Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
Romano tries hard, but it takes real big-screen talent to draw laughs and emotions from material as flimsy and formulaic as the script.
United States, Germany · 2004
Rated PG-13 · 1h 50m
Director Donald Petrie
Starring Gene Hackman, Ray Romano, Marcia Gay Harden, Maura Tierney
Genre Comedy
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A US president (Gene Hackman) who has retired after two terms in office returns to his hometown of Mooseport, Maine and decides to run for Mayor against another local candidate (Ray Romano).
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
Romano tries hard, but it takes real big-screen talent to draw laughs and emotions from material as flimsy and formulaic as the script.
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
Welcome to Mooseport's satirical edge is dull and pitted, the screenplay is overlong and uninteresting, the comedy is soft and shapeless, and the actors perform like they're on a sit com.
Romano is no match for his heavy-hitting supporting cast: Next to the seasoned likes of Harden or Rip Torn, who's hilarious as Cole's campaign manager, Romano's presence barely registers. Aside from the charming Tierney, there are no surprises in Mooseport.
Charlotte Observer by Lawrence Toppman
Harden and Tierney waste performances of moderate complexity, Baranski adds her usual brand of silky sarcasm and Rip Torn provides a welcome presence as Cole's jolly campaign manager.
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
To a character, every man in this faux-homey burg has been castrated! They're all impotent buffoons!
Welcome to Mooseport isn't a belly-laugh farce. It's more along the lines of a "My Cousin Vinny," where you just enjoy almost everybody who crosses the screen. Such a comedy these days is more than welcome.
Hackman makes a plausible ex-president, but his graceful, lived-in performance is just about the only element of Welcome To Mooseport that rings true.
Dallas Observer by Robert Wilonsky
Welcome to Mooseport... is intended to be a comedy; that hypothesis is a generous leap of faith, given the fact that "House of Sand and Fog" contains more moments of mirth than this rather joyless exercise in waste and torpor.
The Hollywood Reporter by Sheri Linden
Compounding the sense of predictability and deja vu is the presence of well-known TV actors portraying the sorts of characters they've perfected on the small screen.
Lacks the antic energy and inspired imagination that might have put this over as a sharp-witted community comedy in the Preston Sturges vein.
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Let the festivities begin.