Simon Peters
Poor casting, intermittent periods where the film treads water with overlong pictures of the scenery, and a lack of anyone in the cast to empathise with, render this a dreary experience. Edited with no sense of timing and with unmemorable music laid on with a trowel, the performances are unable to engage or sustain one's attention. The biggest drawback is that there is nobody one likes - the hero is the American equivalent of a shop dummy in a Cecil Gee window, the son is blank faced except when he is petulant. Custer is inscrutable and a boring character. The villains are cardboard cutouts, and the mad woman of the hills is alarming and repellent.Custer's daughter is the only bright spark in the film, and acts everyone else off the screen, not that that was hard to do.The Henson Creature Shop shut up shop in London shortly after this film was made; maybe they had lost heart when they saw it.One to miss.
lastliberal
Before Joel Tobeck appears in the new Water Horse movie, he is a mean GreenPeace member that is trying to delay drilling in a Canadian lake, and then trying to capture Mee-Shee for profit.The absolute beauty of British Columbia comes forth in stunning beauty on my new TV, and I don't even have the Hi-Def hooked up yet. I really wanted something to show me what I can expect, and I certainly wasn't disappointed.Bruce Greenwood (Double Jeopardy, I'm Not There) cancels a vacation with his son to find a drill bit. Daniel Magder plays the son, who discovers magic in the water in the form of a strange looking creature.It is a slow moving picture notable not for action, but for beauty.Luanne Gordon (King Kong) manages to be the impetus for Greenwood to decide to slow his life down and enjoy the beauty of BC.
wrlang
A typical gentle giant film about a large creature living in a deep Canadian lake. Adored by the locals with potential earth shattering ramifications for scientific community, Mee-Shee is a water bound ET. It has all the elements of a good film for the kids under 11, and only kids under 11 that are not use to the normal breakneck paced, borderline porn, of today's 'family' films. The main character is Mac (Magder) who searches for Mee-Shee as the locals try and convince him not to tell his scientist dad about the 'monster'. The CGI is OK, and the cinematography is good. Seasoned actors keep the film from being a real bore due to lack of action and a well worn plot. It accomplishes its goal of being a clean family film for the very young to enjoy.
cwbutler-1
Our family really likes lake serpent stories. We enjoyed the director's Loch Ness movie, but Mee-Shee was just fabulous. Mee-Shee herself had a lot of screen time and interacted with the human characters. The animation was beautifully done, and the special effects were great. Good performances all around, lovely scenery, touching story. Lake serpent fans will be well pleased with the surprises toward the end. Mee-Shee is based on the real-life Canadian lake serpent Ogopogo. We saw this movie twice at the Tribeca Film Festival and hope that it finds a North American distributor. Creating sea animals that are truly believable is a very difficult task, but the creature shop deserves special kudos for both the imagination and the care that has gone into the realization of Mee Shee.Credit must also go to the excellent cast, which performs with distinction opposite the animal co-star. Bruce Greenwood brings a valuable degree of warmth to the role of the father without going overboard. Indeed, the entire cast manages to make the film truly heartwarming without crossing over the line into manipulating the heartstrings.
AD
