Along Came Polly Reviews
Top CriticWithout the rom-com requisites of charm, chemistry, comedy and character, this doesn't even meet low expectations.
Like the rest of today's alleged comedies that are never funny, this one pretends to be hip, but lacks every semblance of intelligence and depends on the basest common instincts in the kindergarten I.Q. for laughs.
One of those films that celebrate spontaneity and risk-taking yet are so formulaic and un-risky that they strangle their own message.
I ... laughed myself sick.
Firmly ensconced among the forgettables in Stiller's career.
Trouble is, it isn't just Polly who comes along: Lots of extraneous matter does, too.
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| Original Score: 2/4
A lighthearted, lead-footed romantic comedy of the post-Farrelly sentimental yuckfest school.
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| Original Score: 2/5
Within the context of what is essentially a formula picture, Hamburg comes up with lively and anarchic comic situations, and he comes up with them consistently.
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| Original Score: 3/4
There's enough originality here to offset some of the more questionable humor.
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| Original Score: 2.5/4
Practically everyone here is a collection of tics, gimmicks and mannerisms.
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| Original Score: 3/5
You can sense the lack of imagination.
This flat romantic comedy fails to provide any reason why a spunky girl-next-door like Jennifer Aniston's character would give Ben Stiller's uptight nerd the time of day.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/5
Recycles gags from various, more successful gross-out and romantic comedies, but without any zest or imagination.
| Original Score: 2/4
Tame and predictable, with the gastric-distress sound-effects machine working overtime.
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| Original Score: 2/4
Something we've all seen before, far too many times, not only in its premise but also in its lame parade of scatological jokes and its sad, tired pratfalls.
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| Original Score: 2/4
Though Polly packs ample comic punch, it also demonstrates that life isn't about the safe past or the uncertain future but the journeys we make each day.
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| Original Score: B+
The whole thing starts out amiably enough, but then loses all momentum just as it's supposed to be lifting off.
| Original Score: D+
It's a workmanlike romantic comedy that by the end has quietly added up to a little more than you expected.
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| Original Score: 2.5/4
Scene by scene, the movie offers a pretty bumpy ride, and there's not enough chemistry between Stiller and Aniston to make the romantic parts of the movie credible.
| Original Score: C+
There is no central drama, no surprise, no tension.
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| Original Score: 2/4
Depends on the mistaken belief that Jennifer Aniston's appeal is so universally recognizable it's unnecessary to write a fully-rounded character for her.
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| Original Score: 2.5/4
Let's face it: It's really fun to watch Ben Stiller suffer.
| Original Score: 3.5/5
Superlative wasted cast and chamber pot-embarrassing humor.
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| Original Score: C
Showing how much punishment Reuben Feffer (Stiller) can absorb from his wife, his boss, his parents, his best friend, his girlfriend and his lower intestine is the only joke this movie has to offer.
| Original Score: 2/4
Every truly successful raunchy romantic comedy has at its heart a couple worth rooting for. This one doesn't.
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| Original Score: 2.5/4
Though everything in Polly happens exactly as expected, none of it is remotely believable.
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| Original Score: 2/4
Slight but occasionally riotous.
| Original Score: 2.5/4
If this is entertainment, the Port Authority should consider selling tickets to the washroom facilities at its New York bus terminal, where the traffic is bustling and frequently very colorful.
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| Original Score: 1.5/4
It isn't fresh. It isn't special. It isn't anything.
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| Original Score: 2/4
A hit-and-miss affair with more flat moments than comic ones.
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| Original Score: 2/5
Some movies run out of gas. This one could use an alternate fuel source.
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| Original Score: 2/4
Runs out of steam about the time the Stiller-Aniston romance is supposed to be creating some.
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| Original Score: C+
I chuckled a few times at Along Came Polly, if only because Ben Stiller is willing to stoop as low as he can to turn himself into a clown prince of humiliation: the man who would be dork.
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| Original Score: B-
A movie that sets its comedy bar too low for the talents involved.
Though obstacles are de rigeur in this kind of comic formula, the ones applied in Along Came Polly have the effect of reminding viewers of how unrealistic the pairing of Reuben and Polly is.
