45
Metascore
32 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittThe result is fine fantasy fun.
- 75New York PostLou LumenickNew York PostLou LumenickIt's Willis who delivers the goods in scene after scene, triumphing over a thin script, often bland direction.
- 60Film.comPeter BrunetteFilm.comPeter BrunetteIt's solid, if ultimately uninspired, July entertainment.
- 60Chicago ReaderLisa AlspectorChicago ReaderLisa AlspectorVigilant viewers may spend many of the 101 minutes fixating on tiny holes in the plot, but I was busy being moved by the premise and the filmmakers' confidence in the power of their metaphor: a little boy who's disappointed in the man he grew up to be.
- 60NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenBut if the endpoint is a homiletic given, the journey itself is more charming, and less sentimental, than you might suspect.
- 50Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranA movie we might like to buy into if left to our own devices, but that idea is anathema to Turteltaub, intent on pushing us so hard that we end up pushing back.
- 50USA TodaySusan WloszczynaUSA TodaySusan WloszczynaThis boomer-coddling comic fantasy, in which a callous adult on the brink of 40 has a chance encounter with his pudgy, lisping 8-year-old self, is an iffier what-if.
- 42Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean AxmakerSeattle Post-IntelligencerSean AxmakerWillis and Breslin are stuck in a charmless, predictable picture they can't escape.
- 40TV Guide MagazineSteve SimelsTV Guide MagazineSteve SimelsManipulative but fitfully entertaining "Twilight Zone"-ish comedy of redemption.
- 20VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyDirector Jon Turteltaub's insistence upon hammering every point home with giant closeups and relentless musical underlining makes this insufferably cloying and sickly sweet.