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Ramona and Beezus
Metascore
56 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 29 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 29
  3. Negative: 0 out of 29
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  1. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Kimberley Jones
    78
    Refreshingly anti-princess and sweet without degrading into sugary, Ramona and Beezus animates Ramona's frequent flights of fancy with DIY-like sequences that literalize, quite charmingly, how a kid colors the world.
  2. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    This is a featherweight G-rated comedy of no consequence, except undoubtedly to kids about Ramona's age.
  3. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    75
    Newcomer Joey King is funny and adorable as daydreaming 9-year-old Ramona Quimby.
  4. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    75
    The overall tone of the film is sunny, with Ramona and Beezus resiliently turning life's lemons into lemonade.
  5. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Dan Kois
    75
    Knits together scenes and themes from all eight of Cleary's Ramona Quimby novels into a sweet and funny, if slightly overlong, portrait of life on a modern-day Klickitat Street.
  6. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Katie Hewitt
    75
    Corbett (of Sex and the City fame) is oddly cast, but still a lovable, if dorky, dad, capable of saving the day.
  7. Boxoffice Magazine
    Reviewed by: Sara Maria Vizcarrondo
    70
    While it isn't the only adaptation to give flesh (or ink) to Cleary's indomitable misfit, it's the most accessible retelling to date.
  8. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Glenn Whipp
    70
    Director Elizabeth Allen coaxes fine performances from her cast young and old, stumbling only when relying too heavily on musical cues (Katrina & the Waves' "Walking on Sunshine" needs to be permanently retired) and in the film's awkward CGI flights of imaginative fancy. Other than that, the movie is, to quote its young heroine, "terrifical."
  9. Time
    Reviewed by: Mary Pols
    70
    A gentle, charming movie and really a parent's dream: a kid's movie that doesn't involve action sequences or explosions. Yet you wish the filmmakers had adhered to Mr. Quimby's no-nonsense point of view and found a way to make this family slightly less squeaky-clean.
  10. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    67
    On the other hand, this proud graduate of the School of Cleary Classics wishes that, like the young heroine herself, Ramona and Beezus dared more often to color outside the lines.
  11. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    67
    Ramona And Beezus has the undeniably nice, pleasantly uninspired feel of film designed to kill time with the kids on a rainy weekend.
  12. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    63
    For the record: Josh Duhamel brings some welcome exuberance to the role of the goofball suitor, Hobart. Like Oh, he's fun to watch. This is something never to be underestimated
  13. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    63
    Ramona and Beezus are undeniably cute, and the movie that bears their names tries to inject some timeliness, but what many of us will walk away from this movie thinking about are the hot father figures.
  14. Movieline
    Reviewed by: Michelle Orange
    60
    Straining for a timeless, family-friendly tone, Allen winds up with something closer to an unironically -- i.e. absurdly -- wholesome rehash of "Leave it to Beaver."
  15. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Michael Rechtshaffen
    50
    While its cast delivers uniformly breezy performances, most everything else about Ramona's move to the multiplex feels unremarkable.
  16. NPR
    Reviewed by: Ian Buckwalter
    50
    The film is too frenetically paced and clean to quite recreate the magic of their source material, but it does often face these issues in the same admirably head-on fashion.
  17. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Amy Biancolli
    50
    Another innocuous film about another unusual girl.
  18. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Janice Page
    50
    Ramona and Beezus the movie, should not be confused with "Beezus and Ramona'' the book.
  19. Orlando Sentinel
    Reviewed by: Roger Moore
    50
    It's so sentimental and sweet that you can almost forgive the kids' comedy Ramona and Beezus for not being nearly funny enough.
  20. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Joe Williams
    50
    So friction-free that it slips from memory before the credits fade.
  21. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    50
    It won't change anyone's world, but it'll keep kids happy - and cool - for a couple of hours.
  22. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: M. E. Russell
    50
    King is good enough that you can't help but root for her. But frankly, I can't imagine paying full ticket price plus concessions for that privilege.
  23. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Mike Hale
    50
    Parents may also be happy to see a movie for children that doesn't involve wizards, vampires or action figures that can be bought in the food court. They should be warned, though, that the price of contemporary realism is a story that includes layoffs, bickering and unpaid bills.
  24. Variety
    Reviewed by: Justin Chang
    50
    It's not the personal, distinctive portrait of misfit girlhood it could have been.
  25. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    50
    For the grown-ups there are sweet, sincere performances by Ginnifer Goodwin, Sandra Oh, and, as Ramona's endlessly game father, the likable John Corbett, relieved for once of his drippy rom-com duties.
  26. Empire
    Reviewed by: Anna Smith
    40
    Fans of the Ramona Quimby books will be disappointed, but tween girls will love it.
  27. Arizona Republic
    Reviewed by: Bill Goodykoontz
    40
    True enough, she's trying to do the right thing. But she never quite gets there. And that gets old, making "Ramona" wear out its welcome long before it should have.
  28. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Eric Hynes
    40
    A tepid rom-com, replete with a nostalgic Bangles tune.
  29. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Nick Schager
    40
    Wholesome to the point of being dull.
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User Reviews

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User Score
5.7 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 17 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 9
  3. Negative: 2 out of 9
  1. RyanFloom
    3
    Selena Gomez is beautiful but the movie ain't anything fantastic.
  2. heyitsmegrif4
    8
    It is utterly predictable, but the film is surprisingly well acted by the young Selena Gomez, it is funny, and is undeniably sweet. I give this surprisingly good movie 78% of a good movie.… Full Review »
  3. grandpajoe6191
    5
    I was suprised how Selena Gomez could actually act throughout this boring, cheezy movie. She aced her part more than any other actor in "Ramona and Beezus". However, that's the sole good thing the film can boast about.… Full Review »
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