Hoot
Studio: New Line Cinema
Rated: PG-13
Cast: Luke Wilson, Logan Lerman, Brie Larson, Tim Blake Nelson
Director: Wil Shriner
Screenwriter: Wil Shriner, Carl Hiaasen
WorkNameSort: Hoot
Our Rating: 2.00
There’s certainly a call for a family movie about the need to protect Florida’s natural assets from developers ‘ and maybe someday, somebody will make a good one. Until then, all we have is the amateur after-school special known as Hoot, in which comedian Wil Shriner tries to adapt a Carl Hiaasen novel about kids standing up for owls and instead proves his ineptitude as a director. (Producer/soundtrack artist Jimmy Buffett is in it, too, his mercifully brief role as a schoolteacher easily ranking among the worst performances ever essayed by a recording artist.) At times, the noble intention almost compensates for the actual product, which is miscast, haphazardly edited, underlit and half-assed in a way only natives may fully recognize ‘ i.e., major scenes appear to have been filmed in or near the clubhouse of a lakefront Maitland apartment complex.
This article appears in May 3-9, 2006.