cinephile-27690 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.

Bonnie O'Connor Even if I had not seen reviews from Siskel and Ebert or Doug Walker, I'd likely come to the same conclusion about how embarrassingly awful this movie is. The plot is about a boy named North who divorces his parents and travels the world to seek out new parents. Okay the plot sounds interesting, so why is it so horrible? It's when he starts traveling the world where everything becomes wrong. First he goes to Texas where everyone is a stereotypical cowboy in fancy costumes, accents, all about being big, and an awful country song. The whole scene makes me wonder if Reba McEntire felt dirty (being from Oklahoma) about her scene and if Dan Aykroyd (Canadian born) had to write an apology letter for not portraying anyone from Texas right. Then he goes to Hawaii where everyone dresses in grass, flowers, shirts, and eager to show off North's butt. Not kidding. And then he goes to possibly the most offensive stereotypical scene in the movie: Alaska, where everyone lives in Flintstone-like igloos, Kathy Bates slaps on make-up to look Alaskan, and the elderly are cruelly sent away on ice blocks for no other reason than they're such an embarrassment to the society. I try to be forgiving of some movies people deem "racist" because I often believe that the writers directors didn't intend for it (like Phantom Menace or Willy Wonka) or I just don't recognize it as well as others. But this movie has absolutely no excuse. There's no subtly about what culture they're mocking, and when it tries to represent real life it is humiliating and hard to watch. On top of that, the parents themselves are horrible (even taking out the racism). One set wants to fatten the boy, the other wants to show off his butt, the next wants to get rid of his would-be grandfather, and so on. And it never explains how he signed up for these parents in the first place. He just flies to their "village" and temporarily lives with them. As for his real parents: they're just plain unfunny. Every joke written for them falls flat and makes no sense, which is a tragedy since they're played by funny actors. Eventually it reveals that the whole thing was just a dream. I guess you can say that it explains the stereotypes, but it also means that the director thinks he could get away with it. Also, it indicates that the entire movie was frustratingly pointless. Also, I'm pretty sure that any nine year old boy (American or not) would know that these places are nothing like this movie. If I had to say anything good about this movie it is that the actor of North (Elijah Wood) gives a really good performance, and of course would lead him to go star in better roles. In fact all the actors are really good and try to give a great performance, even if the script and jokes fall flat. Even Bruce Willis who has to wear a bunny costume, cowboy outfit, Federal Express outfit, and so on actually tries to be dignified in his role, even though the script failed him. Also that awful song in the Texas scene is a reminder that Reba and Dan are terrific singers.Sadly, none of the great performances could save this movie. It's pure racist garbage. I don't care if Rob Reiner's father believed in "laughing at themselves", this movie is where none of the jokes work and come out as offensive for kids and adults.

gilligan1965 Hee-hee! This movie is exactly like any other movie made from any other book written by Roald Dahl...and, I thought that this was written by him!?!? It wasn't!?!? However...it's great in the tradition to the way he writes.As with Roald Dahl's writing...this deals with a child with issues who wishes to 'break-out' and always finds his or her way and comes out on top - like in, "Matilda;" "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory;" "James and the Giant Peach;" and, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" But...it also deals with a child's "FUN," "HAPPINESS," and, "ADVENTURE;" like in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang;" and, "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator." Regardless of whom it was written by, this is a really enjoyable and funny movie.

Gavin Cresswell (gavin-thelordofthefu-48-460297) Just to make one thing clear before I review this: I never heard or watched this film before. I mean, I was born in the 90s, but I didn't even know this came out the same year as Disney's The Lion King, one of my personal childhood favorites. What really drew my attention to it was not only the Nostalgia Critic review, but the Siskel & Ebert review. At first, I thought it was gonna be one of those average family comedies, but given the quote from Siskel & Ebert themselves (It's junk. First class junk. It's a movie that makes me cringe even when I'm sitting here thinking about it.), I'm personally at their side now.I thought it had a creative, but somewhat sad and unrealistic premise: A boy who leaves his neglected parents and searches all over the world for better ones. It has a talented cast including Bruce Willis, Jason Alexander, and others and one of the greatest directors of all time Rob Reiner who made such great hits like Misery, When Harry Met Sally, and The Princess Bride. But, when I watched the whole thing online, I became shocked at how unbelievably cruel and horrendous this movie is and is by far the director's embarrassing project that he had ever done in the history of filmmaking. However, I don't think it's the worse for there are some nice scenery throughout the film and I think I like the Texas song sequence sang by Reba McEntire. Apparently, those redeeming qualities are completely ruined by it's flaws especially it's lazy and cheap cop-out ending. Like I said before, it has a talented cast, but they seem to be wasted by a terrible script, unfunny one-liners, and clumsy direction from Rob Reiner. The characters are poorly conceived. I don't hate Elijah Wood, but I did find him rather obnoxious here and the music from Marc Shaiman is instantly forgettable. Even the story is thinly plotted it doesn't try what it wants to be.Overall, North isn't the worse movie I've seen, but it's still a horrible movie that needs to be avoided at all costs.