Forces of Nature: Critic Reviews

The film shows off Ms. Bullock to amusing if overly frenetic advantage. It also leaves Mr. Affleck without enough of a Cary Grant aura to play his wimpier character with style.

[Affleck is] too sturdy and sated. And you can't have screwball comedy if only one party desperately wants to screw.

A romantic shaggy dog story, a movie that leads us down the garden path of romance, only to abandon us by the compost heap of uplifting endings. And it's not even clever enough to give us the right happy ending.

A movie that obviously aspires to screwball status while trampling on the irrepressible female freedom that defines the genre.

An extremely enjoyable neo-screwball comedy about attractive opposites on the road.

At the center of every swirling storm is a place of placid inertia, safe and still -- and not very exciting. And it's where Affleck and Bullock spend most of their time, floating amiably but never doing enough to truly connect.

DreamWorks' first reprehensible fiasco.

The cinematic equivalent of Styrofoam: a weightless romantic comedy of synthetic feelings.

A most pleasant and diverting venture.

Make no mistake: This slackly paced picture doesn't gel. But it so consistently undermines the pastel-pretty conventions that currently rule the genre that some sneaky admiration is in order.

The humour is genial and both Affleck and Bullock are easy on the eye, but the film itself ends up being little more than a storm in a teacup.

Bullock seems a bit too level-headed for a screwball, and the affable Affleck has no real chemistry with her or Tierney.

While far from a complete misfire, Forces of Nature remains simply too by-the-numbers to be particularly gratifying or worthwhile.

All in all, it really depends on if you're a fan of the two leads. I am, so I liked it.

A bumbling and typically charmless latter-day studio screwball comedy.

It has all been done before, and better.

For the most part this film is not particularly funny or entertaining. The plot is, of course, predictable.

As soon as the co-stars become unlikely companions on a two-day trip to the South, a major problem crops up: no screen chemistry. They rarely click together, let alone sizzle.

Bullock seems to really be enjoying herself in this role, and Affleck is uncomfortable. I don't know whether this is because his role dictates it or if it's just a natural reaction, but it works.

Sandra Bullock is the good news about Forces of Nature. Her natural charm dances off the screen with giddy abandon. Unfortunately, the movie lets her down.

though Sandra Bullock and Ben Affleck generate a certain amount of goodwill... the comedy - like the airplane its central characters meet aboard - doesn't quite get off the ground.

The combination of Affleck's deadpan by-the-book persona with the spontaneity of Bullock's character sparks with convincing chemistry, their diverse personalities causing both to grow and bring to the surface what each is running away from or can't admit.

Relationships are always leaps of faith requiring only a courageous heart and a commitment to the beloved that goes beyond either rhyme or reason.

Except for the continuous onslaught of disasters, some of which are genuinely funny, there is really not a whole lot going on here.

Forces of Nature isn't awful. It is just miscast. If Ben was being lured by someone more tempting, like Melanie Griffith in Wild Thing, say, it would have had more of an edge.