If the screening I attended is anything to go by, this is a gay men’s movie whose primary function is to doll Fonda up like a drag queen and let her rip.
Comment
05/12/05
Monster-in-Law (2005)
16
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:161
Fresh:25
Rotten:136
Average Rating:4.2/10
Consensus: While Jane Fonda steals the movie in her return to the screen, a tired script and flimsy performances make this borderline comedy fall flat.
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: Charlie (Jennifer Lopez) is looking for a nice guy who will appreciate her, as well as her myriad of interests and jobs. From walking dogs to painting to designing clothes to answering phones at a... [More]
Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Jane Fonda, Michael Vartan, Wanda Sykes
Director: Robert Luketic
Reviews for Monster-in-Law
This shrill, undermotivated, feature-length catfight between Jennifer Lopez's demure prospective bride and Fonda's unhinged prospective mother-in-law makes sure to underline, boldface and exclamation-point every plot turn and line of dialogue.
05/12/05
Top CriticEven when Monster-in-Law becomes a rote, predictable ride, you want to watch it just to see what the actress will do next.
05/12/05
For all the frenzied (and badly staged) I Love Lucy-style slapstick, the movie's core conflict is just a marketing concept, a fluffy showcase of dueling auras with nothing much at stake and nothing really imperiled.
05/12/05
Why Fonda chose this embarrassing project for her first film in 15 years is, as they say, a puzzlement. She's the best thing in it; at times, it seems she's the only thing in it.
05/12/05
This isn't a very smart movie, rattling along as it does in the bright, superficial, meaninglessly expert way of too many modern romantic comedies -- and definitely of too many Jennifer Lopez comedies.
05/12/05
...a film that occasionally rises to the level of Merely Unfunny before lapsing back into Excruciating and Offensive.
05/12/05
Lopez chooses to declaw herself and play a sweet milquetoast, a mouse showing up for a catfight.
05/12/05
Fonda doesn't work out.
05/12/05
Taken as a whole, this dark comedy from Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde) is torturously slow, stupid, shallow and predictable. But there are a few shining components.
05/12/05
No Amityville horrors, no murderous little girl phantoms and not even Paris Hilton can contend with the likes of Fonda.
05/11/05
Is it worth 10 bucks to watch Jennifer Lopez and Jane Fonda retread the same sitcom territory trampled twice by Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro? The short answer is 'No.'
05/11/05
Fonda: pushing, pushing up daisies.
05/11/05
The laughs are as scarce as Coke machines in the Kalahari.
05/11/05
I know Monster-in-Law is just a slapstick comedy, but is it too much to expect the characters to exhibit routine intelligence?
05/11/05
Fonda joins a select sorority of mature, serious actresses made silly by the movies.
05/11/05
Somebody help me – I’m turning into Roger Ebert.
05/11/05
How can you not admire a movie that might find itself picketed by veterans groups and PETA at the same time?
05/11/05
A fingers-across-the-blackboard sitcom.
05/10/05
it’s safe to say there is not one surprising or memorable moment in the bland “Monster-In-Law.”
05/10/05
Latest News for Monster-in-Law
June 03, 2009:
Robert Luketic Directing Barbarella Remake? 
Will "Monster-in-Law" director Robert Luketic step in for Robert Rodriguez behind the cameras of the "Barbarella" remake? According to Entertainment Weekly's sources, a deal is... More...
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Wolverine, Professor X, and the rest of their soul patrol will launch a full-scale attack on the North American box office this weekend as the gargantuan comic book film X-Men:... More...
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