Hathaway is a really good actress (personal life aside). We'll see what she can pull out when she carries the movie without Streep et al to carry her (I haven't seen Rachel Getting Married yet).

[chicamorena]

Every good actor has a few dogs in their resume. I guess this one is Anne Hathaway's.

[SabrinaFair]

I don't get Kate Hudson at all. Is there some reading comprehension problem that prevents her from knowing a good script from a bad one?

Or does she do all of these bad films on purpose.

Her next film is the movie-version of the hit musical Nine, and she's cast opposite Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench and Sophia Loren.

Why they cast Kate Hudson alongside these great actors I'll never understand. But maybe she can finally get a hit with it.