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The Kid
Metascore
45 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 32 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 32
  3. Negative: 7 out of 32
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    Warm-hearted and effective.
  2. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    The result is fine fantasy fun.
  3. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    75
    It's Willis who delivers the goods in scene after scene, triumphing over a thin script, often bland direction.
  4. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    75
    A parable for adults -- particularly men.
  5. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Schickel
    70
    It's a modest little fantasy. But it's also well made, unpretentious and refreshing.
  6. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    63
    Too bad The Kid gets bogged down in its sentimental manipulations. It has more going for it than you might suppose.
  7. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    63
    A pleasantly lightweight confection.
  8. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Andy Klein
    60
    This is quintessential "family entertainment."
  9. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Peter Brunette
    60
    It's solid, if ultimately uninspired, July entertainment.
  10. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    60
    But if the endpoint is a homiletic given, the journey itself is more charming, and less sentimental, than you might suspect.
  11. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Lisa Alspector
    60
    Vigilant viewers may spend many of the 101 minutes fixating on tiny holes in the plot, but I was busy being moved by the premise and the filmmakers' confidence in the power of their metaphor: a little boy who's disappointed in the man he grew up to be.
  12. TNT RoughCut
    Reviewed by: Susannah Breslin
    60
    An utterly competent, systematically entertaining summer movie.
  13. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    50
    There's nothing Disneyesque about this bomb except the forced levity of its musical score.
  14. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Peter Stack
    50
    This slight, predictable comedy has appealing moments.
  15. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Susan Wloszczyna
    50
    This boomer-coddling comic fantasy, in which a callous adult on the brink of 40 has a chance encounter with his pudgy, lisping 8-year-old self, is an iffier what-if.
  16. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    50
    Audrey Wells's script and Turteltaub's presentation ring true just often enough to prevent the comedy from descending forever into Cutesy-Wutesy Hell.
  17. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    50
    Perfectly acceptable entertainment in the Mouse Factory's most familiar vein.
  18. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: F. X. Feeney
    50
    There isn't a moment in the film that isn't overhyped.
  19. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    50
    A movie we might like to buy into if left to our own devices, but that idea is anathema to Turteltaub, intent on pushing us so hard that we end up pushing back.
  20. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    50
    Surprisingly enough, it often soars to heights of not bad.
  21. Mr. Showbiz
    Reviewed by: Cody Clark
    45
    Every time the movie seems poised to veer into watchability, however, Turteltaub is there, like a beat cop for the Fun Police, reminding us to laugh, sigh, or tear up.
  22. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    42
    Willis and Breslin are stuck in a charmless, predictable picture they can't escape.
  23. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Steve Simels
    40
    Manipulative but fitfully entertaining "Twilight Zone"-ish comedy of redemption.
  24. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Kimberley Jones
    40
    A lightweight, intermittently engaging comedy.
  25. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    40
    The comic screenplay...pivots on a toothless premise: Russ needs to get in touch with his inner child.
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  26. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    38
    Falls flat on its face.
  27. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    38
    Neither can I imagine many sane adults wanting to put themselves through this movie.
  28. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    30
    So rich in processed sugar, canned sentiment and schmaltz, I thought I was going to throw up.
  29. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Curtis Morgan
    25
    Deadly dull.
  30. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    25
    Wields its Middle America values and moralistic flogging of idiosyncratic lifestyle choices like a flipped bird.
  31. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    20
    Director Jon Turteltaub's insistence upon hammering every point home with giant closeups and relentless musical underlining makes this insufferably cloying and sickly sweet.
  32. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Jessica Winter
    10
    The Kid's denouement resembles the nightmare that would have transpired had execs foisted a toupee and a happy ending on "12 Monkeys."
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
4.8 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 10 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 2 out of 5
  1. sfarcus
    9
    This is a wonderful family movie with a lot of funny and warm moments. Bruce Willis and Spencer Breslin were fantastic.
  2. MovieLonely94
    2
    this movie is so horrible!
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