With Carrey hitting a career peak, this Grinch doesn't steal Christmas; it restores the season by helping energize us enough to make it through the whole thing.
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
He's (Carrey) a marvelous Grinch in this spirited, bustling and mostly faithful spin on Seuss.
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Carrey is excellent, making the most of his comic gifts even in a cumbersome Grinch outfit, and the eye-spinning color scheme is dazzling to behold.
60
TV Guide MagazineSteve Simels
TV Guide MagazineSteve Simels
A smartly stylized hoot.
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
I am not a mind-reader and cannot be sure, but I think a lot of children are going to look at this movie with perplexity and distaste. It's just not much fun.
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Stack
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Stack
Overall, the film sparkles. But it's a curiously unaffecting sparkle, an example, almost, of how the special effects stole Christmas.
30
L.A. WeeklyHazel-Dawn Dumpert
L.A. WeeklyHazel-Dawn Dumpert
This new feature has replaced the original's benevolence, taste and wit with cynicism, armpit humor and manic, desperately unfunny padding.
20
SlateDavid Edelstein
SlateDavid Edelstein
Profoundly unnecessary -- cluttered, padded even at 90 minutes, indifferently narrated by Anthony Hopkins, and consistently misdirected by Ron Howard.
20
VarietyTodd McCarthy
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Shrill, strenuous and entirely without charm, Ron Howard's attempt at a Christmas classic is an elaborately wrapped empty box that will fool many people into buying it but will not greatly please its recipients.
So clogged with kooky gadgetry and special effects and glitter and goo that watching it feels like being gridlocked at Toys "R" Us during the Christmas rush.