I love writing movie reviews. Watching and rating a movie allows me to express how much I liked, loved, or hated a particular movie. My opinions are known to spark some good debates because I tend to go against the grain, and my favourites are head-scratchers.
Ron Howard is one of my generation’s greatest directors. He’s been the mind behind the lens on so many great movies, including one of my personal favourites, Backdraft. Yes, even the great ones can have some duds on their resume because sometimes they want to branch off and do a passion project or something they are not known for. Sadly, he was responsible for the 2000 Dr. Seuss: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, starring Jim Carrey.
I’ve defended Carrey many times over and still consider Dumb and Dumber to be a great comedy. No matter what else he does, the one movie I will never support or even stomach is the Grinch.
My wife loved this movie because this was all she knew as a kid. I grew up with the animated version from 1966, so I had a different opinion. She’s made me watch this particular film a handful of times, and it’s never my favourite night of the year. I absolutely hate this movie.
The acting is way over the top. The Grinch’s backstory is laughable because it makes no sense. Bullying is a real thing, yet it just doesn’t fit well with this story. The cast members were a handful of people I can’t stand in any other movie, like Christine Baranski and Molly Shannon. Even the director’s brother Clint Howard, who usually appears in some capacity in every film, wasn’t enough to salvage a really dumb movie.
I can understand that this was it for a whole generation of people who love the Grinch. As much as I hate Illumination for giving us Minions, I whole heartedly admired their efforts to give us something so much better than this garbage.
I want to say the only other thing about this movie is the special effects were just horrible, and the props used were straight out of Batman and Robin. They were so fake and ridiculous, you can’t take anything you see seriously.
I’m not here to ruin your Christmas, since the majority of you will watch this film at least once this year. But for those of you who have never seen it, let this be a warning, should you ever feel compelled to waste two hours of your life. Just don’t. 1/10
Ten Stars or Less 