The Mean One Review

 

Man, my Christmas season this year has taken one dark turn...film wise that is. First Violent Night, now this. Oh well, can't say it hasn't been entertaining.

Also, yes, I know I said in my Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio review, I said I'd review Christmas Vacation, but I found a showing for this and just had to jump to it. Don't worry, you'll still get that review at a later date.

The Mean One is a Christmas slasher comedy film, that spoofs the Dr. Seuss book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It's the fourth film to adapt the story. It's produced by Sleight on Hand Productions, Amy Rose Productions, and Kali Pictures and distributed by Atlas Film Distribution. The Mean One is written by Steven LaMorte, Flip Kobler, and Finn Kobler and directed by Steven LaMorte.

The story is one Christmas night, Cindy witnessed the murder of her mother, by a creature known only as "The Mean One". Twenty years later, Cindy and her father return to their home of Newville. However, this goes horrifying once again, as The Mean One reappears, and this time, Cindy plans to stop him.

Initial Reaction

The reason why I wanted...actually, do I even need to explain why? It's a horror parody of the Grinch. Whether the quality is entertaining in a good way, or so bad it's good, either way, I'm getting an experience.

Cons

I've got nothing negative to say here. Just scroll down.

Middle Ground

Now practical effects wise, things are pretty good. Sure the makeup for bloody/kills isn't gonna win an award, but it was still handled very well. The best makeup effect definitely goes towards The Mean One. That was great. Where it looses the praise, is in the CGI blood. I've got no excuse for that. It's horrible. It's blood I would expect to see from a PlayStation or Xbox game. That's how bad it was. Another decent thing came from the acting. I've read a lot of reviews saying it's horrible. But to me, felt more standard than anything. Expect for David Howard Thornton as The Mean One and Christopher Sanders as the Narrator. David mainly had to go by facial expressions, and he did a really good job at that, and what I liked about Sanders' Narrator role, is he sounded like he was gleefully enjoy what was going on. Good voice work on his part. I also want to give credit to the filmmaking. It's clear as day they crew was working on a budget, but despite that set back, it's still shot at decent level. So it's clear the people behind the camera knew a lot more of what they were doing, than some of the people give them credit for. I've seen quite a lot of low budget films were everything is just painful to look at. Ya ever seen the two Birdemic films and The Amazing Bulk? Well if you haven't, watch those films, and then watch this. The Mean One will look like a Citizen Kane compared to those. Although I am going to dock points for some very obvious stock footage. I'll forgive this movie for many things, expect for that.

Pros

One thing I did like about the film was the humor. No it's not perfect, but there were a lot of times when I did have a hard laugh here and there. The best thing about the movie is...it's just cheesy fun. It's very obvious from both the trailer and the film itself, that everyone knew not to take this film seriously. They are making a the Grinch a slasher villain after all, and what made that clear was (and you could probably lump this into the humor category of the review) was while we know the concept and such is ridiculous, the characters in the movie are playing it 100% straight. Much like Killer Klowns from Outer Space, that is a sure sign that we were gonna get an entertaining B-movie.

So yeah, if you're a fan of cheesy B-movies, I think this movie's got ya covered. While I myself had some slight issues, by the end of it, I had a smile on my face. Sure, I would've wanted something better, but what I got was by no means a disappointment.

My final rating is Okay.

I just realized something. As of right now, I've reviewed every single Grinch adaptation. Never would've guessed that would happen. Well that's all for today. Come back on Thursday, Dec 15th, for my Look Back at review of 2009's Avatar. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.