Look up in the sky! It's raining Spoilers! THIS IS A SPOILER WARNING!
Introduction: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is based off of the children's book of the same name that was written by Judi and Ron Barrett. Both the book and the film follows an inventor, Flint (Played by Bill Hader) after he invents a machine that turns water into food. After a mishap involving a power station, the machine is sent up to the sky, where it starts making it rain food. However, when the food starts to get bigger and bigger, it's up to Flint to save the town. The film also stars Anna Faris as a reporter (and Flint's love interest), Bruce Campbell as the Mayor, Mr. T as a police officer and Neil Patrick Harris as a talking monkey.
The Review: This film is very similar to The Polar Express in that it's based off of a short book, therefore making me wonder if it will be able to support a feature-length runtime. However while Express could, Cloudy couldn't. You see, Express increased it's runtime by building on to the original story by adding new, interesting characters and by going deeper into the train ride than the book did. Cloudy on the other hand, boosts it's runtime by dragging scenes on for too long.
Take for example the end of the movie. Flint is about to destroy the machine by sending a kill code through the machine that tells the other machine what to do. (It makes more sense in the movie. Kind of.) However when the Mayor destroys the machine, Flint rebuilds his flying car to deliver the kill code manually. (Why he didn't just rebuilt the machine that could send the code is a mystery.) Then, while he's in the flying the car to the machine, he drops the kill code out of the window. So, then he gets his father to e-mail the kill code to his cell phone. But, the father doesn't know how to use e-mail. So, Flint walks his father through it, but then the computer gets destroyed. BUT THEN, his father some how sends the email even though the computer is destroyed. BUT THEN, it turns out his father e-mailed him the wrong thing. So, Flint ends up just cloging the machine to make it expolde, therefore making every scene with the kill code, entirely pointless.
The film also increases it's runtime by have an over-abundence of jokes. While yes the movie is funny, I couldn't help but fell like I did while I was watching the Cars Toons. You know, I enjoyed the shorts, but the whole time I was painfully aware of the fact that these shorts were made just to make more toys. With Cloudy, I did enjoy the jokes, but the whole time I was painfully aware of the fact that they are making these jokes is just to make the movie longer. I mean the best way to put is is like this. Imagine I give you a piece of cake that tastes like cardboard, but I cover the cake in good-tasting frosting. Sure, the frosting's good but it doesn't make the cake not taste like cardboard. Now just replace the cake with a movie and the frosting with jokes and you get Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.
The Verdict: Overall, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is a funny film, but it's plot is paper-thin and it just goes on for too long. It's would have been better if it were an hour and 15 minute direct-to-DVD film. 3.5 out of 6.
Showing posts with label Toon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Toon. Show all posts
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
"Cars Toon Mater's Tall Tales" DVD/Blu-Ray Review
Introduction: In between the time Pixar made Cars and Cars 2, they made 7 short films based off of Larry the Cable Guy's Mater. Each short played out the exact same way: Mater tells Lightning McQueen of an old job he used to have; following McQueen's disbelief, Mater tells him a story from this job; partway through Mater add McQueen into the story: the short ends with McQueen still in disbelief, only to see something from Mater's story in the real world. This DVD complies all 7 shorts, plus two new ones and special features.
The Shorts:
Rescue Squad Mater: The shortest of the 9, this short places Mater in the role of both a fire truck and a doctor as he saves McQueen from a fire. This short does a pretty good job capturing the feel of shows like Emergency! And while it is the shortest, it still is pretty funny.
Mater the Greater: This short shows Mater as a world famous daredevil named, you guessed it, Mater the Greater. While not the funniest, this short does has it's moment, including a predictable yet still funny joke when Mater tries to job cars at the beginning of the short.
El Materdor: Easily the worst of the short, this one has Mater play a bulldozer fighter. This short is just one joke repeated over and over again: Mater is a bull fighter. Lame.
Unidentified Flying Mater: This nice-looking short has Mater and McQueen help a cute little UFO escape from the military. Little on gags, but still fun to watch.
Tokyo Mater: The longest (and nicest-looking) of the shorts, and the only one theatrically released, this one features Mater as he is challenged to a drift race in Tokyo. Like UFM, this one is short on jokes, but still is a fun to watch. Especially on Blu-Ray.
Heavy Metal Mater: One of the funniest on the set, this one is also the most out of place. Most of these shorts involve jobs kids want to have. Astronaut? Yes. Firefighter? Yes. Race car driver? Yes. Singer in a heavy metal band? That's a stretch. Anyway, this one hase mater become the lead sing in a heavy metal band. Very funny, even if the joke can be stupid. (When it shows how Mater band got it's name? I had to pause the DVD.)
Monster Truck Mater: In the last of the original shorts, Mater and McQueen become tag-team wrestlers. Weaker than the others, but still chuckle-worthy.
