So much of The 4:30 Movie feels like the ChatGPT interpolation of a Kevin Smith joint.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Feb 28, 2025

This is decently played and enjoyable enough when taken on its own simple terms.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 13, 2025

While this Kevin Smith comedy probably sounded like paradise for film fans, it ends up more like purgatory, focusing on sex jokes and dumb humor rather than on lovable characters or love of cinema.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 24, 2024

It’s touching and spirited.

| Dec 19, 2024

Amongst the laugh-out-loud generation-specific one-liners, scatalogical gags and teen-crush angst, Smith delivers a message for cinematic-storytelling lovers: “Most people come to the movies to escape their lives, but, to us, movies make life make sense.”

| Nov 3, 2024

A delightful nostalgia-filled day-in-the-life that tugs at the heartstrings with many fun cameos along the way.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 6, 2024

There’s awkwardness in all the right places. There’s charm in spades too. Cute. It’s just cute. Well done, sir.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 27, 2024

The 4:30 Movie is more than just a nostalgic trip; it's a heartfelt celebration of youth, friendship, and the magic of cinema. A delightful reminder of why we fell in love with his storytelling in the first place.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 20, 2024

Kevin Smith’s The Fabelmans, and his best movie in years.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 20, 2024

Even if The 4:30 Movie is intended as a parody of crummy ’80s teen comedies, that still means the jokes are lame and their hollering deliveries are dead on arrival.

| Sep 18, 2024

Fortunately, The 4:30 Movie is a step in the right direction. I have my share of issues with the film, but Kevin Smith is at least doing more than just having his heart in the right place.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Sep 18, 2024

The endearing moments in Kevin Smith’s coming-of-age cinema-fest are weighed down by underwritten comedy. Could have done with being more sweet, less salty.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 18, 2024

We sense that every moment (good or bad) comes from a personal place. That earnestness does a lot of heavy lifting, making this a much more palatable experience compared to Smith’s other, less successful undertakings.

| Original Score: B- | Sep 18, 2024

Everything is cast in a glow of hazy, diffusion-filter-smeared nostalgia, though it never feels authentic to a particular time or place, or even develops a consistent vibe.

| Original Score: C- | Sep 16, 2024

Smith's love letter to youth, the movies and the '80s is precisely the kind of film that people lament doesn't get made anymore.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Sep 16, 2024

You’d reckon it would be impossible for someone to do something 15 times without learning anything, but it beggars belief how much worse Smith has gotten at the basics of camera blocking and shot composition.

| Sep 14, 2024

Even though it all leads to a charming conclusion, far too much of The 4:30 Movie is concerned with excessive indulgence, making every cringe joke possible about the future of movies and time-wasting subplots

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 13, 2024

It’s nice to see his characters behave in a developmentally appropriate way for a change. Rather than sad looks into grown men who stubbornly refuse to grow up, Smith is able to give us a cute portrait of kids who just haven’t gotten there yet.

| Original Score: B+ | Sep 13, 2024

Light and self-deprecating where “Clerks 3” was depressing and verklempt, “The 4:30 Movie” offers viewers a reassuring trip down memory lane.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 13, 2024

Smith captures the fun and perils of young adulthood convincingly.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 13, 2024