I'm sure most film critics, professional and amateur, have read Roger Ebert's famous review of "North". " I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated it". I can definitely see where he's coming from with a lot of this film. But as much as I hated a lot of it , I feel that there are a couple sort of amusing moments in it, but there are MANY more bad ones than OK ones. That's why I've rated it a 3 instead of a 1. The parts I hated, I don't have enough room to name them all, but I'll name a few of the worst things in it. The entire Texas scene with North and Dan Aykroyd. Some very stupid irritating jokes such as "Buck ate more in a day than most people eats in a month, that's why he hated February". The Texas motor cart driving through the airport with an annoying horn. Dan Aykroyd's overly forced smiles after his dumb jokes. The dumb song with Dan at the end if it saying with his forced smile, " nother rib son"? The whole "trying to make North very fat" deal. The Hawaii and Alaska scenes have the exact same kind of problems. More stupid, annoying, unfunny jokes and puns made in Hawaii such as the "Mrs Ho" joke and "without B, C, D, and F in our alphabet, you're guaranteed to get straight As". The very worst and extremely inappropriate joke is the North billboard joke. More awful jokes in Alaska such as the "Eskimo pie" joke, the Alaskan Christmas joke, and the "your face will freeze that way" joke. The very worSt is the extremely heartless "ice flows" joke. Still more bad jokes; the plane landing in Alaska skidding joke. The beginning of the film with Jason Alexander and his pants factory joke. Very stupid. The Jerry Lewis joke in France. Jon Lovit's character, very annoying. I still did not name every stupid, terrible thing in this movie yet. Not enough room here. Now to list the few kind of amusing parts: Winchell's character as kid genius turned almost evil overlord as the film progresses .The Amish scene where North says humorously, "excuse me, I left my butter churner on the plane". Then him telling the pilot " floor it". The part in Bruce Willis's comedy club. And the dialogue between Winchell, Lovitz, and the hit-man about borscht and the hit-man's mistake about thinking North was dead. As you can see, there are many more bad than good parts in this film.

Siskel & Ebert really tore this film up top to bottom. Largely, they're absolutely right. But they also have at it in regards to the premise, and I would disagree with that. I actually think this is a pretty good concept for a family film. The writing is where this movie falls flat on it's face.There's nothing wrong with a fantasy-comedy film about a boy who sets out on an world trip to find the "perfect" parents. Nothing at all, unless it's this movie. North has got to be one of the most culturally insensitive, factually inaccurate, and stereotypical films I've ever seen. The entire problem with how the different cultures are depicted is that they're written as if this is a parody film. No, this is a FAMILY COMEDY (we'll use the word "comedy" pretty loosely here). Not a parody film. Big difference. This movie in no way purports to be a parody, nor does it attempt to draw that type of audience. That Rob Reiner would have released such a film really shocks me.These are the biggest problems, the inaccuracies and cultural insensitivity. Not for this type of film, not for it's intended audience. It's actually pretty appalling. Sure, I get what the writers were trying to do, the direction they were trying to go in. But that's not enough. Not when the end product is a cold-hearted insult to several different cultures. It's as misguided and stereotypical as a minstrel show.On top of that, this movie simply isn't very funny. Again, you get how they were TRYING to be funny. But you see it fall absolutely short.I have no beef with the concept at all. Had this movie been written in an entirely different manner, they'd have had a solid film here. It even has some solid star power. Nothing holds this back from being good more than the absolutely atrocious script. A script which seems to think that it's an entirely different film for an entirely different audience. And that leaves this movie with very little to make it worthwhile.

I think the biggest problem with this film is that it has some great people in it. Elijah Wood, Bruce Willis and Rob Reiner. It could of been great, but no. There is only one joke in this film that I laughed at. Others either didn't make sense or just were not funny. The casting is terrible for the most part, the characters are nasty, the plot is stupid and the writing is strange. Wood, along with Graham Greene, Abe Vigoda and Matthew McCurly, do give us a nice performance, but that certainly does not make the film worth watching at all. It is terrible. It does not deserve to be watched. You should skip buying this film, unless you really want to see how bad it is.

North (Elijah Wood), a bright and talented eleven year old boy (or so we're told) who clearly never had to go hungry but whose parents are so preoccupied with their career that they don't let him speak at the dinner table to dispense the wisdom his many gifts have bequeathed him (speaking of child-abuse), decide to "divorce" them and find himself a new set of parents more appreciative of his talents. Consequently, he meets a bunch of wannabe quirky characters who all desperately want to adopt him and is being helped along the way by his "guardian angel" (Bruce Willis).I've never really been one to join in on a mob. Crowds generally make me nervous and I usually regard any gathering of any kind with a healthy dose of suspicion. So jumping on any bandwagon just isn't me. Furthermore, I've always had a soft spot for the underdog, the ugly duckling, the universally vilified, always finding redeeming features to features that usually can't be redeemed. So obviously, when I heard of "North", the 1994 comedy from director Rob Reiner, with its stellar cast and very bad reputation, I was intrigued. Reiner has always been a director with a rather good track record, his movies usually ranging from decent to excellent. So how bad could "North" be? Or more accurately put: how does a bad Rob Reiner film look like?Well... "North" is a film that constantly struggles to find its audience and eventually fails to find any. As a film for adults, the "philosophical" narration provided by Bruce Willis never succeeds to soften the absurdity of the plot and as a film for children the whole thing is riddled with off-colour jokes and somewhat waspish clichés that make this spectacle quite inappropriate for that particular target audience. But where "North" really goes south is that failing to have a single joke that work, the film goes for the jugular and turns downright crass (the Hawaiian episode springs to mind, in that respect).Of course, one could argue that the film has its heart beating at the right place (like any other Rob Reiner film) and was simply a misguided effort but not quite. The fact of the matter is that "North" is never funny (which in itself is pure torture for a so-called comedy) but offensive and ultimately mean-spirited through its boring stereotypes and its attempts at poking fun at somewhat dodgy subjects, going as far as insulting the audience's intelligence with truck loads of ludicrous and stupid characters, the main villain here chief suspect among these, deserving of a good spanking before being sent to bed without dessert... for life.I so wanted to like this film, if only for the fact that it was generally reviled by everyone, which I admit is rather obnoxious of me. But I simply can't and must add my voice to the sound of the crowd as the song goes. Is "North" the worse film ever made? Well, I've certainly seen a lot worse. But somehow, thinking of it I feel like punching something. So that can't be good...