Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason the follow up to the sensational blockbuster film Bridget Jones Diary was released Today. The film was originally slated to be released on the 19th, but the studio decided to push it up a week to the 12th.

The reviews are in, and this is what the critics are saying:

"The sequel to Bridget Jones's Diary makes the first movie look like a masterpiece."
-- Manohla Dargis, NEW YORK TIMES

"The film is a narrative mess, a cut-and-paste job of random ideas and pointless incidents that are barely related to each other, but this messiness is very much in keeping with the scattered personality of Bridget."
-- Joe Baltake, SACRAMENTO BEE

"The 'singleton' Everygal neuroses of its titular British sweetheart have gone from endearing to downright insufferable."
-- Rob Blackwelder, SPLICEDWIRE

"Clearly, director Beeban Kidron and his four credited writers think comedy is derived from a heaping up of embarrassments."
-- Jules Brenner, VARIAGATE.COM

"The delightful first picture celebrated Bridget's imperfections. This smug, slapped-together sequel mocks them for cheap laughs."
-- Sean Burns, PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY

"Something for the ignorant boors with the Y chromosome, something for the ignorant boors without it."
-- Walter Chaw, FILM FREAK CENTRAL

"The filmmakers seem to have missed the point of the first film's success completely, concentrating on all the unlikeable elements."
-- Rich Cline, SHADOWS ON THE WALL

"Are women really as shallow as [this film] would have us believe?"
-- Anthony Del Valle, LAS VEGAS MERCURY

"It takes star talent to turn sequel hash into, if not a steak, a fairly tasty burger."
-- David Elliott, SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

"Firth and Grant seem a bit less confident in their respective encores; perhaps they sense that they're repeating themselves."
-- Jack Garner, ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE

"Novelist Helen Fielding created a lovable, klutzy, endearing character in Bridget Jones, and Zellweger, diving into the role with gusto, is an ideal match for her."
-- Chris Hewitt, ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS

"Renee Zellweger is as annoying as she's pudgy in this one."
-- Harvey S. Karten, COMPUSERVE

"Zellweger once again manages to exude both grace and gravity while baring a self-doubting woman's body and soul -- `wobbly bits,' as Bridget would say, and all."
-- Josh Larsen, SUN PUBLICATIONS (CHICAGO, IL)

"She's degenerated into a clingy, obsessive, lumpen caricature of her former sparkling self, so witless and galling that Lucy Ricardo seems a steady, self-confident font of common sense by comparison."
-- Maitland McDonagh, TV GUIDE'S MOVIE GUIDE

"Even though it was enjoyable, there are big holes in it; there’s absolutely nothing that would lead anyone to believe that Bridget and Mark have anything in common."
-- Tony Medley, TONYMEDLEY.COM

"As good, if not better, than its predecessor. An absolute ripper. You’ll laugh till the cows come home. "
-- Clint Morris, MOVIEHOLE

"It goes for many more cheap laughs than its predecessor, but it gets them pretty consistently and a few instances result in big, hearty belly laughs."
-- Eugene Novikov, FILM BLATHER

"It’s all enough to make me wish somebody would cue up an Aretha Frankin song and make a joke about Bridget’s big underpants. Oh, wait…there they both are. Again."
-- Jon Popick, PLANET SICK-BOY

"Renee Zellweger returns for a been-there, done-that sequel that's content to be more of the same."
-- James Rocchi, NETFLIX

"While no film that includes Zellweger, Grant and Firth in its cast could be a complete waste of time, 'Reason' wanders dangerously close to the edge of tedium. "
-- James Sanford, KALAMAZOO GAZETTE

"It's lazy, charmless, dramatically pointless -- the film's only reason for being is financial, and in every scene, you can detect the silent scream of 'contractual obligation' from the film's exasperated stars."
-- Gary Thompson, PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS

"Turns the character of Bridget Jones into someone the audience hardly recognizes."
-- Joshua Tyler, CINEMABLEND.COM

"Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason has its problems, but it made me laugh from start to finish, so how bad could it be?"
-- Willie Waffle, WAFFLEMOVIES.COM

"It's silly, a little same-y, but that snarky British humor peeks through at all the right moments for genuine laughs."
-- E! ONLINE

"Zellweger enchants but the follow-up lacks charm."
-- Victoria Alexander, FILMSINREVIEW.COM

"It's essentially TV for the big screen, but shot well, paced well, directed well, and nailed by Zellweger."
-- Ross Anthony, HOLLYWOOD REPORT CARD

