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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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81 - 100 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

In typical Lizzie spirit, it's harmless, it's sweet, it's corny, it's fun and it all comes out impossibly right.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment Comment
07/15/04
Nancy Churnin
Nancy Churnin
Dallas Morning News

The timeless fairy tale is updated into a cookie-cutter specimen of the teen-girl comedy.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
07/15/04
David Sterritt
David Sterritt
Christian Science Monitor

Thanks to a charming cast and several bubbly moments, adults in the audience may find themselves genuinely entertained by the pleasantly feathery story.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
07/15/04
Randy Cordova
Randy Cordova
Arizona Republic

A Cinderella Story misfires as a comedy and offers no fresh twists or clever turns on this ancient fairy tale.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
07/15/04
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

A mostly charmless affair.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | comment Comment
07/15/04
Carrie Rickey
Carrie Rickey
Philadelphia Inquirer

Writer Leigh Dunlap and director Mark Rosman tart up their Cinderella variation with the predictable accoutrements of teen comedies.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
07/15/04
Jan Stuart
Jan Stuart
Newsday

This teen movie is all about the packaging.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
07/15/04
Jeff Strickler
Jeff Strickler
Minneapolis Star Tribune

Instant sugar shock.

Full Review Source: Rolling Stone | comment Comment
07/15/04
Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

Under the charmless direction of Mark Rosman, the actors seem to be frozen at the rehearsal stage, with the blessed exception of a sublimely funny Jennifer Coolidge as the Botoxed horror of a stepmother.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
07/15/04
Ella Taylor
Ella Taylor
L.A. Weekly

I'm too much of a man to enjoy this movie ... Remarkably, Duff is not annoying.

Full Review Source: WaffleMovies.com | comment Comment
07/15/04
Willie Waffle
Willie Waffle
WaffleMovies.com

Duff needed to channel TV-Lizzie for this role, but instead she gives us milquetoast.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
07/15/04
Allison Benedikt
Allison Benedikt
Chicago Tribune

If you let them, studio executives will take endless advantage of the fact that many kids have no discernment whatsoever, as will Hilary's producer-mother.

Full Review Source: New Times | comment Comment
07/15/04
Luke Y. Thompson
Luke Y. Thompson
New Times

Mostly boring, sometimes quite clumsy, and never particularly interesting.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
07/14/04
Brian Webster
Brian Webster
Apollo Guide

When not unnecessarily bland, synthetic, and indistinguishable from undistinguished teen TV, A Cinderella Story is unnecessarily coarse and dumbed down, with every character except Sam and Austin subject to perfunctory ridicule.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
07/14/04
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

Stock characters played broadly in a script rife with cliché plot devices and a bad case of the blands

Full Review Source: Killer Movie Reviews | comment Comment
07/14/04
Andrea Chase
Andrea Chase
Killer Movie Reviews

It’s got enough humor to get a smirk about every five minutes, but also has enough cheesiness and stupidity that I’ll have forgotten all about the movie in about a week.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
07/14/04
James Brundage
James Brundage
Filmcritic.com

Modern footwear simply doesn't fit this perennial fairy tale heroine, who's been reborn as a Valley Girl in a rendition that stumbles in almost every conceivable way.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
07/13/04
Todd McCarthy
Todd McCarthy
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A bibbidy- bobbidy- bomb... more pumpkin than gilded coach, more smelly sneaker than glass slipper.

Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | comment Comment
07/13/04
Frank Swietek
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion

Lacks the guiltily pleasurable panache (and punch) of other recent chickadee flicks posited as protofeminist fairy tales.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
07/13/04
Jennifer Snow
Jennifer Snow
Village Voice

Clearly a movie that is aiming strictly for its target audience of young girls.

Full Review Source: Three Movie Buffs | comment Comment
07/13/04
Scott Nash
Scott Nash
Three Movie Buffs
 
 
81 - 100 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 >> >|
all

Latest News for A Cinderella Story

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More...

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