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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

64
Appaloosa
69
Ashes of Time Redux
68
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54
Battle in Seattle
76
Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
xx
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Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
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Breakfast with Scot
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Changeling
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Choke
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Christmas Tale, A
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Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
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Dukes, The
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Filth and Wisdom
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Fireproof
71
Frost/Nixon
82
Frozen River
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Girl Cut in Two, A
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Guitar, The
84
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31
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26
House of the Sleeping Beauties
47
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72
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70
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27
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82
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xx
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xx
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Man on Wire
84
Momma's Man
51
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34
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xx
Nobel Son
40
Other End of the Line, The
34
Otto; or Up with Dead People
75
Pool, The
77
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
82
Rachel Getting Married
56
Religulous
32
Repo! The Genetic Opera
53
RocknRolla
57
Sixty Six
85
Slumdog Millionaire
57
Special
79
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
67
Synecdoche, New York
82
Tell No One
83
Trouble the Water
43
Tru Loved
83
U2 3D
59
We Are Wizards
55
What Just Happened?
89
Man on Wire
85
Slumdog Millionaire
84
Momma's Man
84
Christmas Tale, A
84
Happy-Go-Lucky
83
Trouble the Water
83
U2 3D
82
Tell No One
82
Rachel Getting Married
82
Frozen River
82
Let the Right One In
81
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
79
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
78
I've Loved You So Long
77
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
76
Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
75
Pool, The
73
Girl Cut in Two, A
72
I Served the King of England
71
Frost/Nixon
70
I.O.U.S. A
69
Ashes of Time Redux
69
Fear(s) of the Dark
68
August Evening
68
Hunger
67
Synecdoche, New York
64
Appaloosa
63
JCVD
63
Eden
63
Changeling
62
Duchess, The
59
We Are Wizards
57
Special
57
Sixty Six
56
Religulous
55
Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
55
What Just Happened?
54
Battle in Seattle
54
Good Dick
53
RocknRolla
51
Morning Light
50
Breakfast with Scot
47
How About You
47
Choke
46
Dukes, The
43
Tru Loved
43
Gardens of the Night
41
Cthulhu
40
Igor
40
Other End of the Line, The
34
My Name Is Bruce
34
Otto; or Up with Dead People
32
Repo! The Genetic Opera
31
Hounddog
30
Guitar, The
28
Fireproof
27
Lake City
26
House of the Sleeping Beauties
26
Filth and Wisdom
xx
Dostana
xx
Black Balloon, The
xx
Let Them Chirp Awhile
xx
Local Color
xx
Nobel Son
xx
Extreme Movie
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Hoot
New Line Cinema
MPAA RATING: PG for mild bullying and brief language
Starring
Logan Lerman,
Luke Wilson,
Brie Larson,
Cody Linley,
Eric Phillips, Dean Collins, Tim Blake Nelson,
Clark Gregg, Kiersten Warren,
Neil Flynn, Jessica Cauffiel,
and
Robert Wagner
Three middle-schoolers take on greedy land developers, corrupt politicians, and clueless cops in the mystery adventure Hoot based on Carl Hiaasen's Newbery Honor-winning book. (New Line Cinema)
| GENRE(S): |
Comedy
|
Family/Kids
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Wil Shriner
Carl Hiaasen (novel)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Wil Shriner
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: August 15, 2006
Theatrical: May 5, 2006
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
90 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
75
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
The movie balances cardboard comic bad-guys with believable teenagers, has the courage to avoid romance, and unlike most Hollywood films suggests parents can be helpful and loving as well as clueless.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
Fun to watch although falling short of a real hoot, this latest in a barrage of family movies largely succeeds at keeping the kiddies entertained and their parents from nodding off.

63
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
Based on the charming young-adult novel by Florida bard Carl Hiaasen, Hoot is a pleasant diversion on the order of a gloriously photographed after-school special.

63
USA Today
Claudia Puig
There is nothing objectionable in this family film, but it doesn't seem to appreciate the intelligence and savvy of its youthful audience. Kids can spot a silly stereotypical character as fast as the rest of us.

