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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, The

EMAILPRINTBuena Vista Pictures / Walt Disney Pictures

Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, The reviews
43
6.1 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 22 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Comedy  |  Family/Kids  |  Romance

Written by: Shonda Rhimes
Gina Wendkos
Meg Cabot (novel)

Directed by: Garry Marshall

Release Date:
Theatrical: August 11, 2004
DVD: December 14, 2004

Running Time: 115 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: G for General Audiences

Starring Julie Andrews, Anne Hathaway, Hector Elizondo, Heather Matarazzo, Chris Pine, Kathleen Marshall, and John Rhys-Davies

After learning that Genovian law requires princesses to be married before being crowned, Mia (Hathaway) faces a parade of suitors who would all like to be her king. (Walt Disney Pictures)

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...

75

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

Ends strong, in an ultimately smoother, smarter sequel.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

Offers enough glossy good cheer to appeal to everyone.

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67

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Winda Benedetti

Fans of the first "Princess Diaries" will find enough laughs and diamonds in the rough to sustain them on their way to this important moral.

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63

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Although all the key players are back - including, fans will be glad to hear, Heather Matarazzo as cynical sidekick Lilly Moscovitz - the freshness of the first is long gone.

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63

New York Post Megan Lehmann

Has just enough fairy dust to charm its target audience.

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63

USA Today Claudia Puig

We all love a good fairy tale, but the enchantment is missing in this predictable sequel.

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63

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

As a movie, it's a mixed bag with a huge amount of heart.

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60

Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman

As reassuring and soothing as a nursery story.

60

Empire Ian Freer

Perhaps the best film ever aimed at eight year-old girls to be directed by a 69 year-old man.

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60

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Like its predecessor, it's Hollywood hokum at its most glamorous and effective.

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50

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jennie Punter

Like the first movie, Princess Diaries 2 relies primarily on the chemistry and screen appeal of Andrews and Hathaway to elevate the storytelling above the level of mush.

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50

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Whenever Andrews - that incarnation of the sensible and the sensitive - glides on screen, PD2 sparkles.

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50

Washington Post Sara Gebhardt

Sometimes charming, sometimes a tad too silly and all the time predictable.

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50

Miami Herald Christine Dolan

If Andrews oozes regal poise and Hathaway radiates movie star allure -- and they do -- credit the actresses, not this flimsy fairy tale.

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50

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Two hours pass painlessly enough, thanks to the affability of its trio of leads, Hathaway, Andrews, and Elizondo.

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50

Entertainment Weekly Scott Brown

The film's generic feminism pales beside its bloated sense of privilege, only underlined by a nonstop cabaret of sideshow acts.

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42

Portland Oregonian Karen Karbo

Panders to the worst traits in the target audience of spoiled third-grade girls.

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40

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

If there is one high point to be found, it's that Julie Andrews sings for the first time since her 1997 throat surgery.

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40

Dallas Observer Melissa Levine

Garry Marshall is at it again. He disguises an insidious worship of wealth and privilege as a "feel-good" comedy about a wacky girl whose transition from ugly duckling to swan is supposed to inspire feelings of empowerment. In three words: It's a crock.

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40

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Slovenly writing by Shondra Rimes doesn't help, and the movie bows out with an omigod-we-forgot-the-feminism twist — too little, too late to redeem this lumpish excuse for a contemporary fairy tale.

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40

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Andrews is still a treasure, but the series's currency is plummeting.

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40

Variety Joe Leydon

Too blandly insubstantial to expand its appeal beyond its target demographic.

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40

TV Guide Angel Cohn

Good-natured but overstuffed sequel.

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40

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Anne Hathaway's charms barely rescue this exercise in lame comedy and romance.

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40

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Benefits from extremely modest expectations. For it to be anything but painfully arbitrary would count as an accomplishment, so the fact that it's superficially entertaining qualifies as a minor triumph.

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40

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Mr. Marshall, is not much of a film director. Depending on the budget, his movies look either cheap (like this one) or studio slick ("Pretty Woman"), and tend to have the same flat, presentational visual style that's familiar from most sitcoms.

