The Grinch Movie (Spoiler Material Ahead)

Cafe Society
21

I saw it Saturday and I really liked it. I thought Jim Carrey was a GREAT Grinch (though I did wonder what was up with his voice) and I thought the little girl who played Cindy Lou Who was cute as a button. The sets and costumes were fabulous and I LIKED the fact that there were tweaks in it that would appeal to adults but go over the head of kids – like the key party and the Grinch reading out of his DayRunner – “6 o’clock, wallow in self-pity; 6:30, explore the depths of self-loathing – but I could move that to 7 . . .”). It’s like when Sesame Street has “Monsterpiece Theater” with “your host, Alastair Cookie.” No kid knows who the hell Alastair Cooke is; the reference is for the grown-ups, and it keeps kids’ fare from being mind-numbingly boring and Barney-ized.

I did NOT like the inclusion of “bitchin’” and “shit,” which seems to me to be entirely gratuitous. I kind of assume that language was just thrown in to avoid a G rating. But what would be wrong with a G rating? It’s “How The Grinch Stole Christmas,” not “The Grinch Does Dallas.” I didn’t see any gratuitous sex, though; not even “too much kissing,” and the only gratuitous violence was the exploding car, run-away-in-slow-motion action-movie send-up, which was intentionally gratuitous.

I thought it was good. Not as good as say, Toy Story, but pretty good. I’d take my kids to it for sure – if I had any.

22

Ok, I guess some people haven’t heard yet.

Never see a live action movie based on a cartoon. Ever. Especially a very good and much beloved cartoon. If people stop GOING to these abominations in the eyes of God, maybe, just maybe they’ll stop making them. It’s just not a good idea.

The only even vaugly passable example is Sanctuary, and that wasn’t nearly as good as the animated version, just barely watchable.

But beyond that, Jim Carry is famous for his manic “funny guy” act. Why the hemoraging -verybadword- would anyone with a brainstem cast him as a bitter, brooding, hate-filled character?

An 80 minute version of a 22 minute TV one-shot. Anyone else see problems ahead?

This is not giving me good feelings about Osmosis Jones, Mr. Howard . . .

–
“It was kind of like this, cause you’re my brother. Get it?”

23

Jim Carry was great as the Grinch. Really, who else could they have used? When they focused on him, the film is sailing. And the kid who played Cindy-Lu Who is adorable.

The problems. Jeffery Tambor as the Mayor. Not that he did a bad job, but that he was written as a bad guy. Same goes for the Mayor’s lackey. (the whole ‘Grinch was scarred by the Whos’ line fell flat) The whole Whoville community came off as, well…not that nice. The Grinch having a love interest was a little disturbing. And the alleged ‘anti-commercialism’ theme of the picture couldn’t help but seem phony. Bad writing.

To sum up. Jim Carry, great. Little kid, great. The sets, great. The wrtiting, sucked bilgewater.

For those of you who are talented writers, please report to Hollywood immediately. You are desperately needed.
[attempted correction by slythe. :)]

[Edited by slythe on 11-21-2000 at 07:42 PM]

24

for gods sake Sam, preview then post.

25

Carrey admitted in the interview about sounding like Connery because of the mouthpiece he had to wear.

I thought the song sucked to. Before it came on, I was gearing up to hear the original song. But then THAT came on and I rested my head on my hand with my elbow propped up on the arm rest and muttered under my breath about how much the song sucked donkeys.

Exactly. That exact thing came into my mind when the Mayor started bitching and whining and yelling at Cindy Lou.

Also, does anyone find it disturbing that the message of the movie is, “Christmas is about family, not presents…” and yet you see all these commercials about Grinch merchandise?

I thought Anthony Hopkins was a great narrator, though. Good as always, with him.

I also thought that the first trailer for the movie (where they didn’t show his face) was great (at times it was better than the movie). Where the Grinch is stealing the toys to the tune of “In the Hall of the Mountain King.”

From,

Anake

26

That scene with the swap party and the keys: I couldn’t hear the narration at that point. Obviously adults were supposed to get the joke, but what did they pass this off as for the kids?

They also had the Who couple who found the baby on their doorstep, “He looks just like your boss.”

27

I left this thread alone at first because of the spoiler alert… But then I realized:

A. I probably won’t go see the movie anyway.
B. If I do ever see it (maybe on video), I already know the book pretty well… how could this movie possibly have any spoilers whatsoever?

But then again…

Maybe in this version (after the first 25 minutes), the Grinch in charged with B & E and larceny, but pleads the insanity defense and gets sent to the Whoville Institute for the Criminally Insane. After four years of intensive therapy, he’s sent out on the streets with a new set of clothes and 50 bucks in his pocket. But jobs are scarce since the Whoville City Council cut back spending on the Strategic Grinch Defensive Initative, and hundreds of unemployed Whos are forced to live on the streets.

