Bridesmaids: Press reviews

'Sharply written and winningly performed, it delivers more laughs than any movie released this year'

'Finally, a female ensemble comedy that balances realistic characters with smart laughs and side-splitting farce. Not everything works, but there's more than enough here to keep you chuckling — not to mention baying for a sequel'

'pretty much a rom-com in the end - but hugely enjoyable, fresh and rude, both touching and funny, all the way.'

'an unexpectedly funny new comedy about women in love, if not of the Sapphic variety, goes where no typical chick flick does: the gutter.'

'At its best, Bridesmaids does that wonderful thing: tell the truth, indelicately. My guess is that most people will love it – men too, just as women loved The Hangover (which, admittedly, was wilder and braver)'

'What's striking is how fresh and unusual the comedy looks'

'Through a combination of smart performances and scurrilous gags Bridesmaids yanks the buddy comedy from the hands of its traditional owners'

'Unashamedly smart, in a way that's widely permitted on US television but almost never in the movies, Bridesmaids has been hailed as a groundbreaking blow for American female cinema. That says a lot about the extent of Hollywood's current conservatism, but for now, Bridesmaids does nicely as a tonic corrective. Men will love it too, although some of us may need the anal bleaching jokes explained'

'In its crowning moments – and Annie freaking out at the bridal shower is a masterpiece of cringe – Bridesmaids achieves, through the laughs, a kind of poignancy and empathy'

'the funniest film of 2011 so far'

'uneven, unwieldy and overlong, but if it's yucks you're after you'll find them in abundance in a side-splitting comedy that lifts the veil on every wedding's unsung heroines.'

'It's far too long, over-crammed with musical montages, and hampered by a hideous singsong finale. But, really, bottom line: it's the best thing Apatow's put his name to in years'

'Wiig is one of the most gifted clowns on television since Carol Burnett. Yet, in the new comedy "Bridesmaids," she gives a largely realistic performance as a character without any ego at all—Annie, an unhappy single woman living in Milwaukee, whose bakery shop has failed and who clings to the bed of a handsome rich lout'