Content to be another candy-coloured fantasy. It'd be easier to enjoy it as such if most of the young characters here weren't mean-spirited caricatures who chiefly serve to illustrate Sam's virtues.
Comment
07/16/04
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A Cinderella Story (2004)
10
%
Tomatometer
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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.
Theatrical Release:Jul 16, 2004 Wide
Box Office: $51,392,209
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)... [More]
Starring: Hilary Duff, Chad Michael Murray, Dan Byrd, Jennifer Coolidge
Director: Mark Rosman
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Reviews for A Cinderella Story
Top CriticAlas, the attempts by writer Leigh Dunlap and director Mark Rosman to modernize this fable fall flatter than Cinderella's arches after a night of dancing on glass slippers.
07/15/04
Duff needed to channel TV-Lizzie for this role, but instead she gives us milquetoast.
07/15/04
Top CriticThe Prince is a wet rag, the slapstick stepsisters are dull and even the fretful Sam seems colorless.
07/16/04
Top CriticA Cinderella Story definitely is for the younger film crowd. It’s unabashedly simplistic and formulaic, made to highlight the charms of (Hilary) Duff.
07/21/04
Besides adolescent girls who either want to be Hilary Duff or want to slobber over Chad Michael Murray, the story offers nothing new to an already beaten-to-death teen genre.
07/21/04
This witless little comedy takes the classic fairy tale and turns it into a Hilary Duff vehicle about popularity, e-mail and cell phones at a San Fernando Valley high school.
07/16/04
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.
07/14/04
A Cinderella Story misfires as a comedy and offers no fresh twists or clever turns on this ancient fairy tale.
07/15/04
Mean Girls it's not; a plastic butter knife has more edge. But sometimes it's nice to know your kids won't cut their fingers.
07/16/04
Top CriticChad Michael Murray could be the next Johnny Depp, or he could be the next Luke Perry – only time will tell.
07/16/04
Stock characters played broadly in a script rife with cliché plot devices and a bad case of the blands
07/14/04
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?
09/11/06
Make it stop. Please, make it stop.
07/17/04
In typical Lizzie spirit, it's harmless, it's sweet, it's corny, it's fun and it all comes out impossibly right.
07/15/04
Top CriticDesperately conceived by even the most insipid standards of contemporary teen-queen cinema.
07/16/04
Top CriticWith a few hilarious exceptions, the jokes are bland and unfunny, and the fairy tale reinventions aren't creative or witty enough.
07/19/04
Viewers outside [Duff's] demographic will find only the occasional shining moment in this generic picture.
07/16/04
A benign, whimsical semblance of its namesake fairy tale.
09/16/04
Enough sugar to induce a diabetic coma.
07/19/04
Latest News for A Cinderella Story
August 17, 2006:
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The Hollywood Reporter brings us the full cast list for the upcoming remake of Wes Craven's "The Hills Have Eyes." Filming begins rather soon, and director Alexandre... More...
May 27, 2005:
Only in the Movies: Carmen Electra is Eugene Levy's Wife
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...
June 22, 2004:
How would Cinderella meet her prince in a modern-day retelling? On the Internet, duh! 
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