Critics’ Views Of ‘Phenomenon’

Here’s what critics around the country are saying about “Phenomenon:”

Jay Boyar/Orlando Sentinel: Imagine a honey-coated episode of “The X-Files” and you’ll have the general idea of “Phenomenon.” This movie’s not just para-normal, it’s also para-sappy.

Kenneth Turan/Los Angeles Times: “Phenomenon” is a predigested film for undemanding audiences. Well-meaning and convinced it has something of value to say, its “Reach Out and Touch Someone” sensibility ensures that all its satisfactions will prove hollow, and so they do.

Jack Mathews/Newsday: Here’s a summer bargain for sentimental moviegoers: See Jon Turteltaub’s “Phenomenon” and get two pictures for the price of one. The first is a wondrous, magical adventure, starring John Travolta at his most ingratiating. The second is a four-hankie weeper, a heap of sentiment so choked up over its own emotions it nearly smothers all the good that has gone before.

This is going to be a big hit. “Phenomenon” is Disney’s attempt, through Touchstone, to follow in the lucrative footsteps of “Forrest Gump,” to offer a summer movie for the soul.

Joe Baltake/Sacramento Bee: John Travolta’s red-hot return to the screen - perhaps the most closely charted comeback in the history of movies - slows down to a nice, pleasing hum with “Phenomenon,” a curious little film that’s perched, uncertainly, somewhere between being a mediocrity and a classic.

Philip Wuntch/Dallas Morning News: John Travolta turns “Phenomenon” into a genuinely warm movie. Without his star-powered performance, the movie, which opens Wednesday, could easily have been lukewarm.

David Goodman/Associated Press: A lot of movies like to stereotype the super-intelligent as either precocious kids, lonely eccentrics or those ever-popular evil geniuses out to take over the world and-or steal billions.

What’s refreshing about “Phenomenon” is that it deals with what happens when an ordinary, likable guy in a small town suddenly gains extraordinary mental powers. He doesn’t want to dominate his neighbors - just to grow better summer squash.