Only a couple of good gags in its pileup of otherwise lame jokes keep the production from being an unqualified stinker.
– Peter Stack,
San Francisco Chronicle,
1 Jan 2000
rotten:
Here's where I'm supposed to suggest how the film might be better. But I can't think of anything to say other than to make the film again, with different writers and a new director.
– Jeff Millar,
Houston Chronicle,
1 Jan 2000
rotten:
Incomplete as a cartoon, indecisive as comedy, halting as adventure, Mr. Magoo turns out to be a shortsighted project.
– Lawrence Van Gelder,
New York Times,
1 Jan 2000
rotten:
If you really hate your kids, pack them off to this slapdash farce, whose only funny moment is the PC disclaimer at the end about the Disney company's humanist concern for blind people.
– Jonathan Rosenbaum,
Chicago Reader,
16 May 2008
rotten:
By turns frenetic and flat-footed, Mr. Magoo is an uninspired live-action comedy.