Mr. Deeds
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: June 28, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
24
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
10
Negative:
18
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Armed with a dinner theater accent and hair that looks like an LP melted on his head, Turturro pockets the picture. As a demonstration of his newly accessed maturity and benevolence, Sandler helps him do it.
75
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Surprisingly sweet and, dare we say it, old-fashioned, with an engaging sense of humor that's a definite improvement on lame, lowbrow efforts such as "Little Nicky." Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The supporting cast is almost uniformly good, from Conchata Ferrell as a sympathetic waitress to Erick Avari as a corporate type with a surprisingly big heart and a hidden silly streak. Turturro relishes his quiet overplaying and steals the bulk of his scenes. Read full review
63
USA TodayMike Clark
If Sandler felt compelled to take on a role immortalized by Gary Cooper, at least it wasn't as "Sergeant York," "Lou Gehrig" or the sheriff in "High Noon." Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Sandler nimbly steps into the role created by Cooper and makes it his nebbishy own, something that cannot be said for Ryder's attempt to rethink the Arthur part. Ryder is lovely, but perhaps too sincere an actress to play a wiseacre. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Mr. Deeds, is -- perhaps predictably -- pretty much of a disaster. It's a bit like someone scrawling a mustache on the Mona Lisa. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Mr. Deeds is flat, except on those rare occasions when Sandler reverts to form or when John Turturro steals one of many scenes. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
Sporadically funny, dumbed-down version. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
Though it's enjoyable, you can't help but feel the squandered situations and talent, flattened by mediocre writing and direction. Scoff if you will, but the gifted Sandler and his audience deserve better. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
A stink bomb of a movie. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
The film owes as much to Caddyshack as to Capra. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
An idiot variation on Frank Capra's ''Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,'' might have been thrown together in even less time than it takes Sandler to get dressed in the morning; it feels sort of like the dumbest corporate comedy of 1987. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJoshua Rothkopf
Sandler adapts his sweet-natured doofus shtick to this remarkably faithful remake of Frank Capra's 1936 rube-in-the-big-city comedy Mr. Deeds Goes to Town--which suggests that Capra may have invented dumb movies before their time. Read full review
40
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
Utterly predictable, thoroughly sentimental and -- worse -- not all that funny. It makes your average episode of "Third Rock From the Sun" look like the edgy mutant offspring of John Waters and Ingmar Bergman. Read full review
40
Film ThreatMichael Dequina
Not that the lackluster love story will matter any to the Sandler faithful, who are there to see the star beat people up and work his regular joe mojo on snooty types; those viewers will certainly get their fill and then some. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Turturro is the one thing that's right with the movie. Perhaps the weakest thing about the new "Deeds" is its utter lack of a strong viewpoint and real emotion. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
There's no chemistry between Deeds and Babe, but then how could there be, considering that their characters have no existence, except as the puppets in scenes of plot manipulation. Read full review
38
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Something's wrong with the math here -- the inheritance of the story's small-town hero is enlarged from $20 million to $40 billion, yet the new movie isn't worth the price of a Depression-era ticket.
30
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
This is a terrible movie in its own right, tasteless and condescending -- if Sandler's character is an Everyman, than the Everyman of today is a boorish jackass Read full review
25
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Adam Sandler does Frank Capra wrong. His unfunny remake stomps all over the honest values and endearing qualities of the original. Read full review
20
L.A. WeeklyHazel-Dawn Dumpert
Sandler is -- à la "The Wedding Singer" -- in his washout romantic mode here, and no amount of spastic-colon jokes, cartoon violence or good-buddy cameos (Al Sharpton, John McEnroe) can distract from the fact that Gary Cooper he ain't. Read full review
20
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Mr. Deeds is mostly terrible, a shambles of a comedy that looks as if it was shot by a tabloid news crew. Read full review
20
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Crazy, ugly and scary. In fact, a sense of the grotesque runs thought the film; an extended joke about Sandler's black, dead foot (from frostbite as a kid) borders on something you find in John Waters. Read full review
20
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Hollywood movies are once again taking on the job that Andy Griffith–era TV sitcoms used to fill, touting homespun values in Never Land. Read full review
20
VarietyTodd McCarthy
A perfectly dreadful film. Read full review
20
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The remake stumbles from a ragged start into a child's garden of worses -- worse than the original in more ways than you could imagine.
10
SlateDavid Edelstein
This is another of those post-Saturday Night Live vehicles in which ineptitude and laziness are supposed to be taken as irony: It's not bad, it's "bad." Actually, it's "terrible": Read full review
10
Washington PostDesson Thomson
The projectors in the theater practically shut down with boredom. Read full review
10
Rolling StonePeter Travers
It's not just that the movie itself is wicked awful, it's that Mr. Deeds brings out the worst in Adam Sandler. Read full review
10
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
What's most interesting about this new film is how lacking it is in any of the things, from humor to emotion to halfway decent acting, we might go to a movie for. There's not even enough here to get mad at. Read full review
0
New Times (L.A.)Robert Wilonsky
A torturous, mawkish, ill-conceived remake.
0
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Stay home. Your entertainment-seeking efforts would be better expended perusing old phone books. The white pages. Read full review
0
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Nothing about this movie works. Read full review
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