Parent Trap, The

Newsweek Laura Shapiro

This film has everything for the all-important female audience: feisty heroines, lots of slapstick, great clothes.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Irresistible family entertainment.

Dallas Observer Jean Oppenheimer

An engaging, family-oriented romantic comedy that should appeal as much to fans of the original movie as to viewers unfamiliar with the 1961 Hayley Mills version.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Lohan is sparklingly good as the look-alike little girls, and the movie as a whole has enough bounce and energy to overcome a few dull spots and a too-long running time.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Quaid is instantly likable, with that goofy smile. Richardson, who almost always plays tougher roles and harder women, this time is astonishing, she's so warm and attractive.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The natural, pleasurable 1990s hipness [Lohan] brings to her assignment is therefore all the more impressive. Hayley-holics should be grateful to this new girl at camp too.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Ignoring these lapses in logic, The Parent Trap' is hugely enter taining and more relevant than most family entertainment.

Variety Joe Leydon

Richardson, who gracefully sways through a memorable drunk scene, and Quaid, whose megawatt smile has never been more dazzling, are disarmingly charming as the parents. And that's important; if the actors were any less engaging, the audience might not be so forgiving of their characters.

LA Weekly Dave Shulman

The rewrite went well, and the crew did a fine job; but you insult us, Mein Disney, serving up leftovers on such expensive china.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

The visual illusion that Ms. Lohan is actually two characters has been accomplished so seamlessly that it barely diverts attention from one of the film's greatest passions, its product plugs.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Ray Conlogue

It's an enjoyable film, carried along by the perennial strength of the story... But it won't have the staying power of the original.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

There's something too slickly contrived and hollow about this film. It's a yuppified wish-fulfillment piece dangling between real world and fairy tale, and it's mostly the actors --especially Lindsay and Elaine Hendrix (as the conniving publicist who is trying to marry Hallie and Annie's dad) -- who manage to bring it off. [29 July 1998]

San Francisco Examiner Barbara Shulgasser

Lindsay Lohan, 12-year-old veteran of commercials and television, is a frighteningly poised child who is truly impressive as the long-separated twins.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The technology for twinning a single young actress is considerably more seamless than it was in 1961, and Lohan is a perky charmer.

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

Young girls will enjoy Lohan's matchmaking antics. But nostalgia-craving oldsters should stick to fond memories of Hayley [Mills]'s heyday.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

There is still a self-consciousness and a forced quality to much of the humor that this TPT redux just can't shake.

Austin Chronicle Hollis Chacona

Vanilla and sweet, it's an overly generous helping that, if it doesn't make you sick, will put you in a good humor all day long.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

While there's no denying that young actress Lindsay Lohan has spunk, she's not terribly effective in the dual role. Her performance is awkward and unsubtle -- she relies on an unconvincing British accent to cue us in to which girl she's playing at any given moment.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

This 1998 romantic comedy mostly bores with its cumbersome exposition and close-ups of trivial objects scattered throughout lackluster montage sequences.