Nim's Island

This lovely movie is about people testing themselves and finding they are more capable than they thought. That's a good thing to learn at any age.

Nim's Island is an old-fashioned family movie like the ones Disney cranked out 30 years ago, with freckled, plucky kids who were cute, but not hurl-inducingly cute, getting into mischief and proving their resilience.

Harmless but surprisingly bland, Nim’s Island isn’t the sparkling family adventure tale one might expect from the cast, especially considering that Jodie Foster is reputed to be extremely picky about what roles she takes.

Husband and wife directors Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin seamlessly combine adventure, drama, comedy and fantasy.

It's a fun story, particularly in its playful, creative sense of the relationship between fiction and reality.

Based on Wendy Orr's popular children's novel, Nim's Island is an engaging, family-friendly adventure with charming performances from Abigail Breslin and Jodie Foster.

Casting Butler as both Jack and fictional hero Alex Rover was an excellent idea, especially since it gives him the chance to play off Foster.

The high-caliber cast, charming pop-up book-style animation sequences and carefree mingling of reality and fantasy put magic in the film.

If Harrison Ford ever decides to retire his whip, fedora and battered leather jacket, Gerard Butler would make a rip-roaring replacement as Indiana Jones.

Nim's Island is a light, live-action, kid-centric adventure that makes invention, self-reliance and overcoming one's fears look fun.

Nim's Island, pairing Jodie Foster and Abigail Breslin, makes no excuses about relying on what some might call old-fashioned values to pull off grand adventure.

A sweet-natured family adventure film that should be quite popular with the grade-school girls at which it's aimed.

Some nice scenery, an unexpectedly funny performance by Jodie Foster and an unflaggingly spunky Abigail Breslin make for above average family entertainment.

It's hard to imagine kids not enjoying the good-hearted, lovingly shot fantasy of it all, and Breslin is charming, though most viewers past puberty will likely yearn to be voted off the Island.

Nim's Island is a bit of a throwback. Although Internet access play a role, setting the film on a remote island takes us back to simpler times and simpler films.

Nim's Island isn’t bad. It just isn’t much. It’s bland, predictable, unoriginal -- all the things Hollywood does best.

Audiences may find early scenes of father-daughter family life more engaging than the adventures that ensue, but this is a fairly successful attempt at a preteen-friendly entertainment.

Abigail Breslin, the absolute charmer from Little Miss Sunshine, is likable but not capable of fronting an entire film.

One of the more pleasant aspects of Nim's Island is that it doesn't fit any of the known profiles for modern family movies.

If you're an elementary schooler or someone who finds Gerard Butler irresistible even when fully clothed, Nim's Island may be a treat to watch. If not, it's likelier to be a chore.

Jodie Foster gives such an exaggerated performance through most of the film that it's as if she forgot how to behave in a family adventure tale.

You don't need to rent a child to see this mildly diverting, if middling, adventure.

Even the kids in the audience will feel a bit insulted by the dumbed-down dialogue and a bit cheated by the bargain-basement special effects.

Nim's Island is a win-win proposition: an entertaining, diverting adventure saga that offers excitement and a relatable heroine for children, and also will remind their parents of favorite classics from their own youth.

This supposed adventure movie could use a little more wind in its sails.

Abigail Breslin tones down the perky effusiveness of her Little Miss Sunshine character to create a believable child who has never known any life but the one she's living.

The adventure is a little shy of magical, the comedy just short of hilarious, the whimsy forced.

The curiously titled Nim’s Island is a Saturday matinee kind of family film that’s crammed with enough adventures to keep even Indiana Jones busy.

Directors Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin deliver some eye-catching fantasy sequences in the early scenes, but the film grows more mundane and the tone more uneven as it goes on.

The film version of the popular kid-lit novel Nim's Island makes a harmless enough preteen fantasy/adventure and a fair vehicle for reigning child star Abigail Breslin.

The human elements that should make the comedy and drama cohere remain isolated like splotches of finger paint on an unfinished first-grade mural.

All fairy tales should end happily, but they ought to let us believe at least some of what we were told before they run out of story.

There are some thrilling sequences, but it's equally groan-inducing as well.

There's a stiff, constructed feel to Nim's Island, a constant sense of assembly that keeps the film from ever feeling natural

Nim's Island is a mild-mannered family movie with no huge shockers or big-time wows.

Believability was clearly not a concern for the filmmakers here, nor is internal story logic.

Nim's Island stretches credibility to the point that little girls may actually try to climb volcanoes and ride sea lions.

Nim's Island is a female version of those '60s and '70s live-action Disney movies that involved treehouses, bumbling villains and ingenious contraptions, clearly what co-writers/directors Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett were aiming for.

How much of the budget was provided by Progresso soup and Purell hand sanitizer, both of which receive the most extended product placement in any film released so far this year?

Nim's Island is three stories in one. This might be two stories too many.

Watching the children's movie Nim's Island, you can see that it was probably a pretty good book. The things about it that play out so poorly on the screen would work much better in print.

If only Nim's hero were more original, and its story more concise.

Based on an Australian children's book, it starts as a sweet fantasy about a spirited girl who lives an idyllic life with her scientist father, but it turns so deliriously stupid it would need a witch doctor to cure it.

The movie is not particularly rewarding for adults or children who believe that even a tale of fantastic events should be governed by plausibility.

Nim's Island is a movie about "peril" that is practically devoid of suspense. You won't have to worry about your kids being frightened, though a non-scheduled nap remains a possibility.

Gets off to a strong start before abandoning its imaginative premise for madcap antics.

Walking out of a screening of Nim's Island, I couldn't help wondering just why Jodie Foster chose to appear in this movie.

A good idea and a great cast are wasted in Nim's Island, a kiddie flick pitched to second-grade sensibilities that still manages to underestimate its audience.

An island adventure that proves a washout at everything it attempts.

The movie is a slapdash amalgam of competing visual and storytelling styles, bizarre acting, egregious product placement (particularly for National Geographic) and negative stereotypes.

The filmmakers and actors almost seem conscious of the bad script and are constantly trying to overcompensate.