MR MAGOO

"Magoo drives a red Studebaker convertible in ``Mr. Magoo,'' a fact I report because I love Studebakers and his was the only thing I liked in the film. It has a prescription windshield. He also drives an eggplantmobile, which looks like a failed wienermobile. The concept of a failed wienermobile is itself funnier than anything in the movie. Mr. Magoo'' is transcendently bad. It soars above ordinary badness as the eagle outreaches the fly. There is not a laugh in it. Not one. I counted. I wonder if there could have been any laughs in it. Perhaps this project was simply a bad idea from the beginning, and no script, no director, no actor could have saved it….Magoo is played by Leslie Nielsen, who could at the very least have shaved his head bald for the role. He does an imitation of the Magoo squint and the Magoo voice, but is unable to overcome the fact that a little Magoo at six minutes in a cartoon is a far different matter than a lot of Magoo at 90 minutes in a feature. This is a one-joke movie without the joke…"
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

"…What's most surprising about the movie is the fact that it got made in the first place. Granted, the cartoon was thought to be funny for its time. But the '90s are more politically correct times, and the idea's not nearly amusing enough to be translated from animation to live-action. Another warning sign for the producers should have been the presence of star Leslie Nielsen, who hasn't made a funny film in years. He and veteran Hong Kong action director Stanley Tong make a powerful formula for disaster…. The action-filled finale isn't any better than what preceded it. And things are worsened by Tong's seeming lack of control of his actors, none of whom are remotely funny. Worst of all is Nielsen, who doesn't seem to know who he's playing from scene to scene. In fact, he's actually more annoying when he tries to replicate Jim Backus' Magoo cackle."
Jeff Vice, Deseret News (Salt Lake City)