North (1994)

Director:

Rob Reiner

Writers (WGA):

Alan Zweibel (novel)
Alan Zweibel (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

22 July 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Family

Tagline:

North's hopping mad with his parents, and now he's off on a world wide adventure!

Plot:

Eleven-year-old North has had it with his parents. They are always busy with their careers and don't give North the attention he needs...

Plot Keywords:

Parent | Justice | Dream Sequence | Baseball | Comedian

Awards:

1 win & 9 nominations

Cast

Elijah Wood	...	North
Jason Alexander	...	North's Dad
Julia Louis-Dreyfus	...	North's Mom
Marc Shaiman	...	Piano Player
Jussie Smollett	...	Adam
Taylor Fry	...	Zoe
Alana Austin	...	Sarah
Peg Shirley	...	Teacher
Chuck Cooper	...	Umpire
Alan Zweibel	...	Coach
Donavon Dietz	...	Assistant Coach
Teddy Bergman	...	Teammate
Michael Cipriani	...	Teammate
Joran Corneal	...	Teammate
Joshua Kaplan	...	Teammate

MPAA:

Rated PG for a few words.

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Dolby | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:L | Finland:K-3 (2001 re-rating) | Finland:S (original rating) | Canada:G (Québec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Netherlands:AL | Portugal:M/6 | Spain:T | UK:PG | USA:PG | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Alaska, USA

Company:

Castle Rock Entertainment

Trivia:

Alexander Godunov and Kelly McGillis play the Amish parents - a joke on the movie Witness (1985) where they also played Amish characters.

Quotes:

News Reporter: Arthur Belt, the rising politician who drafted the bill...
Arthur Belt: [Winchell shuts off the TV] Wait! They were talking about me!
Winchell: Relax, Arthur, pretty soon you'll be hearing your name so much even YOU will be sick of it.
Arthur Belt: I highly doubt it.

Movie Connections:

References "Little House on the Prairie" (1974)

Soundtrack:

THEME FROM THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW

Starts out terrible, and somehow goes south from there

When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men, The Story of Us... and I hear that This Is Spinal Tap is utterly hilarious... so what happened, Reiner? I guess everyone is entitled to make at least one mistake. Even if this particular one is really tough to forgive. If he hadn't proved himself so thoroughly after this, I'm not sure one could disassociate him from this. I haven't read the novel. Can it be as awful as this? I sure hope not. This is painfully stupid, unbelievably offensive and never actually funny. The jokes are disturbing, sick, weird and/or poor, and often based on ridiculous stereotypes that serve no other purpose than to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the two guys who wrote the script for this, Alan Zweibel and Andrew Scheinman, have not been out of their own country in their entire lives. This wastes so much acting and comedic talent that you have to wonder if there was some sort of bet involved, to see if they could actually get all of these skilled people and have them recite horrible material, and see if anyone would outright quit. I'm not sure I'd say that Elijah was one of them at this point, but then again, all the child performers in this are annoying. There is brief moderately strong language in this. The DVD has a trailer and about about ten minutes worth of interviews with the director and cast. I recommend... well, not this, not for anyone. If you do find yourself watching at least a little of this, I urge you to treat yourself to the Nostalgia Critic's video review of it. 1/10