What starts as a thoroughly enjoyable screwball romp ... gets bogged down in some over-ambitious plotting and serious themes as it goes along
Comment
04/20/08
Leatherheads (2008)
52 %
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 155
Fresh: 81
Rotten:74
Average Rating: 5.9/10
Consensus: Despite a good premise and strong cast, this pro football romcom is half screwball and half fumble.
Theatrical Release: 11-04-2008
Synopsis: From his casual charm to his cleft chin, George Clooney has frequently drawn comparisons to an actor of another age: Cary Grant. With his third directorial effort, the Oscar winner pays homage to the style of films that helped make Grant... [More]
Starring: George Clooney, Renee Zellweger, John Krasinski, Jonathan Pryce
Director: George Clooney
Reviews for Leatherheads
An amiable, good looking if largely inconsequential comedy that coasts on its stars' charms.
04/11/08
Top Critic Is it a romantic comedy? A sporting history lesson? A homage to Howard Hawks? It’s all three. Not the touchdown we expected after Good Night, And Good Luck, but still enough style, sophistication and movie-love to save Clooney from a kicking.
04/11/08
It's good-looking, good-natured and sophisticated, but Leatherheads can't choose between football biopic or screwball romance.
04/11/08
Top Critic By the final touchdown, there is enough to like and - let's face it - we'll always take time out for twinkly-eyed George.
04/11/08
The movie gets lots of things right, yet it fumbles key facets so badly that you simply can’t christen it the gridiron version of ‘His Girl Friday’.
04/11/08
Top Critic On paper it looks like a gem – roaring 20s setting, verbal fireworks and a silly sport in its rude infancy. In practice, it's way off the pace, far too slow for its screwball pretensions and the kind of film that confuses pastiche with period detail.
04/11/08
Top Critic Leatherheads really doesn't know what kind of film it is, and as a result it shanks the winning kick -not by a mile- but by enough to be a disappointment.
07/19/08
A gorgeous, charming, quaintly stylish movie comprised almost exclusively of moments and not so much story or characters.
07/17/08
Therein lies the problem with Leatherheads %u2014 it has too many fish to fry, and most of them come out half-done.
06/28/08
This is the slightest of Clooney's directorial offerings, but it's carried over the line by two charismatic leads and a well-honed screenplay.
06/13/08
"Leatherheads" fails because it has trouble balancing its many plots, and because it has nothing remotely interesting to say about any of them.
06/11/08
I'm sad to report that Clooney has had his first misfire as a director.
06/08/08
The movie does a nice job with the period details, but Clooney still can't get the romantic comedy angle right.
06/05/08
Leatherheads, which opens with the logo that Universal used back in the 1940s instead of the present one, is so successful at reviving the screwball comedy that you're prepared to forgive it some flaws.
06/01/08
Leatherheads is like an oasis in the middle of a desert – a genuinely enjoyable romantic comedy.
05/29/08
Meticulously recreating the era and the sensibilities of the time, Clooney looks as though he is having a riot of a time, be it is grappling in the mud for the ball, or throwing madcap lines at Renee Zellweger's worldly, ambitious journalist
05/22/08
Latest News for Leatherheads
September 10, 2008:
An odd screen combo of insanely silly retro-screwball humor, the bumbling antics of a football team of attention deficit disorder, looney tunes Keystone jocks, and a smart-aleck, acid tongue reporter babe upstaging all those sweaty gents around her. 
More...
April 16, 2008:
UK Box Office Breakdown: Sony's 21 Gamble pays off
Gambling drama 21 cleans up at the UK box office this week, taking both the number one spot and twice-as-much cash as another film. George Clooney however should maybe stick to... More...
April 10, 2008:
Box Office Guru Preview: Teens Dress Up For Prom Night
Multiplexes gear up for another weekend of empty seats as Hollywood supplies three new films that are unlikely to energize the North American box office. More...
April 07, 2008:
WGA, George Clooney at odds over Leatherheads credit
Clooney went financial core last fall, after the WGA decided 2-1 in a credit arbitration vote that only Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly deserved screen credit on the picture... More...
Related Forums for Leatherheads
(2008)-George Clooney's LEATHERHEADS goes deep but drops the ball at the goal line???
by: Real Boba 5/29
by: Real Boba 5/29
(2008)-George Clooney's LEATHERHEADS goes deep but drops the ball at the goal line???
by: Real Boba 5/29
by: Real Boba 5/29
Critic review: Despite Stylistic Inconsistency, 'Leatherheads' Feels Good
by: RottingTomato 4/4
by: RottingTomato 4/4
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