Struggles to Give a Hoot
Roy Eberhardt (Logan Lerman - Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief) is use to moving around as his dad's job always seems to be making them relocate, but having settled in Montana Roy hopes they are going to stay. Well hope means nothing and before he can say no they have relocated to Florida where Roy has to make friends all over again whilst dealing with the school's bully who picks on him for being new. It's through his new friends which include Beatrice (Brie Larson) and the shoeless Mullet Fingers (Cody Linley) that he becomes aware of the plight of some burrowing owls threatened by the planned construction of a pancake house on where they live and together these new friends try to stop it from happening.
"Hoot" is both a harmless and a good hearted movie with its tale of nature preservation as we have Roy and his friends trying to save the homes of some burrowing owls. But whilst it has a good heart "Hoot" is one of the dullest movies I have come across and I don't just mean for adults but for children as well. It just doesn't have the energy or the level of fun to get and keep your attention despite there being a few good jokes including one about a cop car ending with its windows painted black during a night time stake out.
It's not just the lack of energy and humour which does "Hoot" in as the characters as well are just not that interesting. The trouble is that the characters are simply not real starting with Roy who is far too clever and speaks in a far too confident manner to be a believable teen. It gets no better when it comes to Beatrice or to be frank Roy's dull as dishwater parents. What that means is that whilst "Hoot" has a reasonable cast the actors are mostly forgettable with Luke Wilson being the only one who brings any real humour to the movie as he plays a dumb cop.
What this all boils down to is that "Hoot" is a movie with good intentions but good intentions alone don't make a good movie and the end result is one which frankly is quite dull.
