Movie Review: The Addams Family

The Addams Family ** ½ / *****

Directed by: Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon.

Written by: Matt Lieberman and Pamela Pettler based on characters created by Charles Addams.

Starring: Oscar Isaac (Gomez Addams), Charlize Theron (Morticia Addams), Chloë Grace Moretz (Wednesday Addams), Finn Wolfhard (Pugsley Addams), Nick Kroll (Uncle Fester), Allison Janney (Margaux Needler), Bette Midler (Grandma), Elsie Fisher (Parker Needler), Snoop Dogg (It), Catherine O'Hara (Grandma Frump), Martin Short (Grandpa Frump), Jenifer Lewis (Great Auntie Sloom), Tituss Burgess (Glenn), Pom Klementieff (Layla / Kayla).  

 

When The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993) came out in the 1990s, the studio counted on parents who were nostalgic for the 1960s sitcom version of this cheerfully spooky family to bring their kids to the theater to see the updated version – and now, nearly 30 years later, the studio is counting on those of us who were kids in the 1990s – and loved those movies – to bring their kids to this new animated version. I am often amazed by how often those two movies – especially Addams Family Values – comes up on Film Twitter, etc. among people of my generation – not because they weren’t good – they were very good – but because there were so many movies from that time period that have been left in the dustbin of our memories. It’s odd what we develop nostalgic attachments to – and unpredictable.

 

The key difference between those live-action movies of the 1990s and this new animated version is that Barry Sonnefeld and company tried to do something different with the family – including given them a whip-smart script, full of great one-liners, delivered by a great cast (my favorite – as all right people agree – was Christina Ricci as Wednesday) and this new version is content to kind of phone it all in. Perhaps it’s best summed up in the casting of Nick Kroll as the voice of Uncle Fester who it seems essentially showed up to record his lines and decided that just doing the same voice as Coach Steve on Big Mouth would be good enough. The whole movie smacks of people saying, that’s “good enough”. It didn’t actively annoy me like many of the worst animated films this year did – the time passes pleasantly enough – but it’s such a lazy, warmed over message - the people who outwardly look like monsters are really the nice ones, and the ones who outwardly look normal can be horrible – that you wonder why they didn’t just didn’t hire Tim Burton to direct it and be done with it.

 

The opening scene of the movie is the midnight wedding of Gomez and Morticia (Oscar Isaac and Charlize Theron) who then have to run away – again – from locals wielding pitchforks and torches. They are determined to find the most miserable place to live – and find it – in an abandoned mental institute, on a dark and stormy hill, covered in mist and dog, and isolated from the rest of the world. They live their happily – raising their two kids into their tween years – Wednesday (Chloe Grace Mortez) and Pugsley (Finn Wolfhard) in isolation. Eventually though, the outside world comes knocking. Margaux Needler (Allison Janney) who has one of those home renovation shows, and has founded a new community called Assimilation – discovers this dark mansion on the hill overlooking her town – and is determined to make it look “normal”. This coincides with the extended Addams family all coming to the Mansion for a family writ of passage for Pugsley – that he is scared her won’t be able to perform, and Wednesday’s decision to stop being home schooled and head into the public school in town instead.

 

For the most part, The Addams Family is at least well animated. All the characters are exaggerated versions of the family you already know and love. They all look good – in particular Lurch, the Frankenstein’s monsters type butler, and Wednesday herself – with the nice touch of her braids ending in little nooses. The film has some clever touches around the edges, and it’s still fun (if obvious) to see the family do the opposite of what the rest of us do (like adding dust to the house when they dust, etc.).

 

And yet, the whole thing is just too obvious, and really lacks energy. It seems like the filmmakers absorbed the lessons that people liked the one liners from the 1990s film, and so every line here seems designed to be a one liner. The film also feels the need to include everything anyone may have wanted from the old films – all the characters, etc. – so the film ends up feeling both overstuffed, but lackadaisical.

 

It’s certainly a better time at the movies than The Angry Birds Movies 2, The Secret Life of Pets 2, Ugly Dolls or Wonder Park from this year (you can tell I have kids – because if I didn’t, there was no need to see any of those). But it’s still a rather lazy film. Kids deserve better than this. I doubt they’ll be able to reboot this franchise again in 2050 for people like my daughters to bring their kids to, if this is the best they can come up with.

Movie Review: Sausage Party

Sausage Party

Directed by: Greg Tiernan & Conrad Vernon.

Written by: Kyle Hunter & Ariel Shaffir & Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg and Jonah Hill.

Starring: Seth Rogen (Frank), Kristen Wiig (Brenda), Jonah Hill (Carl), Bill Hader (Firewater/El Guaco), Michael Cera (Barry), James Franco (Druggie), Danny McBride (Honey Mustard), Craig Robinson (Mr. Grits), Paul Rudd (Darren), Nick Kroll (Douche), David Krumholtz (Vash), Edward Norton (Sammy Bagel Jr.), Salma Hayek (Teresa), Anders Holm (Troy), Scott Underwood (Twink/Gum).

