Even though I've always loved Dr. Seuss, I was never particularly fond of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"; I was always more of a fan of "The Cat in the Hat" and "Green Eggs and Ham." And this film adaptation did not exactly cause my enthusiasm for "The Grinch" to increase.
Both the original book and the animated TV special keep the story as simple as possible and get the lesson to the audience without any problems. But this live-action version is an incoherent mess; what's worse, it can't even get the personality of its title character right.
In this version, we're supposed to view the Grinch as misunderstood and feel sorry for him - but Jim Carrey's performance makes that almost impossible. His Grinch, while not evil exactly, is one of the most uncouth and unpleasant individuals you'll ever see in a movie. To put it simply, he's a colossal jerk. Only a group of drunken college frat boys would find him anything less than extremely obnoxious. And what's worse, his aggressive behavior seems to stem from pretty much nothing; he's just a rotten person. With a personality this thin, the Grinch could be replaced with Oscar the Grouch from "Sesame Street" and the effect would be little different.
And frustratingly, there ARE some good reasons to see this film. It's a joy to look at, and Carrey's performance is tons of fun for what it is. But the attitude you'll get from watching him is the same you get from watching Jack Nicholson as the Joker in BATMAN: he's full of energy and screamingly funny, but you never sympathize with him and if he were real you wouldn't want to be anywhere within shouting distance of him. Not very helpful when he's the main character and even the scenes in which he doesn't appear almost always focus on him.
Making this film must have been like launching an asteroid at Jupiter: a tremendous effort put in to no satisfaction.
Both the original book and the animated TV special keep the story as simple as possible and get the lesson to the audience without any problems. But this live-action version is an incoherent mess; what's worse, it can't even get the personality of its title character right.
In this version, we're supposed to view the Grinch as misunderstood and feel sorry for him - but Jim Carrey's performance makes that almost impossible. His Grinch, while not evil exactly, is one of the most uncouth and unpleasant individuals you'll ever see in a movie. To put it simply, he's a colossal jerk. Only a group of drunken college frat boys would find him anything less than extremely obnoxious. And what's worse, his aggressive behavior seems to stem from pretty much nothing; he's just a rotten person. With a personality this thin, the Grinch could be replaced with Oscar the Grouch from "Sesame Street" and the effect would be little different.
And frustratingly, there ARE some good reasons to see this film. It's a joy to look at, and Carrey's performance is tons of fun for what it is. But the attitude you'll get from watching him is the same you get from watching Jack Nicholson as the Joker in BATMAN: he's full of energy and screamingly funny, but you never sympathize with him and if he were real you wouldn't want to be anywhere within shouting distance of him. Not very helpful when he's the main character and even the scenes in which he doesn't appear almost always focus on him.
Making this film must have been like launching an asteroid at Jupiter: a tremendous effort put in to no satisfaction.