Review Copyright Rose Cooper, 2000

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Three things you should know about Bammer, before we get started: Generally, remixes grind my gizzard. Jim Carrey and his extremely-over-the-top clowning gets on my last nerve. Dr. Seuss was one of the first heroes I had; hell, he Spoke For The Trees before treehuggers were even thought of! Mess with him, and somebody's Feelings are gonna get hurt. So, I probably loathed Jim Carrey's remix of Dr. Seuss' classic, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, right? Maybe. Maybe not. THE STORY (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**) He's a Mean One: Mr. Grinch. In this updated version of the classic tale by Dr. Seuss, The Grinch (Jim Carrey) has Issues. He doesn't like all the noise that his Whoville neighbors 'round the way make - especially the Christmasy noise they make. The Grinch, frankly, doesn't like Christmas. The concept of which astonishes young Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Mumsen) - though she's having Issues of her own over the commercialization of Christmas. Cindy sees her father, Lou Lou-Who (Bill Irwin) buying up Christmas stuff left and right, her mother, Betty Lou Who (Molly Shannon) in fierce Christmas light-stringing competition with Martha May Who-vier (Christine Baranski), and the Maywho of Whoville (Jeffrey Tambor) discriminating against the Misunderstood Grinch because the Maywho's beloved Martha once had a Thing for Grinchybaby, and Cindy is left to wonder just what Christmas is about. The Grinch has no doubts, though: for him, Christmas is about being tortured by the Whos, a practice that started when he was yet a wee Grinch (Josh Ryan Evans). But this year will be different; this year, The Grinch and his dog, Max, will stop Christmas for good... THE UPSHOT Quite a few things about The Grinch were exactly as I thought, and even hoped, they would be: director Ron Howard obviously put a lot of love and care into this project; certainly, he and his production team put a lot of moolah into set design and costumes. I also imagined narrator Anthony Hopkins sonorous voice would pick up where the original cartoon Grinch narrator - Boris Karloff - left off. Hope against hope, the key song - "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" - was updated just enough to be jazzy, but still remained true to the original (ok, I'll admit it: I liked Carrey's version even more than the original song. Who knew he could actually sing?). Overall, my hopes that this production would remain true to Seuss' Whoville, weren't shattered. It's where they veered off of Seuss' beaten path, that rankled me. That, and Jim Carrey being allowed off-leash without a pooper scooper to clean up behind him. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why they decided to explain Why The Grinch, Grinched. Some stuff just is; let it be, I say - especially if you're gonna explain it like this flick did. Needless to say, my eyes rolled. Also, I like my Whos unspoiled by Y2K sensibilities; it twisted my liver that the Maywho was allowed to be Evil, and sneakily so. Totally ruined the "everybody comes out for Christmas any old way" theme for me. Not to mention the big nads it takes for The Grinch to preach an anti-commercialism rant - all while Your Local Department Store is busy stocking truckloads of Grinch tie-in merchandise, approved by Grinch Powers That Be, just in time for the Christmas Shopping Season. Bah humbug, indeed. And - can I just say this? - if I never see Taylor Mumsen in another movie again, it'll be too soon. Her saccharine-coated Cindy Lou Who reminded me of the mouse in Stuart Little. And, oooh, I hated the mouse in >Stuart Little. Yes, I realize that Cindy Lou is probably charming the socks off America right now, but I just feel sticky after being dunked in all that Sweetness And Light. Ya know what? I didn't care why she was Conflicted about What Christmas Really Meant. I just wanted her gone, gone, gone! Uh...sorry if I got any on ya. Lest ye think I didn't really like the movie, ye would be right for those thirty or so minutes that Carrey went hog-wild without any sense of direction. And it showed; many of his shticky bits should've been edited out, no matter how Wacky or Inspired his antics seemed. There were far too times when Carrey just went manic onscreen, but no one in the packed audience went along with him. But there were enough good bits of his to generally balance the movie out; though there were some questionable scenes that I didn't feel were appropriate for the child-skewed audience [is there a clause that Carrey puts in his movie contracts that states he must, at some point, crack a butt-joke?], it's clearly the younger set that will eat this movie up, and will probably demand an update of the remake. THE "BLACK FACTOR"    [ObDisclaimer: We Are Not A Monolith] Black "Whos". I'm sure it can't be easy being a Hollywood Filmmaker; they can be boxed into a damned if you do/damned if you don't corner: if they sprinkle a few Blacks (and since We're still the Default Minority, it'll probably remain "a few Blacks") in their productions, some folks will scream "TOKENISM!!!". But if they don't include Blacks, the scream becomes "WHERE THE BLACK FOLKS AT?". I don't envy Howard et al their decision, and maybe the result should just be seen as the Grinch Powers having taken the high road. But still: Black "Whos", for me, was about as weird a sight as, say, Black Vulcans. BAMMER'S BOTTOM LINE I'll make about the safest prediction a non-prognosticator ever made: based on the huge crowds I saw here in Podunkville this weekend, The Grinch will be a monster hit the likes we haven't seen in awhile. And I won't begrudge them that: for folks who weren't weaned on the originator, the duplicator will do just fine. Really, it wasn't all that bad, and in some spots (most notably when The Grinch found out he was nominated for an award), Carrey Wrecked Stuff! (quick Blactionary definition: "In a few noteworthy scenes, Carrey was amazing!"). Still, I think I'll stick with the original for now - and maybe when Grinch comes on DVD, I might fast-forward through Cindy Lou's saccharine-coating and Jim Carrey's fatty hamming. THE GRINCH:   Just call me Mrs. Grinch... back to top And that's the way I see it. Rose "Bams" Cooper 3BlackChicks Review™ Copyright Rose Cooper, 2000 EMAIL: bams@3blackchicks.com    ICQ: 7760005 http://www.3blackchicks.com/