Even if I had not seen reviews from Siskel and Ebert or Doug Walker, I'd likely come to the same conclusion about how embarrassingly awful this movie is. The plot is about a boy named North who divorces his parents and travels the world to seek out new parents. Okay the plot sounds interesting, so why is it so horrible? It's when he starts traveling the world where everything becomes wrong. First he goes to Texas where everyone is a stereotypical cowboy in fancy costumes, accents, all about being big, and an awful country song. The whole scene makes me wonder if Reba McEntire felt dirty (being from Oklahoma) about her scene and if Dan Aykroyd (Canadian born) had to write an apology letter for not portraying anyone from Texas right. Then he goes to Hawaii where everyone dresses in grass, flowers, shirts, and eager to show off North's butt. Not kidding. And then he goes to possibly the most offensive stereotypical scene in the movie: Alaska, where everyone lives in Flintstone-like igloos, Kathy Bates slaps on make-up to look Alaskan, and the elderly are cruelly sent away on ice blocks for no other reason than they're such an embarrassment to the society. I try to be forgiving of some movies people deem "racist" because I often believe that the writers directors didn't intend for it (like Phantom Menace or Willy Wonka) or I just don't recognize it as well as others. But this movie has absolutely no excuse. There's no subtly about what culture they're mocking, and when it tries to represent real life it is humiliating and hard to watch. On top of that, the parents themselves are horrible (even taking out the racism). One set wants to fatten the boy, the other wants to show off his butt, the next wants to get rid of his would-be grandfather, and so on. And it never explains how he signed up for these parents in the first place. He just flies to their "village" and temporarily lives with them. As for his real parents: they're just plain unfunny. Every joke written for them falls flat and makes no sense, which is a tragedy since they're played by funny actors. Eventually it reveals that the whole thing was just a dream. I guess you can say that it explains the stereotypes, but it also means that the director thinks he could get away with it. Also, it indicates that the entire movie was frustratingly pointless. Also, I'm pretty sure that any nine year old boy (American or not) would know that these places are nothing like this movie. If I had to say anything good about this movie it is that the actor of North (Elijah Wood) gives a really good performance, and of course would lead him to go star in better roles. In fact all the actors are really good and try to give a great performance, even if the script and jokes fall flat. Even Bruce Willis who has to wear a bunny costume, cowboy outfit, Federal Express outfit, and so on actually tries to be dignified in his role, even though the script failed him. Also that awful song in the Texas scene is a reminder that Reba and Dan are terrific singers.Sadly, none of the great performances could save this movie. It's pure racist garbage. I don't care if Rob Reiner's father believed in "laughing at themselves", this movie is where none of the jokes work and come out as offensive for kids and adults.

