Second Act reviews: What are critics saying about Jennifer Lopez's new movie?

econd Act tels the story of Value Shop assistant manager Maya Vargas, who wants only one thing for her 43rd birthday – a promotion. Directed by Peter Segal, the flick has an a strong cekebrity cast including Jennifer Lopez and Vanessa Hudgens. The film is out in UK cinemas on January 25 but has already aired in US cinemas, so reviews are rolling in.

What do critics have to say about Second Act?

According to Rotten Tomatoes: “Second Act is a comedy in the vein of Working Girl and Maid In Manhattan.

“Jennifer Lopez stars as Maya, a 40-year-old woman struggling with frustrations from unfulfilled dreams.

“Until that is, she gets the chance to prove to Madison Avenue that street smarts are as valuable as book smarts and that it is never too late for a Second Act.”

Peter Travers at Rolling Stone gave it 2.5 out of five stars and wrote: “When the contrivances get too much in this ‘Working Girl’ for millennials, just watch take-charge, live-wire Jenny from the block deliver miles of smiles.”

Los Angeles Times’ Mark Olsen wrote: “The movie is all over the place and there is no attempt to weave it into a coherent whole – which is regrettable as scene-for-scene it often works.”

Moira MacDonald gave Second Act 2.5 out of four stars for the Seattle Times, saying: “It’s a pleasant enough diversion, helped along immensely by Lopez’s warm screen presence and by a first-rate Sassy Best Friend performance by Leah Remini.”

Brian Lowry wrote for CNN.com: “The movie frankly feels like three stories in one — without fully servicing any of them — but skates by, barely, on the strength of Lopez’s charm and some amusing supporting players.”

Time Out’s Abbey Bender gave the movie two out of five stars and wrote: “If only the world saw street smarts as equal to book smarts, Maya wishes on her birthday.

“It’s a nice idea, but Second Act doesn’t possess smarts in either category.”

For The Wrap, Yolanda Machado wrote: “Through each storyline pivot, the focus is lost, and it never reclaims any footing it may have had in the first place.”

Giving it a score of C+ for IndieWire, Kate Erbland wrote: “Second Act never recovers from its big reveal, a cataclysmic (and nearly catastrophic) piece of narrative nuttiness that derails every scene, every performance, every subsequent revelation.”

For AV Club, Caroline Siede also gave the rom-com a C+, saying: “To its credit, it remains fairly watchable even as it veers around wildly in tone. Yet Second Act also proves that all-in-one products have their downsides.”

Granting a rating of an impressively low zero stars out of four, Rex Reed wrote for Observer: “Second Act has nothing to recommend it, even as a temporary refuge from traffic gridlock.”

For Newsday, Rafer Guzman rated Second Act two out of four stars, and wrote: “Lopez still has her magic touch, but this semi-romantic comedy doesn’t do her justice.”

For the Hollywood Reporter, Keith Uhlich wrote Second Act: “seems destined to survive all future nuclear winters, enduring as a time capsule of humanity at its most pitiably pedestrian.”

New York Magazine’s Emily Yoshida wrote: “It sends so many mixed messages over the course of its 104 minutes that it probably succeeds in its true goal: to give off the general patina of something that could ostensibly be all things to all women.”

The New York Times critic Wesley Morris simply wrote: “This is Jenny from the blah.”

Second Act is out in UK cinemas on January 25, 2018.