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The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Metascore
43 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 31 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 19 out of 31
  3. Negative: 5 out of 31
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  1. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Robert K. Elder
    75
    Ends strong, in an ultimately smoother, smarter sequel.
  2. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Carla Meyer
    75
    Offers enough glossy good cheer to appeal to everyone.
  3. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Winda Benedetti
    67
    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.
  4. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    63
    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.
  5. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Megan Lehmann
    63
    Has just enough fairy dust to charm its target audience.
  6. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    63
    We all love a good fairy tale, but the enchantment is missing in this predictable sequel.
  7. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    63
    As a movie, it's a mixed bag with a huge amount of heart.
  8. Empire
    Reviewed by: Ian Freer
    60
    Perhaps the best film ever aimed at eight year-old girls to be directed by a 69 year-old man.
  9. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    60
    Like its predecessor, it's Hollywood hokum at its most glamorous and effective.
  10. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joanne Kaufman
    60
    As reassuring and soothing as a nursery story.
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  11. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Christine Dolan
    50
    If Andrews oozes regal poise and Hathaway radiates movie star allure -- and they do -- credit the actresses, not this flimsy fairy tale.
  12. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    50
    Whenever Andrews - that incarnation of the sensible and the sensitive - glides on screen, PD2 sparkles.
  13. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Jennie Punter
    50
    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.
  14. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Kimberley Jones
    50
    Two hours pass painlessly enough, thanks to the affability of its trio of leads, Hathaway, Andrews, and Elizondo.
  15. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Scott Brown
    50
    The film's generic feminism pales beside its bloated sense of privilege, only underlined by a nonstop cabaret of sideshow acts.
  16. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Sara Gebhardt
    50
    Sometimes charming, sometimes a tad too silly and all the time predictable.
  17. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Karen Karbo
    42
    Panders to the worst traits in the target audience of spoiled third-grade girls.
  18. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    40
    Anne Hathaway's charms barely rescue this exercise in lame comedy and romance.
  19. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Angel Cohn
    40
    Good-natured but overstuffed sequel.
  20. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Pete Vonder Haar
    40
    If there is one high point to be found, it's that Julie Andrews sings for the first time since her 1997 throat surgery.
  21. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    40
    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.
  22. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    40
    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.
  23. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Melissa Levine
    40
    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.
  24. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    40
    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.
  25. Variety
    Reviewed by: Joe Leydon
    40
    Too blandly insubstantial to expand its appeal beyond its target demographic.
  26. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    40
    Andrews is still a treasure, but the series's currency is plummeting.
  27. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    38
    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.
  28. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    38
    So unfocused is Shonda Rhimes's screenplay and so flabby is Marshall's direction.
  29. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Peter Debruge
    38
    Threadbare sequel.
  30. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Ed Park
    30
    Scenes end abruptly, laughs are as rare as yetis, and the overarching question seems to be: Can we turn this into a franchise?
  31. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    30
    There's not enough story in it to fill a shoebox.
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