MovieChat Forums > How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) Discussion > absolutely, positively one of the worst ...

absolutely, positively one of the worst films EVER


Words cannot express how much this film makes my skin crawl. First, just the idea of it -- yet another live-action hubris film with the idea that somehow, it needed to be made. And not only made, but turning the original 30 minutes into 104 minutes, as if having all that extra time with Jim Carrey were just wonderful. Then there's the usual "tried to turn live people and sets into replications of cartoons" nonsense. And Carrey, doing that voice...what the @#$%ng @#$% is that, anyway? So we went from Boris Karloff to Jim Carrey, doing something that sounds like he's got a stuffy nose and all kinds of the typical broad, arch stupidity in pronunciations. Why? Was that just funnier, is why?

This movie leaves me despairing for the state of humanity. Just beyond pathetic. Even worse that the makers of the film made this trash-heap just because they thought they could cash in with a public that is mostly just fine with trash. Still worse yet, they were right. People paid. It made money. Even people who knew it wasn't any good said "Eh, why not, the kids might like it," and pulled out the wallets. And kids were further dumbed down, as if they needed to be dumbed down even more. We're absolutely at the end of the world. No question about it. The world has jumped the shark. No, I don't think I'm overstating.

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Uh yeah, you're overreacting..

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Says you.

Tastes run in different directions. I'm reacting exactly as I should, based on my extreme hatred of this worthless pile of sh$%. If I didn't react this way, it wouldn't be honest. If you did react this way, it wouldn't be honest for you.

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Well someone's shamefully not a Dr. Seuss fan...

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You are a pathetic human being. This movie is hilarious and you have zero sense of humor if you hate it this much. What were you expecting out of a movie in which Jim Carrey plays the grinch, an oscar winner? Go find a sense of humor and stop bitching.

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"You are a pathetic human being."

Go f@#$ yourself.

Actually, just grow up. Some people's sense of humor runs different than yours and your circle of whoever you run around with. Maybe you haven't learned that.

I'm wondering: Did Carrey get the Oscar for this film? Or are you just so irrational that you think the fact that somebody wins an Oscar for some other film must serve as evidence that all his other films are good?

You're out of your league in an adult discussion.

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[deleted]

That's exactly the take of one of my daughters. What was the point of taking the original 30 minutes, which the story and the interest would bear, and stretching it into two hours of Carrey's masturbatory obnoxiousness? Money. There was a point, all right. Money.

The other daughter likes it. But then, she loves Pete's Dragon, every one of the Twilight movies, and pretty much anything. Hey, I'm not saying everybody's tastes run the same way, or that they should.

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Oh *beep* off, it's a Christmas movie. Get a life you *beep* Scrooge. Bah, humbug!

At the end of the day, you won't be happy until you love yourself

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F@#$ off yourself. What's your point, that any movie with Christmas as a subject must be left alone?

And incidentally, I'm about as Scrooge-like as your favorite granny. It is precisely because I love Christmas that I hate this worthless, unnecessary POS film so much. Or at least a big part of the reason.

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Love this movie! Hilarious, Christmassy, and feels right to watch during the holidays!

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Different strokes. ;-) Have a great Christmas.

(For what it's worth, the movie has already shown up twice at our house, because of one of our daughters. The unteachable one.)

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Wow! If you overreact this much about a movie, I can only imagine your response to a real issue in life.

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It's called hyperbole, genius. And it's perfectly appropriate on a comment list for a website devoted to movies -- neither of which is my whole life. But thanks for your concern.

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Jim Carey yelling for 90 minutes. What's not to like?

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Sometimes I really hate that I seem not to have the talent for perfect conciseness like this. That's the best review I've seen.

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Finally someone else who hates this movie like I do. Loved the words the OP used to describe this obnoxious piece of sh*t.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0170016/reviews-368

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Much appreciated.

Even worse: The money suck this kind of empty activity is. Can you imagine actually having the amount of money it took to make this film? Or a tenth of that amount of money? Or a tenth of what it grossed?

Movies made by the cynical, untalented, and/or idiotic for an audience that will shell out the dollars anyway. It's depressing.

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If this is the worst film you've seen; You haven't seen bad films.


What about these films?
10. Cat in the Hat
9. Bucky Larson
8. Remember Me
7. It's Pat
6. inAPPropriate Comedy
5. Transformers 2- Revenge of the Fallen
4. A Film Unfinished
3. Little Nicky
2. MacGruber
1. The Last Airbender

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Don't you threaten me, buddy.

Oh, alright. I stand legitimately challenged. But I certainly would put Grinch into that top-of-bottom group (which you can already see includes a special subcategory of films by SNL alums based on their SNL characters).

I've seen a ton of bad films, actually. In some cases I have kind of an affection for them (Ed Wood stuff, for instance). And in any ranking, I try to eliminate those that were going for badness and knew it (Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, for instance) or those where the badness was largely connected to something weird or specific about the larger culture (atomic dramas of the '50s, beach movies of the '60s, etc.); for those, the badness has to rise above the level of others in the same [cough] genre in some way. (I give you just about anything with Arch Hall Jr.)

To me, the bottom of the slime bucket almost always involves a project like Grinch (or several of those you mention above), where the project had truckloads of money and spent it all on some tired formula, and the spenders were people of limited ability and/or concern with doing anything worthwhile, usually because (at least partially because) they knew they could rely on parents to bring their kids to it, or SOs to bring their SO to it, or whatever. With a lot of these films, you can hear the conversations that went on between the suits in the conference rooms, about demographics and focus-groups results and so forth. Just life-sucking, is what it is.

It also helps if you add a generous layer of predictable poopoo-caca jokes or other kinds of tedious grossout or vulgar-for-vulgarity's-sake stuff.

And with Jim Carrey, you have special heights of badness (no, I don't think everything he's ever done is in this category), simply because his response to terrible material and a terrible project is to sell it even harder, to go all-in and then start pulling his rings and shoes off and throw them in the pot too, because he just knows he's that funny and all the project needs is his personal shtick (see Eddie Murphy disease).

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I've only seen Little Nicky in that list. It had its funny moments and stupid moments. Sandler has gotten more annoying too. But the Grinch is 100 times worse.

As for Jim Carrey, I remember when I thought his movies were really funny and entertaining. Now I think he's funny as a guest on talk shows or as a standup, but I just can't watch a lot of his movies. Remember on the 90s when we thought Ace Ventura and the Mask were actually funny? They are mostly annoying now! The only one I can watch over and over again is Cable Guy. I hate Broderick's gf though, she's so fussbudgety and has to have everything perfect that it's irritating!

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Well, its own company Universal Attractions promotes it...at Christmas, or GRINCHMAS..

As for [1996's "Cable Guy", also with Jim Carrey]:Yeah, and Matthew Broderick'/s girlfriend Lesley Mann is now one of the most popular character (and sometimes co-lead) actresses in Hollywood...

[Okay, LESLIE Man..]

MAGIC=Sarah Silverman.

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So we went from Boris Karloff to Jim Carrey, doing something that sounds like he's got a stuffy nose and all kinds of the typical broad, arch stupidity in pronunciations. Why? Was that just funnier, is why?

I agree with this part for sure. However, I actually liked seeing it made. As a Kid I loved Dr Seuss even before I could read. Just the whole layout of his towns. So visually I love it.


Always be yourself. Unless you can be Batcatt, then always be Batcatt.

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Yeah, maybe I just couldn't get past it. Some people are a lot better than I am at getting what can be gotten out of even an uneven film.

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