Flipped
Metascore
45 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 24 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 24
  3. Negative: 2 out of 24
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  1. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    50
    Reiner again demonstrates compassion and insight into young people's battles to acquire self-knowledge, but in his new film, too many clearly fictional characters and contrived situations bog down his story.
  2. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    88
    Maybe what makesFlipped" such a warm entertainment is how it re-creates a life we wish we'd had when we were 14.
  3. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    88
    Flipped is Rob Reiner's best film in 18 years, and includes echoes of two of his most accomplished efforts, "The Sure Thing" and "Stand By Me."
  4. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    75
    Callan McAuliffe, a handsome Australian youth, looks right as the perma-press Bryce.
  5. Orlando Sentinel
    Reviewed by: Roger Moore
    75
    A flipped take on tween-to-teen romance that make it such a minor gem.
  6. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    63
    Interesting enough that you wish it were better.
  7. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    63
    Though it's not worth doing cartwheels over, Flipped is a pleasantly nostalgic and well-intentioned family movie featuring strong performances by its young actors.
  8. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    63
    Sweet, smartly acted, and charmingly old-fashioned, Flipped is a minor pleasure that will strike a lot of moviegoers - those who think no one makes movies for them anymore - as a major treat.
  9. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Joe Williams
    63
    As phony as a poodle-skirted waitress at a mall diner, yet it's as sweet as a malt. A vanilla one.
  10. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    50
    The story should have made for charming results on screen. Instead - and I truly don't enjoy saying so - co-adapter and director Rob Reiner's picture lands somewhere between synthetic nostalgia and the texture of real life.
  11. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Amy Biancolli
    50
    Flipped succeeds when it backs off the gluey nostalgia and focuses instead on the subtler pitfalls of adolescence - the tough stuff, the moral stuff, the constant tacking between fear and courage.
  12. Boxoffice Magazine
    Reviewed by: Pete Hammond
    90
    This is a beautifully crafted and special movie to cherish, one likely to stay with you long after most of the so-called summer blockbusters have faded into memory.
  13. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Lisa Rosman
    60
    Though the dialogue rings too chirpy ("Gee whiz!") and faintly anachronistic ("Get over it, man!"), the acting is wonderfully subtle, especially John Mahoney's turn as Bryce's grimly clear-eyed grandfather.
  14. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    40
    There's barely half a film here, stretched and pulled so thin you can nearly see through it.
  15. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Kimberley Jones
    50
    Far more interesting than Juli and Bryce's banal budding love is Reiner and co-scripter Andrew Scheinman's sensitive exploration of how parents shape their children.
  16. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: M. E. Russell
    75
    A charming Rob Reiner film that more or less works as intended.
  17. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Adam Markovitz
    42
    Worse, he (Reiner) vacuum-seals it all in a patronizingly wholesome package, like an extended episode of "The Wonder Years" with all the wonder sucked out.
  18. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Betsy Sharkey
    70
    Flipped is the kind of small, special movie that wraps you up in so much warmth, humor and humanity that it will leave you wishing that stories like this weren't so rare.
  19. Variety
    Reviewed by: Andrew Barker
    50
    A well-intentioned family pic about first love that's overly concerned with period details and life lessons, rather than the genuinely sweet characters at its center.
  20. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Cliff Doerksen
    50
    Eventually the kids figure out that parents and other authority figures (among them Rebecca De Mornay, Anthony Edwards, Penelope Miller, and Aidan Quinn) don't always have it together. Was this trip necessary?
  21. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ernest Hardy
    40
    Reiner, in very broad strokes, works in issues of poverty, thwarted dreams and family obligation, and almost pulls it off, thanks to Anthony Edwards, Aidan Quinn, Rebecca De Mornay, Penelope Ann Miller and John Mahoney, who impart humor and humanity to thinly sketched characters.
  22. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    40
    That Flipped isn't insufferably cute is a measure of its integrity. But it still strains to view the world through the eyes of children without a filter of grown-up cynicism. It is plodding and awkwardly paced.
  23. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    0
    I can't say anything nice about Flipped, a painfully clumsy adaptation of a tween novel by Wendelin Van Draanen.
  24. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    0
    This results in a film that spells everything out visually, then further elaborates through groaningly obvious dialogue, then drives every point home for slow-witted audiences via shameless narration.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.7 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 17 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. Gilberto
    8
    Flipped achieved one great thing, and that is to produce a feeling on me. At the end of the day that is one of the most important things that movies should ultimately accomplish and aim for. This movie presents one of the most ironical but true love stories that can touch many if not everybody in some way or another. Granted, it could be a bit heavy at times given its structure. Flipped interludes between the two main character's perspective on each of the several situations that they cross upon, and that opens the gate for a lot of repetition which can be a little frustrating. But overall, Flipped couldn't have been any other way; it successfully reaches so much depth because of this enduring but intriguing concept. At the end, this movie takes you back to the days of the first true love, and also to the days that resembled the meaning of what it was to be young.… Full Review »
  2. NJWolfgang
    10
    Of course the critics would not like this film. This piece is so careful not to clutter realism with the idle meanderings of a writers mind that one is amazed by how simple and realistic the film becomes. It is perhaps one of the best coming of age or self realization pieces I've seen. There is an excellent ensemble cast. The piece is limited technically. This isn't a comic book adaption and it's certainly not a reworking of an overworked Tolstoi piece. It's just a simple slice of life portrayed without a lot of tricks or visual effects or mass murders.… Full Review »
  3. Merdocx
    10
    This is one of the greatest movies i've seen. the screenplay is fantastic. humorous and enjoyable. I would recommend this movie to anyone of any age.
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