Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
"The Boss" has zero finesse as a comedy. When Darnell crashes into a wall, or takes a tumble down the stairs, it's alarming and painful, as opposed to funny.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
A hit-and-miss comedy, but McCarthy leads a game cast through several memorable moments.

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
I persist in believing that Melissa McCarthy is capable of starring in a movie that not only makes a scads of money but is - you know - good. The latest refutation of my belief is The Boss.

Name : Adam Graham / Alias : Detroit News
"The Boss" never feels like more than a series of bawdy, R-rated sketches held together by bubble gum and masking tape.

Name : Mark Olsen / Alias : Los Angeles Times
It is hard to think of a movie squandering the opportunity of a perfectly timed cultural moment quite like "The Boss."

Name : Joe Dziemianowicz / Alias : New York Daily News
"The Boss" doesn't work.

Name : Stephanie Zacharek / Alias : TIME Magazine
McCarthy deserves better than this. She can aim higher.

Name : Leah Pickett / Alias : Chicago Reader
Dinklage is awful as the foppish villain, and aside from one uproarious, ad-libbed riff, McCarthy seems to be on autopilot.

Name : David Lewis / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
"The Boss'' provides the talented Melissa McCarthy plenty of scenery to comically chew on - she is very funny at times - but the story is paper-thin, and the script gives much of the supporting cast the proverbial pink slip.

Name : Jesse Hassenger / Alias : AV Club
A lot of The Boss works because Michelle Darnell is a funny character, and McCarthy is funny playing her.

Name : Jake Coyle / Alias : Associated Press
As in McCarthy's slipshod road movies Identity Thief and Tammy, the material here isn't on her level, the laughs are largely cheap and once again, the hall-of-fame comic actress is stuck in a minor-league movie.

Name : Justin Chang / Alias : Variety
McCarthy remains one of the funniest actors alive - a truth that frequently rescues, but doesn't really redeem, this sloppy comedy .

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
McCarthy is great - foul-mouthed, funny and fierce. And for those of us who suffered painfully (yet hopefully) through things like "Identity Thief," the movie feels like a healthy step forward.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
Did you ever think only male comics could obsess over infantile boob, crotch and sex jokes? The Boss will set you straight on that delusion, too.

Name : Sara Stewart / Alias : New York Post
McCarthy shines when loosely riffing, but the plot tightens around her like a vise.

Name : Brian Truitt / Alias : USA Today
A free-for-all of inappropriate language unsuitable for even the most crass boy's-club boardroom, The Boss can't quite decide if warming the heart or obliterating it with insults is the end goal.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
McCarthy's trademark blend of chipper likability and treble-voiced rage just isn't quite enough to carry things through.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
It's just early April, but I have an early contender for the most loathsome, ill-advised, horrible executed, most spectacularly unfunny movie scene of the year.

Name : Mara Reinstein / Alias : Us Weekly
The gifted Melissa McCarthy has spent the bulk of her post-Bridesmaids career elevating so-so material. Add this raunchy comedy to the pile of mediocrity.

Name : Jim Slotek / Alias : Toronto Sun
Well, they can't all be Bridesmaids.

Name : Will Leitch / Alias : The New Republic
By making McCarthy the center of every scene without giving her an actual character to play, Falcone and McCarthy require her to carry more weight that anyone possibly could.

Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
Although her charisma is still undeniable, there's also no denying that McCarthy is capable of much more than she's allowing herself to do here. There comes a point when every force of nature starts to look just plain forced.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
World-class gumption and an on-camera look that the pretty committee would applaud can't save a poorly executed comedy whose essential elements are dirty words and falling down.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
McCarthy is a national slapstick treasure, but The Boss is a weak-kneed comedy that would topple without her.

Name : Leah Greenblatt / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
A few moments are fantastically bonkers, but granting director duties to McCarthy's husband, Ben Falcone, feels more like an act of love than wisdom.

Name : Barbara VanDenburgh / Alias : Arizona Republic
There are brief bursts of hilarity, and they are all, without exception, owed to McCarthy's innate charisma and comedic timing.

Name : Manohla Dargis / Alias : New York Times
Sometimes it's pleasurable enough just watching the most unlikely American comedy star since Bill Murray slip into a groove.

Name : Melissa Anderson / Alias : Village Voice
The Boss gives its star few, if any, hitting partners. It's a baffling decision .

Name : Dan Callahan / Alias : TheWrap
It isn't comedy, and it isn't drama, much less comedy-drama.

Name : Brad Wheeler / Alias : Globe and Mail
This is a lazy Melissa McCarthy vehicle that relies on relentless potty-mouth moments - it's so funny when otherwise decorous characters continually do the vulgar! - and the pratfall comedy of McCarthy.

Name : Andrew Lapin / Alias : NPR
Nothing in the storyline, direction or character types is remotely fresh.

Name : Richard Brody / Alias : New Yorker
The movie is all too neat a package for McCarthy's exuberantly inventive comic artistry.

Name : Molly Eichel / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
McCarthy is such a comedic powerhouse that she can play Michelle with incredible physicality and slapstick while also imbuing the character with wit, cunning, and even ruthlessness.

Name : Tom Russo / Alias : Boston Globe
The loosey-goosey fun might be a bit much at the finish, but it's still a laugh watching McCarthy try to get back on her feet.

Name : Frank Scheck / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
The Boss feels like an elongated sketch.

Name : Joshua Rothkopf / Alias : Time Out
Even though The Boss is co-written by McCarthy and her husband, director Ben Falcone (who should know his wife's strengths better), the film often strands its title character in shrill one-note caricature, mostly unchallenged.