Shorts Critic Reviews

More zippy, diverting fun from Robert Rodriguez's family filmmaking factory.Read the full review

Adult actors pretty much let the youngsters upstage them. The two leads, Bennett and Vanier, do a nice job holding the center of gravity while the film goes nuts around them. Best of all, Shorts is short, finishing before you can truly get tired of all those wishes gone wrong.Read the full review

Fast-paced, imaginative and often cute, Shorts is slight but enjoyable family fare.Read the full review

More like a summer-camp theater project than a studio movie.Read the full review

If parents feel like they've seen much of Shorts before, its celebration of mayhem and restless, thrill-seeking vibe will absorb young viewers, especially as the boredom of late summer begins to set in.Read the full review

Jon Cryer and Leslie Mann have a couple of sly moments as overworked career people, and Spader again proves he learned a lot by working with William Shatner for so long. But the bottomless slapstick and silly effects quickly grow wearying, as does a cast of young actors whose work can politely be called energetic.Read the full review

It's more of a burst pinata than a story, a wild, kinetic jumble of images, ideas and flying-candy-bar product placement that would offend if it weren't so forthright.Read the full review

The problem with Shorts is in the execution. The blown-up plot line at times derails even the little ones, the many fine comedic grown-ups are mostly squandered, and the "message" part of the movie feels like it was thrown together during detention, resulting in a wrap-up that is rushed and cloyingly PC.Read the full review

Soon becomes tiresome, but it’s emblematic of a film that is dancing as fast as it can to entertain.Read the full review