How The Grinch Stole Christmas
AKA: The Grinch
Version: Video
Released: Winter 2000
Length: Approx. 104 minutes
Rated: PG
Main Cast: Jim Carrey, Anthony Hopkins, Taylor Monsen, Christine Baranski, Bill Irwin (I), Jeremy Howard, Nadja Pionilla.
Oh yeah. Jim Carrey in a lot of make-up. That is what makes a good movie. This is a weird one, so beware.
The principal players are the Grinch and Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Monsen). Cindy wants to know why everyone hates the Grinch and why he hates Christmas. She also wants to know the true meaning of Christmas. Unfortunately, while there is a positive message about Christmas not being about presents and junk, it never talks about Jesus.
Carrey does an excellent job as the Grinch. However, if you watch the original, you’ll notice that in the live-action version, the Grinch seems almost happy compared with his animated version.
They did an excellent job with the make-up and Whoville. The characters are well played and the general story follows Geisel’s original. However, there are some major departures. For one thing, Cindy Lou goes about and finds out the true story of the Grinch. He was raised by some Who’s. We learn that Who’s are born by floating down from the heavens in baskets with umbrellas attached. They call the Grinch a "What," but I’m not sure if that’s some kind of lame joke or what they actually considered him to be, species-wise.
Baby-Grinch reminds me of a gremlin. The 8-year old Grinch (Josh Ryan Evans) isn’t much better. Ugh! High, annoying voice and he and a Who-girl have a mutual crush on one another. Oi! When he brings her a gift, he gets some major ridicule from his peers and takes off for the mountains, where he’s stayed ever since. Before he leaves, he impresses his girl by throwing a fit and showing off how strong he was at such a young age by throwing the Christmas tree and what-not.
Cindy Lou also nominates the Grinch for an award. Then she tries to get him to come and accept it. He does, there’s some fairly funny stuff and then he gets his "award." It seems to be a joke (and since it’s kind of an in-side plot spoiler type of thing, I won’t say what it is) gift and this makes the Grinch go around vandalizing Whoville. (watch for Mayor May Who [Jeffrey Tambor])
Well, anyway, it’s a story about poor Cindy Lou Who who doesn’t think that Christmas is only about gifts and material things like every other Who. It’s sweet, but stupid. The Grinch does come along and take away everything, just like the original, and it’s pretty cool. However, I miss Karloff’s voice-over. However, Carrey sometimes sounds a lot like Tim Curry, and that’s cool!
And yes, it has a happy ending with the Grinch getting his girl. Whoopty-doo!
The Good Stuff:
 | The Special effects and make-up ought to be commended! |
| If there was swearing, I missed it… |
| It can be endearing and funny, sometimes. |
The Bad Stuff:
| Grinch’s girl wears some fairly naughty clothing…and seems to be kind of sick in the head… |
| The cool dog ends up getting his booty kissed…luckily you don’t end up actually seeing it, but the mind is almost as good at coming up with a real image…this is NOT funny! |
| Too much carrying on about materialism and the Grinch’s back-story. |
| Look out! Carrey takes his nose and sticks it between his "love's" breast's. Ah, sweet love! Hollywood's sick take on it, anyway. |
It was a lot better than I thought it would be. However, be warned…it’s bizarre to see it in live-action format…kind of like "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." But it’s also kind of neat.
Quotes:
Grinch: What's that stench? It's fantastic!
Cindy Lou Who: Santa, what's the meaning of Christmas?
Grinch: VENGEANCE! I mean... presents, I suppose.
Grinch: One man's toxic waste is another man's potpourri. [Max
barks] I don't know, it's some kind of soup.
STORY:
VIOLENCE:
SEXUAL CONTENT:
SFX:
LANGUAGE: N/A
ACTION:
OVERALL SCORE:
(Yep, pretty average!)