"While the Bridget of the 2001 original was a vaguely identifiable human being with very real problems, the new Bridget has become a gross caricature of her former self: a goofball who stumbles around the set like all Three Stooges rolled into one."
-- William Arnold, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

"Ultimately The Edge of Reason succeeds as a watered-down version of the first film."
-- Josh Bell, LAS VEGAS WEEKLY

"Zellweger is cruelly photographed and seems to have lost most of her ability with an English accent between the first movie and this one."
-- Liz Braun, JAM! MOVIES

"The laziest sort of sequel, lifting episodes wholesale from the first film before spinning off in directions that don't even begin to make sense."
-- Matt Brunson, CREATIVE LOAFING

"Whether waddling in an awesomely inappropriate dress or putting herself through slapstick pratfalls, Zellweger gains our sympathy and love."
-- Robert W. Butler, KANSAS CITY STAR

"Not only does it rehash the original's elements, its story is one of the most unimaginative I've seen."
-- Jeffrey Chen, WINDOW TO THE MOVIES

"Bridget may not have you on the edge of your seat but there are moments you might be under it - laughing."
-- Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone, THEMOVIECHICKS.COM

"Since she doesn't like herself, why should we? In the end, it is unclear just what her boyfriend played by Colin Firth, temptation played by Hugh Grant and a third party who shall be left nameless see in her in the first place."
-- Duane Dudek, MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

"We're left with a protagonist repeatedly shooting herself in the foot for no halfway sympathetic reason."
-- Phoebe Flowers, SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL

"Edge of Reason is less a film than a series of non-stop embarrassments set to a sunny soundtrack."
-- Ed Gonzalez, SLANT MAGAZINE

"[N]othing but a celebration of women-as-morons, aren’t-they-cute?..."
-- MaryAnn Johanson, FLICK FILOSOPHER

"This is one diary you can skim without missing anything juicy."
-- Timothy Knight, REEL.COM

"There's a flatness in the writing, a slapdash feel to the directing and an over-reliance on what worked the first time."
-- Moira MacDonald, SEATTLE TIMES

"A Thai women's prison may be the least appropriate setting for light comedy since Hogan's Heroes. "
-- Sean Means, SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

"In other words, this is pretty much the same movie as the first, but both the heroine and her story have lost a good deal of their charm. "
-- Nell Minow, MOVIE MOM AT YAHOO! MOVIES

"Keeps its head above water because of the sheer star charisma of Zellweger, Grant and Firth."
-- Donald Munro, FRESNO BEE

"The entire original cast is back this time around... the original plot is back, too."
-- Christopher Null, FILMCRITIC.COM

"One sequel where a pressing need to find out what happened to the protagonist is absent, replaced by an attempt to cash in on the financial success of the first picture."
-- Dustin Putman, THEMOVIEBOY.COM

"Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is an amiable enough sequel to Bridget Jones's Diary, but it also puts an exclamation point on the first film's biggest problem: Bridget Jones and Mark Darcy are a really boring couple."
-- M.E. Russell, OREGONIAN

"The movie catches occasional fire when Bridget suddenly says what's really on her mind. The rest is silliness."
-- David Sterritt, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

"Stale and indigestible."
-- Lawrence Toppman, CHARLOTTE OBSERVER

"For truth-in-advertising purposes, the second Bridget Jones film probably should have been subtitled 'No Reason for It, Except to Cash in On the Success of the First Movie.'"
-- Jeff Vice, DESERET NEWS, SALT LAKE CITY


"Bridget Jones has lost her voice. ...The sequel lacks the character’s sardonic and distinctly English commentary."
-- Jeffrey Westhoff, NORTHWEST HERALD (CRYSTAL LAKE, IL)

"Philosophers say that those who can't remember the past are doomed to repeat it. If you remember Bridget Jones's Diary fondly, spare yourself this one."
-- Colin Covert, MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE

"Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is a jolly movie and I smiled pretty much all the way through, but it doesn't shift into high with a solid thunk the way Bridget Jones' Diary (2001) did."
-- Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

"Though the script tries to replicate the first film's heart-tugging moments, there's a lack of a big emotional arc to tie the episodic structure together. However, on a performance level, the movie is practically flawless."
-- Derek Elley, VARIETY

"In the strain to explore new territory, the film pushes into areas that that don't fit comfortably into the lightly comic world of Bridget Jones."
-- Kirk Honeycutt, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

"It's the sequel to one of the best films of 2001 that quickly reveals itself as one of the big disappointments of 2004."
-- Mick LaSalle, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

"With her volume knob cranked up to 11 and her cups overflowing with weight gain, Zellweger is often more annoying than adorable."
-- Terry Lawson, DETROIT FREE PRESS

