Movie Review #72: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

 

So it's come to this. Well before we get into the 2000 How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Mr. Ronald Howard, let us discuss the history. The Grinch got his start in a book by Dr. Seuss in 1957. Nine years later Chuck Jones made the animated adaption (which I'm sure even beats the original book. It's that good.) and no one ever needed to make another thing involving the Grinch again because you cannot top perfection. Still they realized they could make money off it so we got many many more Grinch related things. This is not the worst movie I've reviewed this Christmas but it sure as hell is the most pointless. Well either this or Jingle All the Way 2. 

I think this movies coming to theatres just passed me by because the first time I remember seeing anything related to this movie was when we were over at my uncle's for Christmas. It might have been the first time the movie was even being shown on TV but that's where I saw maybe five minutes of this for the first time. I thought it was a terrible idea then and I couldn't have been any more older than sixteen. It's pretty sad when a sixteen year old could do a better job than Hollywood, but hey that's how it works out sometimes. Anyway I just never watched in it's entirety until I decided to torture myself with really awful Christmas movies.

The worst part of this movie is Jim Carrey himself. Jim Carrey can be funny (Dumb and Dumber) or he can make you want to shoot yourself (this movie.) It's all about how he gets used by the director. The Farrelly Brothers know how to use him pretty well. (I haven't actually seen Me, Myself and Irene but I hear it's pretty good.) Ron Howard has no idea when to tell him to calm his ass down and it comes off as very annoying. This might be his most annoying role. Although he has to go up against Boris Karloff and really is that anything anyone could do? I don't think so. The other part is that they stretch something that at beast was twenty four minutes of material into one hour and thirty seven minutes. They give him a pointless origin story (The Grinch is like say the Joker or Wolverine. We don't need to know the full story. It gives the character some mystique and that's needed for some characters. He's just a grumpy asshole who learns how to love Christmas.) that's honestly really lame. Yeah he hates Christmas and wants to destroy it because some asshole kids were mean to him. Yeah. Not a fan.

I'll give the movie a few things. I did laugh four times, well more like a chuckle with a smile. I will count chuckles as laughs to be nice since it's Christmas. I will always enjoy seeing Mr. Clint Howard in a movie and he's in this so that's another thing. The dog was a cute sweetheart and I loved him. The best part of the movie is the young child actress who plays Cindy Lou Who. That kid is literally acting her heart out and does a good job of it. She must be one of the better kid actors I've seen. I guess being in a movie was her life long dream at even that young of an age and she just knew she had to knock it out of the park. Or Ron Howard knew when to say cut and do it again for the kid. I don't know but she does a good job. Not saying Cindy Lou Who is the toughest role out there but she still does it very well.

FINAL VERDICT: This movie is pointless and very boring. It's also kind of annoying but It does have it's good moments which puts it streets and avenues ahead of Christmas with the Kranks or Last Ounce of Courage.