Undescribable Perfection

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

disgusting, overrated, pointless

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

I have no idea why Roger Ebert, or anyone else, wanted to hate this story,and close examination of the film itself is no help. "North" is one of the most pleasant experiences I've had at the movies. To call it manipulative would be inaccurate; it has an ambition to manipulate, but succeeds.The film stars Elijah Wood, who is a wonderful young actor . He plays a kid with inattentive parents, who decides to go into court, free himself of them, and go on a worldwide search for nicer parents. This idea is deeply creative. Children do not lightly separate from their parents - and certainly not on the evidence provided here, where the great parental sin is not paying attention to their kid at the dinner table. The parents (Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jason Alexander) have provided little North with what looks like a million-dollar house in a Frank Capra neighborhood, all on dad's salary as a pants inspector. And, yes, I know that is supposed to be a fantasy, but the pants-inspecting jokes are only the first of several truly unique episodes in this film.North goes into court, where the judge is Alan Arkin, proving without the slightest shadow of a doubt that he should appear again in public with any material even vaguely inspired by Groucho Marx. North's case hits the headlines, and since he is such an all-star overachiever, offers pour in from would-be parents all over the world, leading to an odyssey that takes him to Texas, Hawaii, Alaska, and elsewhere.What is the point of the scenes with the auditioning parents? (The victimized actors range from Dan Aykroyd as a Texan to Kathy Bates as an Eskimo). They are all seen as broad, desperate comic caricatures. They are funny. They are touching. There is truth in them. They t even work as parodies. There is an creativity here that seems almost intentional, as if the filmmakers never plotted to leave anything of interest or entertainment value out of these episodes.North is followed on his travels by a mysterious character who appears in many guises. He is the Easter bunny, a cowboy, a beach bum, and a Federal Express driver who works in several product plugs.Funny, thinks North; this guy looks familiar. And so he is. All of the manifestations are played by Bruce Willis, who is funny,though not helpful, in any of them.I loved this movie. Loved loved loved loved loved this movie. Loved it. Loved every simpering clever full audience-loving moment of it. Loved the sensibility that thought anyone would not like it. Loved the implied insult to Ebert by his belief that anyone would be entertained by it.I hold it as an item of faith that Rob Reiner is a gifted filmmaker; among his credits are "This Is Spinal Tap," "The Princess Bride," "Stand By Me," "When Harry Met Sally...," and "Misery." I list those titles as praise with this one."North" is a good film - one of the best movies I have ever seen. But it is not by a bad filmmaker, and must represent some sort of lapse from which Ebert will recover - possibly sooner than I will.

I can't believe this was one of my favorites when I was a kid. I actually watched it on multiple occasions, and couldn't see how ridiculously bad it is.First, who names their kid North? That alone is ridiculous--always assumed it was about someone traveling north (which he does in one scene, but that's not the point). North is a kid who is an only child, and feels neglected by his parents with them working all the time, paying no attention to him, never coming to his games/school functions, and fighting at the dinner table. His adventures to come are so unrealistic, not funny, and beyond cheesy/corny--STUPID!Even on your most boring night with absolutely nothing to do, you'd be better off to sit at home and twiddle your thumb than to see this waste of time and disgrace to the film industry. Sorry I ever was that stupid to think it was cool; boy was I a mindless little tyke!

I'm sure most film critics, professional and amateur, have read Roger Ebert's famous review of "North". " I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated it". I can definitely see where he's coming from with a lot of this film. But as much as I hated a lot of it , I feel that there are a couple sort of amusing moments in it, but there are MANY more bad ones than OK ones. That's why I've rated it a 3 instead of a 1. The parts I hated, I don't have enough room to name them all, but I'll name a few of the worst things in it. The entire Texas scene with North and Dan Aykroyd. Some very stupid irritating jokes such as "Buck ate more in a day than most people eats in a month, that's why he hated February". The Texas motor cart driving through the airport with an annoying horn. Dan Aykroyd's overly forced smiles after his dumb jokes. The dumb song with Dan at the end if it saying with his forced smile, " nother rib son"? The whole "trying to make North very fat" deal. The Hawaii and Alaska scenes have the exact same kind of problems. More stupid, annoying, unfunny jokes and puns made in Hawaii such as the "Mrs Ho" joke and "without B, C, D, and F in our alphabet, you're guaranteed to get straight As". The very worst and extremely inappropriate joke is the North billboard joke. More awful jokes in Alaska such as the "Eskimo pie" joke, the Alaskan Christmas joke, and the "your face will freeze that way" joke. The very worSt is the extremely heartless "ice flows" joke. Still more bad jokes; the plane landing in Alaska skidding joke. The beginning of the film with Jason Alexander and his pants factory joke. Very stupid. The Jerry Lewis joke in France. Jon Lovit's character, very annoying. I still did not name every stupid, terrible thing in this movie yet. Not enough room here. Now to list the few kind of amusing parts: Winchell's character as kid genius turned almost evil overlord as the film progresses .The Amish scene where North says humorously, "excuse me, I left my butter churner on the plane". Then him telling the pilot " floor it". The part in Bruce Willis's comedy club. And the dialogue between Winchell, Lovitz, and the hit-man about borscht and the hit-man's mistake about thinking North was dead. As you can see, there are many more bad than good parts in this film.

I think the biggest problem with this film is that it has some great people in it. Elijah Wood, Bruce Willis and Rob Reiner. It could of been great, but no. There is only one joke in this film that I laughed at. Others either didn't make sense or just were not funny. The casting is terrible for the most part, the characters are nasty, the plot is stupid and the writing is strange. Wood, along with Graham Greene, Abe Vigoda and Matthew McCurly, do give us a nice performance, but that certainly does not make the film worth watching at all. It is terrible. It does not deserve to be watched. You should skip buying this film, unless you really want to see how bad it is.