Review Roundup: Chloe Grace Moretz Stars in CARRIE Reboot

A reimagining of the classic horror tale about Carrie White (Chloë Grace Moretz), a shy girl outcast by her peers and sheltered by her deeply religious mother (Julianne Moore), who unleashes telekinetic terror on her small town after being pushed too far at her senior prom. Based on the best-selling novel by Stephen King, Carrie is directed by Kimberly Peirce with a screenplay by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. (c) Sony

Let's see what the critics have to say:

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: "Despite being 40 years old now, the Carrie story lives quite comfortably in the 21st century. Here's the problem, though. The original film had King's ingenious plot, with its fusion of innocence and cruelty and that subliminal wink of demonic takeover, but it also had De Palma's voluptuous operatic style, which gave the story the quality of a daydream-turned-nightmare. When you take away that style and serve up the plot fairly straight, as Peirce does here, we seem to be watching a Carrie that's been flattened, robbed of its over-the-top emotional extravagance."

Colin Covert, Minneapolis StarTribune: "Moretz, a confident actress, doesn't project the vulnerability that made Sissy Spacek at once sympathetic and pathetic. We feel sorry for Moretz, but it's hard to see why she's singled out as an object of torment by her peers. Spacek was geekier, more awkward, with a wounded stare, the sort of ugly duckling that teenage swans would understandably attack. No matter how she hunches her shoulders and drops her eyes, Moretz doesn't have that invisible "Kick Me" sign on her back. When her Carrie snaps, she's less an innocent turned monster than an X-Men character having a really bad day."

Justin Chang, Variety: "Perhaps Peirce's shrewdest calculation is to play the Carrie-Margaret relationship almost completely straight (though "I can see your dirty pillows" still gets a laugh). Crucially, the characters' arguments are not just shrill screaming matches but careful negotiations of power and control (complicated at one point by Carrie's own impressive command of Scripture), which can suddenly give way to moments of striking tenderness. One senses that the love between mother and daughter, twisted beyond recognition though it may be, is chillingly genuine; they truly have no one else but each other."

Billy Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: "Comparisons are unfair and inevitable. But even when taken on its own terms, the new "Carrie" rings hollow, a horror movie that is unsure of itself, with little to offer the uninitiated and less to offer fans of the first film."

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: "For the most part, the new movie merely imitates the old one, sometimes shot for shot and word for word. It makes superficial updates -- modern hair, modern clothes, a viral video of Carrie being humiliated in the gymnasium shower -- without adding any original spin or thematic embellishment. And aside from Judy Greer as Carrie's well-meaning gym teacher, the movie's supporting cast is unmemorable. "

Amy Nicholson, LA Weekly: "A beautiful, broad-shouldered blonde who's already slain 80 dudes onscreen in Kick-Ass and Kick-Ass 2, Moretz has to work harder to sell Carrie's victim status, hunching herself in half, crossing her elbows tight across her chest, and frizzing her hair into a poof. It doesn't quite work, so it's a relief to see her smile when her gym teacher (Judy Greer) convinces her she'd be gorgeous with a little blush. We all know what's coming, which makes Moretz's tentative fantasies of acceptance as gutting as the indiscriminate massacre that follows."

Michael O'Sullivan, The Washington Post: "The original "Carrie" could be read as a universal allegory of adolescence. Who hasn't felt like a freak in high school, or fantasized about lashing out - or more often, inward - after being hurt or rejected? But more recent events - the Columbine massacre and the news, just this week, that a young Florida girl killed herself after being taunted by bullies who allegedly boasted about it online - have added resonance to the source material."

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: "Where Sissy Spacek seemed otherworldly and haunted in De Palma's film, Moretz ("Hugo," "Kick-Ass") is sadder. She's a terrific young actress. If she isn't quite as deep here as she was in the vampire coming-of-age drama "Let Me In," she's able to do more than prowl about, as she did in "Dark Shadows.""

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