Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24750 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-09-25
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 91 minutes

Synopsis
New kid Roy Eberhardt (Logan Lerman) is not faring well at his new school in Coconut Grove, Florida. His family recently relocated from his beloved Montana, and immediately Roy has found himself on the bad side of school bullies Dana (Eric Phillips) and Beatrice 'The Bear' (Brie Larson). However, when he catches sight of a blonde wild boy running barefoot through the streets, Roy is drawn into some strange and unique events in his new home. There have been odd occurrences taking place on the plot of land soon to be occupied by Mother Paula's Pancake House, whereby someone is perpetrating just enough vandalism to interfere with the restaurant's opening and in turn, driving the foreman, Mr Muckle (Clark Gregg in a hilarious turn) crazy. After eventually winning Beatrice's friendship, Roy meets the culprit: her stepbrother - Mullet Fingers (Cody Linley). The young lad has taken it upon himself to stop the construction and save the rare burrowing owls that live on the premises. As the three ecological vigilantes resort to ever more drastic measures to save the owls, Roy realises their only hope lies in bringing the issue to the public's attention. Jimmy Buffet makes his debut as a producer in this ecologically minded family film, based on the best-selling novel by Carl Hiaasen. Charming, fun and carrying an important message, HOOT overcomes its more incredible aspects through an irresistible good humour that audiences can't help but be swept along by. Luke Wilson (BOTTLE ROCKET) steals the show as a bumbling man-child who somehow managed to become a police officer, while Buffet himself appears as a kindly, laid-back, marine biology teacher.

Customer Reviews

A Good Family Movie
Firstly I must admit I purchased this (along with the book) to help with my godson's study report. I didn't expect much from it, especially considering the size and quality of the book. I thought it would be the usual trash that companies kick out for students to watch in class. I was so wrong.

It's a nicely done family movie predominately about two young boys: Mullet Fingers (played by Cody Linley) and new-kid-in-town Roy Eberhardt (Logan Lerman).

Roy is being beaten up on the school bus by bully Dana (Eric Phillips) when he sees a bare footed boy running next to the bus. He gets away from the bully (by breaking his nose) and decides to follow the boy.

Over the first part of the film we watch Roy trying to make friends with the misfit Mullet Fingers, who turns out to be a runaway. Then the second part of the film shows the attempts to save these cute little burrowing owls.

It's a film about family, friendship and the environment. On the plus side the film manages not shove the environmental issues of development and loss of habitat in the viewers face, like some other films do. It's subtlety may well be lost on some, but it is nice not to feel preached at.

It is a film that we will be watching again, on those afternoons when there is nothing on tv.

Unexpectedly, this film is significantly better then the book.

The film manages to pad out the 39 page, large print, children's book, to make the story much more convincing and enjoyable; and the actors (even though they are so young) bring a believeability and depth to the characters that is missing in the book. Together this makes the whole story much more fulfilling than the book.

For once we have a plethera of extras, including commentary, subtitles and several "making of" documentary shorts.

In my opinion this is a good film, and well worth the time, school study or not.

One of the worst films of 2006 - almost unwatchable.
If viewers rent this movie to see the cute, adorable burrowing owls, they are in for a real disappointment, as the owls only appear briefly in two scenes. The rest of the film is a bland mish-mash of environmental consciousness and silly plot points. And there's not much that rings true, especially when the central conceit of the movie is the implausible idea of building a pancake house in the middle of a tropical forest.

Pretending to skewer the greed of land developers and big corporations, Hoot centers in Roy Eberhardt (Logan Lerman) who is wrenched from Montana ranch country when his dad is transferred once again, this time to small-town Florida. Roy has a bit of a hard time fitting in to the local scene; relentlessly bullied by the class idiot he's rescued by the tough Beatrice (Brie Larsen), star of the girl's soccer team.

Roy soon discovers that Beatrice has a connection to a mysterious sprinting nature-boy known as Mullet Fingers (Cody Linley), whose mission, should Roy choose to accept his part in it, is to sabotage the pancake house construction site, the future home of Mother Paula's All-American Pancake House, which is actually the refuge of a collection of burrowing owls.

The dopey contractor Curly (Tim Blake Nelson) can't get ahead on construction because vandals keep pulling up his surveying stakes and the even stupider Officer Dan Delinko (Luke Wilson) is assigned to catch the vandal or vandals who step up their opposition to Mother Paula's by putting alligators in the site's portable toilets.

It doesn't take much imagination to figure out that the kids are going to triumph over the nasty pancake developer (Clark Gregg) and what looked good on paper - the movie is based on Carl Hiaasen's book - doesn't necessarily transfer well to the screen. Wilson's character is the funniest and most interesting and the only scene of real interest is when he falls asleep in his squad car only waking to find all the windows spray-painted black and has to get around in a vehicle that looks like a golf cart.

The film as a whole is insipid and sloppily directed, the actors - particularly the teenagers are unmemorable and the action is just too precious for words. We never really find out why characters do what they do and their dialogue is dreadfully artificial, and their back-stories are too absurd for words. The errant subplots go nowhere and the movie has an episodic TV quality that is so pronounced, it's almost embarrassing to watch.

Admittedly the owls are cute, but if you blink you'll miss them. I really had to struggle to get through this film and if the burrowing owls and other susceptible species in southern Florida have to depend on movies like this to raise public compassion and understanding, they really are in trouble. Give this one a big miss. Mike Leonard August 06.

THE BEST MOVIE OF 2006 DO NOT SAY IS CRAP BECAUSE IT IS NOT
Hey excuse me people but this is a great film i read the book first for a english school project the book was rubbish, i dident like it has much as the film becuase the book was plain.

the fil well the film was good i enjoed it better than reading the stupid book we did a 6-8 week prject on this one paticular thing. it was a fun project at the end of the topic we watched the film at school it was awesome i enjoed the last 2 lessons on it.

its a awesome film,
and stupid people cant see it,
the actors are grea
LOGANN LERMAN IS HOT.