Moon Mater: The first of the two now short, an astronaut is stuck on the moon and it's up to Mater to save the day. Funny, though I would've like to see more of the rocket ship.
Mater Private Eye: The last and best of the short, has Mater as a P.I. searching for a missing car. Very funny spoof of old detective film's kids may not get, but I thought it was funny. Plus, it shows that Pixar still looks good in black and white.
Special Features:
Unmade Tales: This is the bulk of the extras and thankfully, it's really cool. Pixar animaters voice over storyboards of shorts they didn't film, including one where Mater is a model and another as a stuntcar. My personal favorite was a Back to the Future spoof.
Mater Bumper-to-Bumper: This featurette fittingly enough is all about how the character of Mater was created. Fairly interesting, though it would have worked better in a full-length documentary.
Studio Stories: McQueen Has No Hands: Unfittingly, this studio story (story of something interesting that happened at Pixar during a movie's filming) feels like it was left off of the Cars dvd because, while ineresting and funny, it has nothing to do with the Cars Toons or even Mater!
Mater Intros: Quick, but funny, variations of Mater saying "If I'm lyin', I'm Cryin'" played in front of each short.
Mater Private Eye Trailer: A very quick spoof of detective movie trailers this time. Pointless, but fine.
The Verdict: Cars Toon Mater's Tall Tales is a fun DVD/Blu-Ray. Almost all over the shorts are fun and funny and your kids will be entertained hugely by this, especially boys. However, there isn't many special features and I sure you could find all of the shorts online, so, in the end, is the $20 DVD worth it? Probably not, but is is worth seeing. So, overall, 4.5 out of 6.
The Shorts:
Rescue Squad Mater: The shortest of the 9, this short places Mater in the role of both a fire truck and a doctor as he saves McQueen from a fire. This short does a pretty good job capturing the feel of shows like Emergency! And while it is the shortest, it still is pretty funny.
Mater the Greater: This short shows Mater as a world famous daredevil named, you guessed it, Mater the Greater. While not the funniest, this short does has it's moment, including a predictable yet still funny joke when Mater tries to job cars at the beginning of the short.
El Materdor: Easily the worst of the short, this one has Mater play a bulldozer fighter. This short is just one joke repeated over and over again: Mater is a bull fighter. Lame.
Unidentified Flying Mater: This nice-looking short has Mater and McQueen help a cute little UFO escape from the military. Little on gags, but still fun to watch.
Tokyo Mater: The longest (and nicest-looking) of the shorts, and the only one theatrically released, this one features Mater as he is challenged to a drift race in Tokyo. Like UFM, this one is short on jokes, but still is a fun to watch. Especially on Blu-Ray.
Heavy Metal Mater: One of the funniest on the set, this one is also the most out of place. Most of these shorts involve jobs kids want to have. Astronaut? Yes. Firefighter? Yes. Race car driver? Yes. Singer in a heavy metal band? That's a stretch. Anyway, this one hase mater become the lead sing in a heavy metal band. Very funny, even if the joke can be stupid. (When it shows how Mater band got it's name? I had to pause the DVD.)
Monster Truck Mater: In the last of the original shorts, Mater and McQueen become tag-team wrestlers. Weaker than the others, but still chuckle-worthy.
Moon Mater: The first of the two now short, an astronaut is stuck on the moon and it's up to Mater to save the day. Funny, though I would've like to see more of the rocket ship.
Mater Private Eye: The last and best of the short, has Mater as a P.I. searching for a missing car. Very funny spoof of old detective film's kids may not get, but I thought it was funny. Plus, it shows that Pixar still looks good in black and white.
Special Features:
Unmade Tales: This is the bulk of the extras and thankfully, it's really cool. Pixar animaters voice over storyboards of shorts they didn't film, including one where Mater is a model and another as a stuntcar. My personal favorite was a Back to the Future spoof.
Mater Bumper-to-Bumper: This featurette fittingly enough is all about how the character of Mater was created. Fairly interesting, though it would have worked better in a full-length documentary.
Studio Stories: McQueen Has No Hands: Unfittingly, this studio story (story of something interesting that happened at Pixar during a movie's filming) feels like it was left off of the Cars dvd because, while ineresting and funny, it has nothing to do with the Cars Toons or even Mater!
Mater Intros: Quick, but funny, variations of Mater saying "If I'm lyin', I'm Cryin'" played in front of each short.
Mater Private Eye Trailer: A very quick spoof of detective movie trailers this time. Pointless, but fine.
The Verdict: Cars Toon Mater's Tall Tales is a fun DVD/Blu-Ray. Almost all over the shorts are fun and funny and your kids will be entertained hugely by this, especially boys. However, there isn't many special features and I sure you could find all of the shorts online, so, in the end, is the $20 DVD worth it? Probably not, but is is worth seeing. So, overall, 4.5 out of 6.
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