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

Nanny McPhee
Universal Pictures

Nanny McPhee reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 59 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.3 out of 10
based on 30 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 27 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG for mild thematic elements, some rude humor and brief language

Starring Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Kelly Macdonald, Celia Imrie, Derek Jacobi, Patrick Barlow, Imelda Staunton, Thomas Sangster, and Angela Lansbury

In this dark and witty fable, Emma Thompson portrays a person of unsettling appearance and magical powers who enters the household of the recently widowed Mr. Brown (Firth) and attempts to tame his seven ill-behaved children. (Universal Pictures)


GENRE(S): Comedy  |  Family/Kids  |  Fantasy  
WRITTEN BY: Emma Thompson
Christianna Brand (Nurse Matilda books)
 
DIRECTED BY: Kirk Jones  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: May 9, 2006 
Theatrical: January 27, 2006 
RUNNING TIME: 97 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: France / USA / 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
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
What actors! The great Miriam Margolyes has a wonderful cameo as a scullery maid, and Colin Firth manfully endures a face full of frosting. And then there's Angela Lansbury, playing her first movie role in 20 years as the villainous Aunt Adelaide.
Read Full Review
75
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Will kids like the movie? I suspect they will. Kids like to see other kids learning the rules even if they don't much want to learn them themselves.
Read Full Review
75
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Nanny McPhee maintains a satisfying, all-ages balance between broad comedy and human warmth.
Read Full Review
75
USA Today Claudia Puig
The film's look, fashioned by production designer Michael Howells, is noteworthy for its vibrant colors and fantastical feel.
Read Full Review
75
TV Guide Ken Fox
This quirky, uncommonly intelligent adaptation is a strange delight.
Read Full Review
75
Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
True, the movie tends toward the treacly at times, and the children's mischievousness seems a bit forced. But Thompson's turn as a glammed-down Mary Poppins with an even more no-nonsense attitude is hard to resist.
Read Full Review
75
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Thompson adapted the screenplay from Christianna Brand's "Nurse Matilda" books, and she and director Kirk Jones balance the slapstick and levity with darker enchantments. At its most enjoyable the film feels like Roald Dahl's idea of "Mary Poppins."
Read Full Review
75
Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
The cast is almost uniformly spectacular -- particularly Angela Lansbury as a wicked aunt and Raphael Coleman as the sardonic, bespectacled child who delivers hilarious, verbose asides and somehow makes it look effortless.
Read Full Review
75
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Underlying the story is sadness, a sense of mystery and a quality of pain. Enjoy the movie for its surface pleasures, but when it's over, it's those subterranean qualities that will keep it lingering in the mind.
Read Full Review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Kate Taylor
It's a brilliant opening, but the difficulty with the familiar plot formula wherein a special stranger wins over a difficult household is that once the spell has been cast, all the plot tension, and much of the movie magic, dissipates.
Read Full Review
70
Dallas Observer Staff (Not credited)
Kirk Jones (Waking Ned Devine) directs with skill, Thompson's screenplay (this is a labor of love) is witty, and the classy cast includes Colin Firth (as the kids' baffled widower-father), Angela Lansbury, Imelda Staunton, and Celia Imrie. Good fun.
Read Full Review
70
Los Angeles Times Gene Seymour
A spicy little pastry with just the right proportions of flakiness and gooeyness.
Read Full Review
70
The New York Times Stephen Holden
In the endearing but somewhat scatterbrained British film Nanny McPhee, Emma Thompson creates an indelible character reminiscent of Mary Poppins as conceived by the author P. L. Travers and the illustrator Mary Shepard.
Read Full Review
70
Variety Leslie Felperin
Under the surface, the movie has a streak of Roald Dahl-style darkness that dilutes the sugar.
Read Full Review
63
ReelViews James Berardinelli
An excellent movie… if you're a seven-year old girl. That's less a negative evaluation than it is a statement of fact. This isn't a "family film;" it's a "children's film."
Read Full Review
63
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
There's magic afoot, even if the movie is more serviceable than magical.
Read Full Review
63
Miami Herald Peter Debruge
This is, after all, "Mary Poppins" turned on its head.
Read Full Review
63
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
This bracing adaptation of the Nurse Matilda books by Christianna Brand is the acidic antidote to Mary Poppins sweetness.
Read Full Review
60
The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
I hazard the guess that quite small children--pre-science fiction, pre-heroics--will enjoy its fairy-tale quality.
Read Full Review
60
Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Highly recommended if you want to see a distinguished cast of British character actors tarted up in garish Victorian costumes and badly executing a Three Stooges-style cake fight.
Read Full Review
60
The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett
Colorful, noisy and brimming with special effects, the picture may please young audiences simply looking for loud action, but its corny storyline and brittle lack of warmth may discourage both parents and children.
Read Full Review
60
Village Voice Jaime Mastromonica
If you have someone under 10 to take to the movies, this one is charming and painless.
Read Full Review
58
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
There are times when Nanny McPhee seems designed to drive all but the most sugar-crazed spazzes out of the theater: Colors that should never go together clash like a tempest, the camera whisks around in manic curlicues, and a musical score makes certain that nothing magical goes underemphasized.
Read Full Review
50
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
One of those raucous, hyperactive kiddie flicks that knocks you upside the head from its opening frame.
Read Full Review
50
New York Post Kyle Smith
I enjoy a cozy homage to Dickens - it beats another ripoff of "The Matrix" - but though the movie has a gentle spirit, neither the actors, whose performances are broad caricatures, nor Thompson bring any wit to it.
Read Full Review
50
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Oversweetened or not, "Mary Poppins" remains a deservedly beloved work of art. Nanny McPhee is an overproduced industrial enterprise.
50
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It's a colorful and exuberant but by-the-numbers and fairly charm-free concoction.
Read Full Review
50
Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman
Parents might appreciate a lighter hand with the barnyard whimsy and food fights, but overall the movie doesn't condescend about heavy matters (grief, healing, and blended families) and is pleasantly diverting.
Read Full Review
40
Washington Post Desson Thomson
Even Thompson, the one you look forward to watching, is disappointing.
Read Full Review
20
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
There's nothing offhand or spontaneous-feeling about Nanny McPhee; it's a highly mechanical piece of work, and its potentially delightful details are wasted.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 27 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Mark K. gave it a6:
Looking at the DVD box and the talented actors, one is expecting a good movie. Alas, it turned out to be predictable and too long. Our kids asked more than once when it would end -- not a good sign!

Troy H. gave it a5:
It's not a bad movie. It's just not a very good movie either. This would have been better if it were more realistic. The impossible movie magic that that it uses, ruins the real magic it could have had.

Sam gave it a9:
The whole movie surprised me. After seeing the ad, I expected a goofy disaster, but instead recieved a glorious, moving "remake" of Mary Poppins.

Beano S. gave it a7:
Fun, but not memorible. A British "Lemony Snicket".

[Anonymous] gave it an8:
This movie totally captivated my whole family from age 5 to 40. Loved it, especially the donkey scene and the baby in the stew pot scene.

Marilyn Z. gave it a10:
Very entertaining. Everyone in our party enjoyed this movie. Some great talent and clever scenes. We are looking forward to adding this to our DVD collection.

Terry B. gave it an8:
This more was a fun forget your day type of movie. Something that yes doesn't shock you but something that you can get lost in and just have fun with.

Read more user comments...

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