One for the Money: Critic Reviews

Imagine an Elmore Leonard movie scripted by a bad Nora Ephron imitator, and you'll have an idea of how dead-in-the-Jersey-water it is.

There is action of a sort -- a car blows up, shots are fired -- and what might pass for witty, sexy banter to someone who once overheard a conversation about an episode of Moonlighting.

The movie has the by-the-numbers efficiency of a decent TV series, and about as much flavor.

Punitively dull.

There have been notable exceptions, but Heigl tends to imbue her characters with an off-putting mix of insecurity and abrasiveness. This film is a prime example.

Didn't Jennifer Aniston already do a bounty hunter movie? Talk about sloppy seconds.

Tedious and tonally inept.

To compare this mess to a sitcom would be an insult to sitcoms.

One for the Money is tepidly glib throughout. Even violent murders are followed by wisecracks or another prurient opportunity to ogle Heigl's behind and cleavage.

Janet Evanovich's best-selling Stephanie Plum series deserved better than this woefully executed, stillborn attempt at a franchise.

Everything in One for the Money rings cringingly false.

An ungainly mix of flat-footed gumshoeing and strained attempts at hilarity, all delivered with an unconvincing Joizy vibe.

Light and fluffy as a cupcake, Katherine Heigl's many talents are truly wasted in this story based on the first of eighteen best-selling Stephanie Plum novels.

Didn't Jennifer Aniston already do a bounty hunter movie? Talk about sloppy seconds.

One For The Money is a paint-by-numbers chick-flick that'll make you laugh a few times but won't particularly enamour.

Apart from the three girls behind me constantly shifting their legs so that it made my otherwise empty row feel as if I was in an earthquake, One For The Money is an utterly lifeless, joyless experience.

Heigl deserves better than this.

Ultimately, it's further proof that Katherine Heigl picks her projects by stapling all potential scripts to a wall and throwing a dart.

The film miscasts Heigl and doesn't do much good for Debbie Reynolds as Grandma, either.

As bland and flavourless as movies come. Please God, no Two For The Show!

Director Julie Anne Robinson never finds a convincing tone and ruins everything with over-emphatic comedy reaction shots and a music track that keeps telling us how funny everything is (it isn't).

Is there no stopping Katherine Heigl? Please.

With yet another ho-hum run at the multiplexes, Katherine Heigl's big-screen resume is fast looking like an insider's gag.

Heigl's fine and there's some zingy dialogue, but the violence jars with the comedy and, despite being written and directed by women, it still comes off as needlessly sexist.

I kept expecting someone to talk about a "gat" or to tell a woman she has 'nice gams' (slang for legs, in case you're not a fan of film noir). No one did, but the dialogue does include 'We're ancient history, like the pyramids, baby.'