60
LA Weekly
Scott Foundas
Hoot is flatly directed by talk-show-host-turned-sitcom-director Wil Shriner, but the young actors are spirited and appealing, and the movie's low-key anti-establishment posture is vastly preferable to the knee-jerk fulminations of a Michael Moore.

58
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
Shriner's direction has an Afterschool Special blandness, but those mechanical owls are quite realistic. While the film was in production Hiaasen said that he had "nightmare visions of the gopher in 'Caddyshack.' " He needn't have worried.

58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
The kids have good chemistry, there's some fun oddball humor stuck in around the slapstick, and the gorgeous photography of the Gulf Coast beaches, waterways and wildlife brings their mission to life.

50
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
Hoot may be warm and fuzzy with its adorable owls, triumphant kids and inviting Florida groves. But its forced, innocuous humor is unlikely to amuse anyone but the very young -- and the extremely forgiving.

50
The New York Times
Lawrence Van Gelder
This sweet-natured but plodding adaptation of a young-adult novel by Carl Hiaasen could have used a little less broad satire of corporate greed and a few more, well, owls.

50
Los Angeles Times
Jan Stuart
Any charm and character ascribed to Carl Hiaasen's bestselling book have been homogenized in Wil Shriner's flat screenplay and direction.

50
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
The child actors are bland, the adult characters are forced to act like dunderheads to keep the paper-thin plot going, and the generic-sounding Jimmy Buffett songs are just a LITTLE out of sync with the film's target age group.

50
The Hollywood Reporter
Michael Rechtshaffen
A blandly generic family film.

50
Variety
Joe Leydon
Squeaky-clean, family-friendly opus.

50
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Tasha Robinson
The kids Hoot is aimed at weren't around to see all the previous films it echoes, particularly the toothless Disney live-action films of the '70s. They'll probably like Hoot fine. Everyone else in the audience is likely to nod off and have genial, bland, easygoing dreams.

50
Dallas Observer
Luke Y. Thompson
Your individual tolerance for Jimmy Buffett music will determine how well all the scenes set to his music go down.

50
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
The songs take some of the sting out of the numerous scenes involving alligators, snakes, attack dogs and bullies. Yet in their lazy way, they're one more reminder that kids are better off with a book than a middling movie adaptation of a book.

50
Miami Herald
Peter Debruge
A filmmaker like John Sayles ("Sunshine State") who shares Hiaasen's issue-conscious outlook might have framed the lesson a bit more eloquently. But Shriner blows it.

50
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
What's subversive about the movie is that it comes off as squeaky-clean, when in fact it's irresponsible. Worse, it's not that interesting.

50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
The goal is apparently a double exercise in heartfelt lessons and deep hilarity, but it's hard to tell because the pace feels so lethargic. Director and screenwriter Wil Shriner is a TV-sitcom veteran (Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond) whose idea of directing a movie is to make another sitcom, only four times as long.

50
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
As it is, Hoot doesn't accomplish anything a picture book of the Everglades and a few well-chosen Jimmy Buffett tunes wouldn't do better.

40
Austin Chronicle
Toddy Burton
Earnest, playful and eco-friendly, Hoot is a worthwhile visit for the tween set, but parents may role their eyes more than once at this flightless film.

40
Chicago Reader
Andrea Gronvall
Writer-director Wil Shriner tends to sit on almost every shot, killing any comic momentum (sequences with Luke Wilson as a dim-bulb cop are particularly witless), and ominous scenes involving cottonmouths and Rottweilers are glibly resolved.

38
New York Post
Kyle Smith
Hoot peaks during its wordless opening credits sequence, which swoops delightfully around Florida scenery. That, the cute owls and the easygoing songs by Jimmy Buffett, who also plays one of Roy's teachers, are the only things worth your trouble.

38
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Hoot has its heart in the right place, but I have been unable to locate its brain.

25
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Don't let the Carl Hiaasen pedigree fool you: Hoot is an Afterschool Special too crummy to give a hoot about.

25
Portland Oregonian
M. E. Russell
It's meant to be funny, but I couldn't help thinking they were figuring out where to plant the pipe bombs.


The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 17 User Votes
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