Hugo Pool Reviews
Top CriticI groaned my way through this black -- and blue -- romantic comedy and then decided I liked it.
AV Club
A sweet, winning diversion that meanders enjoyably on the strength of its laid-back charm.
TV Guide's Movie Guide
A series of strenuously oddball vignettes masquerading as a movie.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
Although this flighty comic allegory about love and death in contemporary Los Angeles is wildly overacted, with loose ends flying everywhere, it still conveys an antic poignancy.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Like David Mamet and relative newcomer Quentin Tarantino, Downey writes some of the best dialogue around, and his script sparkles with it.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
It's as if Downey Sr.'s irreverence and off-the-wall humor couldn't quite co-exist with the heartfelt tribute he intends to make here to his wife and her fellow Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis sufferers.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Hugo Pool, the first film in six years from former counterculture director Robert Downey sets new standards in wacko charmlessness.
Full Review
| Original Score: F
The best thing about this bizarre love story (follie de grandeur) between a female pool cleaner and immobile man in wheelchair is that it puts icon Robert Downey behind the camera after long absence; with some luck Patrick Dempsey should become a lead man
Full Review
| Original Score: C
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
The bottom of the pool.
Full Review
| Original Score: D
Sunday Times (Australia)
Interesting -- but not riveting -- slice of life in Southern California.
| Original Score: 2/5
Cincinnati Enquirer
Hugo Pool features an impressive collection of talent, including two of the best actors of their generation -- Sean Penn and Robert Downey Jr. Sadly, their talents are wasted in this muddled mix of romance and attempted satire.
The audience seems limited to the director's inner circle.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/5
Cinematter
Robert Downey Sr directs this overly self-consciously "wacky" day-in-the-life comedy. Unfortunately, even with plenty of talent attached, the film goes nowhere.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/4
Compuserve
The picture features a choice ensemble of actors who are starved by the lack of a nourishing script and whose improvised quips and sallies fall far short of hilarity.
Boston Phoenix
Downey tries to re-create the loopy irreverence of Putney Swope in a '90s setting -- with little success.
