Just Friends: Critic Reviews

[A] cheerily clean and notably bright teen comedy.

Just Friends hangs its crude, clobbering sense of humor on a dubious theory.

After peaking with the unsurpassable glories of 2003's Bad Santa, the humbug holiday genre may be getting run into the ground.

In all, it's not too bad and it's not too long, and any movie that sets Santa on fire is okay by me.

Just Friends is funnier than any low-rent rip-off of There's Something About Mary has a right to be.

A refreshingly mean-spirited breeze through both the holiday movie and romantic-comedy checklists (including the third-act heart of gold).

Every holiday season welcomes a big-screen turkey, and this one's got extra stuffing.

... while the ending might be a foregone conclusion, getting there involves just enough slapstick manful idiocy to keep the humor moving at a clip.

The best scenes in Just Friends take place offscreen.

Even with young talent, director Roger Kumble and writer Adam Davis rely way too heavily (no pun intended) on the fat-suit joke and titular impasse.

Thanks to director Roger Kumble's breathless pacing, Just Friends manages to outrun most of its flaws.

During the credits, Reynolds is again shown in the fat suit while singing a power ballad, reminding us all how funny Just Friends could have been.

A surprisingly shrewd and energetic romantic comedy.

Just Friends shows that a lifeless idea can rise up out of its script crypt and put a stranglehold on 2,000-plus screens.

As romantic comedies go, Just Friends is just a lunch date. And everybody knows there's no kiss at the end of a lunch date.

Just Friends is part Farrelly Brothers and part Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, all wrapped together to deliver gross-out gags in bizarrely random and rapid-fire fashion, with zero intent to develop sustainable plot or character.

A barbed romantic comedy with a distinct debt to the Farrelly brothers' gross-out-plus-sentimentality formula, Just Friends is a welcome antidote to the usual seasonal sweetness.

After watching a movie like Just Friends, I hurry home from the theater and take a shower so I can wash away the stink of the experience.

Characters switch personalities in midscene, forget slights, ignore the obvious, abandon goals and betray family and friends just because the script demands it. No motivation required.

There have been worse premises for a romantic comedy, but director Roger Kumble and writer Adam "Tex" Davis could scarcely have done a worse job developing it.

No one will be surprised by the plot machinations that ensue, but the film is saved from utter tedium thanks to a relatively intelligent screenplay and the amiability of the leads.