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38

Boston Globe Ty Burr

So unfocused is Shonda Rhimes's screenplay and so flabby is Marshall's direction.

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38

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Did you (Garry Marshall) deliberately assemble this movie from off-the-shelf parts or did it just happen that way? The film is like a homage to the cliches and obligatory stereotypes of its genre.

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38

Premiere Peter Debruge

Threadbare sequel.

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30

Village Voice Ed Park

Scenes end abruptly, laughs are as rare as yetis, and the overarching question seems to be: Can we turn this into a franchise?

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30

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

There's not enough story in it to fill a shoebox.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 6.1 (out of 10) based on 22 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Bubba Y. gave it a10:
This was a heart warming movie!

jamie b. gave it a10:
It was an awsome movie i love it!!!!!

:) :) gave it a10:
I think this movie was fabulous, it makes every girl believe she is a princess. :)

Mark B. gave it a6:
[***SPOILERS***] Britney? Eee-YEW! Mary-Kate and Ashley? DOUBLE eee-yew! Hilary? OK; needs better scripts. Mandy? Not bad; getting there. Lindsay? Terrific young actress; loved her in Freaky Friday and Mean Girls, but if she doesn't cut the tabloid party-girl stuff, she's gonna be the next Tara Reid in a couple years. So that leaves the unassuming Anne Hathaway as my favorite of the tween queens; she's charming, coltish but graceful, and sweetly sexy--and she starred in one of 2004's underrated gems: Ella Enchanted, a pop culture/ fairy tale spoof I liked more than Shrek 2. She's one of the two major selling points of The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, Garry Marshall's boilerplate if-you-liked-the-first-here's-more-o'-the-same sequel to his fresher 2001 original. Hathaway is so direct and likable that she turns scenes that have the potential to be unbearably saccharine, like the orphans' parade, into something watchable. (Am I alone, though, in thinking that she was even cuter in PD1 before the contact lenses and the eyebrow work?) Then there's Julie Andrews, as Anne's royal grandmother, whose clandestine romance with Marshall favorite Hector Elizando is a highlight here--and after her throat surgery, it's a real treat to hear her sing again. I thought PD1 was more than passably pleasant largely because of Hathaway, Elizando and Andrews; despite their equally good work here I found the sequel less so because its plot and central romance were so predictable: princess-in-training Mia (Hathaway) has to get married or lose the crown, and must ultimately choose between her nice but slightly dorky betrothed (Callum Blue) and a pouty heartthrob (Chris Pine) who looks like he stepped off the cover of one of Lisa Simpson's Non-Threatening Boys magazines. There's no question that women face a glass ceiling in the business world, but men face a similar one in romances like this: in literally hundreds of movies ranging from The Strawberry Blonde to Secret Admirer to Caveman (to randomly name just three), the guy ends up with the less flashy but sweeter and more genuine option. (This happens so often that the very few deliberate exceptions, such as Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo and Robert Altman's The Player, invariably turn into classics.) However, in female wish-fulfillment fantasies like this, the heroine almost always prefers--and gets--the vapid but hunky eye candy. I saw it coming a mile away--perhaps that's why, when I rented this out at Blockbuster, watched the first half and was interrupted by friends dropping in, I didn't get around to finishing it off until a week later, after watching 5 other movies and all 22 episodes of the Quantum Leap Season 2 DVD set I got for Christmas. (Thank God for the monthly freedom pass!) It's not that PD2 is a terrible movie by any standards, it's just that it's so inconsequential that finding out what I already knew was going to happen wasn't an overwhelming priority.

Katie gave it a10:
I think this movie was great. Doesn't matter what anyone says, I loved it. I hope they come out with another one. A even better one! great job!

Elizabeth A. gave it a9:
I loved this movie!!! I thought that it was an excellent sequel to the first movie & it was very entertaining for people of all ages.

Chrissy D. gave it a 10:
It was... no is one of the best movies ever.

Read more user comments >

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