Richard Roeper, Ebert's co-host, criticized the film for similar reasons and said that he could not "tell people my age, or someone twenty-five old, that they should see nine or ten bucks to see this movie". Brian Lowry of "Variety" felt that the plot as too simplistic, writing that the film consisted primarily of "various chases through the city" and was "rudimentary on every level". On the other hand, Michael Phillips of the "Chicago Tribune" wrote that the film was "overplotted and misfocused" and that "the script's jokes are tougher to find than the shrine", though he praised the film for staying "relatively faithful to the style of the original and delightful H. A. Rey illustrations". Jan Stuart of Newsday criticized the film's modern references in the film, including cell phones and lattes, writing that they resulted in "modernization traps that the makers of the very respectable Winnie the Pooh films managed to avoid". Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly also negatively noted the anachronisms in the film, such as the use of caller ID.