Ed's Review Dot Com

DreamWorks Animation, Pacific Data Images (PDI),

Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, Andy Richter, Tom McGrath, Frances McDormand, Jessica Chastain, Bryan Cranston, Martin Short

At the end of #2 the animals were left in Africa (Remember: it was called Escape 2 Africa, right?). Now Alex and the friends want to get back to the United States, but have no way back. But serendipitously they bump into a traveling circus (which always has room for some new animals) and the join up to travel Europe, hoping to be discovered so they can get a gig back in New York City. But as usual, there are a lot of trials and tribulations along the way.

This is a nice little cartoon film that is very typical of this genre. I felt like they didn’t put a whole lot of work to this, just went the usual Dreamworks method of getting a gang of famous actors who don’t do voices, but just play themselves in their own voice. The story is not really unique, and not very interesting for those over 10. I’m sure the kids will love it, and you can certainly put it on the DVD to keep them entertained (and stop them from driving you nuts) on a rainy Saturday afternoon, but this is simply not classic cinema. Pixar they aren’t. Dreamworks has just not put it all together just yet. The Shrek series was very popular, due a lot to an very original story, but even that has kind of worn out and they’re struggling to find something fresh and unique again I’m sure, but things like Madagascar 3 are just holding the place to keep the animators (or are the programmers now?) working until that fresh and new idea comes along.

Lacking in excitement and wonder, this is just a Saturday Morning TV Cartoonish revisit to the characters with such original music as Katy Perry “Firework” and Edith Piaf’s 1960 “Non, regrette rien”. Not shabby songs, in their own right, but not very original. I say, unless you’ve got little ones who need some entertainment, give this one a pass, as there’s just not enough there to keep an adult interested in the meager plot.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

New in theaters this weekend Friday October 19, 2012

• Alex Cross
• Paranormal Activity 4
• The Sessions
• We are Legion:The Story of the Hacktivissts
• Nobody Walks
• The Flat
• Tai Chi Zero
• That’s What She Said

Last Weeks top Box Office:

1 – Taken 2
2 – Argo
3 – Sinister
4 – Hotel Transylvania
5 – Here Comes the Boom

DreamWorks SKG, Kurtzman Orci Paper Products, Reliance Entertainment,

Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks, Olivia Wilde, Jon Favreau, Michelle Pfeiffer, Philip Baker Hall, Michael Hall D’Addario

Sam (Chris Pine) is a high pressure salesman who has just made a serious error in judgement which could cost him his career, when a sudden phone call sends him home to help his mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) to bury his father who suddenly passed away. While settling his father’s estate, he learns a shocking secret. He has a secret, and his father has entrusted him to send a small fortune to his half sister, but when he meets her and her young son, he becomes much more involved than he intended, keeping the money, and the secret that he is her brother. Things get much more convoluted and highly charged as he works through the issues he has with his mother, and with himself in his own life and the problems he faces.

This is a surprising well done drama about families and trust and respect. He learns that his father led a secret life, but he doesn’t know anything about it, so he has a lot of changing to do. Chris Pine does a really good job of playing this role, not going over the top, and not getting sappy and sloppy either. Elizabeth Banks is also very good playing a young single mother who is over her head in problems and debt and challenged by a very precocious young son who seems to always be getting in trouble. This movie has a lot of heart, and is a really good relationship film without the complications of a love story, because they are brother and sister (even though she doesn’t know it till the end). But there is a lot of tension between Sam and his mother as well, not to mention the legal problems he faces. With everything crashing around him, he is searching for his inner self. It’s a very well done family drama that is intense, but funny and sweet all at the same time. The acting is very good, and the story is very well crafted. Once again I came into this film not expecting a lot, and came away with a lot of respect for the film.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday October 16, 2012

• Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted
• Moonrise Kingdom [Click Here for Ed’s Review]
• That’s My Boy
• 2016 Obama’s America
• Chernobyl Diaries

BCDF Pictures,

Jane Fonda, Catherine Keener, Elizabeth Olsen, Nat Wolff, Chace Crawford, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Marissa O’Donnell, Rosanna Arquette, Kyle MacLachlan

Diane (Catherine Keener) is a powerful lawyer, and a mother, and facing a sudden divorce. The only way out seems to be to go home to stay with her estranged “hippie” mother, Grace (Jane Fonda). The two have not spoken in years, but the kids are enthralled with their free spirit, pot smoking, hippie grandma, much more to the chagrin of their straight laced mother. This is a story of family togetherness, despite the odds, and a chance for a daughter and her mother to find some common ground and come together after years apart.

This isn’t a really great film. Jane Fonda has played a few rather clever roles as a bitch mother in law type person which were pretty good. In this one she is a true hippie who has never left the pot smoking and the free love behind. But Diane is wound a bit too tight as well, and she needs to loosen up a bit. Naturally the kids side with the fun grandma. It strikes me a funny, as a child of the 60’s growing up and going to college in the “flower power”, “love-in” generation (and missing it all for the most part growing up in a back woods small town that missed the whole thing) we knew we were embarrassing our behavior. Most of my generation left it behind. I can’t forget the leader of the “hippie” movement in my college who because an executive for J.C. Penney and wore a suit and carried a briefcase by the last 70’s. But at the same time, some of our generation didn’t leave it behind and are still living this way today, 50 years later! This was part of the plot of the second “Meet the Parents” film, “Meet the Fockers”. The Greg’s family were certainly left over hippies. Jane Fonda is ideal to play a role like this, but it does come off a bit fake, I’m afraid. She knows what she’s supposed to do, but seems really uncomfortable playing it. But the point I was trying to make is that those of our generation who stayed in the tie dyed shirts and bell bottom pants gave us the odd situation of both embarrassing the hell out of our parents, but of embarrassing our kids as well.

Anyway, this is light film, and has some funny characters, but the relationships are kind of strained, and never feel quite natural, and the whole thing is somewhat underwhelming for sure. I did not really enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I did not really hate it, and it has some good moments, but for the most part, I felt it fell short of the mark. It could have been a lot better.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog