With Christmas just around the corner, tis the season to watch some festive movies. One such movie I watched recently was Illumination’s, 2018, re-telling of Dr Seuss’s Christmas classic The Grinch, so should you watch?
It depends really, this Grinch movie is like most other run-of-the-mill animation movies. It’s pretty predictable and formulaic but in the end, it's just a fine Christmas movie. If you were expecting anything else and disappointed by it; I don’t know what you were expecting. It was co-directed by Yarrow Cheney, a long time producer with Illuminations who also co-directed Secret Life of Pets, and Scott Mosier Also a producer, mostly for films directed by friend Kevin Smith like 'Clerks', 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back' and 'Zack and Miri Make a Porno'. The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the Grinch, which I actually didn’t know until after the movie had finished if I had all day to guess who it was I would never in a million years have been able to guess correctly. Cumberbatch’s Grinch is much more likeable than the other versions of the Grinch, he doesn’t seem like he actually hates Christmas, he just seems a lot more whiney and that Christmas is more of an inconvenience to him. It is pretty funny at times, I did catch myself laughing but for the majority of the run time, it’s just kinda meh. Its to be expected though Dr Seuss’s book and 1966’s, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (TV special) were not intended to be so long. However, this Grinch movie I do prefer over the 2000 film with Jim Carrey; directed by Ron Howard. It's just purely for aesthetic reasons though, its a very beautiful film and more enjoyable for me personally, but Jim Carrey as the Grinch and the 2000 re-telling overall all is a much more memorable movie.
Should you watch?
if you have kids, or maybe just want to turn your brain off and watch a nice Christmas movie, then sure watch The Grinch or add it to the Christmas movie marathon list. If you're looking for a really good Christmas movie that everyone will love, then I have to be honest I think you shouldn’t watch The Grinch. Instead, I would recommend you should watch Klaus, a very charming Christmas movie that came out last year on Netflix, directed by first-time director and the creator of Despicable Me, Sergio Pablos.