Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
72 Adela
39 Adventures of Power
78 Afghan Star
61 After the Storm
66 Afterschool
xx All the Best
58 American Casino
72 Amreeka
48 Antichrist
73 Araya
62 Art & Copy
55 As Seen Through These Eyes
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
13 Beautiful Life, A
70 Beeswax
35 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71 Big Fan
66 Black Dynamite
51 Blind Date
xx Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76 Bliss
35 Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57 Boys Are Back, The
45 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
70 Bronson
45 Burning Plain, The
xx Carriers
55 Casi Divas
57 Chelsea on the Rocks
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
59 Collapse
44 Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
67 Departures
xx Dil Bole Hadippa
71 Disgrace
xx Do Knot Disturb
70 Earth Days
24 Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
xx Eulogy for a Vampire
xx Everyone Else
xx Fatal Promises
56 Fifty Dead Men Walking
62 Five Minutes of Heaven
74 Flame & Citron
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
28 Free Style
xx From Mexico with Love
50 Fuel
25 Gentlemen Broncos
50 Give Me Your Hand
58 Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
52 Grace
64 Harmony and Me
81 Headless Woman, The
xx Heretics, The
63 Horse Boy, The
73 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
74 Humpday
94 Hurt Locker, The
29 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16 If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75 In Search of Beethoven
83 In the Loop
61 Intimate Enemies
42 Irene in Time
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
19 Labor Day
xx Laila's Birthday
41 Little Ashes
41 Little Traitor, The
66 Liverpool
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
83 Maid, The
xx Ministers, The
59 More Than a Game
67 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
xx Mystery Team
48 New York, I Love You
73 Night and Day
66 No Impact Man
47 Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34 Other Man, The
xx Painter Sam Francis, The
54 Paper Heart
xx Paradise
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
44 Peter and Vandy
35 Play the Game
77 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx Pretty Ugly People
65 Providence Effect, The
76 Rembrandt's J'accuse
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
40 Shrink
61 Skin
77 Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx Skiptracers
46 Splinterheads
39 St. Trinian's
89 Still Walking
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
55 Storm
65 Tetro
70 That Evening Sun
72 Thirst
xx Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61 Trucker
xx Turning Green
83 U2 3D
66 Unmade Beds
66 Unmistaken Child
70 Visual Acoustics
55 Walt & El Grupo
67 Way We Get By, The
69 We Live in Public
64 Wedding Song, The
64 Where is Where?
xx White on Rice
74 Woman in Berlin, A
69 World's Greatest Dad
70 Yes Men Fix the World
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx You, the Living

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Imagine That

EMAILPRINTParamount Pictures

Imagine That reviews
54
5.3 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 23 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 14 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Comedy  |  Drama  |  Fantasy

Written by: Ed Solomon
Chris Matheson

Directed by: Karey Kirkpatrick

Release Date:
Theatrical: June 12, 2009
DVD: November 24, 2009

Running Time: minutes, Color

Origin: USA | Germany

Summary

RATING: PG for some mild language and brief questionable behavior

Starring Eddie Murphy, Thomas Haden Church, Yara Shahidi, Nicole Ari Parker, Ronny Cox, and Martin Sheen

A successful financial executive has more time for his blackberry than his seven-year-old daughter, but when he has a crisis of confidence and his career starts going down the drain, however, he finds the solution to all his problems in his daughter’s imaginary world. (Paramount Pictures)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

88

TV Guide Perry Seibert

By no means a landmark, but it is a remarkably pleasant surprise -- so few movies aimed for the whole family show an understanding of why it's actually healthy to pretend.

Read Full Review >
75

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Superior family fare.

Read Full Review >
70

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Mr. Murphy rises to every occasion, not only with the crisp wit that has long been his hallmark, but with restraint and tenderness that serve him well.

Read Full Review >
70

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Eddie Murphy strikes the right balance between silliness and pathos in this screwball family comedy.

Read Full Review >
70

Washington Post John Anderson

It's refreshing that in effects-happy Hollywood, Evan and Olivia only imagine their travels, rather than run a gantlet of computerized hallucinations. This may turn out to be one of the more endearing aspects of Imagine That to its younger audiences.

Read Full Review >
70

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The result is a much more playable film than recent efforts, though Murphy will have to share the applause with young Yara Shahidi.

Read Full Review >
70

Variety Joe Leydon

An undemandingly pleasant, mildly amusing fantasy.

Read Full Review >
67

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

All in all, Imagine That is an amiable detour from its star's usual scatological skronk. Kids will empathize, parents will breathe a sigh of relief.

Read Full Review >
63

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Amusing without ever being break-out funny.

