Hoot (2006)

ridiculous rating

Really Surprised!

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Hoot (2006): Dir: Wil Shriner / Cast: Logan Lerman, Brie Larson, Luke Wilson, Tim Blake Nelson, Cody Linley: Misfiring family film about serving a cause. After being moved several times, the new kid now resides in Florida where he is bullied but eventually he teams with two independent teenagers in their struggle to save ground owls from a construction site. From the makers of Holes yet lacking the intelligence and wit of that wonderful film. Setup is rushed and structure contains a pointless subplot regarding a school bully. Director Wil Shriner does his best but even the ending is ridiculous with a foolish standoff that would seem laughable in within the maddest of slapstick comedies. Luke Wilson does his best as a rookie cop but the role is cardboard. He is the standard cop often seen in these films that is expected to do little but ends up solving the case. Logan Lerman and Brie Larson play two of the teenagers whose actions are far from believable. Tim Blake Nelson plays an idiot who manages the site for construction. Cody Linley plays Larson's ambitious stepbrother who also has a knack for being on the opposite end of the law when attempting a statement. Great message about endangered wildlife and other issues taken for granted. Regretfully it is reduced to stupidity with its misplaced humour and a script should have been placed in one of those owl holes and buried. Score: 3 / 10

1st watched 10/8/2008 - 4 out of 10(Dir-Will Shriner): So-so environmental movie about a wild child protecting a group of burrowing owls from getting bulldozed by a pancake house trying to break ground for their 100th restaurant. This movie was watchable for awhile but then kind of got high-and-mighty with it's environmentalism and became very predictable about halfway thru. The story revolves around a family moving into a new town in Florida and the son being mesmerized by a barefoot kid running alongside the school bus, obviously not attending school. We find out later he's kind of hiding from his parents so he won't get sent to military school and vandalizing the property where the pancake house is supposed to go in his spare time. There are a couple of side stories like a school bully picking on the new kid, and a bumbling cop, played by Luke Wilson, that has some funny moments. The main story line though revolves around three kids trying to influence a corporation to change their minds about where to place their business. The music, by Jimmy Buffet, doesn't help the movie and is mostly pretty lame -- Buffet actually also appears in a cameo role as a teacher. This is basically it for this movie. I'm sure that it can be enjoyed by some of the younger folk, but there's not enough quality behind it to keep most viewers involved for the whole 1 hour and a half. It probably would have been better as an afternoon kids special than a motion picture.

I will give it this: it tried. It did try to make it good and even got Luke Wilson involved. Luke Wilson is good, but he can only do so much. He can't make up for the fact that the story was very flawed and the characters were underdeveloped.The running "gag" with the bully was asinine. He was never funny and I got tired of the gag really fast. And the barefooted kid bit was kind of weak too. He hitchhiked to Florida? Yeah OK.The movie felt like an average kiddie film at times with this underlining mantra: adults stupid, kids smart. And that bit gets tiresome.But the only moments that were funny was the police cart Wilson drove around when he lost his squad car. I loved that little cart, especially when Wilson turned on the sirens. But, other than that, nothing else was worth my time. "D-"

May be I don't get it right. I mean the movie. It does not make me happy or whatever has to do . Maybe because of my mood. Anyhow this one is a simple family movie with kids for actors. Just admit that - all movies of that kind cannot pass the barrier of 4 out of 10 never mind who is playing in the movie(example Antonio Banderas was playing in that kind of movies... two or three of them cant remember the exact count). I got bored. I almost fall asleep just because the topic is so cliché and the actor play was so predictable. But I am sure that my kid will love this movie when he grows up... Hey Im not a monster I found some hilarious or good moments in the movie. The owls in the movie were sooooo cute. The trick with the painted police car windows and the hits that the kid received in the head by a golf ball...