Der Grinch

I've seen far many, many reviews of `Dr. Seuss' How the The Grinch Stole Christmas' in which critics can't resist the urge to write in rhyme, and every last one I've read irritates me. Yet, as I sit to begin my review, I feel the uncontrollable urge to begin rhyming myself. I promise not to.

I remember being excited to hear that there would be a live action version of `The Grinch' starring Jim Carrey, and I also remember being disturbed to hear that it would be directed by Ron `Opie' Howard. I had hoping for an artistic genius such as Tim Burton or a holiday entertainment luminary like John Hughes. Oddly, Opie pulled this one off.

If you want to see a good, fun holiday movie, go see this one. I'm not going to start comparing it to the classic animated `Grinch,' but I think it did a noteworthy job of giving some back story on the Grinch's character and a little history on the town of Whoville.

It also attempted to answer some age old questions- most notably, `Where is Whoville?' Well, the movie begins by showing, visually, that Whoville exists deep inside a tiny snowflake. The only problem with this is that the rest of the film goes on to prove that Whoville is actually located in northern Minnesota.

I've noticed that Jim Carrey is a lot more fun to watch when he talks like Jimmy Stweart on crack. Honestly, I don't think anyone else could have pulled off such a classic character. Carrey's Grinch could be the standard by which we measure all other bastardized Hollywood versions of cherished childhood memories.

`The Grinch' is packed with Ron Howard's `in-jokes' and double entendres aimed at disillusioned Gen-Xers. Seuss purists may find this distasteful, but honestly, why spend millions of dollars on a big-budget remake if you're just going to rehash the same material?

Cindy Lou who had gigantic teeth and gigantic hair. She also sang a nice little tune. Let's move on.

The film's talent award goes to the dog. If anyone truly lived up to the persona given them in the original Seuss drawings, it was Max. Some may argue that Carrey's performance was more admirable. To those people, I say, `but the dog was cute and had an antler on his head for a good portion of the movie. Did Jim Carrey even attempt this feat? I think not.'

Let's look at `The Grinch' by the numbers. The props department provided 1,938 candy canes, 152,000 pounds of crushed marble (used for fake snow), 8,200 christmas tree ornaments, and no less than two million linear feet of styrofoam to build the city of Whoville itself. Opie got the studio to go all out financially, and it shows. The sets look like you'd expect Whoville to look. Great stuff.

`The Grinch' gets a `B+.' It won't by any means replace its predecessor as a holiday classic, but you'll leave the theater feeling like a six-year old.

Howard's 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' is a delightful family flick that both adults and children can enjoy (mostly with each other). It is basically an adaptation of the famous children's books and what the audience gets is a pleasant Christmas treat. Price's screenplay is brilliant as he cleverly manages to include some adult humour.

The world of Whoville is beautifully constructed and created, full of colour, life, energy and spirit. The vivacious characters are full of positive energy and while it is over the top, it is all done within the context and none of it appears out of place. The CGI team and makeup crew deserve full credit for making the characters and settings so lifelike, bringing out a lot of detail and appearing authentic. The set designs are stunning and the cinematography is just as energetic as the characters.

Child actress Taylor Momsen is absolutely. The cute dog also turns in a fine performance. Jeffrey Tambor, a very sexy Christine Baranski, Bill Irwin and Molly Shannon are first rate. However, what would 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' be without Jim Carrey? Carrey is simply fantastic as he immerses himself entirely into the character. It's a role that has Jim Carrey written all over it. The actor has immortalized the Grinch on screen.

The movie itself is not an exact 100% adaptation of the book as there are a few changes. The romance between the Grinch and Martha May could have been better developed. Other than the actors mentioned above, the rest of the cast hardly have anything to do than make fleeting appearances. Yet, 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' is a charming little Christmas family film that is dazzling to look at and hugely enjoyable with the whole family.

Big budget remake of the classic cartoon about a creature (Jim Carrey) intent on stealing Christmas.

I had rather low expectations for this one... not sure why, as it turned out to be quite good. I just wanted to add a few thoughts here.

First of all, Taylor Momsen nailed the Cindy Lou Who part. She has gone on to bigger, better things ("Gossip Girl") and good for her. Second, Ron Howard nailed the look of a Seussian world. The faces, the architecture, it all seems so right and I think the good doctor would have approved. I heard that Tim Burton was approached to direct, and I think he would have done a fine job, but how do you beat this?

And last, Jim Carrey. Wow. He has had some good and bad career decisions, and this has to be among his best. The physical comedy, the improvised jokes, it was like the role he was born to play. The other choices were Jack Nicholson and Eddie Murphy. Nicholson could possibly have done it ten years earlier, but did he have that range of motion in 2000? And Eddie Murphy? Maybe, maybe not. This was a Carrey role inside and out.

Well, I finally broke down and went to see it. I was hesitant after reading all the pans here. Egad! It was a great movie! You can't compare it to the "original" any more than you can compare "Scrooge" to the eternal Dickens classic. It has a life of its own. Jim Carrey was amazing. How he can deliver so many feelings and emotions behind 10 pounds of latex is fantastic. Some of his scenes (obviously impromptu) were so funny I nearly wet myself. The sets were great and not nearly as over-blown as I had expected. As for the "prequel" portion, well, it was only so-so. The best part of the whole show is when they sing the "Ah hoo torres" song at the end which has ALWAYS been my most favorite Christmas song ever.

I recommend the movie highly to kids and adults. As for the negative comments on imdb.com I gotta say..."get over it, ya big bunch of grinches!!!!!"

In the land of Whoville everyone loves Christmas and count down the whole year until that wonderful time. However just outside Whoville lives the Grinch, a green hairy twisted creature that hates, and always has hated, Christmas and was rejected by the Who's as a child. A young girl from Whoville sets out to befriend the Grinch and help him find his love of Christmas but, when it goes wrong early on, the Grinch becomes even more rotten and plans to ruin it for everyone.

I have never read the book or seen the original animated version of this story, but I do enjoy a bit of Dr Seuss and was worried about how such imagination would be filled out on the screen. The film actually manages it very well and the whole film has the look of the books, even if it lacks soul at times. The plot is stretched out to the running time and could have easily been shorter and punchier, but at heart it is a good little moral that is good from Christmas time.

However, aside from the look of the film, the main reason that the film works is Jim Carrey. I cannot think of another actor who could have pulled off this role as well as he did. He is manic and really funny although I imagine that if you dislike him and his antics that you'd hate the film totally. I'm on the fence about him but I did enjoy him here. Momsen is OK but really just a `cute kid' and, while the support cast has quite a few famous faces, they don't make much of an impact under the makeup and the film is left to Carrey to save it - which he happily does.

Overall this film is a little too long and padded out, but while Carrey is onscreen it seems to go pretty fast due to his hyper acting and comedy antics. However, it's Christmas and it has a nice message while not totally giving in to syrupy sentiment (thanks again to manic Carrey) and it's just perfect for kids and adults at Christmas time.