Film A Bizarre, Yet Memorable Christmas Classic.
When most people think of a typical Christmas movie, they tend to think of a bright, cheerful, family movie with cheesy morals. In that sense, Elf is a typical Christmas movie...with the added twist of Will Ferrel in an elf suit.
As you can probably tell, most of the comedy in this movie comes from Will Ferrel as Buddy, a human raised by elves who tries and fails to interact with ordinary people. It's a concept that sounds completely stupid, but somehow, it works. A lot of Buddy's scenes are downright hilarious and by far the best parts of the movie. Trying to hug a raccoon, getting in a fight with a fake Santa, throwing a dance party in the mail room, getting in another fight with a midget he mistakes for an elf, all gold. But despite all that, Buddy is a surprisingly deep character, with serious self-esteem issues and a genuine desire to get close to his father. I would even go as far as to say that this is one of Will Ferrel's best roles. Yes, a confused elf-man. Seriously.
It's definitely not for everybody and I'll admit that I'm a bit biased as this was my first childhood Christmas movie and my family has a tradition of watching it every year, but if I can see this movie more than ten times (not an exaggeration) and still enjoy it, that speaks marvels for me. Check it out if you want something different from a Christmas movie.
Film Couldn't finish watching this sleigh reck
I bought Elf because I noticed it was in French and English, and I wanted it to help me learn French. But first, I had to watch it in English so I could get a general idea of the movie and its dialogue. I started watching the movie in the middle of the night, when I was tired but sugar-high on all my Halloween candy, and was ready to laugh at anything...
I watched through about 1/3 of the movie before I realized it held no entertainment value to me whatsoever.
Will Ferrel was funny in all the other movies I've seen him in (mostly animated ones like Megamind) but here he wasn't funny or likeable. The other characters weren't that great either -very mean spirited, even for Grinch-like Christmastime New Yorker standards.
The situation was WEIRD; the main character (a human, Will Ferrel) was raised by an elf at the North Pole. He realized he didn't fit in, being the only tall guy besides Santa, so he moves to the US and somehow is able to track down his father. His cruel, awful father who left him in an orphanage when he was a baby. Or maybe his mom never told him he existed. Either way, it's already an awkward situation, but what makes it even more awkward is that the main character (whose name I can't remember) acts like a little kid even though he's a grown man, and his father has a family and other kids. I'm guessing it's supposed to have a lesson of "Let's all be a big messed up holding-grudges bad-backstory family," but I don't know because I didn't finish it. I couldn't, it was a waste of my time.
If even I, who finds almost everything funny and will laugh or even throw a pity-giggle at most bad comedy, can't even watch this all the way through, then I do NOT recommend this to anyone (especially kids! This movie was clearly made for grown-ups, but the grown-ups would find it too immature and the kids would find it painfully boring.)