Originally Published: 2006-05-14

A family-friend ecological movie with good intentions, Wil Shriner's Hoot unfortunately suffers from sluggish pacing and a predictable plot. Considering there are no real "names" to lure the audience (particularly the parents), there really aren't a lot of reasons to flock to see this.
Roy (Logan Lerman) has been to eight schools in six years, thanks to dad's job that keeps moving him and the family around. Roy now has to make new friends in Coconut Grove, Florida, and is immediately the butt of a joke. He's bullied by some, including Beatrice (Brie Larson), but strikes up a friendship with odd loner Mullet (Cody Linley) who lives on an abandoned boat and is afoul of the law for impeding a restaurant chain to build in an area where owls nest. Roy and Beatrice help Mullet sabotage the site manager (Tim Blake Nelson) and corporate boss (Clark Gregg) through ingenious methods that are also too slapsticky and silly. The incompetent police officer (Luke Wilson), is also the butt of the kids' cunning, but at least he's fun to look at.
Based on Carl Hiassen's young-adult novel of the same name, Hoot is too packed with broad humour and slapstick to make it neither original nor really funny. That's a shame because the photography and Florida locations are absolutely gorgeous.
Watch for singer Jimmy Buffett, the film's producer, who cameos as Roy's science teacher. He also provides the pleasant soundtrack of nifty songs.

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