Empire

A French comedy that pitches for wit over broad comedy, it's successful in salting what could be a over-sugary confection with healthy dose of wryness. The result is always entertaining and rarely mawkish.

Empire by Philip Wilding

A French comedy that pitches for wit over broad comedy, it's successful in salting what could be a over-sugary confection with healthy dose of wryness. The result is always entertaining and rarely mawkish.

NPR by Stephanie Zacharek

There are certain plot points in Starbuck, it's true, that either don't make much sense or are simply underexplained. But the picture is so breezily warm, without being too insistently ingratiating, that those flaws don't matter much.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service by Roger Moore

It’s a smidge too cute and a bit too long, but Huard and Scott make this comical journey (in French and “Franglish” with English subtitles), a trip from indifference to kindness, incompetence to responsibility, a most rewarding reinvention of what “family” can mean.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Stephen Cole

Starbuck is unapologetic genre filmmaking with a winning performance from its lead, Huard ( Bon Cop, Bad Cop), a shambling, likeable comedian who can flip, flop and fly off a diving board while maintaining his sex appeal.

Chicago Sun-Times by Mary Houlihan

Scott keeps the story from becoming cloying and sentimental. He is aided by smart, low-key work from his cast, especially Huard, who easily embodies the persona of an adult slacker, instilling him with a warm charm.

Variety

A potent comedy of genetic chaos, Starbuck is pointedly contemporary and occasionally cloying, but guaranteed to draw attention for its premise and central character.

The Hollywood Reporter by John DeFore

A lovable underachiever unwittingly spawns his own village in Starbuck, Ken Scott's crowd-pleasing comedy exploring various meanings of fatherhood in the modern age.

Variety by John Anderson

A potent comedy of genetic chaos, Starbuck is pointedly contemporary and occasionally cloying, but guaranteed to draw attention for its premise and central character.

Washington Post by Michael O'Sullivan

It’s silly and a bit sappy, but it works, in a crowd-pleasing way.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch by Joe Williams

A high-concept comedy that peddles some slapstick laughs and life lessons but little insight.

RogerEbert.com by Steven Boone

Starbuck is one of those high-concept yet formulaic, sitcom-like comedies that gets by on charm and speed. It is manipulative and ingratiating but totally worth your time if you manage to pass one crucial test: Does French-Canadian actor Patrick Huard's smile make you happy?

Time Out

What could have been one long, smutty joke ends up turning into a moving slice of midlife.

Total Film by Simon Kinnear

Huard’s charm offsets the plots contrivances, while Ken Scott’s finely balanced direction humanises the high concept.

The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw

Almost all the charm of the real story is lost through the contrivances and overacting.

Slant Magazine

Yet another example of modern-family predicaments getting stuffed into the traditional-family-values message of conventional comedies.

Village Voice by Jon Frosch

The humor here is sitcom broad, and Scott displays little sense of rhythm; the film runs under two hours, but feels considerably longer.