Customer Reviews

Hoot

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

It always makes me nervous when a film is promoted with: FROM THE PEOPLE WHO BROUGHT YOU..... or IF YOU LIKED .... YOU'LL LOVE ....
In this case it is fair to let the viewer know that they can expect the same quality adaptation of the award-winning book as HOLES, BECAUSE of WINN DIXIE, and CHRONICLES of NARNIA. Hoot, like these films, is very true to the spirit of the Carl Hiaasen text and like those films is an excellent movie to see even without having read the books (if you choose THAT strange path.)

"EVERYBODY in AMERICA WANTS TO LIVE IN FLORIDA...EVERYBODY BUT ME," says Roy Eberhard, a 14 year-old who's moved around too much, this time leaving Montana thanks to his dad's job transfer. Roy (played well by Logan Lerman) is the new kid-- in humid fictitious Coconut Grove, Florida. But it's still the same routine: by himself at lunch, no friends, and thick-head, thick-necked bullies pushing him around. But if not for the bully mashing his face against the school bus window that one day, he might never have seen the barefoot running boy, who only goes by the handle "Mullet Fingers (Cody Linley) a blond streak, faster than anybody. And if he had never seen the running boy, he might never have met bully-beating Beatrice (played by Brie Larson). And if he had never met Beatrice, he might never have discovered the burrowing owls living in a nearby lot. And if not for the owls, he probably would have missed out quite an adventure. Hoot is the story of an ecological mystery, with a Florida setting and pro-environment, anti-development message made up of endangered miniature owls, heartless developers scheduled to be built over their burrows, and the owls' unlikely allies--three middle school kids determined to beat the system, getting grown-up attention and save some owls.

TV Director Wil Shriner (Frasier) keeps Hiaasen's tougue in cheek story funny and loose, thanks in part to Tim Blake Nelson as the contractor and Luke Wilson is at his dimmest as the inept cop. The films finale is predictable enough, but that is what make tweens' tales so popular in the first place. You KNOW the GOOD GUYS ARE GOING TO WIN...YOU KNOW the oh-so-cute owls will be saved...and that's ok.

"Hoot" produced by Frank Marshall and Jimmy Buffett for Walden Media, Buffett also provides excellent original music for the film, along with a role as the surfing marine biology teacher.
Buffett's love for the region makes him a natural choice for Hoot's material. Overall the film shares a conservation message and reminds kids that they can make a difference. It's sure to be a hoot...I mean hit.

We really enjoyed this great family movie. We're surprised that some critics gave it bad reviews. It was fun and funny. The kids interacted in good ways. The story was interesting throughout. We liked the cast and we found ourselves humming the music on the way home. We felt like we'd been on a vaction to Florida. The scenery was beautiful and the owls were awesome. There was no violence or swearing or special effects. Just a good story about good kids who care about the world around them. It's a good movie for all ages and our whole family (ages 8 to 51) recommends it highly! Go and see it!

What do you get when you cross an endangered species of owls, three young teenagers, and pancakes? You get HOOT!

This movie was based on Carl Hiaasen's Newbery Honor book of the same name, and was his first book for all ages. And like the book, the movie is hilarious, gross, quirky, original, and wacky all at the same time. It followed the book very closely, and even kept the funny part with the alligators in the Porta-Potty.

I liked Jimmy Buffet's music, and enjoyed seeing him in the role of Roy's teacher. If only all teachers were that cool!

And just like the book, the movie HOOT is about school bullies, greedy developers, corrupt politicians, clueless cops and middle-school screwballs of all persuasions. The movie made you feel like you were right there with the characters from the book.

And like the book, I rate this movie five out of five stars because it is so funny and so witty that almost anyone will enjoy it. Some very good friends took me to see it for my birthday the week it came out (thanks Michelle, Shayne, Kylie & Kevin), and it was one of the best I've seen this year.

I liked the movie HOOT so much that I bought the DVD here this week. Now I'll be able to see it and share it with my friends whenever I want.

I hope that I can get somebody to buy me the music CD, becasuse what I heard sounds great. My favorite songs were "Good Guys Win" and Floridays" but my Dad's favorite was "Werewolves of London".

Thanks for reading my first movie and DVD review!

