Kid, The

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The result is fine fantasy fun.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

It's Willis who delivers the goods in scene after scene, triumphing over a thin script, often bland direction.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Warm-hearted and effective.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

A parable for adults -- particularly men.

Time Richard Schickel

It's a modest little fantasy. But it's also well made, unpretentious and refreshing.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Too bad The Kid gets bogged down in its sentimental manipulations. It has more going for it than you might suppose.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

A pleasantly lightweight confection.

Dallas Observer Andy Klein

This is quintessential "family entertainment."

TNT RoughCut Susannah Breslin

An utterly competent, systematically entertaining summer movie.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

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.

Newsweek David Ansen

But if the endpoint is a homiletic given, the journey itself is more charming, and less sentimental, than you might suspect.

Film.com Peter Brunette

It's solid, if ultimately uninspired, July entertainment.

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

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.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Audrey Wells's script and Turteltaub's presentation ring true just often enough to prevent the comedy from descending forever into Cutesy-Wutesy Hell.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Perfectly acceptable entertainment in the Mouse Factory's most familiar vein.

LA Weekly F. X. Feeney

There isn't a moment in the film that isn't overhyped.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

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.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

This slight, predictable comedy has appealing moments.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

There's nothing Disneyesque about this bomb except the forced levity of its musical score.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Surprisingly enough, it often soars to heights of not bad.

Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark

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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Willis and Breslin are stuck in a charmless, predictable picture they can't escape.

TV Guide Steve Simels

Manipulative but fitfully entertaining "Twilight Zone"-ish comedy of redemption.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

A lightweight, intermittently engaging comedy.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The comic screenplay...pivots on a toothless premise: Russ needs to get in touch with his inner child.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Neither can I imagine many sane adults wanting to put themselves through this movie.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Falls flat on its face.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

So rich in processed sugar, canned sentiment and schmaltz, I thought I was going to throw up.

Miami Herald Curtis Morgan

Deadly dull.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

Wields its Middle America values and moralistic flogging of idiosyncratic lifestyle choices like a flipped bird.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Director Jon Turteltaub's insistence upon hammering every point home with giant closeups and relentless musical underlining makes this insufferably cloying and sickly sweet.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

The Kid's denouement resembles the nightmare that would have transpired had execs foisted a toupee and a happy ending on "12 Monkeys."