Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

pinkarray Madeline is a clever movie about a brave and smart little girl and how she stands up to Pepito and Lord Covington. It can be syrupy and corny sometimes but it's got some entertaining moments, too.Hattie Jones is a pretty decent actor for her first role. She may not have had the acting chops to play Madeline, but she still did pretty good for her age. Her anger, her fearlessness, her mischief, her sadness, her precociousness was enjoyable to watch and this was my movie as a kid. Most of the other actors also did well for their roles and personalities but I didn't like Vicki. It's too bad I couldn't get to see more of Hattie. Some people may have problems with her having a British accent instead of a French accent, though.Madeline doesn't act much like a real kid because of her acting too mature for her age but she's a unique character and her bravery, friendliness, and fierce personality are good qualities in a little girl. Pepito is a good character because he changes from a troublesome little boy, to a friendly and helpful boy. Lord Covington is a sympathetic and relatable antagonist because he wants to close down the school because of his sadness for the death of his wife.Now my real problems are:They picked a little Asian girl to be one of the girls, I don't think this was used in the book? I haven't read much of it.I've never liked the trouble Madeline and the girls cause. Yes, I know they're children, but they shouldn't be influencing girls to act like them. And also, yes it's a movie, but I never liked seeing kids misbehaving a lot. And the kids cry over an appendix, while it's faithful to the book, I think that them crying over something like getting their appendix out is weird. I still remember fondly watching this movie as a kid and over the Summer and Fall in 2015. It's not one of the best movies to watch, in fact, it might be forgettable because of its formulaic writing, storytelling, characters and directing but this mostly lies in the writing and directing, though it's certainly better than the Madeline cartoons that were out in the 80s and 90s and always had been to me, being 11 years old and watching the movie, I was too old for the cartoons. I didn't care much for them.

naomielsanders This is an interesting take on a classic TV series of a young girl in a French school. It's interesting to take this as they expanded all the characters, like the the girls at the school having all different personalities. I do like Hatty Jones' take on Madaline (she does have a cute voice) as well as Nigel Hawthorne as Lord Covington, especially since he's played parts ranging from King George (in the Madness of King George) to Professor Porter (in Tarzan).I'm not going to give anything away (if you're looking at these reviews, wondering if you should watch this, I would recommend it for girls 10 upwards) but it is lovely. Good actors, good script, combining some of the elements of the original series with the new parts that they put in.Serioulsy, I would recommend it. It's sweet, but also gripping at times (not telling you when! That's cheating). However bad and girly you think it is, watch it. Then, if you still think the same... well, you can think what you think, I still like it!

richard-1787 What a waste. A charming book for little girls is turned into the "adventures" of a group of representative, largely disagreeable little girls. Some makes no sense: why is the owner of a house in Paris "Lord Covington"? Why do some of the girls speak with English accents? But that's almost beside the point. Suddenly there are kidnappers, and the aggravating boy next door becomes all warm and fuzzy. Then Madeline suddenly understands Lord Covington and he becomes all warm and fuzzy too. Like a very bad Halmark Hall of Fame special.Frances MacDermond is good here. Some of the photography of Paris is good - though the Eiffel Tower appears everywhere, as if to keep reminding us that we are in Paris even though it seems to be populated with English.If you liked the children's books, stick with them. This movie isn't at all done in the same spirit. And the "spirit" of this movie is just to provoke a few very manipulated tears.

bob the moo Madeline is a typically troublesome young red-headed girl who is a ward of the church under the care of Miss Clavel. However just as good as she is at getting into trouble she is equally as good at working out a way out of it. When the kindly Lady Covington dies, Madeline's school loses its most ardent sponsor and faces closure when Lord Covington decides that he no longer has to humour his wife by keeping it open. Obviously none of the girls want this to happen, but Madeline must also deal with other problems as well – not least of which is some sort of plot surrounding Pepito, the son of the Spanish Ambassador.I had not heard of this film or the famous stories from which it had come but I watched it hoping for a strong child character in a strong family comedy drama. Sadly what I got was a very muddled film that has a couple of plots and forgets to do a great deal with any of them. I appreciate that the character is the heart of the film but that doesn't excuse how messy and poorly focused this is for the majority. It does have some good aspects about it and I can see why some older pre-teens might like it but younger than that and older than that might struggle. For me the main thing the muddled delivery did was rob it of a sense of fun and prevent anything flowing.At times the tone is silly and childish, at others it is serious and intimate – but it never feels like it is all in one movie and again fragments the flow of it. The cast try hard to work with it but understandably they seem unsure of the tone of the film (a fault that must be put at Mayer's door) and it shows. McDormand is solid but unspectacular while Hawthorne clearly felt that turning up for his scenes was enough. The star is of course Jones as Madeline. She is a strong character but not developed beyond what she can do herself. I have no vested interest in the character but I was a little disappointed with what they did. Daniels is poorly used while De La Osa is purely annoying.This all might just about do the job for the older, pre-teen audience but younger won't care and older will want more than this delivers. A muddled film that never really settles down or decides what it is doing.