Movies
Christmas cult in the making. Favreau's Elf is quickly becoming a Christmas staple, and it's easy to see why. It's a rather simple film that broadly sticks to conventions, except for the spirited performance by Will Ferrell which never quite fits the Christmas theme, yet is all the funnier because of it. Ferrell plays buddy, a human baby who ended up in an elf world and is brought up as if he was a regular elf. When he's all grown up, his foster dad informs him of his past and Buddy travels to New York to seek out his biological dad. He is a pretty big grump and cares little about Christmas. Deschanel and Newhart are nice, but it's really Ferrell's show. Without him, the film wouldn't have been half as fun. Favreau's direction isn't too bad either, but he can't hide that Elf is little more than a corny Christmas flick. I will say that the film has grown on me. Not that I think it's great, but I like it considerably better compared to the first time I watched it.Read all
Technically impressive, but that's about all I can say about this remake. Just as tepid, soulless and boring as the original Disney classic. The soundtrack is excruciating, the comedy doesn't work at all and the longer runtime is in no way justified. As a tech demo it's pretty cool, as a film it's a full-on disaster.