The Grinch starts dealing crack as a two-bit hood, but he finds that knocking off his competitors helps increase his own market share. His vicious nature surfaces again, and he quickly rises through the ranks of organized crime to become boss of the local syndicate. Through bribery, veiled threats, and coercion of public officials, the Grinch manages to get passed an Amendment to Whoville Town Charter which allows him to monopolize the flow of all Christmas related merchandise into the greater Whoville metropolitan area.

All this takes up about 5 minutes. The remaining 50-60 minutes consists of a lengthy debate of the meaning of Christmas between the Grinch and Cindy Lou, interspersed with musical numbers sung by Britney Spears, accompied by dancing monkey butlers.

Eventually, the Whos all agree Christmas is good and carve the roast beast, which is indeed unfortunate because the only beast in the story is the Grinch.

28

Yup. For the record, people outside of America have heard of it & read the book (& cat in the hat & green eggs & ham & also something where someone was going east & someone west, but neither would take a step even north or south to let each other past & they built a whole town around them…which one was that?). Original cartoon I haven’t seen, but I read the books at primary school (I’m from & still in the UK, BTW).

Oh & Jim Carrey as the grinch? I’ve seen the tv clips & he seems to do what he always does - which is play exactly the same character in every movie that he is in (with the possible exception of the one where he is on tv 24h a day, as I haven’t seen that). No, not a good choicce.

29

I saw the Grinch tonight and loved every minute of it. I greatly enjoyed it and laughed so much i was a bit worried about being asked to keep it down.

The girl playing Cindy Lou Who was amazing. A child that can act. I am enthralled. Most little kids are a one schtick pony. “hey i am cute and i have funny looks/glasses/speech impediment.”

I must say I thing that Martha shooting the lights onto her house was about the most erotic and sexual image that I have ever seen.

30

Sorry GuanoLad, I think it’s you not the world. I’m born and bred in Sydney, read Dr Seuss as a child, know the Grinch book and have the cartoon, which I bought in Sydney this year. I’ve been holding onto the cartoon till Christmas for my daughter.

I’d avoided this thread (thanks for the ‘spoiler’ warning BlackKnight) cos I love Dr Seuss, and was planning to see the movie till I saw a trailer this pm and discovered Jim Carrey was the Grinch - blech ptooie blah.

31

I’d like to thank BlackKnight and the others in this thread for saving me about 35 bucks on a “family movie experience”. You know a movie’s in trouble when the newspaper ads have glowing reviews from critics you never heard of. “Definite Oscar material!”–Suzy Flogdubbit of KKKK-CBS Radio. “Feel-good movie of the year!”–Dirk Wazoo, Interstellar On-Line Flicks.

32

Now I thought The Grinch was great, but am I the only one who felt that it could have been a masterpiece had it been directed by Tim Burton with a sound track by Danny Elfman?

I still felt it was worth my 1 ½ hour wait in line.

33

I was thinking the same thing, about the soundtrack being by Danny Elfman. I kept thinking about Nightmare Before Christmas.

From,

Anake

34

That’s what I thought when I saw the ads on TV. I also thought it was pretty strange! Glad I’m not the only one.

35

They are not poor. In the first scene with Cindy Lou and her dad she is holding so many packages that he can’t see her. Her mom is caught up in a house decorating contest with their neighbor. The neighbor always wins. Her dad is the only Who who dosen’t have s**t for brains.

SPOILER FILLED REVIEW

Christ this movie is bad.
The dog is great. Gotta give the dog respect. Actually I liked the movie when it was Jim Carrey and the dog or when it was Jim Carrey and Cindy Lou Who. Of course during these scenes it had nothing to do with the book or tv special.

The Grinch hates Christmas because his heart is two sizes too small. Now the film gives an explaination for this defect. You see when the Grinch was 8 years old he got picked on in school for trying to shave and cutting his face. Also he (wrongly) felt that the girl he had a crush on did not return his affection. This caused the young Grinch to leave Whoville and live in a cave.

Jesus H Christ! This is the traumatic set back that makes him live in a cave alone for years?

Third Grade love life sucks? Hate Christmas Forever!!!

Cindy Lou Who sings! Not only does she sing the saddest little Christmas song while making ‘cute’ mistakes by missing some of the notes but she does so in the remains of an exploded pepto bismal factory. OK her room just looks like that. The song is so sweet that I could feel my teeth rotting out at the end. Of course this song is repeated at the end over the credits being sung entirely too ernstly by some adult.
Whoville is probably being airlifted to Universal Studios in FL right now. It was designed to be a theme park setting. It looked like a theme park.

