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The Ugly Truth (2009)

tomatometer

13

Average Rating: 3.7/10
Reviews Counted: 163
Fresh: 22 | Rotten: 141

Despite the best efforts of Butler and Heigl, The Ugly Truth suffers from a weak script that relies on romantic comedy formula, with little charm or comedic payoff.

9

Average Rating: 3.6/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 29

Despite the best efforts of Butler and Heigl, The Ugly Truth suffers from a weak script that relies on romantic comedy formula, with little charm or comedic payoff.

audience

68

liked it
Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 1,337,458

My Rating

Movie Info

Katherine Heigl stars as a lovelorn television producer who's made to run a gauntlet of romantic exploits by a pig-headed morning-show host (played by Gerard Butler) as a way to prove whose romantic methods are more accurate. Legally Blonde's Robert Luketic directs from a script by Karen McCullah Lutz, Kirsten Smith, and Nicole Eastman. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

R, 1 hr. 36 min.

Comedy, Romance

Nicole Eastman

Nov 10, 2009

$88.9M

Sony/Columbia Pictures

Cast

All Critics (163) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (22) | Rotten (143) | DVD (3)

I think it's safe to say that the concerns about sexism in cinema that Heigl voiced so ardently after her career-making turn in Knocked Up have ebbed in direct proportion to the increases in her subsequent paychecks.

July 28, 2009 Full Review Source: New Republic | Comment
New Republic
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's just not believable.

July 27, 2009 Full Review Source: At the Movies | Comments (4)
At the Movies
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The Ugly Truth has a nice moment here and there, but there is much more ugliness than truth.

July 27, 2009 Full Review Source: At the Movies | Comment
At the Movies
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Aside from being relational science-fiction, The Ugly Truth feels about 150 years out of date -- or it would, if the script weren't so clinically dependent on the topics of masturbation and genitalia and raunch.

July 24, 2009 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | Comments (2)
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Despite the fact that it swims in a veritable ocean of romantic comedy clichés, The Ugly Truth should manage to captivate and charm men and women alike.

July 24, 2009 Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | Comment (1)
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Ugly is, indeed, the word for any comedy that manages to insult both its cast and audience with nearly every scene.

July 24, 2009 Full Review Source: New York Daily News | Comments (2)
New York Daily News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

[It] attempts to be hip and edgy by featuring plenty of discussions about boy parts and girl parts and how they become friends with one another. However, the makers of this film clearly have no idea about how men and women actually interact.

October 27, 2010 Full Review Source: Quickflix | Comment (1)

If all you need is a fix of puerile smut and puddle-deep romantic giggles and can't wait for the next episode of Two and a Half Men, The Ugly Truth should do the trick.

August 9, 2010 Full Review Source: sbs.com.au | Comment
sbs.com.au

The Ugly Truth has all the honesty and romance of an Axe body spray commercial.

January 31, 2010 Full Review Source: Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema | Comment
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema

...there's no finesse or scarcity to lend impact to the vulgarity. It's handled with all the craftsmanship of an infant wielding an arc welder.

December 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinemalogue.com | Comment

A putative romantic comedy about the fundamental differences between men and women, it reduces both genders to emotional cripples while failing to find any humor in the situation.

November 27, 2009 Full Review Source: Killer Movie Reviews | Comment
Killer Movie Reviews

...a mildly diverting yet thoroughly uninvolving romantic comedy...

November 14, 2009 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | Comment
Reel Film Reviews

Turning up once again as a neurotic, upwardly mobile and oddly gorgeous but luckless in love television drone, Heigl seems most challenged, not with figuring out men, but pretending that she's not capable of roping one in.

November 8, 2009 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | Comment
NewsBlaze

Ugly, and that's the truth!

November 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Sly Fox | Comment
Sly Fox

click for the full review

October 13, 2009 Full Review Source: Movies for the Masses | Comment
Movies for the Masses

As a girls'-night-out movie for those in the right frame of mind, it gets some laughs, even a few big ones. But this opposites-attract comedy is wildly uneven: There are long stretches of down time, and some of the humor is so crude it backfires.

September 10, 2009 Full Review Source: Florida Times-Union | Comment
Florida Times-Union

Apparently, the ugly truth is that neither sex needs or deserves respect. How romantic. The 'Sex and the City' gals would be proud.

September 8, 2009 Full Review Source: Spectrum (St. George, Utah) | Comment
Spectrum (St. George, Utah)

Formula can be fun, as it is here.

August 31, 2009 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | Comment
TheMovieReport.com

This lackluster, stereotypical movie attempts to update its shopworn formula with a stream of four letter words and sexually crude phrases in Judd Apatow fashion but ends up turning off everyone in the process.

August 26, 2009 Full Review Source: Windy City Times | Comment
Windy City Times

Allowing the characters to talk dirty adds nothing to the chick flick formula.

August 21, 2009 Full Review | Comment
Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)

THE UGLY TRUTH isn't as painfully predictable as THE PROPOSAL, and it's funnier too. That doesn't mean it's a complete success. I never really wanted the two leads to end up with each other, and the transition in which they fall in love is clunky.

August 16, 2009 Full Review Source: Sin Magazine | Comment
Sin Magazine

Yet another wearying "battle-of-the-sexes" romp that's sure to please dumb people but didn't please me.

August 15, 2009 Full Review Source: Huffington Post | Comments (2)
Huffington Post

Daring and dirty, making it so delicious.

August 14, 2009 Full Review Source: Entertainment Spectrum | Comment

Heigl is said to have fallen out with Apatow since the making of Knocked Up. Maybe she should reconnect with him.

August 14, 2009 Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | Comments (2)
Sydney Morning Herald
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Ugly Truth

Pretty good comedy. Mike is a beer-drinking, woman-chasing loudmouth who has a part on Abby's morning show as the guy who spills the ugly truth on the relationship between men and women. Abby gets some help from Mike to help her attract a neighbour as a date, and of course, Mike finds out there is more the Abby than

July 11, 2010
Redlats

Super Reviewer

The Ugly Truth is an atrocious mess from start to finish. There are maybe two actually funny bits, but that's it. The rest of the film is a poorly constructed film with a mediocre cast that delivers forgettable performances. I always felt that Gerard Butler was better in action films, and was always awful in romantic

December 14, 2011
TheDudeLebowski65
Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski

Super Reviewer

    1. Mike Chadway: Rule #3, men are very visual. We have to change your look.
    2. Abby Richter: What's wrong with my look?
    3. Mike Chadway: Abby, you're a very attractive woman, but you're completely inaccessible. You're all about comfort and efficiency!
    4. Abby Richter: What's wrong with comfort and efficiency?
    5. Mike Chadway: Well nothing, except no one wants to fuck it.
    – Submitted by Nikki-Lee P (23 days ago)
    1. Mike Chadway: The truth is never pretty.
    – Submitted by Sharon J (5 months ago)
    1. Abby Richter: My cat stepped on the remote.
    – Submitted by Chris P (9 months ago)
    1. Colin: You look great!
    2. Abby Richter: Oh, just doing the dishes.
    – Submitted by Chris P (9 months ago)
    1. Colin: You look great!
    2. Abby Richter: Oh, just doing the dishes.
    – Submitted by Chris P (9 months ago)

Latest News for The Ugly Truth

July 31, 2009:
Submit to the RT Show and Earn a Cool $100
Time for the weekly update, folks. As always, thanks to everyone who has submitted reviews and...

July 30, 2009:
Heigl's Comments Spark Online Animosity
With a new movie in theaters, it seems an awfully inopportune time to pose the question, but the Los...

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