Diagonaldi Very well executed

Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

zachary_a_erickson-26701 When I first heard of this movie, I was expecting something exactly like the book. But this wasn't a replica, this was an adaption. This was a very well made adaption, even though it didn't get really good reviews. I would consider this to be a highly underrated motion picture. Of course, it could have been made much better, but considering the cast picked, and the way they adapted the characters; that's why I say that it could have been better. Besides all of that, this is a really good film.

meddlecore As far as children's horror's go...whereas, this isn't the scariest...it's one of the most alluring, in a fantasy sense.It tells the story of a young boy, whose grandmother is a witch hunter. She tells him tall tales of witches...that don't turn out to be so tall after all.For, when they head off on vacation...they stumble upon a witch's conference...featuring the grand witch and all.He sneaks in to see what they are up to, only to discover that they are plotting to change all the children of England...into mice! And, he gets caught and changed into a mouse before he can escape.Now, he and another boy (who was also turned into a mouse) who are on the lam. They must find his grandmother, so that they can foil the witches' dastardly plot...before it's too late! And they plan to do so...by giving the witches some of their own medicine.This film is light-hearted fun, but I can see it being scary for a very young child.It is most notable for it's incredible special effects- coming from the late great Jim Henson.The witches themselves, are disgustingly cool...while the animatronic mice puppets are totally badass.They shift between using the mice puppets and real mice, making the film even more fun to watch.I don't remember ever seeing this as a kid...but it's on the same level as something like Labyrinth...just not as epic.Kind of surprised I never even heard of it until now...because I'm a huge Roeg fan! Hopefully you didn't miss it like I did.6.5 out of 10.

Bonehead-XL As a kid, Roald Dahl held a reputation as the "thinking child's" favorite author. His stories always had an undertone of darkness about them, a cruel edge. Even his lighter stories, like "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," doesn't spare its young characters. Later in life, when I discovered that Dahl also wrote dark thrillers and even erotica, it wasn't surprising. Dahl's style has always made him a rough fit for Hollywood, who like their children flicks to be safe and sanitized. When Dahl adaptations do turn out alright, like "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," they tend to only loosely resemble their source material. Which brings me to "The Witches," a surprisingly macabre family film."The Witches" starts appropriately, as a dark fairy tale told by a grandmother to her grandson. The old woman lays down the movie's ground rules. Witches are evil inhuman beings, with purple eyes, no toes, and bald heads. They live to murder children, who smell like dog droppings to them. The parents are killed in a car crash soon afterwards, leaving Luke alone with his grandmother. After a diabetic attack, the old woman is sent to a English hotel to recuperate, joined by her grandson. Fate would have it that the hotel, that same weekend, would be holding a gathering of witches, led by the Grand High Witch. There, the boy overhears the witches' newest plot, a plan to turn of all of England's children into mice."The Witches" is a children's film. Its protagonist is the kind of can-do, heroic kid usually seen in films of this type. The story's climatic thrust depends on a child outsmarting adults, another stalwart feature of the genre. There's almost a layer of "gee-shucks" sincerity to the way Luke interacts with his grandmother and the other boy his age. Luke and his friend Bruno spends the entire second half of the film in the form of a mouse, which allows for all sorts of cute antics. The emotional center of the story is the boy's relationship with his grandmother, one of safety and warmth. The film ultimately does not transcend the genre.But, boy, does it try. "The Witches" is amazingly grotesque at times, enough so that you can fairly categorize it as a kid-friendly horror film. The film makes it clear, from the beginning, that witches want to kill children. It doesn't use any softer synonyms or dance around it. The film's highlight is the witches' meeting. Angelica Huston's head witch removes her skin and hair, revealing a grotesque true face, her skin stretching, body contorting. It's a moment of body horror worthy of Cronenberg. The Grand High Witch has the wart covered skin, sunken eyelids, and hook nose of your stereotypical witch but the film extends the stereotypes to their extreme. That sequence also features a whole room of old women revealing stub feet and balding, scaly heads. The image of young boys similarly stretching and morphing into a mouse is equally unsettling. The finale, a room of witches shrinking into mice, maintains those nasty creature effects. Though the Jim Henson Creature Studio effects are somewhat cartoony I bet they still provided many young watchers with vivid nightmares.Another thing to like about "The Witches" is the mythological footprint it puts on the witch concept. The script treats witches as if they were vampires or werewolves, classical monsters with specific traits, powers, and weaknesses. The script speaks in sweeping, fable-like terms. All witches are evil, devoted to murdering kids. Why? Because they're monsters, that's why. Their nasty appearances match their attitudes, only able to disguise their evil for so long.The movie is also helped out by its strong cast. Anjelica Huston is delightfully over-the-top as the film's villain, the wicked head witch. She speaks with a cartoonish German accent, fully committed to the material. Even while under extensive make-up, the actress' mannerisms are visible. Mai Zetterling is also notable as the grandmother, warm but with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. Though a bit flat as the young lead, Jasen Fisher is a strong enough actor to carry his role. His performance actually improves when the character is turned into a mouse, the young actor's voice working quite well.Nicolas Roeg's usually stylish direction is muted a bit here but he still pulls off some memorable visuals. The film is uniformly strong up until the very end. The script wimps out, providing an unlikely solution to the hero's problem, de-mouse-fying him at the last minute. It's an especially lazy screen writing decision and the only blotch on an otherwise strong film, a surprisingly twisted kids flick.

Leofwine_draca I really like THE WITCHES. It was a childhood favourite of mine back at the time - I was born in 1981, so was roughly the same age as the kid in it. In addition, I think it's the film that most authentically captures the spirit of Roald Dahl's book, more so than either of the CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY adaptations. The combination of Nic Roeg's outstanding direction (who thought of using an art-house director for a kid's film? It was a gamble that really paid off) and Jim Henson's great puppet work makes for a truly superlative movie.The storyline is deliciously dark and, although it's kept simple throughout, the film achieves a remarkable level of world-building in a short space of time. Then there's the cast: Anjelica Huston, completely sinister in THAT role (forget THE ADDAMS FAMILY, that's nothing compared to this), a deliciously deadpan Bill Paterson, a hilariously pompous Rowan Atkinson, and a sweet Mai Zetterling holding it all together as the kindly granny.I still love the mouse puppets they use in this film, and the effects really hold up even today. I consider the big reveal with Huston to be one of the best, and most shocking, ever put on film. Yes, the sugar-sweet ending may be off-putting to some - and a departure from the original - but it doesn't spoil what is, in many ways, a perfect little movie.