The Smurfs: Critic Reviews

I could say this until I'm blue in the face and you still wouldn't believe me: "The Smurfs" isn't half-bad.

If you remember the characters fondly, this theatrical version will do little to enhance that memory.

When pointless movies like this come out, I can't help but wonder what these talented artists could have been doing besides earning this paycheck.

Director Raja Gosnell plays every lame joke as broadly as possible, allowing his cast - notably Azaria and Sofia Vergara (as Patrick's overbearing boss) - to overplay at every turn.

Wearing a CBGB T-shirt, Neil Patrick Harris rocks out with Clumsy Smurf to 'Guitar Hero.' Historians may want to remember this sequence when they're trying to pinpoint the exact moment that rock and roll died.

Neil has to please Sofia with an ad campaign and come to terms with his inner ambivalence and anxiety over the prospect of impending fatherhood. This story will captivate children everywhere.

...a disappointingly erratic endeavor...

The film doesn't quite hold the audience's interest for its entire running time. (Full Content Parental Review also available)

"Look at that Smurfing hipster, in his Smurfing ironic mustache and Smurfing Peyo T-shirt."

Keep repeating to yourself over and over: 'It gets Jonathan Winters a paycheck. It gets Jonathan Winters a paycheck.'

I can tell you the end result is pretty cute.

Na-na-na-na-na-blah.

Not enough bright spots in disappointing adaptation.

Diverting and weird, but harmless.

I saw this one so you don't have to.

The Smurfs is uncomfortably cheesy and predictable. Kids truly deserve better films than this! The only redeeming quality was the performance from Hank Azaria.

That two sequels have been announced is terrifying.

The Smurfs contains such moments of sweetness and heart that it's all the more unfortunate that it's otherwise a numbingly ordinary kids' film.

The good news is that there is no news in the land of Smurfdom. The cartoon creatures are still blue, three apples tall, cheerful as all get-out, and annoying as hell.

An uneven, relatively gentle, rather sweet but only sporadically enjoyable family flick with slapstick the kiddies will find smurfing fun.

A better movie than anyone could have possibly expected, thanks in large part to an honest effort by Harris in a thankless role.

Like many adaptations, reboots, remakes and other youth-nostalgia dredgings, this is a film that transcends "good" or "bad," "like" or "don't like."

Does for children's entertainment what lead paint does for children's toys.

Won't be an awards contender anytime soon, but it is altogether sweetly smurfier than anyone could have predicted.

I will not go so far as to call The Smurfs subversive, but it is surprisingly sophisticated.