several critics compared the film unfavorably to "national treasure" and "romancing the stone". some critics referred to the film as "tedious" and "listless." peter travers of "rolling stone" gave the film zero stars out of four and said "paris hilton's appalling "the hottie and the nottie" is "marginally better." travers wrote "i defy any 2008 comedy to be as stupid, slack and sexless" as "fool's gold". lou lumenick of the "new york post" gave the film one star out of four and called it "excruciatingly lame". lumenick said, "it's all basically an excuse to show off the scenery", including mcconaughey's abs. carrie rickey of "the philadelphia inquirer" gave the film one and a half stars out of four and said it "plays like a three stooges movie with scuba gear", but that "a three stooges movie is enlightened next to this one." rickey described mcconaughey as "perennially shirtless" and hudson as "peculiarly mirthless".