"Don't worry, it turns out Thai women's prisons are pretty fun places to hang out, and all the girls just dance around singing Madonna songs and share boyfriend stories."
-- Tom Long, DETROIT NEWS

"Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason should satisfy fans because of Zellweger's uninhibited performance, but hardly anybody is going to be demanding a third helping."
-- Lou Lumenick, NEW YORK POST

"I can't remember many sequels as redundant and unnecessary as this one."
-- Jack Mathews, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

"Her character, a self-deprecating blend of accidental insight and unapologetic girlish emotion, has gone from idiosyncratic to flat-out idiotic."
-- Leah McLaren, GLOBE AND MAIL

"Uma Thurman and Nicole Kidman might have suffered more thoroughly in recent movies, but no one suffers more thanklessly than Zellweger does here."
-- Wesley Morris, BOSTON GLOBE

"Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is amusing but never groundbreaking."
-- Bill Muller, ARIZONA REPUBLIC

"Why, in other words, should we care about this woman, when the filmmakers obviously do not?"
-- Bruce Newman, SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

"Fielding, along with co-writers Andrew Davies, Richard Curtis and Adam Brooks, has turned what I can only believe were Bridget's charmingly human imperfections on the page into a lump of schoolgirl-style boy-craziness and corrosive self-loathing."
-- Michael O'Sullivan, WASHINGTON POST

"Bridget's is a world of upper middle-class Teflon-coated narcissism, the kind that effectively seals out any concerns other than her own, and those concerns tend to run the gamut from weight to men and back again."
-- Geoff Pevere, TORONTO STAR

"Several of the movie's farcical moments feel forced and strained."
-- Claudia Puig, USA TODAY

"Cute, cloying and catastrophically predictable."
-- Steven Rea, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

"The modest charms of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason are a triumph of performance, production, and adaptation over the empty-calorie dither of its source material."
-- Lisa Schwarzbaum, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

"Misbegotten comedy sequels have a way of resembling souring relationships. All those adorable idiosyncrasies that initially melted your heart can curdle into the very irritating habits that send you packing."
-- Jan Stuart, NEWSDAY

"So clumsy and crass that it makes you doubt the pleasure of the first movie."
-- Charles Taylor, SALON.COM

"It's a pleasing enough romp, and if you're starved for romantic comedy (where have they all gone?) this will ease your hunger pangs."
-- Teresa Wiltz, WASHINGTON POST

"All this unaccountable admiration is bestowed upon the ne plus ultra of the regressive rom-com heroine, a thirtysomething who displays the rudimentary motor functions, raging id, and darling pucker of a cuddly infant."
-- Jessica Winter, VILLAGE VOICE

"In an opening scene, Bridget, a London television reporter, sky-dives right into a pig pen. That pretty much sums up the film's attitude toward its heroine."
-- Philip Wuntch, DALLAS MORNING NEWS

"Unfortunately, Zellweger and Firth don't ignite many sparks, and Bridget's neuroses, rather than endearing her to us, can be off-putting."
-- DENVER ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

"Zellweger just shines in this role."
-- Roger Moore, ORLANDO SENTINEL

"If you liked the original, you'll like this one, only not quite as much."
-- Scott Nash, THREE MOVIE BUFFS

"It is, I'm afraid, time to retire Bridget Jones. Send her off to Happily-Ever-After Land with her vodka and Silk Cuts and handsome human-rights lawyer and let her get on with her amiable, dizzy, neurotic and now thoroughly annoying life."
-- Connie Ogle, MIAMI HERALD

"Has a single saving grace -- Grant in a small role as a salacious reporter."
-- Steve Rhodes, STEVE RHODES' INTERNET REVIEWS

"If there's a silver-lining to any of this, maybe the film could become a bestselling educational DVD, under the title, 'Mistakes to Avoid While Making a Sequel.'"
-- Alex Sandell, JUICY CEREBELLUM

"Another small jewel in the crown of unabashedly commercial, cheerfully middlebrow, eminently exportable British fluff."
-- Ella Taylor, L.A. WEEKLY

"The sight of Colin Firth running through a meadow in slow motion is worth the price of admission."
-- Betty Jo Tucker, REELTALK MOVIE REVIEWS

"Edgier than its predecessor, with zippier quips and more irreverence."
-- Phil Villarreal, ARIZONA DAILY STAR

" Rather than deal with the complications of romantic bliss, though, the makers of this sequel have decided to ignore the question entirely and basically remake the original movie."
-- Glenn Whipp, LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS