bluecouchpotato Elf is a great movie to watch as the holidays roll around. It's not a fantastic movie by any means, but it's funny and heartwarming, and carries a 'feel good' holiday message.

Owen Ogletree I have very fond memories of when my family and I saw this movie in theaters in 2003 when I was only 7 years old. We quickly got it on VHS, and we have since watched it every year around Christmas time.Will Ferrell is a very hit-or-miss comedian, but he hits big time with this movie. He does a great job with the childlike aspect of his character, and his comedic timing and line delivery is just brilliant.We also have an excellent supporting cast consisting of James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Zooey Deschanel, and Peter Dinklage. The relationship between Buddy and his father is wonderfully played out and manages to be very touching. Santa, Emily, Michael, and Jovie were also great characters.This film also has a nice Christmas feel to it. It just really gets you in the mood for the holidays. The end scene with everyone singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and raising the Christmas spirit to make the sleigh fly always gives me the warm fuzzies.Funny, intelligent, and poignant, this film is everything I want in a Christmas movie. It's one I never grow tired of watching, and I can't recommend it enough.RATING: A+

Mike LeMar the fact that Will Farrell's character is told at the North Pole that when he goes to civilization, if he sees gum on the ground or anywhere, don't eat it because it's not free candy; it's dirty. And then everybody cracks up, going "Eeewww!" when he picks all the gum wads off the subway railing and eats them. Wasn't he just told minutes ago to not do that?

tomgillespie2002 At first glance, Elf would appear to be one of countless holiday- season cash-ins with daft costumes and even sillier special effects, featuring a well-known actor performing pantomime on a bigger budget and grabbing an easy pay-day in the process. That is stars Will Ferrell, one of cinema's most naturally hilarious funnymen who seems to be caught up in an endless loop of mediocrity - Blades of Glory and Stranger than Fiction excluded - as the titular human-turned- elf, bodes even worse. Throw in some little people dressed in elf costumes and a romance involving surely the only woman to accept a date with a man who claims to be from the North Pole, and it would seem like a movie tailor-made for a critical beat-down.Only Elf is genuinely charming, and even more alarmingly, incredibly funny at times. Using Ferrell's man-child comedy chops to the fullest extent, this may actually be the best work Ferrell has ever done. He plays Buddy, an orphan accidentally whisked off to Santa's homeland as a baby. Taken in by the sympathetic Papa Elf (the wonderful Bob Newhart), it doesn't take long until Buddy is towering over his adoptive father and his co-workers. Learning of his biological pop Walter (played by James Caan) and that he is in fact a human, the 6-foot elf journeys to New York City to be with his real family, only for his miserable publisher dad to shun him. Buddy learns that his world no longer buys into tales of flying reindeers and a jolly fat man who knows if we've been bad, disbelieving in the 'magic' of Christmas and draining the power from Santa's sleigh in the process.Directed by Jon Favreau and written by David Berenbaum, Elf is pretty standard stuff story-wise, and is hampered by a predictable sub-plot involving Walter's struggling publishing company and his dire need to lighten up. Yet there are many touching moments, particularly in the scenes involving Buddy and his young half- brother, and the former's awkward courting of a pretty toy store assistant (Zooey Deschanel) initially freaked out by his maniacal claims but who eventually succumbs to his hyperactive charms. It all inevitably leads to a climax built around a special-effect laden set-piece as Santa struggles to deliver the presents with a dying sleigh, but this is expected from a movie designed to win over those looking for something easy-going and festive. The world has grown cynical, and perhaps so have I, but Elf reminded me that it is no fun being so.