Santa's Scorecard

Insight on the News, Dec 25, 2000 by Gary Arnold

Not working," Jim Carrey fumes as his Christmas-hating Grinch attempts to drown out sounds from the Christmas-loving Whoville -- a peevish remark that has a boomerang relevance to Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas. An all too lavish, consistently misguided labor of love, the remake emerges as a rattletrap of a whimsical superspectacle, so dependent on illustrative padding and conspicuous overproduction that it more or less strangles the source material in costly, confectionary solicitude. Blowing the holiday fable out of proportion also has the odd effect of contradicting the moral of Suess tale, which affirms the benevolent integrity of Christmas. The movie foolishly epitomizes the spirit of a commercially suffocating and stupefying Christmas, leaving no room for humble sentiments or economical means of expression.

Rugrats in Paris -- the Movie, on the other hand, maintains a professional consistency with its successful prototype of two years ago, although the original movie seemed stronger for a farcical plot that remained close to home. Once the Rugrat entourage descends on Paris, a Disney influence becomes conspicuous. The resident villainess, Coco La Bouche (smartly dubbed by Susan Sarandon), obviously is a chip off the Cruella DeVil block, for instance, as though the filmmakers needed to reassure themselves that their first Rugrats flick had indeed rivaled Disney. Still, everything considered, the Rugrats franchise remains lively and secure.

The 6th Day is the most diverting, playfully outrageous science-fiction adventure romp since Demolition Man. It also represents a welcome improvement over such recent futuristic whiffs such as The Hollow Man and Red Planet. Derived from a story by the late Philip K. Dick, written by promising husband-and-wife team Cormac and Marianne Wibberley and directed with plenty of zest by Roger Spottiswoode, the film anticipates a social system that has accepted a certain amount of cloning while outlawing the duplication of humans. Naturally, this "Sixth Day Law" is being subverted by the movie's villains, and hero Adam Gibson (played with deadpan comic effect by Arnold Schwarzenegger) is placed inadvertently in the position of wrecking their plans. The movie's strongest element is pictorial elaboration of the near future, but parents take note: The movie's PG-13 rating is a borderline call, given the occasional profanity, sexual innuendo and graphic violence.