Super family movie, great for all ages! This is a movie that will inspire your children to see the small things in life can make a difference, all you have to do is care. Roy, the main character, is a teen aged boy and a new implant in a Florida coastal neighborhood, as his father has moved them once again due to his job. As Roy is challenged to make new friends at his new school, he looks to a friendship that comes with dangerous mischief and finds himself an unlikely hero inspired by his law practicing dad. He identifies that a large contracting firm is about to bulldoze right over the natural habitat of a nationally protected wood owl. Corporate pressures and big dollars generated by the proposed Pancake House threaten the livelyhood of these precious baby owls. Roy and his new friends fight the contracting firm with smart distractions and legal loop holes. This is a feel good movie and has well developed characters. This story is based on a true story, unreal!

RECOMMENDED!

"Hoot" tells the story of three unlikely heroes, Roy, Bea, and Mullet Fingers (Logan Lerman, Brie Larson, and Cody Linley, respectively), who attempt to thwart the construction of a new pancake house in Florida on land that is inhabited by federally-protected burrowing owls. Young Roy has just moved to Florida with his family from Montana. As is with most tween-aged tales, he's an outcast who gets bullied, picked on, etc. Through a series of funny events he becomes good friends with the bully who bullies bullies, Beatrice, and her tree-hugging brother, Mullet Fingers. Up until the point where the three begin working together, Mullet Fingers has done the bulk of the dirty work at the jobsite by sabotaging contractor Curly's (Tim Blake Nelson) survey stakes, releasing cottonmouths on the property, and a few other things. When Roy enters the picture, evidence is uncovered that will shut down the construction completely. Of course, the main problem is that they are just three kids. Who'll listen to them?

As the story rolls along we get to meet "buffoon-in-blue" Delinko (gamely played by Luke Wilson) and Roy's cool science teacher, Mr. Ryan (Jimmy Buffett). Robert Wagner shows up in a brief but funny role as the city mayor. The cameras also give us a healthy dose of Florida's beautiful beaches and the swamp and her creatures that Mullet Fingers loves so much.

Some have stated that this movie promotes eco-terrorism and they do have a little bit of an honest gripe. What Mullet Fingers does is illegal, but so is what the pancake house is attempting to do. Both sides are wrong in the matter, but Roy's use of the legal system shows the viewer that stealing dozer seats and tearing out specific pages of a document eventually prove to be empty ventures. In short, eco-terrorism ideals are present, but they are shown to not be the solution to the problem.

Unlike a few other reviewers here, I'm glad that the owls received only a little screen time. This only enhanced the fact that they are endangered and worth protecting.

Overall, the movie does a good job of entertaining the entire family. It is somewhat generic as far as tweener tales go, but it is very likeable as a whole. I think I caught only one or two brief slips of the tongue in the whole movie. There's only a little onscreen violence involving a bully and Roy and some hilarious offscreen violence involving Bea and the same bully. The film has plenty of laughs for all ages and the cast does a pretty good job with their respective roles. Families should have no problems watching this one together.

I have read many reviews on this movie and many of them were negative reviews which shot this movie down at the theaters. I saw the movie and watched this DVD. I realized why so many grown up critics were down on this movie. It probably because they are adults that they expect the kids in the movie to come up to adult solutions to the problem. What make this an entertaining movie is that the kids come up with solutions that kids usually come up with. Sure they don't show great judgment many times. Mullet Finger, the barefooted blond boy, act like who he is, single mindedly trying to save the owls against great odds as a kid would do, not as adult would do which so many of these critics want him to behave. His actions and behavior are pretty close to what a kid in his situation would do, a runaway, living away from his legal guardian and basically being a barefooted wild child. But he's trying to do the right thing and that is the important factor.

I thought the story overall, was weaker then the book itself. Mullet was soften considerably to make him bit more likable on the screen. I wasn't too impressed by the lead actor, Logan Lerman who I thought was bit wooden but Brie Larson and Cody Linley both made up for it. The movie was directed by Wil Shriner and he didn't exactly shine very brightly. The movie muddled from time to time. Shriner's treatment of the adult characters of the movie proves to be one of the weak links of the movie. Luke Wilson who played the bumbling police officer proves to be seriously mishandled by the director.

But overall, this movie proves to be quite entertaining and enjoyable for the entire family as long as its understood that these are kids trying to save the owls from a giant pancake company and not adults with all the correct answers at their finger tips. While some of the initial delaying tactics may not be socially correct by the law, the children of the movie gradually do evolved their tactics to a more acceptable ones as they learned to adjust and adapt into taking more responsible methods. I think that what make this movie work in the end for me.

