Wanderlust 2012

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: A comedy that looks way better than it actually is set amidst the dreck of late winter releases... Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: "Wanderlust" achieves a tricky balance: It has enough laugh-out-loud moments that it wins you over, even though the movie as a whole doesn't add up. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: Most of it is pretty funny stuff. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: For every few jokes that hit in this story about a recession-battered New York couple finding themselves on a Georgia commune, one sputters and dies. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: None of the hilarity is enough to keep Wanderlust from feeling like a late-night comedy-show sketch stretched to feature length. But why look a giggle-prone gift horse in the mouth? Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Rudd might not be the subtlest straight man in movies, but, as of this moment, he's the best. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: So you think you've seen silly? And smarmy? And inept? Wait till you see "Wanderlust," though that's just a figure of speech; I'm not suggesting that you actually lay eyes on this naked grab for box office bucks. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Though Wanderlust has a silly-funny premise and moments of inspired lunacy, it wanders aimlessly and runs some weak gags into the ground. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Wanderlust's premise affords it an opportunity to comment insightfully on antithetical but flawed conceptions of the American dream, but any aspirations to satire or social commentary get lost in the film's all-too-easy comedy. Read more

Barbara VanDenburgh, Arizona Republic: It's obvious "Wanderlust" was a lot more fun to make than it is to watch. But if you set enough funny people loose in front of a camera, they'll find a way to make you laugh, even if it's in spite of your better judgment. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Some jokes get hammered into the ground repeatedly; others go on well past the point of cringe-inducing awkwardness, which is the point. But some do reach the levels of brilliant, unfettered lunacy to which they aspire. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: This movie has no teeth. It does not want to say anything, other than the unprintable word for penis, over and over. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Being taken under Apatow's wing may have been a big career break for writer-director David Wain, but this lacks the sharp personality of some of his earlier movies. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Trust me, this movie doesn't deliver on any level, high or low. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Much of the movie feels pasted together; the story doesn't flow, it staggers forward. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Every actor who gets the joke shines, even when the story occasionally bumbles and bobbles its momentum. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: If the ensuing plot beats are easy to chart in advance, they're sold by a good-natured cast and filmmakers who understand they'll get plenty of laughs even without digging too deep in the bag of tricks displayed in outings like The Ten. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Wain has always brought a kind of zany sensibility to his films, but he has never seemed more confident coloring outside the lines. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Wanderlust is not the worst movie you will see all year. But it is not good. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: "Wanderlust" feels about as edgy as an early Johnny Carson monologue and slightly less clever than a "Visualize Whirled Peas" bumper-sticker. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: A messy but occasionally very funny satirical comedy... Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The leads are charming and although the plot twists are obvious, there are some funny scenes here. Read more

Ian Buckwalter, NPR: Wain's willingness to do anything for a laugh is a risk that pays off. Read more

David Edelstein, NPR: It takes guts to do a comedy this big without gross-out slapstick, and the writers and the actors are all in. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Despite the calculated advance press about the movie's nudity, polygamy, dirty talk, etc., David Wain's comedy is depressingly banal. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: "Wanderlust'' may lack the satiric edge of Albert Brooks' "Lost in America,'' but it does deliver more big laughs than most comedies these days. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: It's an R-rated movie with a fair amount of nudity, a lot of sexual candor, truckloads of unspecified drugs, and more laughs than I've had at the movies in a very long time. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Wanderlust has its moments. It's sporadically funny - funny enough to deliver a good laugh or two. The problem is, it doesn't do more than that, and the comedy is inconsistent. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: 'Wanderlust' is equal parts fresh humor and stale jokes. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Paul Rudd is the best friend a movie comedy can have. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "Wanderlust" is an assembly line producing laughs. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: [The] shaggy but agreeable Wanderlust [is] worth the detour. Read more

Kara Nesvig, Minneapolis Star Tribune: [It] produces tons of laughs in its compact 90 minutes and doesn't overstay its welcome. The bad jokes are bad, but the good ones are great. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: As far as your humble correspondent knows, Wanderlust is the first mainstream movie ever to star a Floppy Prosthetic Penis. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: The film's problems go deeper than its outdated source of mockery and its narrative sloppiness. Worse than anything else, it's just not all that funny. Read more

Nigel Floyd, Time Out: You know you're in trouble when not even the improvised scenes and fluffed out-takes are funny. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Buried below the endless penis and poop jokes, a very funny movie lurks, one we only catch glimpses of amid a churning mire of icky stuff and dangling privates. Read more

Brian Lowry, Variety: Despite some amusing moments, everyone simply works too hard at providing rambunctious zaniness, until one grows painfully aware the inevitable outtakes reel will be superior to the movie. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: It's hard to remember a comedy so populated with good character bits. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: A shambling mix of cheap laughs and genuinely funny set pieces from writer-director David Wain. Read more