Ed's Review Dot Com

Illumination Entertainment, Universal Pictures,

Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Betty White, Ed Helms, Danny DeVito, Rob Riggle

Ted (Zac Efron) sees the girl of his dreams, red haired Audrey (Taylor Swift) who is a fan of trees. But in the town of ThneedVille, there are no plants, no flowers, no vegetables, and none of the beautiful Truffula Trees. So Audrey has painted some one her house. Infatuated with Audrey, Ted sets out to find a tree for her. He is told to visit the once-ler who lives in a tower outside town. The Once-ler tells his story about how all the trees were lost and a magical creature called The Lorax who speaks for the trees.

This digitally animated film is based on The Lorax, a book by Dr. Seuss. Naturally a lot of filler material had to be added to a small children’s book, to make it a full length film. There are 4 musical numbers which help to fill it in, and an added back story about a greedy little guy, Mr. O’Hare who took advantage of the Once-ler’s mistake to build the artificial city so that he could sell fresh air. But mostly the movie is very faithful to the book.

The Lorax is a somewhat darker story than most Dr. Seuss stories. But it’s a good thoughtful tale of waste and greed and conservation. I often wondered how far to the left the dear Doctor was, but I think he wasn’t a radical tree hugger. I think he was a reasonable thoughtful man who truly wanted to tell good stories with good values. And certainly they are entertaining. So I don’t think this is a “think green” piece. I think kids will love this story for the colors and the characters. The music is pretty good. For the older folks, the character of Grammy Norma (Betty White) is really funny. She has some of the best lines in the film. The world of Dr. Seuss is brought to the screen in beautiful 3-D.

I really enjoyed this film. It’s fun, and interesting. It’s clever and smart. It’s good for the whole family. There are a lot of critics of this film, mostly by those who haven’t seen it yet. Like many things, people jump on the bandwagon to hate it before they see it. But after seeing it (I went in thinking it was going to be a disaster) I found myself won over. It was a whole lot better than I expected, and I hope people will give it a chance.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

New Line Cinema

Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Hector Elizondo, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Carter Jenkins, Ashton Kucher, Queen Latifah, Taylor Lautner, George Lopez, Shirley MacLaine, Emma Roberts, Julia Roberts, Taylor Swift

Ok, I listed about 10% of the cast.    I don’t know if I’ll still have room for the review.  🙂    Never since It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, have they hauled out this many stars for a single movie.  If you’ve never seen that one (how could you not?), go get it. It’s a lot funnier than this is.

Of course it was made to be seen on Valentines Day, and it was made in LA, so it’s more of a Valentine present to LA than to the public.   This is a lot of fluff mixed in with a lot of sweet, a lot of tears, a lot of hearbreak, a lot of “Aw gee” moments.  There are a zillion stories going on, and you have to try to follow all of them.  Every trick in the book is going to be used to bring everyone together in the end.  But bring them together they do.

If this film suffers from anything, it’s from trying to do TOO MUCH.  Maybe a couple of the stories could have been left out, and it would be a little easier to follow.  But since they put them in, you just have to try to follow.

All stages of love are represented here.  And they all end up fitting together.  It’s not classic film making and it’s not deep or thought provoking, but it is a delightful romantic comedy.  If you hate romantic comedies, then you might be one of the haters of this film.  But if you don’t expect Sheakespear, and just go with the flow, it’s a cute, suprisingly funny little Valentines Day romp that will not disappoint.