classicsoncall
Along with the prior year's "A Charlie Brown Christmas", Dr. Seuss's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" has become a holiday staple for millions of viewers. It's probably a toss-up as to which of the two is the most watched television program in history, but at least for the first decade or so following it's release, it was an annual Christmas staple at our house. As an adult of course, it once again becomes prime viewing material with the passing of generations bringing new kids and grand kids into the picture. Fortunately, what starts out as a tale of the Grinch doing his best to ruin Christmas for the residents of Whoville, turns into a warm spirited story when the 'mean one' has a change of heart. Boris Karloff might not seem the best voice actor to personify the Grinch on paper but he does a masterful job in bringing the story and the character to life. If you're only memory of The Grinch is the 2000 theatrical version with Jim Carrey, (who did an excellent job by the way), you owe it to yourself to go back to the original and have some fun with it. It should be around for many Christmases to come.
meriganoslimonost
*NOTE* In the review for the first movie, I forgot to talk about the mid and post credits scenes. In the mid credits scene, Jackhammer is shown working out, and the camera slowly pans down to and zooms into the philosopher's stone on his desk, and you can briefly see Sauron in his "Eye-Tower" form. In the post credits scene, Santa is shown kneeling in front on something. The camera slowly pans up to show it is a statue of Sauron, making us question Santa's true allegiance In this sequel to Rudolph "Jackhammer" Jones, the titular character Jackhammer is forced into another similar situation as the one in the first movie, but with all new characters dropped into the mix with our original cast, who, for the most part, take a backseat to the new characters, and I think this was very clever, considering how much development we got for them in the first movie, so we definitely didn't need any more, but we needed to get development on the new people. The film creators did this excellently, working out the flaws and the quirks of each character to near perfection. The characters all feel like people instead of just cardboard cutouts. Anyway, now I'll get to the plot. As said at the beginning, this review will be very spoiler-heavy. This movie starts 3 months after the last one, which put me off at first, but I realized it worked well for the story. We get to see how the Mushroom Kingdom has rebuilt itself after being nearly destroyed by Sauron. The story begins when Jackhammer is just finishing a workout, very reminiscent of the last film's opening, and we see him walk to his desk and pick up the Philosopher's Stone. He stares into it, when he sees it: SAURON! After 3 months of working out and training, Jackhammer knows how to handle Sauron, especially in his weaker Eye-Tower form and trapped in the Stone. Jackhammer simply stares at him for a bit until Sauron notices him. Sauron looks up at him and laughs, not a maniacal laugh, but as if something was funny. After talking with Sauron for a bit, Jackhammer gets "triggered" and throws the Stone, but it won't leave his hand. Sauron says he knows why, but Jackhammer is having none of it. He reveals that he's been training with all of the members of the group who helped him take down Sauron in the first place, except Santa. Jackhammer uses the Force, combined with a bit of magic and a spin attack, and manages to get the Stone off of him, but not for long. The stone hovers in the air and flies back into his hand. Jackhammer decides to deal with it and starts to train again. He notices the local news announce "a sudden climb in crime" and how the crime rates of New Donk City, Jackhammer's home town, have risen 100,000,000%. Jackhammer realizes he has to do something about this, so he starts to take to the streets and fight crime. Here he meets Donald Duck, another hero trying to slow crime rates just like him. He teams up with Donald, and they find Samus Aran, a bounty hunter hired to take out the "Big Guys." The three of them go to recruit the old team, and it really takes off from there. Our 3 main characters manage to break in while the other 4 create a distraction. The fight between the original group and the onslaught of 10,000 soldiers is incredibly well animated and choreographed, with the high point being when Harry shot a spell that rebounded off of Link's mirror shield and destroyed a skeleton monster. As we cut to Jackhammer, Donald, and Samus, we see who our "Big Guy" is. None other than the Grinch himself. He uses his Santa impersonation power to gain all of Santa's powers as the avatar. Samus stars blasting as much energy at is as possible, and Donald uses his Dark Matter Energy Beam to try and disintegrate the Grinch, while Jackhammer uses the power of the Stone to steal the Grinch's power and destroy him, adding him to the Philosopher's Stone. This movie was incredible, even better than the first one, though it was a little bit shorter. I hope you all get as much enjoyment out of this film as I did.
ultramatt2000-1
I saw this classic when I was a kid and I loved it until this day. When I heard Chuck Jones did it, I was surprised because of the animation and style looked similar to his Bugs Bunny, Coyote and Roadrunner and Tom and Jerry cartoons. However, I got more surprised when I heard that Boris Karloff not only voiced The Grinch, but narrated it very well. My love grew stronger because back then, when I was a teenager, I was starting to fall into the field of classic horror films. I knew Boris Karloff played the Frankenstein Monster and Imhotep The Mummy. He had this calm British voice. As for the songs, well they are as timeless as the special itself! Albert Hague made the music to it and I was surprised that he was the music teacher in the original FAME. My favorite song is "You're a mean one Mr. Grinch" because when you hear it you can't stop and think of all those disgusting things that come to our mind when we hear the song. Forget about Ron Howard's adaptation with Jim Carrey because that one is complete and utter garbage catered for those who watch wacky cartoons on such cable channels as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. Bottom line: This animated special is timeless and it must be watched for new generations of audiences.
zozoinwonderland
I love this movie, and have since i was around 4 years old. The only reason why i don't give this movie a 10/10 is because his smile, mainly in the beginning. it creeps me out to this day, and when i was little i remember i hallucinated from fear and paranoia. Otherwise, it is an absolute classic and highly recommend it or everyone that knows when to look away at the right time or isn't too afraid if that freaking smile! The movie has a good plot line and i have been watching it everyday since i found out about the remake with Benedict Cumberbatch as the Grinch. Personally, i prefer the 1966 version, over that piece of crap that Universal spat out in 2000.The first thing i do on the first day of December is watch this movie with my family. Overall, i would highly recommend this movie.
