Profoundly unnecessary -- cluttered, padded even at 90 minutes, indifferently narrated by Anthony Hopkins, and consistently misdirected by Ron Howard.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Christian Science Monitor by David 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.
L.A. Weekly by Hazel-Dawn Dumpert
This new feature has replaced the original's benevolence, taste and wit with cynicism, armpit humor and manic, desperately unfunny padding.
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.
San Francisco Chronicle by Peter Stack
Overall, the film sparkles. But it's a curiously unaffecting sparkle, an example, almost, of how the special effects stole Christmas.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger 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.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Sean Axmaker
He's (Carrey) a marvelous Grinch in this spirited, bustling and mostly faithful spin on Seuss.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
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.
TV Guide Magazine by Steve Simels
A smartly stylized hoot.
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.