Review of The Grinch (2018) by Jonathan G — 16 Nov 2018

A perfectly harmless & serviceable waste of time, nothing about the film is awful or great, it's just fine. Benedict Cumberbatch does a good job as Mr Grinch in this film, the issue is he's written extraordinarily bland and forgettable.

He doesn't come off as a sour mean spirited character, instead he comes off as a person having a bad day taking out his frustrations on everyone around him. It felt more like watching Gru from Despicable Me than it did The Grinch, as over the top as Jim Carrey was in the 2000 Ron Howard version, he was still very humorous and memorable, many will look back 10 years from now & remember Jim Carrey's Grinch rather than this one.

The story is simplified in some respects and I do like the updates they give rather than the 2000 Live Action Ron Howard version, for example in this version the Grinch isn't shunned by the Whos of Whoville, he's treated very normally and the ending is very reminiscent of the 1966 Chuck Jones cartoon.

Overall the film is very hit & miss to me but I still found enough joy in it to say I think it's worth checking out at least once, the animation for the Christmas setting alone is worth the price of admission.