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Clockstoppers
Metascore
40 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 24 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 24
  3. Negative: 5 out of 24
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  1. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Jan Stuart
    70
    Exceptionally user-friendly for the technologically challenged among us and rides over its less inspired patches on a wave of cheeky humor.
  2. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    63
    The movie has been produced by Nickelodeon, and will no doubt satisfy its intended audience enormously. It does not cross over into the post-Nickelodeon universe.
  3. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Foreman
    63
    They may not have made another "Back to the Future," but to their credit, the makers of Clockstoppers don't patronize or underestimate their pre-teen audience nearly as much as has become customary.
  4. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dave Kehr
    60
    A competent, unpretentious entertainment destined to fill the after-school slot at shopping mall theaters across the country.
  5. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    50
    After the first hour, it starts to convince you that time really can stand still.
    All this critic's reviews
  6. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    50
    The result is mixed bag, an intermittently pleasing but mostly routine effort.
  7. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    50
    Tries and winds up with a pleasant, if forgettable, romp of a film.
  8. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Loren King
    50
    The film doesn't have enough innovation or pizazz to attract teenagers, and it lacks the novel charm that made ''Spy Kids'' a surprising winner with both adults and younger audiences.
  9. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    50
    There's a scientific law to be discerned here that producers would be well to heed: Mediocre movies start to drag as soon as the action speeds up; when the explosions start, they fall to pieces.
  10. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    50
    To be fair, Clockstoppers isn't a bad film, merely bereft of creativity and personality.
  11. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Mark Olsen
    50
    Intermittently fun, but mostly just efficiently passable.
  12. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    50
    If I were 13, I might be sufficiently entranced by the movie's bicycle stunts (down stairs! across countertops!) and wouldn't be wondering why ideas for science fiction films haven't progressed very far from "Star Trek's" first seasons all those decades ago.
  13. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    50
    This moves back and forth between slightly clever and dopey or silly, kept vaguely watchable by the charming leads.
  14. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    40
    Although it looks like an action thriller with a sci-fi twist, the bad guys aren't scary (Biehn's soul patch notwithstanding), the sci-fi element is silly and the action is limited to some extreme bike riding and computer-generated zipping around.
  15. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Russell Smith
    40
    Pack the kids off to the multiplex with an easy conscience and forgiving critical sensibility.
  16. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Damien Cave
    40
    What Clockstoppers achieves in acting and decent special effects, it undermines with weak dialogue and directing. The movie isn't bad; it just makes you wish that certain scenes could be hypertimed into oblivion.
  17. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    40
    Botches what could be the most mischievous power since Scott Baio's telekinesis in the 1982 comedy "Zapped!": a wristwatch that speeds up time for the user until the rest of the world seems to be standing still.
  18. Variety
    Reviewed by: Robert Koehler
    40
    A blandly conceived youth adventure lacking zing or style.
  19. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    40
    Benign but forgettable sci-fi diversion.
  20. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Robert K. Elder
    38
    With Clockstoppers, Frakes hobbles along with a high-concept film that doesn't live up to its potential.
  21. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    25
    Not enough to keep Clockstoppers from turning viewers into clock-watchers.
    All this critic's reviews
  22. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Eric Campos
    20
    If I had the ability to engage in hyper-time, I would’ve ran up to the box office, snatched my money and left.
  23. New Times (L.A.)
    Reviewed by: Luke Y. Thompson
    20
    Its most redeeming quality is that it's so inoffensive parents can feel OK about taking kids.
  24. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    16
    Stops time, all right -- it stretches 94 minutes into something that begins to feel like infinity.
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