Rating: 
Summary: Been there, done that.
Review: We are lifelong downstate Michiganders but were privileged enough to live in the U.P. for three years recently and learned that it truly is "north of the bridge and just south of heaven." The people there, although a little bit different than what most of us are used to, are charming and extremely proud of their heritage and their "superior state," and will always hold a special place in our hearts. I especially loved the Finnish accents, both in real life and in the movie. Having lived there, like I said, we got a kick out of the movie because of the mention of places like the Bark River, M-35, etc., and the storefronts in Escanaba shown as he is driving his truck out to deer camp. As a matter of fact, the day I bought the movie I had gone into Ernie's Party Store (in the movie where the lady drops her bag and runs around the corner) looking for a shotglass with Escanaba on it (I collect shotglasses.) Anyway, to make a long story short, if you've never lived in the U.P. and don't understand it, you will probably not truly appreciate this movie. However, I would recommend buying it anyway and watching it a few times and then making a trip to the U.P. to absorb the culture.
Rating: 
Summary: A PETA friendly Hunting Movie with little Hunting
Review: Though Not from MI, I love hunting in the Adirondacks and Maine. Maybe someone from MI would enjoy this piece of idiocy but they would truly have to be simple minded like Jimmer in da moving picture. I came to Amazon to see the ratings on this. Boy, Jeff Daniels, who I like, must have lots of friends or someone is pulling the wool. This was terrible. Almost all of it takes place in the cabin with it's 4-5 guests. Aliens apparently come to help (or scare) one hapless hunter who finally discovers that his dead Great Grandfather is really his Father, who guides him to the buck we never see except vaguelly in a newspaper clipping. Also the Jolly Green Giant or the Devil, who keeps putting unintelligible Jimmer on the roof, seems to have an unseen but loud role stamping around this jinxed cabin. What a mess. Only for Da very dopey. All other reviews are from Jeff Daniels friends or are liars or idiots. I'd rather watch anything with Bill Jordan from Team Realtree
Rating:
Summary: Dimly Light Quest During a Long Northern Night...
Review: ...that is Escanaba in da Moonlight. It is a story about a misfit searching for his place in a narrowly defined world. Set in Michigan's UP, a. k. a. the Superior State by secession minded residents, it is not commentary about the ethics of hunting or vegetarianism or any other political or lifestyle choice. Many pacifists and vegetarians loved the original play on which this film is based.
In a community whose hunting traditions run deep, Rueben Soady is buckless. He's 43 and has yet to make his right of passage; he's shunned by the entire town. Even his own friends and family don't want to hunt anywhere near him. In spite of it all he wants to fit in. This is the film's basis for universal appeal and why the play on which it was based on was so popular.
The driver's license has been called America's right of passage. At best it's a threshold to begin an adolescent quest, not complete it. Adolescence extends to the late 30s or longer for many. We call it finding ourselves-and our place in our community. The whole process is a mystery to Rueben Soady. Where will the flash of insight come from? UFOs? Is success influenced by spirits? He is clueless. He is desperate, so desperate that he's willing to subject himself to the humiliation of eating moose balls, wearing porcupine "urine" (the sensors are brutal), and breathing the foulest flatulence if that is what it takes to make the passage. Let's see if we can get out of the two-seater here. Rueben is desperate and willing, but needs the support of his family and friends. As cruel as it may be to be shunned by the community, the support of family and friends is even more affirming. Rueben must overcome a significant challenge to complete his passage and earn his place in the community. Is he up to it?
This is a story about real people who we may or may not know, to whom we may or may not relate, but we can certainly care about them, and hopefully we will learn from them. Have fun while you watch! You may even want to own it as a cult flick, but there's more to it than potty humor. These are metaphors for the all the bizare stuff we each endure in our individual quests. When we laugh at Rueben, we laugh at ourselves. We know the truth. We have lived it.
Jeff Daniels has chosen to entertain us with a comedy and uses caricatures to tell his story. Caricatures portray distortions and often offend the thin-skinned, but an insightful caricature is an exaggerated truth. This is Jeff Daniels' film. He uses his brand of comedy and it is hilarious.
One last thing, being adapted from a well-honed play, there's not much to offer as additional features for the DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Laughed so hard that I could hardly breathe.
