Release Year: 2000
Average Rating:
Last Reviewed On: November 29, 2000 (by Michelle)
Scott's Review:
on November 29, 2000This is a tough one for me. In the end, I think I liked the movie, but not as much as I could have. I'm not entirely convinced that Jim Carey was the best choice to play the title role.
Don't get me wrong, throughout much of the film, he's great, and combined with the make-up, it's just like watching the cartoon come to life.
There are, however, parts of the films where it very much felt like I was watching 'The Mask: Christmas Special'. Two scenes come time mind. First, there's a celebration sequence where the town is feeding the Grinch. It didn't seem like a loveable Dr. Suess sequence, but rather just a normal Jim Carey over-the-top humorous event. Very out of place. The other sequence is the flashback to the Grinch's childhood. That was just painful to watch, which might have been the point.
Though, of course, if you remove these scenes, you're pretty much left with a thirty-minute cartoon, so I guess it's to be expected. I just felt it could have been much better.
Michelle's Review:
on November 29, 2000I tried so hard to go to this movie with an open mind. Having watched the Grinch Cartoon every year for 30 years is a hard thing to mess with. But surprisingly I think, the movie does a pretty good job. Most of the stuff you associtate with the cartoon version is here in some form or another, and probably 95% of the time you aren't even aware the Grinch is Jim Carrey. He's over the top, and you know it's him, but it isn't obvious except for maybe 2 times in the whole movie where he does some signature Jim Carrey moves and actually sounds liek himself for a moment, but that's okay, it wasn't too distracting, and I was probably looking for it a little anyway. As a whole, the movie worked for me. Though I think the Grinch probably ocmes off as a little too scary for little kids at times, and the flashback scene where they explained why the Grinch hated Whoville and Christmas so much, and the award ceremony were a bit odd, but other then that, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. At least, i'm not as disappointed as I thought I might be. And that's a good thing.
-- Scott and Michelle