Kit Kittredge is Sweet, Simple

Critics split on 'sweet,' 'stale' kids' movie

(NEWSER) - Diary of a Wimpy Kid is like your average middle schooler—loved by some, hated by others. Reviews, in short, are mixed. Here’s what critics are saying:

• “It is so hard to do a movie like this well,” but Diary of a Wimpy Kid pulls it off, raves Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times . “It's nimble, bright and funny. It doesn't dumb down. It doesn’t patronize.” It even deserves mention alongside the glorious A Christmas Story.

Kids' movie about bringing books to life struggles to bring book to life

(NEWSER) - When it comes to the kids-lit adaptation Inkheart, fans are probably better off sticking to the book, say critics. Brendan Fraser stars as a father with the power to bring characters off the page to life, but the special-effects-driven movie fails to capture the "dark whimsy" of the best-selling original, Sheri Linden writes in the Los Angeles Times. More»

Adventure film with plucky young heroine one for the tweeners

(NEWSER) - The spectacular scenery in Nim's Island impressed the critics, as did the film's focus on the pluck and intelligence of its young heroine (Abigail Breslin). Multiple storylines, however —about Nim's life in a Pacific paradise, her lost-at-sea father, and her relationship with an agoraphobic writer (Jodie Foster)—end up "diluting its assets," writes Carrie Rickey in the Philadelphia Inquirer. More»

Movie about divorced dad rises above usual cliches

(NEWSER) - Definitely, Maybe, the story of a soon-to-be-divorced dad whose 11-year-old daughter wants to hear how he met her mother, is definitely a cut above most romantic comedies, critics say. "It's a lot fresher and a bit more sophisticated than the ordinary run of maudlin chick flicks," writes Ken Fox of TV Guide. More»

But Nicolas Cage seems to get it: critics

(NEWSER) - Critics agree: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is ridiculous. But they're divided over whether the silliness of the sequel, once again starring Nicolas Cage as the devilish superhero, is funny or just bad.

• In the Merced Sun-Star , Roger Moore calls the movie "a profoundly silly mash-up of comic book and quasi-religious 'prophecy' about a motorcyclist who sold his soul to the devil." It beats the original: "This time around, Cage and everybody else on board are in on the joke," and that makes it "almost a great bad movie."