Come on people! This is a great movie!

Rating: 9/10 (22 November 2005)

First off, I give this movie a 10 for production values. Innovative, exciting, stunning visuals. Buy the DVD, but if you get the chance to see a re-release on a big screen, do it.
This movie is a ten for acting...yes, I say, acting. These figures on the screen are computer generated using a live action process with real actors. Sometimes the tone or volume of an actor's delivery is over the top in such quasi-animation movies. Actors tend to want to make their mark vocally when they believe their image isn't on screen. However, Zemeckis must have had the complete trust and cooperation of his cast. A beautiful job of maximizing the fantasy while keeping the characters human.
This movie deserves a 10 for pace, continuity, and music placement. A story is told, action delivered, characters developed, a climax is reached,and an ending brings all the elements together. The writer and director execute the necessary elements that captures the viewer's imagination,makes us care about the characters, and keeps us watching for the conclusion.
This movie deserves a 10 for entertainment value. Don't get me wrong, I love a lot of R rated movies, but I do yearn sometimes for intellectual entertainment as a change of pace to loud action or a few bare breasts. The fantasy does include scenes of suspense and "action" but the story line and the visuals are what entertains in this movie, not the visceral stimulation of organs south of the belly button.
I give this movie a 9 because the limitations of a Christmas theme makes things just a little familiar. On December 23, with a few inches of new snow on the ground, a fire going in the wood stove, and a spouse, grandma,and the kinds gathered around the TV and a bowl of popcorn, this movie would get an 11+. But when you slap it in your SUV DVD player as brain candy for the 4 year old in the back seat as you drive to the family 4th of July picnic, it's thematic specificity is the only downside to this movie.
Buy it, watch it, enjoy it, and for those of you giving this movie ones and twos, stick to watching the Blair Witch Project.