Hoot--a completely unbiased review.
Florida Beaches
Tonight I contributed $15 bucks to the Carl Hiaasen fortune. We went to see the movie "Hoot," based on his book by the same name. Every time I see a movie after I've read the book, I always say: "The book was better." I suspect the same would be the case with Hoot, except that I didn't read the book.
Since the movie was filmed in Florida, some of it in Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island, and since I write about and photograph that island for my website, www.beachhunter.net, I felt as though I'd be neglecting my duty as a Florida writer if I didn't see the film. I must confess, I didn't realize it was a movie aimed at 10 to 15 year-olds. Not that this should matter to me. After all, my favorite movies in the recent past are Madagascar and The Incredibles. I'll take a good cartoon or animation any day over a Bruce Willis bloodbath. But Hoot seemed already stale and, dare I say it, cliche.
---But that's coming from a slightly jaded native Floridian who, at 15, wrote letters to the editor of the Bradenton Herald about saving the spoonbills on Perico Island from condo developers. Now the condos are there and the spoonbills and other birds are mostly gone. Money always seems to win out.
But in Hoot, the good guys win and the message is that if we all understand what's really going on, we can stop it. Yea, right after they build MY condo on the beach they can stop all construction.
The scenery in the film was beautiful; a mix of Miami tropical foliage, Boca Grande island scenery, and some fresh water river scenery. Filmed in several locations, but made to look like it all took place in one community, Hoot is a story of the new kid on the block becoming involved in a plot by two local kids to disrupt the clearing and paving of a lot inhabited by burrowing owls. Complete with a dimwitted deputy, bumbling bad guys, parents who "don't understand," and an unlikely series of events that could never happen in real life, the movie is indeed perfect for young teens and pre-teens.
No foul language, no sex or innuendo, no murders, and no serious car crashes in this movie.
Perhaps I haven't been complimentary enough. Maybe its because at the St. Pete Times Festival of Reading, people lined up for 5 miles and waited all day to have Carl Hiaasen sign a copy of his book for them while I only sold eleven of my books.
Maybe I am just too old to appreciate a nice feel-good flick. Maybe I know that isn't the way Florida's story is going to end.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Hiaasen makes some nice donations to organizations that help conserve what Florida has left.
You go, Carl!
BeachHunter
Tonight I contributed $15 bucks to the Carl Hiaasen fortune. We went to see the movie "Hoot," based on his book by the same name. Every time I see a movie after I've read the book, I always say: "The book was better." I suspect the same would be the case with Hoot, except that I didn't read the book.
Since the movie was filmed in Florida, some of it in Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island, and since I write about and photograph that island for my website, www.beachhunter.net, I felt as though I'd be neglecting my duty as a Florida writer if I didn't see the film. I must confess, I didn't realize it was a movie aimed at 10 to 15 year-olds. Not that this should matter to me. After all, my favorite movies in the recent past are Madagascar and The Incredibles. I'll take a good cartoon or animation any day over a Bruce Willis bloodbath. But Hoot seemed already stale and, dare I say it, cliche.
---But that's coming from a slightly jaded native Floridian who, at 15, wrote letters to the editor of the Bradenton Herald about saving the spoonbills on Perico Island from condo developers. Now the condos are there and the spoonbills and other birds are mostly gone. Money always seems to win out.
But in Hoot, the good guys win and the message is that if we all understand what's really going on, we can stop it. Yea, right after they build MY condo on the beach they can stop all construction.
The scenery in the film was beautiful; a mix of Miami tropical foliage, Boca Grande island scenery, and some fresh water river scenery. Filmed in several locations, but made to look like it all took place in one community, Hoot is a story of the new kid on the block becoming involved in a plot by two local kids to disrupt the clearing and paving of a lot inhabited by burrowing owls. Complete with a dimwitted deputy, bumbling bad guys, parents who "don't understand," and an unlikely series of events that could never happen in real life, the movie is indeed perfect for young teens and pre-teens.No foul language, no sex or innuendo, no murders, and no serious car crashes in this movie.
Perhaps I haven't been complimentary enough. Maybe its because at the St. Pete Times Festival of Reading, people lined up for 5 miles and waited all day to have Carl Hiaasen sign a copy of his book for them while I only sold eleven of my books.
Maybe I am just too old to appreciate a nice feel-good flick. Maybe I know that isn't the way Florida's story is going to end.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Hiaasen makes some nice donations to organizations that help conserve what Florida has left.
You go, Carl!
BeachHunter
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