A Needed Holiday Comedy

Rating: 8/10 (9 November 2003)

I really didn't think Elf would be that great. Yes, Will Ferrell stars in this movie as Buddy the Elf. This Saturday Night Live alumni did wonders for the movie Old School. Now he set his sights on a comical family/Christmas movie. But I didn't know if the plot line would be that great. Would it make me laugh so hard I spit out my $4 soda, or would I just be sitting there waiting to go home? I guess I needed to go check it out to know for sure. Well the movie did not disappoint. Sure, it had some of its moments where you were like "that's so played out", but most of the movie was full of happy Christmas joy. Edward Asner was the perfectly cast Santa Claus, one of the best recent Santa castings. James Caan as Buddy's father was very... what's the word... naughty. You really despised his character for the most of the movie. But that's what they were getting at. And the biggest wow of the movie was Zooey Deschanel (Jovie). She did an awesome awesome awesome job with the whole singing aspect of the movie. She also was great in the acting aspect too. She's the type of girl I could see myself hanging out with, which is a good thing because I love to relate to a character in a movie. This story was awesome. One of the best written family movies in a while. School of Rock is the only family movie of the last few months which I think is written up to par with Elf. You'll want to check Elf out if you are in the holiday spirit and ready for a laugh riot. Watch it now, and then check it out again once Christmas hits. You'll really enjoy that.