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What's the Worst That Could Happen? (2001)

tomatometer

10

Average Rating: 3.5/10
Reviews Counted: 98
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 88

Talented cast is squandered by an uninvolving script filled with unfunny gags.

3

Average Rating: 3.2/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 31

Talented cast is squandered by an uninvolving script filled with unfunny gags.

audience

40

liked it
Average Rating: 2.7/5
User Ratings: 16,783

My Rating

Movie Info

The novel of the same name by crime author Donald E. Westlake becomes this MGM comedy starring Martin Lawrence as Kevin Caffery, a thief who breaks into the supposedly unoccupied beachfront mansion of billionaire Max Fairbanks (Danny De Vito). Max unexpectedly catches the burglar red-handed and summons the police, but before the criminal can be carted off, Max impulsively claims that Kevin's lucky ring is his own. Enraged, Kevin vows revenge on the tycoon, and so begins a game of one-upmanship

PG-13,

Drama, Comedy

Matthew Chapman

Jan 1, 2002

$31.1M

MGM - Official Site External Icon

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Cast

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All Critics (110) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (10) | Rotten (88) | DVD (13)

It's worse than the title suggests.

June 12, 2001
Rolling Stone
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A pinpoint study in what not to do with an adaptation, as well as in why altering a well-known fictional character to suit a poorly cast star is almost always a bad idea.

June 11, 2001 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

I'd rather watch a forgotten houseplant dehydrate and die.

June 6, 2001 Full Review Source: Village Voice
Village Voice
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This is the kind of do-nothing movie you eventually quit watching on an airplane. Unfortunately, theaters don't supply SkyMall catalogues to take up the slack.

June 4, 2001 Full Review Source: CNN.com
CNN.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Uncomfortably distasteful at times.

December 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media

Well...you could waste a few hours of your life. Does that answer the question?

September 23, 2006 Full Review Source: Supercala.com
Supercala.com

What's the Worst that Could Happen? takes a while to get going, but once it does, it's surprisingly effective, just as long as you appreciate it for what it morphs into - a no-holds-barred wacky comedy.

July 26, 2003 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews
Reel Film Reviews

The most pathetic attempt at comedy in a long time.

February 13, 2003 Full Review Source: RTE Interactive (Dublin, Ireland)

It's hard to imagine that a movie with this cast could come up with so few solid laughs.

January 31, 2002 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide
Apollo Guide

The film isn't just lightweight, it's weightless. You don't forget it two minutes later; you forget it before it's over.

January 18, 2002
Movie Metropolis

Relentlessly unfunny.

September 30, 2001 Full Review Source: Radio Free Entertainment
Radio Free Entertainment

I can't ask much more of a movie from which I expected so much less.

July 13, 2001 Full Review Source: Film Blather
Film Blather

Rambling, contrived, not very funny.

June 25, 2001 Full Review Source: Film Journal International
Film Journal International

Anything titled 'What's the Worst That Could Happen?' practically begs to be skewered with a play on its name.

June 14, 2001 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com
TheMovieReport.com

An inane hodgepodge of heist comedy and sluggish romance, with only a few flashes of anything resembling funny.

June 8, 2001
Reel.com

Neither the disaster its title indicates nor the cheap laugh-fest that the presence of Martin Lawrence would imply.

June 7, 2001
New Times

Bumbles along from scene to scene without developing any suspense or comic momentum.

June 4, 2001 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review
Sacramento News & Review

A mixed bag of hit-and-miss jokes.

June 4, 2001 Full Review Source: Journal News (Westchester, NY)
Journal News (Westchester, NY)

Answers its own eponymous question time and again by straddling the unamusing and the offensive.

June 4, 2001 Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine
Boxoffice Magazine

Doesn't have much to show at all, concept-, laugh-, or even logic-wise.

June 2, 2001 Full Review Source: Philadelphia City Paper
Philadelphia City Paper

Audience Reviews for What's the Worst That Could Happen?

The story focuses on a cat and mouse game between a clever thief Kevin (Martin Lawrence), and a crooked business tycoon Max Fairbanks (Danny DeVito), who turn each other's lives upside down after the former is caught burglarizing the Max's house and instead he gets robbed of his most prized possession: his girlfriend's ring. Now, he will stop at nothing to get the ring that was stolen from him. To help him is the hilarious John Leguizamo and joining them is Bernie Mac as Kevin's uncle. William Fichtner is also unforgettable as the police detective who suspects De Vito of committing insurance fraud.
May 10, 2011
xxdebxx
Deb S

Super Reviewer

I actually enjoyed it, although there was too many chacthers, the plot was loose, and it wasn't as funny as you'd expect, but I still liked it, Sort of.
September 23, 2009
EbertsLittleApprentice

Super Reviewer

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