Name : Justin Lowe / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Leaving behind the youth-skewing perspectives of Monster House and City of Ember, director Gil Kenan not only delivers on the promise of Hooper's Poltergeist, but significantly raises the stakes for similar PG-13 fare.

Name : Drew Hunt / Alias : Chicago Reader
Director Gil Kenan ruins the pacing with too many half-baked, awkwardly staged horror set pieces, but the cast acquit themselves well enough.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
Just as the original was one of the scariest PG movies ever, the reboot has about as much gruesomeness as you can possibly stuff into a PG-13.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
This remake is over 20 minutes shorter than the original "Poltergeist," and it saved most of that time by sacrificing the beginning and end.

Name : Tirdad Derakhshani / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
It's not exactly a scary film, but it does provide an enjoyable ride. It's good fun. But it left me befuddled. A little sad. And a little angry.

Name : Neil Genzlinger / Alias : New York Times
The new "Poltergeist" might well be the scariest movie 13-or-unders have yet seen, just as the original was for their parents back in 1982.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
There's little doubt that nostalgia played a part in Fox's decision to remake Poltergeist, but that's a poor reason for any film's existence and no excuse for how uninspired Gil Kenan's re-imagining of this one turned out.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
This new spooky-house chiller never escapes the shadow of its predecessor, but it also pales next to the scores of subsequent movies - "The Conjuring," "Insidious," and "Paranormal Activity" - that already stripped the original "Poltergeist" for parts.

Name : Eddie Goldberger / Alias : New York Daily News
It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but Poltergeist is a solid, surprisingly effective chiller that's respectful towards its 1982 predecessor while acquitting itself as a proficient update.

Name : Linda Barnard / Alias : Toronto Star
There are some jumps but few legitimate scares, unlike director Tobe Hooper's original, which, although similarly bloodless, still stands as one of the scariest movies ever made.

Name : Alan Scherstuhl / Alias : Village Voice
Poltergeist 2015 is to Poltergeist '82 what today's shipped-frozen-to-the-store Pizza Hut dough is to the kneaded-on-site pies the chain's stoned cooks tossed in the Reagan era.

Name : Randy Cordova / Alias : Arizona Republic
The original film was promoted with the tagline "It knows what scares you." If there was a truth-in-advertising law regarding films, this movie's ad copy would read: "Poltergeist: Meh."

Name : Andrew Barker / Alias : Variety
[A] professionally executed yet bloodless film . an act of homage that hews reverently to its source material while missing the essential spirit and vitality that once powered it.

Name : Clark Collis / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Poltergeist does benefit from briskness-it's actually 20 minutes shorter than Hooper's film-and there is a nice, Evil Dead 2-esque sequence involving a power drill.

Name : Tom Huddleston / Alias : Time Out
This has more in common with slick, audience-goosing modern spookers like 'Insidious' than with Hooper & Spielberg's imaginative original.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
This new Poltergeist isn't anything special . But it's not a travesty, and that feels like cause for brief celebration.

Name : Molly Eichel / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
Keanu doesn't go far enough. Key & Peele was searing and incisive about race and American culture, and Keanu doesn't even scratch the surface.

Name : Brian Truitt / Alias : USA Today
Putting a tiny kitten in an action film sounds like a bonkers idea. That is, until you see the bizarrely wonderful sight of a tiny kitten in an action film.

Name : Sara Stewart / Alias : New York Post
Yes, it's basically a really long "Key & Peele" sketch, but if you were a fan of that show, this will be welcome news - and if you weren't, well, "Keanu" is a reasonably good introduction .

Name : Kerry Lengel / Alias : Arizona Republic
The comic momentum never quite grinds to a halt, and even if the occasional attempts at genuine pathos come up short, "Keanu" is still an entertaining extension of the "Key & Peele" aesthetic.

Name : Edward Douglas / Alias : New York Daily News
Maybe Keanu would have been stronger in the hands of a more experienced director, but Key and Peele know how to deliver the laughs and killer chemistry.

Name : Scott Tobias / Alias : NPR
Key and Peele have such a sensationally giddy chemistry together that the film's raggedness plays, in their hands, like a kind of spontaneity.

Name : John DeFore / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
It will delight the show's fans while winning over others unlucky enough never to have seen [Key & Peele].

Name : Manohla Dargis / Alias : New York Times
As the genre machinery chugs along, the bang-bang begins to overwhelm the movie, and the underlying critique gives way to a what-me-worry shrug.

Name : Calvin Wilson / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
At its best, "Keanu" is reminiscent of Woody Allen's early, funny films such as "Take the Money and Run" and "Bananas," which were also uneven but frequently hilarious.

Name : Preston Jones / Alias : Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
Pitched as a sort of film Hollywood struggles to make in an age of endless sequels and franchise-building, Keanu draws upon a deep well of satire and dry wit, exploring race and gender in ways most blockbusters avoid altogether.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
If you're in the right mood and seeing it with the right crowd, "Keanu" can put you close to a giggle coma, even as you realize the material's far beneath the talents of its stars.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
This scenario allows free rein for patented Key and Peele riffing on race, rap and drug stereotypes while also freestyling on pop-cult obsessions .

Name : Justin Chang / Alias : Variety
An initially amusing but fatally overstretched action-comedy that marks a lamer-than-expected big-screen outing for Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele following the conclusion last year of their frequently brilliant cable series.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
Give that kitty an Oscar, right now. And then send him to my doorstep.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
You can't force comic chemistry, in case you hadn't noticed. You can, however, make the mistake of forcing your stars into settling for weaker material than they deserve.

Name : J. R. Jones / Alias : Chicago Reader
The incongruity between their white-bread delivery and the bad guys' jive generates a few laughs, but not enough to salvage this thing.

Name : Liz Braun / Alias : Toronto Sun
It's a credit to the chemistry and charisma of Key and Peele that the movie works at all.