Failure to Launch: Critic Reviews

Failure to Launch arrives pre-told by design. But even those coming in cold will know what's going to happen one step ahead.

Set light years away from the real world, this tart, amusing piece of screwball fluff stars Matthew McConaughey as a 35-year-old who still lives with his parents.

Once again, Matthew McConaughey creates an aura, a force-field of unfunniness. A man-sized block of Unfunny Kryptonite from the Planet Unfunny, killing off all the funny within a 1,000-yard radius.

This would-be romantic comedy is neither. The premise is misbegotten, the chemistry non-existent and the dialogue leaden.

Every character has been given enough quirk to make the movie sublimely enjoyable but not so much that it becomes precious.

The movie is surprisingly nimble and emotionally honest.

Beneath the sitcom sheen, there's a darker movie about broken people who use convenient, pitiful excuses to keep from growing up. You laugh at them, but you also have sympathy.

The plot synopsis sounds less like sitcom than sick-com: A womanizer has the tables turned on him when he falls in love with, essentially, a prostitute whose services are being paid for by parents who don't have the decency to ask him to leave.

The comical part -- the part with the assaulting fauna -- is eccentric, knockabout fun, spattered with outlandish setups and amicably offbeat supporting players who reach out and steal the show.

Under Tom Dey's direction, a perverse form of symmetry is at work here, and the stereotypes seem like old acquaintances you can enjoy for a couple of hours.

Like The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Wedding Crashers, Failure to Launch reminds us that Hollywood is set on making romantic-comedy counterparts to the chick flick.

Oh, what stupid people these are.

Cursed with an honest title, Failure to Launch waves a white flag in scene after scene, declaring surrender.

The movie's notion of humor is exemplified by Bradshaw's extended nude scene.

Apart from its name (easily the front-runner for worst of the year), Failure to Launch represents a failure in every way: of ideas, of inspiration, of casting.

As with most romantic comedies, Failure to Launch takes off thanks to its upbeat tone and the charisma of its stars.

If you're in search of a film with any real emotion or believable story, forget it. If you're OK with a flick that has some funny bits and a kooky couple playing second banana -- hey, launch on.

The film goes a layer deeper than most formulaic chick flicks. It dabbles in the sociological aspects of why many present-day adults refuse to leave the nest, as well as the effect on aging parents.

Failure to Launch is an especially slight romantic comedy whose modest charms are derived largely from its supporting players.

This is a guy comedy being mismarketed as a chick flick, complete with a poster that looks like a page from Lucky magazine.

We have liftoff! And that's exactly what we want from a romantic comedy.

How, exactly, did an idea with this much star power and comic potential manage to misfire?

As listless and phony as Failure to Launch may be, it does have one secret weapon in Zooey Deschanel.

It fails at romance and comedy. It fails to make the lead characters interesting and their love affair believable. And it fails to develop a consistent tone that would enable viewers to suspend their disbelief.

Stars Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker put as much energy, winning smiles and comic business into their roles as possible, but it's a no-go from the start.