It’s pretty unfair that “No Strings Attached” was the first sex friends movie of 2011. Simply by the calendar, it automatically made “Friends with Benefits” the other movie, the rip-off that people would avoid on principle. Too bad, as the Natalie Portman-Ashton Kutcher combination is inferior to Justin and Mila’s tryst in just about every way.
Not even judging it against its doppleganger, it still disappoints, falling at the low end of the already low romantic comedy spectrum. Kutcher and Portman have such an awkward chemistry that unfailingly feels fake and manufactured. Their two acting backgrounds – he from “Punk’d” and “Dude, Where’s My Car,” she from working with Luc Besson, Mike Nichols, and Darren Aronofsky (not to mention her Harvard education) – make them a mismatch from the get-go. Their incompatibility makes the inevitability of their relationship’s end just that much more unbearable.
Portman as doctor Emma and Kutcher as TV writer Adam make for strange bedfellows, quite literally. Their relationship hardly qualifies as friendly before having sex, and how they wind up starting their casual affair makes even less sense. Everyone surrounding them is just as brutal, including his father dating an old ex-girlfriend (Kevin Kline), his encouraging friends (Ludacris among others), and her flat and useless colleagues (Greta Gerwig and the very funny Mindy Kaling, undeservedly wasted here). It’s an unfortunate blemish on Portman’s otherwise very impressive résumé, and perhaps the film’s reception will give her more caution in her selection of comedy films from now on. As for Ivan Reitman, the family mojo has clearly shifted to Jason as this is clearly not the same filmmaker who made classic comedies like “Stripes” and “Ghostbusters.”
Turns out you can’t have sex without falling love in an American romantic comedy … who knew?! In case Hollywood hasn’t hammered this into your head enough over the past decade, the studio executives gave you TWO movies this year that literally say it to your face. So if you don’t want reruns of a rerun, choose “Friends with Benefits” because it will actually make you laugh on the way to its predictable conclusion. “No Strings Attached,” on the other hand, will bore you with its unconvincing romance and bland melodrama. C- / 
Marshall and the Movies 
The chemistry is OK but the laughs blow and the film tries too hard to actually be raunchy and funny even though it sucks on both levels. Good Review!