First Kid

Buena Vista Pictures | Release Date: August 30, 1996

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

48	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Leonard Klady

The real strength of the Tim Kelleher script is its understanding that despite the two main characters’ considerable positive traits, they are misfits. Each appreciates the other for his qualities, not his station. The writer has effectively created an appealing fantasy and given it human dimension. Read full review

Janet Maslin

A clean-cut, affable family film without objectionable elements, beyond the brief and needless violence that complicates its finale. Read full review

Marjorie Baumgarten

As kids' comedies go, this one's fairly topical and, better yet, amusing. Read full review

James Berardinelli

By aiming his film at children, director David Mickey Evans strips the movie of all potentially interesting elements, leaving behind material likely to appeal to only the least discriminating viewers. Read full review

Peter Stack

It's not a deep film, but there is a certain poignancy in Luke's situation and in the earnestness with which the burly Sinbad approaches the boy. Simms has a warm style and lets Luke know he's not a nut for feeling the need to explore the world a bit. Read full review

Barbara Shulgasser

The only remarkable feature about this otherwise routine movie is that it vilifies two current icons of American life. One is The Internet and the other is The Mall. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine

This formulaic comedy is a real kid-pleaser, full of spitballs and slapstick mayhem. Most adults will be squirming long before the heartwarming finale -- what a drag it is getting old. Read full review

Mark Caro

Evans and Kelleher could have used the same premise to tell a different story -- one in which viewers could relate to some of the perks of being First Kid instead of just the inconveniences. Luke could show kids a more exciting world. [30 Aug 1996, p.C]

Susan Wloszczyna

Sinbad steers First Kid past mediocrity. [30 Aug 1996]

Lon Grahnke

First Kid wouldn't be my first movie choice this weekend, but my 9-year-old consultant thoroughly enjoyed Sinbad's antics, personality and style. [30 Aug 1996, p.32]

Staff (Not Credited)

First Kid is filled with slapstick and predictable jokes. The kids in the preview audience seemed to enjoy it, despite the commendable fact that it generally avoids bathroom humor and age-inappropriate gags about children's sexuality. [30 Aug 1996, p.3E]

Rita Kempley

Sinbad, one of show business's sunniest souls, brings much-needed buoyancy to this somewhat soggy tale of kindred spirits. [30 Aug 1996, p.F06]

Desmond Ryan

First Kid is a surprisingly apolitical comedy that settles for general purpose humor aimed unabashedly - and pretty lamely - at kids. [30 Aug 1996, p.03]

John Hartl

There's not much any actor can do with material as woeful as this. Pierce seems as charmless at the end of First Kid as he is in the early scenes, while Sinbad seems lost without a stand-up shtick. [30 Aug 1996]