Mrs. Doubtfire

Much of it feels synthetic and crude, more the result of engineering than inspiration. The [filmmakers] put a commercial glaze on everything, as if a future TV series were taking over the movie even as it was unreeling in the projector.

This comedy's warm and soothing nature will give mainstream audiences in these dysfunctional-family times a perfect holiday uplift.

Although overly sappy in places and probably 20 minutes too long, this Robin Williams-in-drag vehicle provides the comic a slick surface for doing his shtick, within a story possessing broad family appeal.

I've rarely laughed so much at a movie I generally disliked.

Sit-com stuff, then, with laboured farcical interludes, and a mushy post-feminist sensibility. Funny notwithstanding.

Wins you over with its message and big heart

You can't take Mrs. Doubtfire seriously for a moment, its daddy-track sympathies notwithstanding, and you'll know exactly where it's going at every turn. You'll laugh, though Robin Williams will not be denied,

A somewhat grotesque take on Mary Poppins, this picture has an attitude and style all its own.

Anybody tempted by nostalgia should stay away to preserve the illusion that this was once so well-liked.