Hoot DVD proves to be quite good. The image quality is super high, the 5.1 DD proves to be quite aggressive and clear and there are enough extra material to make most fans of the movie very happy.

First, this is a really good movie for both kids and parents. If you've read the book, the movie follows the book very well. Of course, the movie doesn't have the depth of the characters like the book does (what can you do in an under 2-hour movie?), but the movie is a fun movie with no foul language, no violence, and a storyline that both parents and kids will enjoy. The worst thing that happens in the movie is that a school bully gets tied to a flagpole in his undershorts. Both my 8-year old daughter and I read the book and we loved the movie. We were disappointed that the movie didn't stay at the theatres longer (frankly, Hoot is better than most movies we've seen). It didn't get enough publicity or something. If you've read any of Carl Hiassen's adult books, Hoot is in the same genre, yet doesn't contain the level of macabre humor -- he's scaled it back to what kids should encounter. Hoot has several other reasons to see it -- it was filmed in Florida and has some great cinematography of the Keys, the music is mostly Jimmy Buffett, and Jimmy has a cameo role as Roy's teacher -- that's a lot for one movie!

The movie DVD will be a great investment, as it's a movie to see over and over. The book is also a great read -- a nice gift for kids 8 and older.

Roy Eberhardt (Logan Lerman) has moved eight times over about as many years, and is loving life in Montana when his father (Neil Flynn) announces that his Justice Department job will now bring the family to South Florida.

His first day at school begins inauspiciously. Roy is watching a local barefooted boy sprint along beside the bus at an amazing pace when the local bully, Dana Matherson (Eric Phillips) presses his face up against the window, just to show who's "boss." In return, Roy decks Dana, accidentally breaking his nose. Next, he clashes with the school's female bully, soccer star, Beatrice Leep (Brie Larson). He's quickly nicknamed "cowgirl."

Roy's only friend seems to be Garrett (Dean Collins), a good guy, but a scaredy cat, when it comes to the local menaces--Dana and Beatrice. Garrett's only good for warning Roy to watch his step, not moral (or any other) support.

As the story evolves, Roy soon discovers that the swift-running barefoot guy is actually Mullet Fingers (Cody Linley), so nicknamed by his sister Beatrice, for his amazing ability to catch Florida's swift-swimming baby mullet with his hands--on a single try. Mullet has gone AWOL from a boot camp "reform school" in order to save Coconut Cove's endangered ground-nesting burrowing owls.

Unfortunately, the fictional Mother Paula's Pancake House plans on building its 100th store on a large lot that's home to the owls. Developer Chuck Muckle (Clark Gregg) and his on-site construction director Curly Branitt (Tim Blake Nelson) very well realize the owls are there, that building would destroy their nests, and doom them to death--and that these actions counter Florida and U.S. national laws. But they could care less. They've actually destroyed pages from their environmental impact statements concerning the owls.

Meanwhile, Coconut Cove Mayor Grandy (Robert Wagner) supports the construction, gung ho, since it will create a handful of jobs.

Based on Carl Hiaasen's Newbery-award-winning novel of the same name, Hoot is a neat little confection of a film, appropriate for little kids, teens and grown-ups alike. There is enough rebellion to suit your rebellious teen, fun enough for the little ones, and education and love enough to suit parents and grandparents.

The Florida wildlife scenes were shot on location, and are both realistic, and true. So are the overall themes of over development and destruction of natural habitat, and the general disregard of developers for these concerns. As an added plus, viewers are treated to a lovely score by Florida country star, Jimmy Buffet.

My biggest disappointments with this film were its delayed box office release, and its unbelievably short theatrical run. We blinked, and it was gone. Both were hard to understand, since this film is a definite treat. Try it. It beats pancakes--even for this particular pancake lover.

--Alyssa A. Lappen

I know that this movie didn't do well in the box office and I read tha bad reviews, but we loved it. We live in South Florida and it was cool that the movie took place here. We read the book and my son LOVED it. This one and Flush are GREAT books. They actually helped my sons writing in that it showed him how to incorporate humor and his own personality in this writing. We loved the books, we loved the movie!

I read the book Hoot by Carl Hiaasen before watching the movie. It's a pretty good read for the younger Hiaasen reader. The movie sticks fairly closely with the story in the book and in true Hiaasen fashion is environmentally conscious. A great cast led by director Will Shriner helps the book adapt well onscreen.