Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
With archness and irony, "Into the Woods" goes deeper into the fairy stories, allowing us to see familiar archetypes in new and not so flattering ways.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
Rob Marshall - who previously shepherded a glossy if slightly diluted version of "Chicago" to the screen - does a decent job transferring the material.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Into the Woods" is a paean to the primal magic of storytelling.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Yes, the sets and costumes elicit swoons, but it's the peerless Sondheim score, however truncated, that makes this Woods a prime destination.

Name : David Rooney / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
This twisty fairy-tale mash-up shows an appreciation for the virtues of old-fashioned storytelling, along with a welcome dash of subversive wit.

Name : Betsy Sharkey / Alias : Los Angeles Times
What makes "Into the Woods" so entertaining is the cleverness of the tale itself and the way specific characters match the talents of its storytellers.

Name : Lindsey Bahr / Alias : Associated Press
It's hard not to get swept up in the grand production of it all.

Name : Scott Foundas / Alias : Variety
If so much as one tween viewer adds Sondheim to his or her iPod playlist alongside the likes of "Let it Go," all will have been worthwhile.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
Into the Woods left me out in the cold.

Name : Claudia Puig / Alias : USA Today
With its ominous gnarled trees and enchanted look, Into the Woods is a place worth exploring.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Richard Roeper.com
Rumbles on for too long and has some dry patches here and there-but just when we're growing fidgety, we get another rousing musical number or another dark plot twist, and we're back in business.

Name : Christine Dolen / Alias : Miami Herald
For anyone who can appreciate the darker side of fairy-tales told in a musical with depth and nuance, Into the Woods is a journey worth taking.

Name : Jesse Hassenger / Alias : AV Club
Even if this Into The Woods lacks the exhilaration of the best movie musicals, it does capture the show's emotional intimacy - no small task in a field that favors razzle dazzle.

Name : Nancy Churnin / Alias : Dallas Morning News
As with Chicago, Marshall makes bold choices, but they pay off. His cast may glitter with film stars, but they work as an ensemble and keep their stories emotionally true against a terrifically rich orchestral accompaniment.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Grantland
The movie is a watchable, tuneful contraption.

Name : Dana Stevens / Alias : Slate
Instead of being a rueful meditation on the inevitable disappointments of adulthood, the last act plays out as a generic dystopian bummer.

Name : Lou Lumenick / Alias : New York Post
"Into the Woods'' thankfully retains most of its wit and bite, and showcases two of the year's very best female performances, from Streep and Blunt.

Name : Stephanie Merry / Alias : Washington Post
Some of the musical's superfans will feel shortchanged by the movie no matter what, but you have to give credit where it's due. The adaptation is pretty faithful to the original - for better and worse.

Name : Rex Reed / Alias : New York Observer
I left disenchanted and irritated by so many missed opportunities.

Name : Brad Wheeler / Alias : Globe and Mail
What is celebrated is the art of storytelling and the bedazzling attraction of a killer cast, uninhibited acting, giddy escapism, attractive visuals and an extroverted score.

Name : Preston Jones / Alias : Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
The sly send-up of fantasy tropes and healthy doses of humor help Into the Woods feel very much like the books and films it gently satirizes, even as it stands on its own as a solid entry into the musical-fantasy genre.

Name : Karen D'Souza / Alias : San Jose Mercury News
This movie always seems to distance itself from that existential truth that was at the core of Sondheim's original.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
For years, composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim's 1987 fairy tale mashup, written with librettist James Lapine, has hacked its way through the thicket of Hollywood development. And the movie now before us? Here's a relief: It's good.

Name : Ben Sachs / Alias : Chicago Reader
With the exception of Meryl Streep (as the Witch) and James Corden (as the Baker), the cast is bland, and the bombastic orchestrations tend to steamroll the nuances of Sondheim's score.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
Marshall's film captures enough of the emotions that course through this sneaky fairy tale about childish things like love, sex, grief, insecurity, abandonment, and forbearance.

Name : Elizabeth Weitzman / Alias : New York Daily News
The life lessons are delivered with insight and heart, the rightfully beloved music is well handled and the cast is so enthusiastic that we can excuse some rough patches.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
A capable cast and some very fine songs, but parents should take note of the dark themes. This Disney movie ain't kid stuff.

Name : Stephen Holden / Alias : New York Times
"Into the Woods," the splendid Disney screen adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical, infuses new vitality into the tired marketing concept of entertainment for "children of all ages."

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
The Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine 1987 musical Into the Woods has been transferred to the screen by director Rob Marshall with most of its complexities and light-dark tonalities intact.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
Does it work as a movie? Thanks to a few cast members, the answer is - yes, and for the most part quite nicely.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
The stage musical delightfully reminded audiences that while happy endings are possible, you should always be careful about what you've wished for. Now comes the movie version, and it's a singing and dancing manifestation of both of those ideas.