The part where the Grinch actually steal Christmas is a bit too long. Now there is a scene where the Grinch is in the bedroom of the Mayor. (Who hates the Grinch, was the Grinch’s chief torrmentor in grade school, and wants the Girl the Grinch loves and she still carries a flame for the Grinch) The Mayor is dreaming about kissing the woman so the Grinch holds his dog for him to kiss. But no that’s not good enough so the Grinch turns the dog around so the mayor can kiss the dog’s ass. (great for the kids!)

And can someone please tell me why the Who’s and the Grinch now have dog faces? In the book and tv special their faces are kind of flat with small noses. Now all of the Whos have dog snouts on them except for the cute little girl. (You have to ‘grow into your nose’ as some sort of Who rite of passage)

Now a part of the plot is Cindy Lou getting the Grinch to be named the Christmas King. (that is not the proper name but it will have to do) This person leads the Christmas celebrations and leads parades and judges contests ect. Now the Cindy Lou does some legal arguing with the Mayor and gets the Grinch named as the Christmas King. She then goes up and (in an enjoyable scene) gets the Grinch to come down and be social (for the first time in years)
What do the Whos do? They fricking torture him! They stuff food down his throat so much this it is backed up and runs down his chest. But it goes ok until someone gives him an electric shaver, which riminds him of his great shame from third grade and makes him flee and plot his revenge.

I hope the MST3K crew will re-unite and do some mainstream films and include this one.

So to recap.

IMO This movie sucks.

36

Zebra:
You misunderstood my post. I was writing what I thought would have been a better plot when I said that Cindi Lou Who was poor:

37

OK, so I saw this movie a few weeks later then everyone else. My opinion:

Could have been much better. I laughed quite a few times, and my sister and I were completely alone in the theater, allowing us to shout out the book lines they recited from time to time and sing the grinch song out loud- that was a big plus.

Grinch- acted very well, written very poorly. Backgroud story about why he’s grinchy- very stupid and drawn out. It felt like years sitting there watching the “third grade trauma”

Cindy Lou- adorable- the saving grace of the movie. Terrible song in the middle, though. Gag me.

Jeffery Tambor as the mayor- the more I see of this guy, the more I really don’t like him in a film marketed for kids. When he was in the Muppets from Space movie he was a similar bad guy, and he actually scared my neices (they were upset by how he berates people so convincingly). I guess it’s good acting, but I always feel uncomfortable with him yelling at people. That’s probably my own issues coming through, but still. A few scenes with him in it really creeped me out.

The key party- I don’t think this was a big deal at all, as many parties collect keys from drivers to avoid DWI problems. The fact that they’re all in one big bowl probably went over most people’s heads.

All the Who’s- bizzare and surreal. I found live action Who’s very disturbing. Like a bad acid trip.

The Who Celebration in honor of the Grinch- some funny, some not. The sack race- very funny. The food stuffing- disgusting. The Grinch in leiderhosen (sp?)- very funny.

The ending, good. Glad they stuck to the Cindy-Lou giving Max the slice of roast beast.

All in all, they sorta trued to stick to the original intent of the story, which was that Christmas is about more then presents. The problem I had is when the Grinch has this epiphiny. He already knows that Christmas is about more, and seems to be the only one. Why then is it such a big deal for him to “realize” that Christmas came anyway? In the book, he never indicates that he knows Christmas is too commercial, but in the movie it’s pointed out several times prior to his “epiphiny”?

Anyway, a few plot holes, some bizzare stuff added in- (the explosion, the taking a drink then driving, the razor thing, the love interest, Jeffery Tambor creeping me out) but all in all pretty good. I’d see it again at the second run theater to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

Zette

38

Oh, I forgot- favorite scene- when he’s re-sorting the mail:
“Eviction notice, jury duty, jury duty, pink slip, jury duty”, etc. Very funny stuff.

Zette

39

Thought it was cute. I liked Carrey as the Grinch, and the scenes with him and the little girl are priceless.

My family loved the datebook speech.

Overall, its never, ever going to replace the book, or the cartoon. They should have stuck with the original Grinch song and not bothered with the syncopation in the re-write of “Dahoo Dores” or whatever the Who’s song at the end is called. But its not a bad movie. It has its own good points. I would have liked more rhyming though.

40

Of course it was like that. Didn’t you see the Visa commercials?

“Visa–the official credit card of Whoville. Just in case Dr. Seuss was wrong.”

YES, really, that’s what it said.

No one should see this movie. It is the epitome of evil. They licensed Whoville to sell credit cards so you can buy stuff for the godawful commercial version of Christmas Dr. Suess despised.

–John