Metacritic Film

New York Minute

Starring Ashley Olsen, Mary-Kate Olsen, Eugene Levy, Andy Richter, Riley Smith, Jared Padalecki, Drew Pinsky, and Darrell Hammond

MPAA RATING: PG for mild sensuality and thematic elements

Warner Bros.
Action  |  Adventure  |  Comedy  |  Family/Kids
85 minutes | Color
USA
Released In Theaters May 7, 2004

This action comedy starring Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen, follows 17-year-old sisters Jane and Roxanne Ryan on a wild romp through the streets, subways and sewers of Manhattan during one unforgettable day. (Warner Bros.)

WRITTEN BY
Emily Fox (also story)
Adam Cooper
Bill Collage

DIRECTED BY
Dennie Gordon

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

33 / 100

Critic Reviews

63 Baltimore Sun
New York Minute isn't High Art, but it is highly entertaining, especially if you're a member of its target audience.
60 The Hollywood Reporter
Cheerfully disconnected from the real world, bearing a great resemblance to screwball comedies of old.
60 TV Guide Lauren Kane
Director Dennie Gordon keeps the pace brisk, and between makeovers and pratfalls, the girls deliver an easy-to-swallow dose of girl power.
58 Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
Exists for one purpose, and one purpose only: to further the entertainment careers of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. It's like an Elvis movie for 'tweenagers. That doesn't make the film uninteresting as a pop confection.
50 San Francisco Chronicle
It lives up to its title, flying by in fast motion. Even the first-wave MTV generation may find the pace exhausting, but this piece of fluff wasn't made for them.
50 New York Daily News
A bit of a slog for anyone not thoroughly Olsenized.
50 The New York Times
Polished and bouncy without being overly mawkish or unduly obnoxious. Above all, it is short.
50 Dallas Observer
Overly broad and silly at times, the film also has an "important" message to pass along to its young viewers.
50 Christian Science Monitor
The cast is cute and the action is colorful, but the comedy isn't as captivating as it sets out to be.
50 Chicago Tribune
The cinematic equivalent of Trix. It's just made to be enjoyed by certain folks more than others. Will girls like it? More than their parents.
50 Seattle Post-Intelligencer Winda Benedetti
Fun-enough teenage adventure suitable for the whole family.
50 USA Today
As far as acting goes, neither Olsen is ready for Euripides' Medea, yet each projects well enough in their shared big scene.
40 Chicago Reader Staff (Not credited)
The only thing that really amused me was a subplot involving music and video piracy.
40 Los Angeles Times
A coy, frantic attempt at screwball comedy, lightly seasoned and more than a little gummy.
40 Empire
Separately the characters are annoying; together it’s unnervingly like watching one actress playing twins.
40 LA Weekly
Reverts to a fire-sale slapstick scenario that includes multiple tumbles into toilets/sewers/ dumpsters; a visit to a Harlem beauty shop that's all homily-spouting mammies and swishy, finger-snapping dandies; and the attempted inducement of a constipated dog's bowel movement.
40 Variety Brian Lowry
After a string of direct-to-video excursions, this latest film remains an off-putting assault of too-screwball comedy with glints of pathos.
40 Village Voice Ben Kenigsberg
The whole project reeks of vanity, but it doesn't take a Columbia degree to see that any movie where the Michelle Tanners trudge via sewer from CPS to 125th is an instant camp classic.
38 Philadelphia Inquirer
Plays like "Sixteen Candles" meets "Beetlejuice." Yet for all the film's frantic pace, this plot plods, even for 'tweens at whom this suburban-girls-take-Manhattan fantasy is obviously targeted.
38 Chicago Sun-Times
The events involving the big speaking competition are so labored that occasionally the twins seem to be looking back over their shoulders for the plot to catch up.
38 New York Post
In trying to straddle both the grown-up and kiddie worlds with this inappropriately sexualized effort - their first theatrical release since 1995's "It Takes Two" - the Olsens have lost their footing.
30 Washington Post
The effect isn't just frenetic, unfunny and dull. It's kind of creepy.
30 Washington Post Sara Gebhardt
Sadly, small humorous bits do not change the movie's generally lackluster tone.
30 Time
It's pretty awful.
30 Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
My only question is, how did they ensnare you, Eugene?
30 The Onion (A.V. Club)
An unabashedly pop confection, but it's flat where it should fizz, lumbering when it should skip.
25 Premiere Sara Brady
Despite a lavish budget and one of the most expensive movie sets in the world--the island of Manhattan—they (Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen) can’t buy love, talent, or a decent script.
25 Miami Herald Peter Debruge
As human Kewpie dolls, the Olsens' basic function is to try on as many new outfits as humanly possible within the span of 86 minutes (guaranteed to be the longest 86 minutes, New York or otherwise, you've ever spent in the dark).
25 Boston Globe
The movie's no good: It's written, directed, performed, photographed, edited, and marketed on a fifth-grade reading level; despite that and its twin stars' saucer eyes and ropy limbs, it's no Muppet movie either.
25 Entertainment Weekly
The movie may be more bogus than a Gucci bag for sale on a Fifth Avenue sidewalk, but at least the backgrounds are real.
25 The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
As coy sleaze goes, the new Olsen twins' movie doesn't match Britney Spears's "Crossroads," but it comes close.
0 Austin Chronicle
The kind of winking, disingenuous youth comedy that tries to play it both ways, dangling the twins as fetish objects and then yanking them back on the leash because, you know, this is a family film.

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