Skip to main content

The Grinch

What I liked: This was a fun movie and I laughed more than I thought I would. I liked the Grinch's pants and tie. I liked the ski birds, they really kicked off the movie to a great start. The carolers channeling West Side Story were funny and escalated well. Bobsled commuting should definitely catch on. The Wallace and Gromit inventions were spot on. They made me wonder if maybe Wallace was missing a sibling And I think that Max would get along with Gromit really well. The goat and Fred were also surprisingly funny. It's hard to beat the original music but the updated Mister Grinch song was acceptable. I liked the overly festive neighbor and his odd dog, they made me laugh. I didn't know that the Grinch played the organ but should not have been surprised, most villains do. Doubtless in one of the many Star Wars movies in the works we will be treated to Vader practicing the organ in the heart of a star destroyer. It's too bad more villains don't branch out to include drum solos. I hope that someday I have a dog serve me cake and hot chocolate at a party.

What I didn't: Shockingly, I wasn't terribly bothered by the Grinch's backstory. Usually I get annoyed that movies spend a long time building up a backstory for decidedly one sided villains, but this was short and not terrible. But as back stories go I think I have a better one figured out: the Grinch lives at the top of the mountain and doesn't have 4 wheel drive. It's bad enough in the summer having to climb strait up the cliff with his shopping cart, but in the winter? No wonder the guy is grouchy. All anyone would have to do to make him more pleasant to be around would be install and elevator. I didn't like the the Cindy Lou side of the story. It just seemed unnecessary and like it extended the movie by a half an hour. I guess it is good idea to have a protagonist who is not evil, but I guess I would be happier watching the Grinch avoid carolers, battle a bulldog, and search for reindeer than an annoyingly adorable little girl plan with her friends and try to make Christmas special for her mom. But more importantly if you're going to pep up the original music why would you not jazz up the Fahoo Dores song? That is the one that had no pep to begin with! Honestly.

Who should watch this? Kids will probably get the most mileage, but I had fun.

Would I watch it again? I had fun seeing it but it will not supplant the Mr Grinch song in my Christmas tradition. What can I say, I like the 3 minute song better than a hour and a half feature length film.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ready Player One Review

What I liked: I bet all of the developers loved making this film, I saw so many video game and movie references in the background of scenes. I bet all the developers just inserted their favorites like the ninja turtles, a whole platoon of halo soldiers, and orcs. That it was a video game made it possible and exciting to have all kinds of absolutely random physics and logic defying things happen. Obviously, I loved the T. Rex and who would not enjoy seeing Mechagodzilla or a cyborg orc driving a monster truck? Early in the movie they made good use of the video game architecture in a way that reminded me a bit of secret rooms in super mario. The characters visit the world of the Shining, which was amazing and hilarious. I loved the variety of characters, vehicles and weapons that we get to see and it is more fun (at least for me) that they draw from more than strictly the 1980's. I also really liked the music, for the most part the selections were great for the scenes. The book was...
3 comments
Read more

Solo Reveiw

What I liked: The architecture of a heist movie has 4 stages: stage 1 explain how hard the job is, stage 2 come up with a ridiculously elaborate plan to accomplish the job and acquire hard to find equipment, stage 3 execute the plan but something goes terribly wrong, stage 4 sneaky twist and huge pay off. The Solo movie takes the bold move of streamlining the first two and a half steps, picking up with stage 3.5 "Something goes terribly wrong". This saves everyone the slow wind up to the actual action. This saved time translates into a movie with not one but all the heists. We have grand theft, customs evasion, train robbery, vault robbery, the classic hustle, and of course smuggling. I guess they may have tried to crowd too a little much in because they also almost always skip stage 4. This stage skipping also means that we don't know if the things they are doing are actually hard or they are just incompetent. I'm surprised more heist movies don't explore this ...
2 comments
Read more

Wrinkle in Time Review

What I liked: I liked Charles Wallace, that kid was funny. I liked that the ladies in crazy dresses were warriors and that the kids were warriors too. You know me I'm all about a good action movie with awesome fighting, but I liked that at least in this universe the defining characteristics of warriors were compassion, kindness, and love. Similarly, I liked that the bad guys weren't launching a massive military conquest of the universe, I mean everyone is doing that these days. Surprisingly, I liked the Mrs's dresses. They were crazy and over the top but it was fun that they changed with every teleportation and that they were completely absurd. The outfits were rather like the Mrs's wearing them, over the top and fantastical. Knowing all of them from other shows I may have had some unfulfilled expectations. At no point did anyone say "You get a wrinkle, and you get a wrinkle, Everyone gets a wrinkle!" which I must admit was a little disappointing. I also think...
2 comments
Read more