Red Riding Hood
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: March 11, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
29
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
0
Mixed:
15
Negative:
21
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
EmpireWilliam ThomasApr 11, 2011
Oldman and Seyfried prove to be the big attractions, but Hardwicke's Riding Hood legend still lacks bite. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliMar 10, 2011
Catherine Hardwicke's prettified movie is a strange adaptation because it supplants the woodsy horror of the original fairy tale with two new elements: a romantic triangle and a witch hunt. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigMar 10, 2011
The best that can be said is that the production design is striking. Otherwise, it's a foolish story, marred by a strange blend of overacting and bland, offhand performances. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMar 10, 2011
Seyfried's a good actress, but all the art direction in the world can't make this version of events the stuff either of dreams or of nightmares. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 10, 2011
My, what sharp teeth Ms. Hardwicke doesn't have: working from David Leslie Johnson's screenplay she takes on the story's grown-up themes of sex and death directly but weakly. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyMar 10, 2011
Gorgeously shot, smartly conceived, cleverly cast, badly executed - the lush medieval beauty here is at best only skin deep. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMar 10, 2011
Seyfried holds the camera's attention, playing this storybook business pretty much straight, although David Leslie Johnson's script puts the actress sorely to the test. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 10, 2011
At least the werewolves in Red Riding Hood have teeth and, when in human form, they don't parade around shirtless. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMar 12, 2011
Oldman makes a four-course dinner out of the scenery with enough slash and burn to leave you wondering if he is vying with Nicolas Cage for the title of filmdom's biggest hambone. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonMar 10, 2011
The main difference is that while the "Twilight" films strive for straight-faced grimness, Red Riding Hood often verges on outright florid hilarity. It isn't laughing at itself, but that needn't stop the audience. Read full review
40
SalonAndrew O'HehirMar 11, 2011
It's strange and stupid and half-compelling and sometimes beautiful. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichMar 10, 2011
The highlight, though, is Julie Christie as Grandma, whose GILFy gorgeousness (especially in the "better to eat you with" scene) is the only thing in this overblown campfest with real teeth. Read full review
40
VarietyJustin ChangMar 9, 2011
Intermittently enjoyable hokum at best. Read full review
40
Boxoffice MagazineSteve RamosMar 9, 2011
Hardwicke shows a strong grasp at epic fantasy with Red Riding Hood; her nemesis is not a man-eating wolf but an unsurprising script. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 9, 2011
There is a sort of unintentional campy fun to be had in places. Just don't go in expecting much, in other words, and perhaps you'll live happily ever after. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyMar 11, 2011
With its stilted dialogue, fragments of voice-over and over-busy camera, Red Riding Hood feels off-kilter from the start. Read full review
38
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMar 11, 2011
Such a sorrowful attempt to resurrect the marketing magic of "Twilight" that it ought to be titled "Career Eclipse." Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 10, 2011
A laughably inept series of adolescent poses trying to pass itself off as a movie. Read full review
38
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreMar 10, 2011
Far more grim than "Grimm," and not nearly as much fun as it should have been. Read full review
35
MovielineStephanie ZacharekMar 10, 2011
Aside from a few arresting visuals, Red Riding Hood is just a slog through the woods. Read full review
33
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumMar 10, 2011
Red Riding Hood goes from trite to triter, a plot collapse that overtakes any of the visual prettiness from cinematographer Mandy Walker (Beastly). Read full review
30
The New YorkerDavid DenbyMar 23, 2011
The movie is all whoosh and whack and abrupt closeups -- jerky digital punctuation. It's alienating experience, without emotional resonance or charm. [28 March 2011, p. 116]
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesMar 10, 2011
Like an idiot, I came to this movie hoping that director Catherine Hardwicke-who made her debut with the bad-girl shocker "Thirteen" (2003)-might engage in a feminist interrogation of the old fairy tale, just as French filmmaker Catherine Breillat has with "Blue Beard" (2009) and "The Sleeping Beauty" (2010). Instead this is a muddle-headed horror flick. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMar 9, 2011
As it thuds along from one wolf attack to the next, Catherine Hardwicke's first film since taking leave of Bella and her toothy friends adamantly refuses to provide any wit, humor or fun. Read full review
30
Village VoiceKarina LongworthMar 9, 2011
RRH veers between monotonous, soapy seriousness and camp. Read full review
25
Portland OregonianShawn LevyMar 11, 2011
Ugly, dull, bloodless, dumb, and phony to its core. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithMar 11, 2011
I have no idea how to blow up a two-page fairy tale into 100 minutes of blockbuster, but frankly I was hoping for more backstory about the titular cape in Red Riding Hood. Thread count? Machine washability? Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertMar 10, 2011
Has the added inconvenience of being dreadfully serious about a plot so preposterous, it demands to be filmed by Monty Python. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 10, 2011
Even wild man Gary Oldman, as a priest ready to eighty-six the wolfman with silver nail polish, can't liven up this humorless hogwash. And it's just sad to see the legendary Julie Christie stuck playing the grandmother. Read full review
25
Washington PostAnn HornadayMar 10, 2011
A lurid, loopy, utterly ludicrous enterprise. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldConnie OgleMar 10, 2011
According to legend, a silver bullet can kill a werewolf. Too bad it can't slay bad writing, without which the ill-conceived Red Riding Hood would not exist. Read full review
25
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMar 9, 2011
A timid new take on the old fairy tale, and it's pretty grim. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenMar 17, 2011
This Red Riding Hood loses sight of the forest for the trees on its way to Grandma's house. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMar 11, 2011
The amazingly awful dramatic thriller Red Riding Hood could, with tweaks, be enjoyably bad in a "Plan 9 From Outer Space" kind of way. Instead, it's M. Night Shyamalan-style bad, which means despite all the unintentional snickers, you feel trapped. Read full review
10
TimeMary PolsMar 12, 2011
Was Red Riding Hood masterminded by a cadre of particularly silly 11-year-olds undergoing withdrawal from Twilight? That's the only excuse for a movie this dopey. Read full review
10
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMar 10, 2011
This tedious retelling of the venerable fairy tale-"Twilight" with Oedipal kinks-takes place in a medieval village that is plagued by a werewolf, and that looks like a shtetl settled by California actors. Read full review
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