Review: Escanaba in da Moonlight is one of the strangest and funniest movies that I've seen (next in line to Donnie Darko). I'm not a hunter myself, proof of what other reviewers have said about not having to hunt deer to enjoy this film. Some of those jokes had me laughing so hard that I couldn't breathe. See this film.
Rating: 
Summary: A FUNNY FUNNY MOVIE!!!!!
Review: at first, i was sekptical of ESCANABA IN DA MOONLIGHT, but after i saw it for the first time, i immedietly fell in love with it. that day, i went out and bought the DVD. If you like the movie "Monty Python & The Holy Grail" or "Saving Silverman", you'll deffinitly love ESCANABA IN DA MOONLIGHT!
Rating:
Summary: Not just for hunters!
Review: My 10-year-old son thinks this should have won an academy award two years ago when he first saw in on the big screen. We purchased the DVD last night, and he has watched it 3 times since. I am not a hunter, nor a hunter's wife, but certainly know at least one fanatic hunter, as everyone does. You will need to watch this movie just to get a better insight as to what the attraction is to the holiday that hunters celebrate as "opening season". Thank you Jeff Daniels for bringing such a great movie to the screen that my whole family can watch.
Rating:
Summary: A Must See
Review: For those of us that came from the Lower Peninsula, this film has a very much documentary quality to it.. hehe
Rating:
Summary: Shooting the Big One
Review: Escananba is an incredibly pleasant surprise. It doesn't take itself too seriously though at its most basic level it deals with a struggle that most men have - the right of passage from childhood to manhood (only in this case, it takes Reuben Soady 43 years to make the transition). This thread keeps the plot together, while the rest of the movie is spiced with (as my son would say) "random" characters and scenes that keep you laughing and wondering what Jeff Daniels was on when he wrote it (one can only assume it was a case of Leinenkugels). Jemmer Megamanee from Menomanie is one of the most bizarre and refreshing characters of all time. He is the proverbial "wild haired gnome" from War's "Hall of the Mountain King". And the fart scene is simply the funniest movie scene of all time. It is a classic and bears watching more than once. This movie is terrific entertainment!
Rating:
Summary: See it
Review: Ok, so it's a little goofy, and you should probably call someone in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (the part that sticks out into northern Lake Michigan)to see what a "Yooper" is. Hint: a person from the UP or upper peninsula....and you might want to check out an underground recording by "Da Yoopers" called "Second Week in Deer Camp"But you don't really need to. It's funny. Alien abductions, wimps from the DNR, daddy-didn't-love-me subplots and a regular parade of strange personages keep the movie zipping right along. You will laugh until your gut hurts unless you are a bloody veggie anti hunting libby, in which case you should shoulder your predjudices and just watch it as a pretty fine piece of self flagellation by the hunting community.
Rating:
Summary: Surreal...
Review: If you plan to see only one comedy this year, you've found your match! The humor is: slapstick, ironic, cultural, musical, and visual in nature. I usually enjoy British comedy, but Jeff Daniels wrote a real gem, here. The characters are coarse and ignorant, but loveable. The actors were cast perfectly--their body types, voices, and mannerisms perfect for their roles. The entire story takes place in a backwoods cabin, in Northern Michigan, where an unlucky man (accompanied by his firm father, crude brother, and an eccentric and unintelligable friend)has retreated, trying to break his bad luck, by hunting down a deer, and bringing it home to his Chippewa wife. The events in that little wood lodge take on supernatural proportions, when a Chevy catches on fire, and tries to run down a man who believes he was once visited by aliens, when the four of them drink sacred Native American potions for health that include such ingredients as baked worms, and when a mysterious creature is believed to be after them all, and must be warded off with... well, you have to see it. I especially like the scene in which the skinny sherrif has been stripped down to his underwear, and is tied to a chair, singing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," while being splashed with pungent liquid. Ghosts, visions, homemade moonshine, strange lights, unusual cuisine, unique characters, bizarre humor, delightful local slang, and excellent timing abound in this movie. Its a family movie, for the theatre-lover and the basic middle American alike. 5 stars! (Note, I am a vegetarian who is, shall we say, anti-hunting, but that did not impact my enjoyment of the film. The plot takes far too many twists and turns for hunting to be the true heart of the story. The characters and their bizarre interactions are the real "meat" of this film...tee-hee.)
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