Big Daddy 1999

Susan Stark, Detroit News: Adam Sandler's sweetness just busts out all over. It's a wondrous thing to watch. Read more

Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: Gratuitously gross and/or provocative humor. Read more

Janet Maslin, New York Times: A flimsy sentimental comedy with more product plugs and fewer laughs than might have been hoped for. Read more

Jeffrey Wells, Mr. Showbiz: Joey Lauren Adams smiles so damn much. It's like she's had this smile surgically sculpted onto her face, like Jack Nicholson's Joker in Batman. Read more

Lisa Alspector, Chicago Reader: This light yet earnest drama starring Adam Sandler deals openly with one of the most insidious elements in popular filmmaking -- the male screenwriter's relationship with his own father. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: There's no doubt Sandler is talented, but if he persists in believing that, like Elvis, his presence alone covers a multitude of omissions and inconsistencies, he will squander his gift and make a series of forgettable films in the process. Read more

Jeff Millar, Houston Chronicle: Funny-sweet, understand, not bleccchh sweet. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Big Daddy doesn't generate a lot of big laughs. It has a throwaway sweetness, though. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: How's this for a novel complaint: Big Daddy just isn't stupid enough. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: Adam Sandler's new comedy is being touted as a step forward for him, which I find funnier than anything in the movie. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The film offers its share of big laughs, but the serious side is sunk by mawkishness and sentimentality. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Big Daddy should be reported to the child welfare office. Read more

Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon.com: The film's jokes, stretched out over 90 minutes, aren't that funny. Read more

Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle: Worst of all is the way Sandler wants to have it both ways: to muck around in gross-out humor one minute and then turn schmaltzy the next minute with some fraudulent business about how much he loves the kid. Read more

Time Out: This lightweight, bubblegum caper synthesises robust, physical humour, self-deprecation and witty one liners. The main problem, as with most other dumb boy pictures, is that the supporting characters are underwritten. Read more

Robert Koehler, Variety: Result is uneven; the story's more serious intentions often jar with the goofy sideshow. Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: There are tearful moments of orphan anxiety, with swelling score peaks you'd swear belong to the Julia Roberts movie playing next door. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Dismal. Lame. Not funny. Read more