It was shot in Hawaii; Alaska; California; Keystone, South Dakota; New Jersey; and New York.

Plot

North then tells his friend Winchell (Matthew McCurley), who works on the school paper, about his plan to possibly divorce himself from his parents. However, he decides to give his parents one last chance by giving them a phone call. When he is blown off by his father, North officially decides to divorce himself from his parents, hiring lawyer Arthur Belt (Jon Lovitz) to do so. When the announcement of his divorce is made, his parents are shocked to the point where they are rendered comatose. With no opposition from North's parents, Judge Buckle (Alan Arkin) gives North one summer to go out and find his new parents or he'll be put in an orphanage.

North's first stop is at Texas, where he tries to spend some time with his first set of new parents (Dan Aykroyd and Reba McEntire). When North notices that they are attempting to fatten him up, they reveal that they want him to be more like their first son Buck, who died in a stampede. The last straw comes when his new parents stage a musical number about the horrible things they're going to do to him. He is later visited by a cowboy named Gabby (also played by Bruce Willis) who convinces him to look for his new parents somewhere else. His next stop is Hawaii, where he meets Governor Ho and Mrs. Ho (Keone Young and Lauren Tom), who also want to adopt him. However, Governor Ho soon unveils a new billboard that features North in an embarrassing manner that will be installed along every major highway in the mainland; he hopes that people will become more inclined to settle in Hawaii knowing that North lives there. Humiliated, North has a conversation with a metal detector-wielding tourist (also played by Bruce Willis) and subsequently moves to Alaska. There, he settles into an Inuit village with a father and mother (Graham Greene and Kathy Bates), who send their elderly grandfather (Abe Vigoda) out to sea on an ice floe so that he may die with dignity. Meanwhile, North's real parents, still comatose, are put on display in a museum (the curator of which is played by Ben Stein). Thanks to North's success, all the children in the world are threatening to leave their parents and hiring Arthur Belt as their lawyer, which propels Belt and Winchell into being the richest and most powerful people in the world.

North prepares to move in with a set of Amish parents (Alexander Godunov and Kelly McGillis), but is quickly discouraged by the lack of electricity (along with the large size of his new family) and leaves in a hurry. After going to Africa, China and Paris, he finally settles in with a seemingly nice family (played by John Ritter, Faith Ford, Scarlett Johansson and Jesse Zeigler) that treat him as their own. However, despite this near-perfect life, North still isn't happy and leaves.

He goes to New York where he meets a singer named Joey Fingers (also played by Bruce Willis), who convinces North that "a bird in the hand is always greener than the grass under the other guy's bushes". He drives North to an airport so that he can reunite with his parents, who have snapped out of their comas. However, the children, who have taken advantage of North's case up to this point, are unwilling to let North reunite with his parents and chase him down. He is saved by a FedEx truck driver (also played by Bruce Willis), who sees himself as a guardian angel. As North rushes home to his parents before the summer is up, Winchell hires a hit man to assassinate North as he runs towards his parents' arms. Just as the hit man shoots North, North awakens in the mall, now empty, revealing that his adventures had been all a dream. North is taken back home by the man who claimed to be the Easter Bunny (Bruce Willis), and is greeted by a warm embrace from his parents.

Cast

Reception

Siskel and Ebert's review

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Comedian Richard Belzer goaded Reiner into reading aloud some of the review at Reiner's roast; Reiner jokingly insisted that "if you read between the lines, [the review] isn't really that bad." An abridged version of the opening remark quoted above became the title of a 2000 book by Ebert, ''I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie'', a compilation of reviews of films most disliked by Ebert.

Ebert's co-host of ''Siskel and Ebert'', Gene Siskel, also hated the film, calling it "deplorable", "first-class junk", "trash", and "cataclysmically unfunny", as well as saying that it made him feel "unclean" while he was watching it. Both critics declared it the worst film of 1994. Ebert said on the ''Siskel and Ebert at the Movies'' program "I hated this movie as much as any movie we [he and Siskel] have ever reviewed during the 19 years we've been doing this show. I hated it because of the premise, which seems shockingly cold-hearted, and because this premise is being suggested to ''kids'' as children's entertainment, because everybody in this movie was vulgar and stupid, and because the jokes weren't funny and because most of the characters were obnoxious and because of the phony attempt to add a little pseudo-philosophy with the Bruce Willis character." Ebert's future co-host of ''Ebert and Roeper'', Richard Roeper, would later go on to list ''North'' as one of the 40 worst movies he's ever seen, saying that, "Of all the films on this list, ''North'' may be the most difficult to watch from start to finish."

Rights and home video releases

The film has been released on DVD outside of North America, through independent distributors, possibly the companies that originally distributed the film theatrically for New Line.

As of March 2011, ''North'' is available on Netflix through their instant streaming service, but it is unknown whether it is MGM or Warner Bros. that re-issued the film on Netflix.

References

External links

Category:1994 films Category:1990s comedy films Category:American children's fantasy films Category:American fantasy-comedy films Category:Castle Rock Entertainment films Category:English-language films Category:Films based on fantasy novels Category:Films directed by Rob Reiner Category:Films shot in South Dakota Category:Films shot in New Jersey Category:Films shot in Alaska Category:New Line Cinema films Category:Columbia Pictures films