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Movies / On DVD / A Cinderella Story
A Cinderella Story

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A Cinderella Story (2004)

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Reviews Counted:96

Fresh:10

Rotten:86

Average Rating:3.6/10

Consensus: An uninspired, generic updating of the classic fairy tale.

Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins

Genre: Comedies

Synopsis: Hilary Duff plays Sam, a good-hearted Cinderella stuck in the fairy-tale-gone-wrong atmosphere of modern-day Los Angeles. Enslaved by an evil, BOTOX-junky step-mom (a hilarious Jennifer Coolidge)... Hilary Duff plays Sam, a good-hearted Cinderella stuck in the fairy-tale-gone-wrong atmosphere of modern-day Los Angeles. Enslaved by an evil, BOTOX-junky step-mom (a hilarious Jennifer Coolidge) Sam is forced to scrub floors at her late father's diner, thus earning the eternal disdain of the snooty popular kids in school. Luckily she has a friend in artsy nerd Carter (Dan Byrd), and a text-message romance with some poetic schoolmate she's never met. She also has a fairy godmother in the sweet diner manager (Regina King), who helps Sam get decked out and disguised for the Halloween dance. At the dance, she discovers her prince is one of the popular kids, Austin Ames (Chad Michael Murray). Happily ever after seems like a long shot, though, because Austin is burdened by pressures at school and at home, and Sam can't shake her "diner girl" inferiority complex. This fairy tale comes with plenty of wit, style, and heart. It moves along too fast to be sappy, and broadly razzes the shallowness of popular kids, their stupid parents, and whiny siblings in a way that should balm the unhealed wounds of anyone who's ever been to high school. Byrd makes a winning and somewhat cool nerd, Murray shows princely posture as the tortured poet-quarterback, and Duff firmly establishes herself as a first-rate young actress with luminous major-league screen presence. [More]

Starring: Hilary Duff, Chad Michael Murray, Dan Byrd, Jennifer Coolidge

Starring: Hilary Duff, Chad Michael Murray, Dan Byrd, Jennifer Coolidge, Regina King

Director: Mark Rosman

Director: Mark Rosman
Screenwriter: Leigh Dunlap
Producer: Clifford Werber, Ilyssa Goodman, Hunt Lowry, Dylan Sellers
Composer: Christophe Beck
Studio: Warner Bros.

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Reviews for A Cinderella Story

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This is simple, lazy storytelling rendered merely functional by appealing leads and the eternal lure of romantic fantasy.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
08/19/04
Anna Smith
Anna Smith
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
08/19/04
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

Every high school cliché in the book is dredged up for this piece of fluff

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
08/19/04
Wendy Ide
Wendy Ide
Times [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The result is pure pumpkin, though fans of squeaky-clean, helium-voiced Hilary Duff might fall under its sickly sweet spell.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment 1 Comment
08/03/04
Neil Smith
Neil Smith
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

With a few hilarious exceptions, the jokes are bland and unfunny, and the fairy tale reinventions aren't creative or witty enough.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
07/19/04
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed | comment Comment
04/29/09
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Cinema Crazed
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
10/18/08
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | comment Comment
08/07/08
Mark Halverson
Mark Halverson
Sacramento News & Review

Charles Perrault must be spinning in his grave.

Full Review Source: Eye for Film | comment Comment
06/13/08
Amber Wilkinson
Amber Wilkinson
Eye for Film

I took a friend's 10-year-old daughter to see the film, and she found it 'too childish.' And who am I to argue with a member of this film's target audience?

Full Review Source: Christianity Today | comment Comment
09/11/06
Peter T. Chattaway
Peter T. Chattaway
Christianity Today

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/06/05
Film Threat
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Zap2it.com | comment Comment
12/19/04
Hanh Nguyen
Hanh Nguyen
Zap2it.com

'A Cinderella Story' makes so many good chocies, you wish you could like it more than you do.

Full Review Source: Las Vegas Mercury | comment Comment
11/04/04
Anthony Del Valle
Anthony Del Valle
Las Vegas Mercury

Rather than anything original or humorous or, heaven forbid, romantic developing from this fable, we get only tired clichés and worn-out stereotypes.

Full Review Source: DVDTown.com | comment Comment
10/18/04
John J. Puccio
John J. Puccio
DVDTown.com

A benign, whimsical semblance of its namesake fairy tale.

Full Review Source: Tyler Morning Telegraph (Texas) | comment Comment
09/16/04
Mark Collette
Mark Collette
Tyler Morning Telegraph (Texas)

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: FilmJerk.com | comment Comment
08/16/04
Brian Orndorf
Brian Orndorf
FilmJerk.com

It's all way too bland.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
08/08/04
David Noh
David Noh
Film Journal International

I look at “Cinderella Story” as I would look at early Elvis films - this is a teen movie made for the sheer enjoyment of her fans.

Full Review Source: Talking Pictures (U.S.) | comment Comment
08/07/04
Tony Toscano
Tony Toscano
Talking Pictures (U.S.)
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: 3BlackChicks Review | comment Comment
08/01/04
Kamal  'The Diva' Larsuel
Kamal 'The Diva' Larsuel
3BlackChicks Review
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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all

Latest News for A Cinderella Story

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Not long ago it was announced that Eugene Levy ("American Pie") would be joining the cast of "Cheaper By the Dozen 2," and that the veteran funnyman would... More...

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More...

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