Name : Cath Clarke / Alias : Time Out
If you go down to the woods today. you'll find A-listers dressed like 'Game of Thrones' extras belting out showtunes.

Name : Linda Barnard / Alias : Toronto Star
A mixed bag of clever twists on familiar storybook myths, engaging performances and forgettable songs.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
The cast is top-notch, the story is satisfyingly dark, the performances are fun and, of course, the songs are terrific.

Name : Chris Nashawaty / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
The first two-thirds of the film, which are like the Brothers Grimm's Greatest Hits on laughing gas, have a fizzy, fairy-dust energy.

Name : Alan Scherstuhl / Alias : Village Voice
Director Rob Marshall simply cuts from one tale to the next, isolating his actors. There's little sense that the fairytale space is a shared one - it's just a bunch of noisy incident transpiring in unrelated treestands.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
A jolly mash-up of symbol-laden, signature once-upon-a-time tales about lust, envy, greed, and misguided pursuits of happiness.

Name : David Edelstein / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
Corden is a wonderfully funny, self-effacing bloke - I'm thrilled at the prospect of seeing him nightly, hosting his own show after Colbert. Maybe he'll have Emily Blunt as a guest. It's her movie.

Name : Joe Williams / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Into the Woods" could have taken a well-worn path toward stagey sentiments, but those who worried that Hollywood might drain the enchantment from the Enchanted Forest can live happily after.

Name : Guy Lodge / Alias : Variety
A smutty but strained spy spoof in which most of the human-based comedy stays comparatively flaccid.

Name : Lindsey Bahr / Alias : Associated Press
Ultimately, the jokes are more stupefying than funny and no one's anatomy is safe from a gratuitous close-up, whether it's that of a wild animal or an Oscar nominee.

Name : Gersh Kuntzman / Alias : New York Daily News
Full disclosure: I was the lone critic in America to unabashedly recommend "Zoolander 2," so I'm certainly not ashamed to even less abashedly beg you to go see "The Brothers Grimsby."

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Sacha Baron Cohen's new comedy brings the raunch - but the sharp satire is M.I.A.

Name : Brian Truitt / Alias : USA Today
At the very least, it's more entertaining than the time Baron Cohen dumped ashes on Ryan Seacrest at the Oscars but only barely.

Name : Rene Rodriguez / Alias : Miami Herald
Compared to glib junk like Zoolander 2, The Brothers Grimsby is practically high art.

Name : Robert Abele / Alias : Los Angeles Times
It's not unfunny in spots, but it huffs and puffs (among other bodily functions) more often than it splits the sides.

Name : Tim Grierson / Alias : The New Republic
The movie has plenty of terrible scenes but also three very, very funny ones. I laughed a lot during those three moments, sometimes rather guiltily, but barely managed more than a chuckle elsewhere.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
His obsession with anal cavities and what goes in and comes out of them suggest Cohen is auditioning to be the after-dinner amusement at a proctologists' convention.

Name : Amy Nicholson / Alias : MTV
Grimsby's balls - actual balls - broke my dignity.

Name : Jesse Hassenger / Alias : AV Club
The movie's scant 83 minutes dictate that The Brothers Grimsby proceed impatiently; the movie feels cut to fit the running time, rather than for the effectiveness of either the story or the comedy.

Name : Anthony Lane / Alias : New Yorker
Sacha Baron Cohen takes a backward lurch.

Name : Darren Franich / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
God help me, I laughed.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
"Grimsby" punches down - at the sick, at the poor, at anyone who's not quick enough to get out of its sloppy roundhouse rights. Boy, chronically unemployed drunks sure are funny, aren't they?

Name : Leslie Felperin / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Baron Cohen and Strong are both robustly physical performers, and their finest moments are when they're grappling with each other, producing a great tangle of limbs and teeth. But the script. is not especially generous to the other members of the cast.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
As a comedy, "The Brothers Grimsby" is weak and scattershot, but it's useful as an unintended self-indictment of the chattering classes' disgust and disdain for white working folk.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
A production that fails in every way at every turn.

Name : Dave Calhoun / Alias : Time Out
Chaotic and crude - but its lack of sophistication feels like a badge of honour.

Name : Manohla Dargis / Alias : New York Times
While there may be comedy gold in an elephant's vagina, Mr. Cohen fails to find it here.

Name : Tim Cogshell / Alias : TheWrap
Do note, it's not dumb. Stupid, occasionally, but never dumb, not even when our heroes are inside the elephant vagina.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : Village Voice
Mostly, The Brothers Grimsby simply wants to make you laugh. And it will.