Critics applaud Bridget Jones Baby as an 'absolute hoot'

Renee Zellweger returns as Bridget Jones. Picture / AP

Our favourite loveable ditz is back, and this time she's got herself up the duff and people are loving it.

Despite the less-than-impressed reception of previous Bridget Jones films, critics are rating the latest instalment Bridget Jones's Baby much higher than expected.

In the film, a newly single Jones, played by Renee Zellweger, discovers she is pregnant and, with the help of friends, has to work out who the father is.

Tim Robey from the Daily Telegraph (UK) says "Zellweger feels back in charge of the character again, and even her excesses are easily indulged, after the tonally hideous detour of 2004's The Edge of Reason.

Kevin P. Sullivan from Entertainment Weekly says "the proceedings may be typical for Bridget and the series, but it's all played so earnestly that it's difficult to hold a grudge".

"The script contains some genuinely uproarious laughs and is sharper than it needs to be."

Jane Crawther from Total Film writes that the film is "a warm, witty and welcome return - intelligently evolved and an absolute hoot. As Bridget would say: 'v.good'."

Bridget Jones's Baby is due to be released in New Zealand on September 22.

Bridget Jones's Baby producer Eric Fellner said this week that he has already started thinking about bringing Helen Fielding's 2013 novel Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy to the big screen.

"Helen has another book out there called Mad About the Boy which picks up eight years later ... so maybe in eight years' time we can talk about it."