Review of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) by Joe C — 01 Oct 2012

Though it's not that good of a film, I still watch it every year.

PLOT:The Grinch (Jim Carrey) is a grotesque, green thing that doesn't like Christmas one bit. He lives high on Mount Crumpet above Whoville, where Christmas is what their lives revolve around. Young Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen) hears about the Grinch and goes to people who knew him before he went bad and decides to go up and spread some cheer. Because of the Mayor (Jeffrey Tambor) and his grudge for the Grinch, things go horribly wrong. Now the Grinch wants revenge before Christmas morning and he knows exactly how to do it: steal Christmas from right under the Whos' noses! It's a very unique plot written by Dr. Suess and improved with a backstory and other characters. But did it really IMPROVE?

ACTING:Jim Carrey is the star of the show. No one could have ever pulled off the Grinch as well as he did. He owned that role as Robin Williams owned Genie in Aladdin and Johnny Depp owned the Mad Hatter in Alice In Wonderland. The rest of the actors, however, are lacking in as much substance as Carrey. Tambor didn't even do that well.

SCORE:The score itself was great. The soundtrack had some good songs on, such as "Where Are You Christmas?" by Faith Hill (beautiful song) and "Green Christmas" by Barenaked Ladies (awesome song), not to mention a voice-experimental version of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" by Jim Carrey (impressively funny). The soundtrack isn't the best ever, but it's good.

EFFECTS:Now, this is what brings the movie up besides the Christmas spirit, humor, and Carrey's antics. You knew by seeing the original special that it needs a lot of set design and make-up effects to work. The set designs are brilliant considering everything's super different. The makeup effects are great too, considering everyone needed to look somewhat like dogs. (Haha).

OTHER CONTENT:Besides all of the good and bad forementioned, this movie is silly and shoots for every stupidly funny joke it can while still being an enjoyable family film, but it holds a special Christmas meaning to it that makes it rewatchable for most fans of Christmas movies.

OVERALL,an ok Christmas with a unique plot, acting that lacks the flair of Carrey's irreplaceable Grinch, great score and good soundtrack, brilliant effects, stupidly funny jokes, and a special Christmas meaning.