Fairly entertaining.
The Heartbreak Kid (2007)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
Reviews Counted:151
Fresh:46
Rotten:105
Average Rating:4.7/10
Consensus: Despite some amiable performances, The Heartbreak Kid is neither as daring nor as funny as the Farrelly Brothers' earlier films.
Theatrical Release:05-10-2007
Synopsis: The Farrelly Brothers add their trademark bounty of bodily functions to this remake of Elaine May's 1972 comedy, THE HEARTBREAK KID. This time around Ben Stiller plays Eddie Cantrow, a 40-year-old... The Farrelly Brothers add their trademark bounty of bodily functions to this remake of Elaine May's 1972 comedy, THE HEARTBREAK KID. This time around Ben Stiller plays Eddie Cantrow, a 40-year-old bachelor who is tired of having his foulmouthed father (Jerry Stiller) and henpecked friend (Rob Corddry) give him a hard time for not being married. So when he meets the seemingly perfect Lila (Malin Ackerman), he decides to marry her--despite knowing her for only six weeks. On their honeymoon in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, he realizes his mistake when Lila reveals her true colors, which turn out to be quite ugly. While Lila recovers from a sunburn, Eddie meets fellow vacationer Miranda (Michelle Monaghan) and falls in love. He must break the news to both women before they find out the truth. After the more standard romantic comedy of FEVER PITCH, Bobby and Peter Farrelly are back to the gross-out comedy that made them famous in films such as THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY. This is the first time they've re-teamed with Stiller since that landmark film, and it proves a far better marriage than Eddie and Lila's. Ackerman may be most famous to date for a small role in HAROLD & KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE, but she's fearless in this part. The Farrellys have always been fans of bodily humor, and Ackerman's Lila gets to be the butt of the joke most often, largely thanks to her character's deviated septum. There are several moments here that threaten to top the infamous hair-gel scene in THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY as far as groans and giggles go. [More]
Starring: Ben Stiller, Michelle Monaghan, Malin Akerman, Jerry Stiller
Starring: Ben Stiller, Michelle Monaghan, Malin Akerman, Jerry Stiller, Rob Corddry, Carlos Mencia
Director: Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly
Director: Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly
Screenwriter: Scot Armstrong, Kevin Barnett, Leslie Dixon, Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly
Producer: Ted Field, Bradley Thomas
Composer: Brendan Ryan, Bill Ryan
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Reviews for The Heartbreak Kid
The performances are almost uniformly engaging, with Stiller cycling through a catalog of sputtering resistance ploys that still work, no matter their familiarity.
Enjoyable comedy with several big laughs, though it runs out of steam way before the end and is badly let down by a messy final act.
Less raucous than Dumb and Dumber and has a performance from Ben Stiller that proves he can act better than most people give him credit for.
Stiller's timing rescues the first half, but his character is so dislikeable that the movie has nothing left going for it when the punchlines dry up, except for some smirking cynicism about relationships.
Whatever else Stiller is, he's not a "kid", and his behaviour as a 40-year-old looks even more ludicrous than Charles Grodin's did in the original.
The Farrelly brothers are back with their most satisfying comedy in a long while.
The whirring sound you hear is that of Neil Simon, screenwriter of the 1972 film on which this is louchely based, spinning in his retirement.
The disappointing upshot is that there is more calculated crudity than joie de vivre.
Lumpy and sour. A few good laughs, but mostly this is just uninspired, and deeply cynical to boot.
Too little soul to be sweet, too little energy to be a gagfest, the Farrelly Brothers squeeze out just enough laughs to make this watchable, but nowhere near enough to make it great. It breaks your heart, it really does...
The film’s best moment by far comes from Eddie’s under-the-thumb buddy Mac (Rob Corddry), who advises that the key to a healthy marriage is to ‘plaster on a smile and wait patiently for the sweet embrace of death’.
Stiller's Eddie is a thoroughly unsympathetic character; whiny, judgemental and utterly undeserving of the women who somehow fall for him.
For all its fluffed moments and saggy end, how many other films this year feature a donkey with an erection?
The sunny setting, attractive leads and reasonably involving story help make The Heartbreak Kid a watchable frippery.
Latest News for The Heartbreak Kid
March 04, 2008:
Rush Hour 3 Takes '07 DVD Rental Crown
It may not have been quite the box-office phenomenon that its predecessors were -- and critics may have disliked it enough to keep it down at 20 percent on the Tomatometer --... More...
November 28, 2007:
Mr. Skin Reveals Top 20 Nude Scenes of 2007
In an age of fast-rising Hollywood production costs, the young actresses who strive to keep movie budgets down -- specifically in the wardrobe department -- deserve to be saluted. More...
October 24, 2007:
Farrellys Fight for Three Stooges
The Three Stooges was supposed to be the Farrelly Brothers' next movie after The Heartbreak Kid in the vein of the old Stooges shorts. Sounds like a much better idea than Stuck... More...
October 21, 2007:
Besides the morally-objectionable storyline, the Farrellys are up to their usual tricks. This means they fill the screen with gratuitous nudity, gross-out bodily function humor, graphically-depicted soft porn and meanspirited potshots at assorted ethnic g ![]()
More...
More DVDs
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | G.I. Joe: The Rise of … |
| 52% 52% | The Taking of Pelham 1… |
| 45% 45% | Ice Age: Dawn of the D… |
| 19% 19% | Transformers: Revenge … |
| 55% 55% | Orphan |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 98% 98% | Up |
| 88% 88% | Ballast |
| 66% 66% | The Merry Gentleman |
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Sponsored Links
Around The Network
- The Heartbreak Kid at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Heartbreak Kid at IGN
Fresh Links
Featured

Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.

Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.



Top Critic