Read Full Review >
63

Chicago Tribune Gary Goldstein

Despite an overly broad third act, one can't fault the film's message of family unity, underscored by a memorable use of the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love."

Read Full Review >
63

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

While Imagine That falls short of its feel-good aim, its feel-nice vibe is a good Father's Day diversion for Dads and their spawn.

Read Full Review >
63

New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott

Twenty-five years ago, it would have been impossible to imagine that Imagine That would see Eddie Murphy and The Beatles coming together to create family entertainment, but I'll be darned if it doesn't work.

Read Full Review >
60

Empire Chris Hewitt

Genuinely sweet and endearing Murphy film, at last.

Read Full Review >
60

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

For the first time since "The Nutty Professor," Eddie Murphy successfully mixes his adult and kid-film personas -- imagine that.

Read Full Review >
60

Village Voice Nick Pinkerton

Imagine That does manage to get a crowd tearing up on cue for its emotional climax; as much as it works, it's through the personal charm of Murphy and Shahidi.

Read Full Review >
58

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

There's something sweet about the way that Murphy throws himself into this piffle. Thomas Haden Church does too.

Read Full Review >
50

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Eddie Murphy in another mediocre family comedy? Imagine that.

Read Full Review >
50

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

An Eddie Murphy comedy that's actually endearing.

Read Full Review >
50

USA Today Claudia Puig

Though Imagine That's message is benign, its adult focus is off-base, and every move feels too familiar, formulaic and telegraphed.

Read Full Review >
50

San Francisco Chronicle Amy Binacolli

The plot turns distasteful and shrill before its tidy resolution at the close.

Read Full Review >
25

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Though he commits to a lot of embarrassing silliness, Murphy projects so little genuine warmth that his transformation barely registers.

Read Full Review >
25

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Watching Imagine That, I was beset by a feeling of intense depression. Is this what Eddie Murphy has become?

Read Full Review >
25

New York Post Kyle Smith

Cutesy? My pain was acutesy as the entire plot yawned before me.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 5.3 (out of 10) based on 14 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jay H gave it a5:
Way too cute for my taste. Eddie Murphy does try, but with material as sappy as this it doesn’t do much good. It is filled with cliches, I lost interest about halfway through. I was not impressed.

Donna W gave it a5:
Funny, light-hearted but predictable outcome. Vanessa Williams performance is pretty lackluster.

kg m gave it a4:
Thomas Haden Church is brilliant as Johnny Whitefeather—especially in the first 10-15 minutes. Yara Shahidi is adorable and Eddie Murphy holds down the fort. The story certainly isn’t very deep, and the lesson isn’t much more than trite but at least the filmmaker keeps it clean and family oriented. The one significant flaw is in her daughter’s imaginary world Murphy can never see into it (that’s fine) but we never get to see his daughter’s vision and that really hurts the potential beauty and poignancy of this flick.

Lester E gave it an8:
Our family enjoyed the movie, funny and charming. I think more people should keep an open mind. I think Eddie Murphy is getting a bad rap since his last few movies bombed.

Chad S gave it a2:
[***SELF-POLICING SPOILER ALERT***] Olivia(Yara Shahidi) is daddy's little executive. Although the film pretends otherwise, there's a strong possibility that she's the one with the shrewd business mind. The audience never sees Olivia's imaginary friends. Unlike Disney's "The Barefoot Executive" where the audience sees the network television programming chimp that Steven Post(Kurt Russell) exploits for his own personal gain. Since you can compensate a lower primate with bananas, there's nothing particularly unethical about the opportunistic mailboy taking all the credit for Raffles' media savviness. But your own flesh and blood? Evan(Eddie Murphy) has no scruples. The financial executive never considers the possibility that Olivia might be a child prodigy. If he did, another Lennon-esque title, "Gimme Some Truth", would emerge out from the film's subtext and cannibalize the bizarre children's movie's premise about a cabal of princesses who crunch numbers. "Imagine That" knows less about its demographics than the concurrent "Land of the Lost". In "Drop Dead Fred", Phoebe Cates saw her imaginary friend, whereas the little girl in "Opal Dream"(based on the novel "Pobby and Dingan" by Ben Rice) doesn't. Both films knew its respective audiences. Meanwhile, "Imagine That" has Eddie Murphy mugging for the camera, to little comedic effect, before thrusting his business portfolios at the thin air. Blanket, my ass. Olivia is at that tender age where children don't want to beat their parents. That's why she takes no credit for her father's success.

Fred W gave it a0:
You will have to imagine that Eddie Murphy is still funny if you want to get a laugh out of this movie.

Paul S gave it a0:
Imagine that Eddie Murphy is still funny, becuase he sure ain't in this movie.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use