This movie directed by Rob Reiner is often regarded as one of the worst films ever made, but somehow I kinda like it. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of things, wrong and unpleasant about this movie. The movie was often panned by many critics for its humorless jokes, adult content, racial insensitivity, ethnic stereotyping, cold-hearted characters, references to pedophilia and incomprehensible plot with an awful twist ending. I do agree with them, but I find myself, defending the movie, more, because it's told in the eyes of a trouble, often neglect, young child, North (Elijah Woods) who wish to have better parents. Without spoiling too much, I believe there seem to be more, to the film, that it's stating out. Based on the novel, North: The Tale of a 9-Year-Old Boy Who Becomes a Free Agent and Travels the World in Search of the Perfect Parents by Alan Zweibel, the movie started out with North having a panic attack, and begins to lose consciousness. Call it a depressing fan theory, but I really think, the whole movie secretly is about North's final thoughts. He either about to die, or in a coma-like dream, wondering if his parents honestly love him. It wasn't his parents in a coma, it was him. This would make sense, why his secret spot looks like self-made purgatory, and why his guardian angel (Bruce Willis) comes out, as the Easter Bunny. It's a hint to the idea of resurrection. North is stuck, there, until he can come to terms, if he wants to live with his parents or not. This would explain, why the rest of the story is told in a child-like view of the world. Everywhere that he visits, is shown like a cartoon, stereotype matter. It's ironic that North is his name, because everybody that follows a compass believes North is prime direction, but it wasn't until North step out his borders, that the film shows how little, he knows of the world, and how truly directionless, he is. There is a scene that explains, that North fails in geography that somewhat, proves this theory. Still, all these fan theories, doesn't excuse the movie for how stupid the movie is. There are scenes in the movie that are so obnoxious that it was a bit unbearable. The worst for me, has to be the musical number in Texas that I found annoying, ripping hard to rip away 1959's TV show Bonanza and 1978's show, Dallas. The whole journey of racist insensitivity was a bit rough. The most offensive, has to be the whole Eskimo 'flow' scene. At least, all the characters kinda stand out. It's so weird, seeing so many big names actors playing insulting characters. I really think actors like Kathy Bates, Reba McEntire, Dan Aykroyd, and others probably fired their agents after seeing their performance in this film. Other actors seem not to care too much for the film, and just wing it, like Bruce Willis, Richard Belzer & Alan Arkin. Then, there are those actors that play it as if they were just, doing another Seinfeld episode like Jason Alexander & Julia Louis Dreyfus. Some actors really did, put some work into their characters, such as John Ritter & Elijah Woods. It's also worth noting that the movie even has young Scarlett Johansson in a minor role. The movie took friendly jabs at film and televisions references, such as the squeaky clean 1950's family suburbia, 1954's Father Knows Best, 1957's Leave it to Beaver, and 1960's Andy Griffin Show. It downright, nearly parody them in the Nelson sequence. Other good things about the film, is how the movie was shot by cinematographer, Adam Greenberg. The opening with all the snow-globes, foreshadowing North's adventure was pretty cool to see. This movie is the film that got me, hook on collecting snow globes, so thank you for that. A lot of work, also went into the exotic sets. My favorite has to be the Eskimo village, where everything looks like it's made of ice. It remind me of the Flintstone, TV show, with its fantasy juxtaposition of modern everyday objects with that of ice world setting. That was pretty cool. The movie made great use of all the locations. It was breath-taking beautiful. One thing, I have to say, was amazing is the theme song from Marc Shaiman. It was so whimsical, but charming. Despite, the all-star cast, and a good director at the helm, North will probably be, most well-known as the film that got famous film critic Roger Ebert super-ass mad about. No doubt, about it, North will continue to receive aggressively negative reviews. Is the movie, the worst thing, out there? No. I have saw worst. Overall: It's bad, but it can be 'so bad, it's good', somewhat watchable, if you turn off your brain. Check it out, if you want to, but I don't recommended, unless you want a headache.

I have difficulty in understanding the low rating given by other reviewers (unless the absence of violence, gratuitous sex and profanity deserves low rating with some reviewers). While it may not be an Academy Award winning candidate, it is really a fun, entertaining and movie which my wife and I found to be hilarious! Good, clean, entertaining movies which are enjoyable for the whole family are all too rare. Unless you like profanity, violence and sex in a movie I highly recommend this for the whole family. We had no idea what it was about, but got "hooked" on it after the first few minutes and enjoyed watching it to the end. It has an excellent cast, and all performed well.

I'll admit, I'm a fan and a connoisseur of bad movies, and I only watched this because I read Ebert's famous "hated, hated, hated" review. I figured anything that bad had to be at least interesting. Unfortunately, Ebert's review is far more memorable than the movie itself, and probably gave it a lot more attention than it deserved. The movie isn't bad in any really notable or entertaining way, just lame, annoying, and ultimately forgettable. It poses an interesting question; namely, what makes one movie "quirky and charming" and another - well, this? After all, some of the best movies by people like the Coen Brothers or Wes Anderson have fantastical characters and plot elements, and are occasionally mean- spirited. In contrast, this movie falls flat at every turn. There's not a *single* funny line or likable character, but the quality of the acting and production is high enough that it even fails to be "so bad it's good". Oddly, I think the movie it reminded of most was Myra Breckinridge. Both movies are similarly colorful, surreal, remarkably star-studded, completely unfunny, and genuinely unpleasant to watch. Of course, unlike Myra Breckinridge, this was supposed to be a kids' movie!It's lucky that Rob Reiner has so many other great movie to his credit, and generally comes across as a likable guy. Not everyone would be forgiven for this.