great first half, then falls apart

Rating: 6/10 (26 May 2006)

For the first hour, this is a very funny movie, fueled almost entirely by WIll Smith's inexhaustible supplies of charm. And Kevin James is quite amusing as a klutzy guy who seeks his help in winning the girl of his dreams. There are things that could have been better - there's no explanation of why Hitch targets Mendes and works it so hard or anything to indicate James' "love" is anything more than an infatuation with a girl because she's pretty, but the movie bounces along with minimal plot and much humor for a good while.
The movie dies when the story kicks in as Smith's romance begins to clash with James. The moment I saw that open, I knew exactly the pedestrian path the movie would follow, and I found it painfully to watch it tritely and predictably play out. The complete lack of originality was downright insulting to the audience, as though the writers couldn't be bothered to even try for anything different from a million other mediocre romantic comedies.