I am not going to lie and say Hoot is the best family film I have seen, but I am going to say I actually rather liked it. True, the pacing is a little too slow at times, the story perhaps a little predictable and some of the characters are rather clichéd particularly the bully. However, Hoot is beautifully photographed with lovely scenery and the cinematography was very nice. The soundtrack was a pleasant touch and had a somewhat nostalgic feel to it, while the dialogue is humorous and has some sweet parts too, the message is admirable and the direction is above-adequate. And the acting was good on the whole, Logan Lerman is an appealing lead and Brie Larson while petite is alluring and likable enough, while Tim Blake Nelson does a very good job with his role as does Luke Wilson. Overall, very nice and likable, nothing outstanding but it's not awful either. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Hoot is a pleasant and innocuous comedy about a trio of teens who save an owl nesting place from being bulldozed to make way for a fast food type pancake house. As if Florida didn't already have enough of them.

The teens are Logan Lerman, Brie Larson, and Cody Linley. The characters seem to be borrowed from Tom Sawyer, Becky Thatcher, and Huck Finn. Well if the Magic Kingdom is going to borrow, borrowing from someone like Mark Twain is certainly a good idea.

Lerman is a new kid in town who because of that becomes the target of the school bully. But when he's not dealing with that or when Ms. Larson isn't dealing with Eric Phillips the bully, he's gotten himself in their crusade to save some owls who have nested on the property the corporation wants to build on. This is by no means a new theme for Disney, as far back as Cesar Romero and Keenan Wynn played tycoons whose only interest is making money no matter what the cost.

I like what Cody Linley did with his role. He's the barefoot kid just like Huckleberry Finn along the Mississippi only here its the sands of the Florida beaches.

Hoot is nothing terribly special, but it is a pleasant 90 minutes viewing.

Roy Eberhardt (Logan Lerman) is the new kid in a Florida school and he's getting bullied. Then one day while being bullied, a fast-running bare-footed kid catches his eye. Together the two along with his half-sister Beatrice (Brie Larson) band together to save a burrowing owl habitat from an evil developer.

This is a kid movie where the adults are either stupid, evil, or clueless. In some cases, they are all three. Luke Wilson and Tim Blake Nelson really ramp up the stupidity in this film. And Roy's parents (Neil Flynn and Kiersten Warren) aren't much better. It's too bad. The kids were likable enough. If they could limit the silly bullying and the clueless adults, they could have a wonderful little film.