Review Detail

9.5 2 10
Overall rating
 
9.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
I confess: Jim Carrey gets on my nerves. I refer to his usual comedy persona: he has given some strong performances otherwise (The Truman Show, Man on the Moon), but his schtick gets on my nerves. I guess he's the kind of performer you either find side-splitting funny or you can't stand at all, with no middle ground. So, "de-Carrey-fying" a movie that was essentially a vehicle for his schtick (or become one once he was cast - apparently there were early talks about Tim Curry playing the role, and now THAT I would have loved!) is both, for my tastes, a great idea and one that by its own definition can't go all the way: you can remove his endless improv but his acting style is what it is.

Yet even that way, this edit managed to make Carrey bearable for me. You can't transform his performance, of course, but here it's reduced to pretty much the bare essentials, and once one gets used to how he plays one manages to actually get into the story and to actually enjoy it, beyond "another two hours of Jim Carrey being Jim Carrey". It does help a lot as well that those WTF inappropriate moments added to the story (what was it with the swingers party??? Wasn't this a kids movie???) are gone. In fact this cut removes almost everything I disliked about the film, with the exception of the whole subplot about Martha May having a crush on the Grinch, but I guess one can't have everything. And at least her hypersexualization has been considerably toned down.

Editing itself is done very well, some of the dissolves during the Cheermeister montage called a bit of attention to themselves but that's likely due to the ones present in the original having those fancy transitions that are very hard to replicate. Otherwise editing was invisible.

This is a really good edit that merits more attention. It's two years old now and I'm writing the first review. I guess that both Carrey fans and detractors ignored it for opposite reasons (the first ones for what is gone, the second ones for what remains), but believe me, this is one that can be enjoyed by both camps. I can very well see it become a yearly watch for me. Yes indeed, thanks to MusicEd921 this movie's quality grew three sizes bigger!
Owner's reply January 03, 2022

I can't thank you enough for both your kind words and for taking a gamble on watching this! I hope that some Christmas cheer has been spread with toning down Carrey's performance and leaving what I found to be a really entertaining take on expanding on the Grinch. Thank you and enjoy your holiday season!

Report this review Was this review helpful? 0 0

Comments