Ed's Review Dot Com

2oth Century Fox

Dwayne Johnson (don’t call him “The Rock” anymore), Ashley Judd, Stephen Merchant, Ryan Sheckler, Seth MacFarlane, Julie Andrews

The most amazing thing about Tooth Fairy is that it DIDN’T SUCK!  Yeah, I was sure it was going to.  But I figured I HAD to see it, so I put it at the top of my queue, and lo and behold, it didn’t suck!

Derek Thompson (ex-Rock) is a minor league hockey player.  We’ll not really a player because his primary role is knocking the teeth out of the opposing team.  Hence, he carries the nickname  “The Tooth Fairy”.  He’s not a very nice guy, and he has a bad habit of dashing kid’s dreams.  “You wanna be a hockey player?  You know what?  There are a thousand kids better than you, and you don’t have a chance”.  That kind of meaness.  But when he dashes a little kids belief in the Tooth Fairy, he’s in for a harsh sentence.  30 days as an actually Tooth Fairy.

Now you’ve seen the previews and ads.  Dewayne Johnson in a pink tutu with wings.  But it’s got heart.   He starts out half hearted and doing a terrible job, but little by little finds out there is some value in having dreams.  And he begins to learn his lesson.

Now why the bat signal never came on when Batman was in the shower or something, I never understood.  He’s always standing there waiting for the bat signal to come on.   But Derek isn’t so lucky.   The pager goes off at the worst possible times.  Maybe that’s part of the punishment.

Now this is not a movie that a bunch of guys would rent, crack open a six pack, and spend Saturday night watching.   It’s a kids movie after all.  But if you have something you’d like to watch WITH your kids, this is great choice.   The kids will love it, but there’s plenty to watch for the ladies and men in the adult kingdom as well.  The ladies will love wathing Derek deal with the complications in his love life, and the guys will enjoy some of the uncomfortable situations that are really funny, and some decent hockey action too.  All in all, it’s a great family togetherness film, and believe it or not, it really DIDN’T SUCK!    Julie Anderews was a pleasure to watch too.  Her role, though small, adds a great deal to the film.

Enjoy.

2oth Century Fox

George Clooney, Bill Murray, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson

Mr Fox is fantastic.  He’s also a born thief.  He went on the wagon to please the Mrs. Fantastic Fox, but can’t help himself from stealing chickens from the biggest, weirdest, baddest, nastiest farmers around.

Reviewers are raving about “the best film of 2009” and “On par with anything out of Pixar”.  Hunh?  Maybe these guys were in the production company or something.   This is NOT the film I watched.  The one I saw was mediocre at best.

I grew up watching stop motion animation, and it was pretty cool back in the day.  And it’s nice to see it well done again like this is.  In fact, if you don’t know it, you almost accept it as normal 3D animation and don’t think about it being “stop motion”.

My problem was with the story.  Some loved it.  I was just pretty bored and disappointed in it.  Mr. Fox is a split personality.  He’s trying to be good but just can’t.  The farmers retaliate and he screws the whole band, so he has to try to save everybody and live happily ever after.  Oh well, that’s what happens, but it’s hard to care about it.  It’s kind of ironic when the fox is acting like a human (talking to his lawyer) and still thieving chickens.   What they talk about it is kind of funny, but nothing as heart wrenching or laugh out loud funny as other better movies.  I think this is a mid range film, worth it if you’re really a fan of stop motion, or if you’re a cartoon junkie, but if you have limited time, I would suggest something else.  Certainly Toy Story3, Dispicable Me, and many others are much better.