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11/01/07
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Monster-in-Law (2005)
13
%
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Reviews Counted:39
Fresh:5
Rotten:34
Average Rating:3.9/10
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.
Theatrical Release:2005
Box Office: $82,820,167
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
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Reviews for Monster-in-Law
Top CriticThis really plays a like a really bad sitcom from forty years ago.
05/16/05
Top CriticIn a movie about diva-to-diva warfare, each diva is miscast.
05/13/05
Top CriticFonda and Sykes are made for each other, and their incessant bickering and arguing are about the only things that give Monster-in-Law any life.
05/13/05
Top CriticTrust me, Monster-in-Law not only makes more sense as an Unforgiven-ish parable of old-school Hollywood feminism's wrath, it's worlds more fun.
05/13/05
Top CriticIt's a crude, obvious comedy, which occasionally clunks, but it's often very funny, as well as being a really shrewd bit of popular entertainment.
05/13/05
Top CriticPoor Jennifer Lopez. Despite star billing, she is but a spectator at Fonda's fireworks show.
05/13/05
Top CriticIt's a one-joke movie, but we keep laughing because of the way the stars keep telling the joke.
05/13/05
Top CriticThe phrase 'chewing the scenery' never made much sense to me (is this a phrase used in normal human conversation? Ever?), but I know it when I see it. And Jane Fonda gnaws it to the bone in Monster-in-Law.
05/13/05
Top CriticTurns out Jane has come back to make a 95-minute mother-in-law joke. Scratch that, now I'm exaggerating. A joke is funny. A joke has rhythm and structure and timing and a punch line. This, by all evidence, is no joke.
05/13/05
Top CriticFluff has it's place, and it's awfully good to see feel-the-burn Jane back in action, unrepentant and laughing at herself and the world.
05/13/05
Top CriticHad the script paid more attention to its characters' emotional details, this Monster could have been a ball.
05/13/05
Top CriticMonster-in-Law, is only saved -- by the skin of its teeth -- by co-stars, Jane Fonda and Wanda Sykes.
05/13/05
Top CriticMonster-in-Law has a hard enough time justifying its antagonist's monstrosity.
05/13/05
Top CriticThe movie promises us a catfight. Instead it gives us mewling kittens.
05/13/05
Top CriticTo boost this movie's rating to 'worth seeing' would make me feel like a publicist or simply a dope.
05/13/05
Top CriticMonster-in-Law is first and foremost a triumphant comeback for Fonda, whose acting chops complement a presence that puts most of today's stars to shame.
05/13/05
Top CriticA comedy so inconsequential it might not pass muster as a network sitcom.
05/13/05
Top CriticYet another decently made but utterly forgettable comedy.
05/13/05
Top CriticIt repeatedly falls to Fonda to sell the movie's wheezy concept of the mother-in-law as battle-ax. And like any trouper attempting go-for-broke comedy for the first time at her age, she holds nothing back.
05/12/05
Top CriticLatest 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...
May 10, 2007:
Box Office Guru Preview: "28 Weeks Later" and "Georgia Rule" To Battle For #2 Spot
In what must be a first at the box office, an aerobics queen takes on killer zombies in a vicious battle for the silver medal during what no doubt will be another mammoth... More...
February 01, 2007:
Box Office Guru Preview: Keaton and Kids Hope to Score Touchdown
As the Chicago Bears and the Indianapolis Colts get ready to rumble at the Super Bowl on Sunday, Hollywood goes into counterprogramming mode and targets female moviegoers with a... More...
May 25, 2006:
Box Office Preview: X-Men 3 Ready to Rock Memorial Day Weekend
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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