The Grinch

December 10, 2004

Rated: PG Runtime: 102 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Thanks to the incredible hype this movie has received, I felt a had a pretty good idea of what it was going to be before I walked into the theater and, as it turns out, I had it figured pretty much dead on.

The Grinch

I expected Jim Carrey, as the Grinch, to be simply amazing and he truly was. In this big-budget live action remake of the animated 1966 TV classic, Carrey manages to transform into that same Grinch that we’ve watched for decades and, as an added bonus, he also manages to add a lot of depth to the character.

I suppose when you’re stretching the story out to nearly two hours with no commercials, you need to fill in the space somehow so what better way than to show us how the Grinch came to be up on that mountain in the first place? To that end, we get a fairly entertaining look at the Grinch’s early life.

I also expected this movie to be aimed squarely at the kiddies in the audience with only a few things thrown in for us adults and that is pretty much the case here. I found it slow in spots but it was these same spots where the kiddies were giggling mightily.

One thing that surprised me, however, was the number of crude elements that were added to the story. In particular, I wonder how appropriate it is to see the Grinch bending over and holding a branch of mistletoe over his butt while yelling for everyone to pucker up. I found that funny, but do 5 year old kids need to see this?

In any case, to go along with the great performances, the movie’s visuals are quite well done and the music isn’t too obnoxious either.

So what’s the bottom line here? If you’ve got kids, it should be a must-see movie for the holidays. If you’re like me and you don’t have (or like) kids, it can still be entertaining, especially if you can find a showing with a low kiddie factor.

Posted by Alex | Filed Under 3 Stars, Anthony Hopkins, Christine Baranski, Comedy, Jim Carrey, PG, Taylor Momsen, Theatrical