Sep 26, 2001 12:52 AM
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I like Jim Carey, realy I do, but some of his recent movies had been pretty abysmal. I like Dr Seuss as well, I loved him as a child, and when I have kids of my own, I'll e looking forward to reading Dr Seuss's work to them - but How The Grinch Stole Christmas was never one of my favourites. I went in expecting to not like this movie and omg was I proved right.
Its abysmal.
Well its ok.
No, it is abysmal, I can't pretend otherwise. To ME then, it sucks, but then, maybe I am not its target audience, although my cousins children didn't like it either and they range from 9 to 14. Well anyway, its a Christmas movie from Hollywood which has delighted us with other nightmares such as The Santa Clause amongst far too many others. Sickly schmalzy, syrupy claptrap seems to get churned out year after year around this time and this was 2000's version. Ugh! It made me feel physically ill at some points. Anyway....
The Grinch tells the tale of a green, hairy, humanoid creature who lives up in the mountains above a town called Whoville. The Whos are a bunch of people who have forgotten the real meaning behind christmas and run about comercialising everything blah blah blah. The Grinch is an old meanie who hates to see people having fun and devises a plan to ruin Christmas by taking away all the presents, decorations etc. How cruel! But you see the Grinch is only the way he is because of the people of Whoville being so mean to him as a child, he used to be a nice boy really. But his green hairiness made him different and well...he went up into the hills and became an embittered old recluse. The only person in the whole of Whoville who thinks he is a softie at heart and wants him to join in the festivities and rejoin Whoville is a little blonde haired, blue eyed little poppet called Cindy Lou. She tries to convince him to join in and everyone else that he's not a meanie...
I feel ill just remembering it all. OK, so director Ron Howard could have gone for all out Americanised sicliness but toned it down a little. Jim Carey had a say in how the Grinch would behave and has turned him into a real sociopath with some delightful moments. He steals the show entirely, the rest of the cast and plot being really just window dressing and I wish we could have just watched him instead of being forced to reach for the barf bags quite so often. Apparently the protesthic mask and hair etc took hours and hours in makeup and it shows, because it does look rather good. In fact, the special effects in general look rather cool, its just a shame that this had to be aChristmas movie with it inherently sickening message. The peak of cringeworthiness comes when Mary Lous suddenly breaks into a tunelss rendition of Christmas why Can't I Find You which is so painfully misconceived that I found myself squirming in the cinema seat...
Its not a good movie by Carey performance carries it through nicely. There are some great scenes here vbut the bad ones drag it back down into mediocrity. 2/5 for the movie - 5/5 for Jim Carey.
