Fresh and Exciting

Excellent but underrated film

As Good As It Gets

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I am not going to lie and say Hoot is the best family film I have seen, but I am going to say I actually rather liked it. True, the pacing is a little too slow at times, the story perhaps a little predictable and some of the characters are rather clichéd particularly the bully. However, Hoot is beautifully photographed with lovely scenery and the cinematography was very nice. The soundtrack was a pleasant touch and had a somewhat nostalgic feel to it, while the dialogue is humorous and has some sweet parts too, the message is admirable and the direction is above-adequate. And the acting was good on the whole, Logan Lerman is an appealing lead and Brie Larson while petite is alluring and likable enough, while Tim Blake Nelson does a very good job with his role as does Luke Wilson. Overall, very nice and likable, nothing outstanding but it's not awful either. 7/10 Bethany Cox

The message was plain and simple; Florida is flat and they will bulldoze it until they have cleared it coast to coast and there is no room left for the wildlife. They have bought all the politicians and they are tearing the state up little by little.This isn't an Oscar winning film, but it is a good story and it had some good characters. I mean, I would have loved to go to science class taught by Jimmy Buffet.Logan Lerman (The Patriot) as Roy did an excellent job, and Brie Larson was cute as a button. And, we even got to see Carl Hiassen, the writer and one cool dude.If you care at all about the environment, then you should have your kids see this. maybe they will get inspired to do something before there is nothing left.

The first time I saw this movie, I brought my 10 year old sister and she loved it. I thought it was pretty good (though I've never read the book) It was nice to see some of the big names in a smaller movie. The day I brought my sister to it was the best time we had in a long time and so whenever I watch it, I think about what a great time we had together. If you want to spend some quality time with your family, this is a great movie with an amazing cast and really awesome music! I love Jimmy Buffet! The meaning and lesson in this movie is also a nice one, we don't see many movies like this anymore. We usually so busy with our own lives in our own little worlds that it is nice to take a break for about two hours to watch this movie. The quality of the acting/filming is pretty good too, which is another plus.

Saw the movie a couple of days ago on DVD. I believe it was basically fair adaptation of Carl Hiassen's bestselling novel, which I've read recently and also enjoyed. I liked the movie too and the only serious problem for me was its short runtime. I suppose that making a movie as short as it is possible it's a dream of any director/producer/screenwriter but that's not the best approach. In Hoot they cutted some parts of the book which caused that the scenes in the movie are not always well connected with each other. However much more important thing is that bright satirical stile of Hiassen's novel has survived in the movie making it a decent choice both for children and grownups. This kind of humor is not crude and vulgar as we used to see in most of modern comedies but just sweet and lively. Add also beautiful shots of wild nature, original story with quirky characters and good message inside. Combine all of this together and in the result you'll get Hoot, one of the best family movies of the year, very lively and enjoyable. The acting is at least decent, particularly for that kind of movies. Logan Lerman who's indeed a very talented actor was very good as the main character. He impressed me in his previous works I've seen before (leading roles in "A Painted House" and "The Butterfly Effect") and this movie didn't become an exception. Overall all young actors' performances are uniformly strong and likable. Much more surprising for me was Luke Wison's performance. He was simply terrific in his supporting role of officer Delinko that every his appearance on screen at least brought a smile to my face. It's impossible not to mention also excellent performance of Tim Blake Nelson (Curly Branitt) with perfectly suitable for his character accent and both John Archie and Robert Donner in their little but memorable supporting parts. The last thing but not the least is the music. Never been interested in Jimmy Buffett music before and to be honest never heard of him before I watched a trailer for Hoot featured his song from the movie. Anyway his style has caught my attention and even bought two of his albums. His compositions featured in the movie including final theme "Good Guys Win" perfectly fit in the movie, they are so much riveting, lighthearted and lively. There is also a fragment of Brie Larson's song in the movie which is too short to create an opinion on her vocal talents or lack of them. I've almost forgotten one of the most important things about Hoot. The owls are really cute and so beautiful. Overall grade: 8 out 10. It definitely has its flaws and most likely it won't win any significant award but it's one the most likable and enjoyable family movies I've seen recently and what's even more important it's heart is in the right place.