Nice effects though.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Stepping into the shoes of Bonita Granville, Pamela Sue Martin, and others who played Carolyn Keene's famous teenage sleuth, Emma Roberts now steps into the role with a nice innocence in her persona that is most refreshing. She and her lawyer father Carson Drew played here by Tate Donovan go to Hollywood for an extended bit. So much so that Nancy is enrolled in some posh Tinseltown high school for the term, her father's business will take that long.Unlike other Nancy Drew incarnations here Carson Drew is not terribly supportive of his daughter's sleuthing ways. He has her promise not to be doing that and just enjoy the movie colony. But Roberts gives a promise that's as good as drunk's promise not to imbibe.How could she resist when she's in the house of a late movie queen who was done in in a still unsolved murder case. Do you doubt that Nancy Drew isn't going to solve it. Let's put her to work on what happened to Thelma Todd?Max Thierot plays her supportive boyfriend Ned Nickerson from the teen novels and there's a nice part for Barry Bostwick as a Hollywood lawyer and powerbroker. Bruce Willis even appears as himself as Roberts crashes one of his sets.This is an enjoyable family film, recommended highly.

Nancy Drew (Emma Roberts) is a mystery solving machine. She joins her lawyer father Carson (Tate Donovan) on a business trip to L.A. Bess (Amy Bruckner) and Georgie (Kay Panabaker) are her best friends. Ned Nickerson (Max Thieriot) is secretly in love with her. She picked an abandoned mansion with a movie star murder mystery to live in but her father makes her promise not to sleuth anymore. It's a struggle to fit into Hollywood high school and not to sleuth. Her only new friend is Corky (Josh Flitter) while Inga Veinshtein (Daniella Monet) is the mean girl. In the end, she can't stop investigating with her friends' help.This is a mishmash of lots of different things while trying to revive this old franchise. The murder mystery is very serious. There is a light Nickelodeon touch with teen star Emma Roberts. There is a good fish out of water story but I don't like the Hollywood setting. I would have liked her hometown girlfriends to get back into the movie with Ned and stay until the end. There are even an explosion, kidnapping and near-death action sequences. This movie is doing too many different things although I like some of those things.

I watched this with my kids and they liked it and you know what? So did I.The story is not complicated and the subplot isn't either but this is a family thriller done by-the- numbers and it succeeds in just that. The production design on this film is excellent and I thought it was beautifully shot (really). You can see some places where they cut a few corners and towards the end of the movie they obviously ran out of patience and lapsed in the cinematic department but overall it was a well made movie.My only criticism is bringing Nancy Drew to California. I kind of wanted to see her in her natural environment, with all her homespun charm. My kids wanted that too. The starting-new- highschool trope has been done enough...

This wasn't too bad an adaptation of the book series as the heroine moves to California and tackles a case against her father's wishes. The case involves the mysterious disappearance of a movie star and her long lost child. I thought the movie was just the right combination of suspense, humor, writing, and acting, and Emma Roberts was the perfect choice to play Nancy. The annoying little kid in the film was also good and well-cast. Any fan of the book series will find plenty to like about this movie. I certainly did. I enjoyed watching it. I think it was the perfect start to a movie series. You will enjoy watching it too.*** out of ****