CNET Networks Entertainment GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer | Metacritic | MP3.com | TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Film

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Wide Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 

Limited Releases

sort by name sort by score

xx All of Us
53 Allah Made Me Funny: Live in Concert
57 Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela, The
63 Appaloosa
68 Ashes of Time Redux
68 August Evening
62 Baghead
81 Ballast
55 Battle in Seattle
xx Beer for My Horses
xx Billy: The Early Years
63 Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story
56 Bottle Shock
50 Breakfast with Scot
61 Brick Lane
xx Call and Response
49 Children of Huang Shi, The
47 Choke
43 Choose Connor
41 Cthulhu
62 Duchess, The
85 Edge of Heaven, The
66 Elegy
80 Encounters at the End of the World
26 Everybody Wants to Be Italian
64 Fall, The
28 Fireproof
65 Flow: For Love of Water
37 Forever Strong
82 Frozen River
73 Girl Cut in Two, A
73 Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
51 Good Dick
82 Happy-Go-Lucky
44 Henry Poole is Here
31 Hounddog
53 Humboldt County
72 I Served the King of England
71 I.O.U.S. A
40 Igor
64 In Search of a Midnight Kiss
xx Just Buried
62 Kabluey
63 Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
78 Last Mistress, The
xx Lower Learning
63 Man Named Pearl, A
89 Man on Wire
62 Mister Foe
86 Momma's Man
80 Moving Midway
47 Nights and Weekends
73 Obscene
xx Phoebe in Wonderland
55 Ping Pong Playa
76 Pool, The
82 Rachel Getting Married
55 Religulous
57 RocknRolla
55 Save Me
72 Secret, A
45 Shoot on Sight
57 Sixty Six
82 Tell No One
63 Thousand Years of Good Prayers, A
57 Towelhead
72 Transsiberian
83 Trouble the Water
83 U2 3D
84 Up the Yangtze
52 Virtual JFK: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived
79 Visitor, The
xx W.
61 Wackness, The
xx Whaledreamers
66 When Did You Last See Your Father?

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Calendar Girls
Buena Vista Pictures / Walt Disney Pictures

Calendar Girls reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 60 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.2 out of 10
based on 30 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 4 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for nudity, some language and drug-related material

Starring Julie Walters, Helen Mirren, Linda Bassett, Ciaran Hinds, Penelope Wilton, John Alderton, George Costigan, and Annette Crosbie

This film is based on the true story of the unconventional efforts of the Rylstone Women's Institute in North Yorkshire, England to raise money for leukemia research.


GENRE(S): Comedy  
WRITTEN BY: Tim Firth
Juliette Towhidi
 
DIRECTED BY: Nigel Cole  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: May 4, 2004 
Video: May 4, 2004 
Theatrical: December 19, 2003 
RUNNING TIME: 108 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: UK 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

