Big Daddy
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: June 25, 1999 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
15
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Sandler's best movie, a surprisingly touching and consistent comedy that finds him reaching out to new audiences without abandoning the transgressive meanness that has enlivened his best work. Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverHal Hinson
It's a hilarious, dumb comedy that's smart enough to be something more. And all it does is make Sandler the most soulful -- and the funniest -- comic in the business. Read full review
70
VarietyRobert Koehler
While the loyal male-teen aud core will not be disappointed with the spate of gags just for them, story contains solid date-movie material. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Much of Big Daddy looks like it was made up on the spot, but Sandler, with his bad-dog eagerness to get caught in the act of misbehaving, pulls you through it. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Go to this movie for the cheap laughs and bodily fluid jokes -- those are its strengths. Read full review
60
SalonMary Elizabeth Williams
It's a concept not without its sweet appeal -- if only it were a little wittier, I might actually be convinced. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
Sandler is disarming and compelling as Sonny. Read full review
60
Washington PostRita Kempley
Sweetly dopey, kid-friendly, if overly contrived comedy. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyManohla Dargis
Sander has turned mediocrity into the triumph of the smug. Read full review
50
Film ThreatTom Meek
Hooter babes and the ubiquitous Steve Buscemi is a riot as the mercurial bum on the street. Read full review
50
San Francisco ExaminerWesley Morris
In a sense, Sandler is damned if he develops, damned if he devolves. But he needn't apologize for being who he is by turning a goldmine sitcom into a tame "Baby Boom" for guys. Read full review
50
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Just because Sandler's Sonny makes little sense as an actual human being doesn't mean he won't make you laugh. Read full review
50
USA TodaySusan Wloszczyna
There's some heavy-duty Oedipal stuff going on underneath all the running gags about Hooters restaurants. [25 June 1999, Life, p.8E]
42
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
Though the cast is talented, the script is a mess. It's essentially a collision of missed opportunities. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Sandler is less goofy than spitefully self-absorbed, and most of the comedy feels like child abuse. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
It's not nearly as funny as "The Waterboy" and has little of "The Wedding Singer's" goofy charm, but die-hard Adam Sandler fans -- whose numbers are legion -- will find plenty to laugh at. Read full review
40
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
It's a flimsy sentimental comedy with more product plugs and fewer laughs than might have been hoped for. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
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 full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
For Sandler's core audience of developmentally arrested males, it may all be a little too cute. Read full review
40
The New YorkerBruce Diones
Sandler lacks any kind of discernible comic energy; he's just meandering around the film waiting for something to happen, and almost nothing funny does. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Big Daddy should be reported to the child welfare office. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMark Caro
Recycling the regressive humor of his (Sandler’s) previous films, it piles on so much sentimentality that you wonder how anyone could consider him a renegade. [25 June 1999, Friday, p.A]
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Sandler being Chaplinesque isn't pretty; he's just doing his smart-aleck slacker shtick with a moister eye. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
The film lacks the moronic consistency that graces the Sandlerian oeuvre at its most pristine. Read full review
20
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Dismal. Lame. Not funny. Read full review
0
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
Nasty to women, cruel to old people and tosses in a cardboard gay couple for gratuitous laughs. It's also got one of those annoying soundtracks that lays rock music right over the dialogue -- as if it wanted to distract us from it. Read full review
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