83
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
While each Yorkshire playmate-of-the-month warmly assesses her own undewy flesh, the movie gives off a happy vibe of appreciation -- for the dignity of the real Rylstone lot, the actresses who play them so lovingly, and the simple, flower-bed borders of the story.
Read Full Review
75
Miami Herald Connie Ogle
The film's appeal is universal, not just female, and, best of all, it's based on a true story.
Read Full Review
75
Chicago Tribune Mark Caro
It creates a strong sense of a living, breathing community, and you root for its affectionately drawn characters as they experience the giddiness of triumph without forgetting the project's bittersweet inspiration.
Read Full Review
75
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
The story hooks us because stars Helen Mirren and Julie Walters look as fetching in woolens and Wellingtons as they do in the altogether. But it reels us in because it is about people who for so long have paid lip service to making a difference that they are profoundly altered when they actually do.
Read Full Review
75
San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
Charming movie,
Read Full Review
75
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It's the kind of sweet, good-humored comedy that used to star Margaret Rutherford, although Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, its daring top-liners, would have curled Dame Margaret's eyebrows.
Read Full Review
75
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
This is good clean fun, with or without the soap, and one of the most spirited entries of the season.
Read Full Review
75
New York Post Lou Lumenick
May be boomer-baiting formula, but this ingratiating, big-hearted holiday treat is as British as plum pudding - and the closest thing on the market to the famous Ealing comedies.
Read Full Review
70
The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett
It's a real-life story adapted into a grown-up comedy that is warm, winning and sexy. Call it "The Full Auntie."
Read Full Review
70
Village Voice Jessica Winter
Remains a genial lesson in how to both honor and subvert womanly expectations.
Read Full Review
70
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Inspired by a true story, this slight but charming and nicely balanced comedy tells the tale of a group of middle-aged women in a Yorkshire village who decide to pose nude for the dozen photographs in a fund-raising calendar.
Read Full Review
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
The result is a movie that washes down without much thinking or introspection, provides some laughs and a tear or two, and dishes up a little something to mull over with its messages about friendship and loyalty in the face of naked ambition.
Read Full Review
63
USA Today Mike Clark
What the movie can't quite get over, no matter how hard the filmmakers try, is the story's built-in limitations.
Read Full Review
63
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Unfortunately, the material doesn't justify the talent. These women deserve more than Calendar Girls ultimately gives them.
Read Full Review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Both Mirren and Walters are successfully cast against type.
Read Full Review
63
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
More like that crowd-pleasing UK fluff that requires great actresses to do wacky things. Mirren is such an easy, breezy presence that you might think she's playing the screenwriting equivalent of air.
Read Full Review
63
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
A gently pleasing if mostly undramatic picture.
Read Full Review
63
Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
A film as clever and embracingly ribald as this shouldn't have to resort to cliche in the end; director Nigel Cole should have kept his girls in Britain and kept the mood light.
Read Full Review
60
Dallas Observer Bill Gallo
There are many winning moments here, but director Nigel Cole (Saving Grace) sometimes imparts to the thing a terrible case of the cutes and an overeagerness to please.
Read Full Review
60
Variety Derek Elley
Though the film is never dull, and playing by the cast is spirited, it's actually a surprisingly gentle movie, with no big "Full Monty"-like finale to send auds buzzing into the street.
Read Full Review
60
Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis
Closer in texture and consistency to individually wrapped American cheese than good, tangy English cheddar. But even humble plastic-wrapped cheese has its virtues and so does this film.
Read Full Review
60
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
It's too good a story not to have been made into a movie. Yet Calendar Girls, directed by Nigel Cole ("Saving Grace"), is filled with lots of extras it doesn't need, when the bare-naked bones of the story would have been plenty.
Read Full Review
60
TV Guide Angel Cohn
The caliber of the cast, led by Mirren and Walters, elevates the material above movie-of-the-week level, and viewers can relish seeing these fine actresses play against type.
Read Full Review
58
Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
The result is an overly long, overly cute film that is far too tickled with its own naughtiness. It truly is an instance of if you've seen the trailer, you've seen the film.
Read Full Review
50
Premiere Glenn Kenny
Everyone involved figured that sentiment trumps sloppiness. Original Soundtrack
Read Full Review
50
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Very funny and surprisingly likable until it goes Hollywood.
50
The New York Times A.O. Scott
When the biggest compliment you can pay a picture is that it is professional and not smug, there's a little something missing, like invention.
Read Full Review
50
LA Weekly Scott Foundas
The real-life calendar girls were actual human beings, and here they're merely comic patsies, lacking the distinctive personalities that made the men of "The Full Monty" so endearing, their final act of revelation so peculiarly dignified.
Read Full Review
50
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Don't race to see it unless a female "Full Monty" is just what you've been waiting for.
Read Full Review
40
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The actresses are terrific together, and it’s nice to see Helen Mirren smiling onscreen for a change. And although Calendar Girls is resolutely pleasant, the movie never really goes much beyond that.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Dr J. gave it a10:
A wonderful, insightful, delicate comedy which touches the heart and brings out the one thing we all hate to talk about...CANCER. Older women do have wonderful charm and to age with grace is a virtue. BRAVO to their courage.

Kristin D. gave it a 7:
Calendar Girls was a cute movie. No, not the best movie, but not the worst movie. Do I recommend it? Yes, but it's not a movie you see over and over again because it's not that good. you really don't have a happy feeling after the movie either.

WAKO JAKO gave it a 7:
Not as funny as the trailier, but still better than expected dramedy that lays the punches a little heavy in the last third and titillates less than it immitates other well-known films... I'm giving it points for sure-footed performances from a rather shaky script.

Cuervo gave it a 5:
The conflicts that show up in the last half of the movie seem artificial, as if the director were looking around for things to extend the length of the film. Some good heart-warming parts, but overall a disappointment.

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: Fantasy Football | Miley Cyrus | MLB | iPhone 3G | GPS | Recipes | Shwayze | NFL

About CNET Networks | Jobs | Advertise

© 2008 CNET Networks, Inc., a CBS Company. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use