 

Sausage Party is clearly an animated comedy aimed at 13-year old boys, or those of those who can still connect with that inner 13-year old. It is crude and rude, contains all sorts of vulgar sex jokes and plays on easy ethnic stereotypes. It opens with a song co-written by Marc Shaiman – which filled me with hope, as he is the man who is (partly) responsible for the songs of South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut and The Book of Mormon – and while the opening song doesn’t quite reach those heights, it’s still a highlight of the film – one that is sadly not repeated, as there are no other original songs in the film. Most of the jokes in the film are fairly obvious – and sometimes, a little labored, and if I’m being honest, very few actually made me laugh-out-loud. I will admit though, that throughout the movie I was smiling – the movie is consistently amusing – and at only 89 minutes, the time passes enjoyably enough. Had I been 13, Sausage Party would be one of my favorites of all time – but I’m 34, so it was merely okay.

 

The film mainly takes place in a giant grocery store – where the food starts out every day singing about The Great Beyond – and the Gods who are going to take them there. It focuses on a package of sausages, and the buns right next to them – especially Frank (Seth Rogen), a sausage, and Brenda (Kristen Wiig), a bun – they are hoping they will be chosen together by the Gods, so Frank can finally get all up in that tight bun. They assume that life outside the store is a paradise – never suspecting that the only thing that awaits them is a painful death.

 

Most of the runtime flashes back and forth between the journey Frank and Brenda take across the store (there is a shopping cart crash, and then end up outside their packages – and want to make their way back to their aisle – and have to do so along a bickering Bagel and Flatbread, standing in Israel and Palestine), and the reality of the Great Beyond, as seen by the stunted sausage, Barry (Michael Cera) – who ends up with a drug addict.

 

The film is a rather obvious religious allegory – with the “non-perishables” admitting that they made the whole story of the Great Beyond up, to make life easier in the store. If God didn’t exist, you would have to invent him after all - and that’s basically the gist of things here. The film, which has five credited writers, including Rogen and Evan Goldberg, his writing/directing partner of other films (like Superbad, This is the End and The Interview). They are capable of better, smarter comedies – or at least comedies that combine the idiotic and smart together better than this film does.

 

Still, as silly and stupid as much of Sausage Party is – it is also amusing from beginning to end. The jokes come, fast and furious, and enough of them land keep you having a good time. The movie takes the path of least resistance for most of its jokes – but even if they are obvious, they are still funny. The voice cast is consistently excellent – I quite enjoyed Edward Norton doing a Woody Allen impression as the bagel for example, and the straight forward animation is effective – especially at making humans seem even more gross than we actually are.

 

This summer has been short on good comedies – and while Sausage Party doesn’t rise to the level of its influences, nor even Rogen and Goldman’s best work, it’s still a good way to spend 89, tasteless, amusing minutes at the movie theater – although, more likely, most people will either see the film at pre-teen boy sleepovers with their buddies after their parents go to bed, or while stoned in a dorm room. In those viewing conditions, maybe the film is a comic masterpiece.

DVD Review: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted
Directed by: Eric Darnell & Tom McGrath & Conrad Vernon.
Written by: Eric Darnell and Noah Baumbach.
Starring: Ben Stiller (Alex), Chris Rock (Marty), David Schwimmer (Melman), Jada Pinkett Smith (Gloria), Sacha Baron Cohen (Julien), Cedric the Entertainer (Maurice), Andy Richter (Mort), Tom McGrath (Skipper / First Policeman), Frances McDormand (Captain Chantel DuBois), Jessica Chastain (Gia), Bryan Cranston (Vitaly), Martin Short (Stefano), Chris Miller (Kowalski), Christopher Knights (Private), Conrad Vernon (Mason / Second Policeman), Vinnie Jones (Freddie the Dog), Steve Jones (Jonesy the Dog), Nick Fletcher (Frankie the Dog), Paz Vega (Horses).

The two best moments in Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted are the only two moments in the movie that actually slows the pace down at all, and doesn’t try to give you sensory overload with a non-stop blast of color, and dialogue spewed so fast between the characters you can never quite tell what is supposed to be funny and what isn’t. The first of these moments happens right at the beginning, when Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller) has a nightmare than the penguins he, and his group of friends from the Central Park Zoo still trapped in Africa, have put all their faith into will never come back and rescue them. He envisions growing old in Africa, and having an empty life. The moment is heartfelt, and may even resonate with some older members of the audience. The second moment comes late in the movie, when the animals finally arrive back in Central Park, and realizes they don’t really want to be there anymore – now that they have seen the world, the Zoo just doesn’t offer them the same rewards. You really cannot go home again.

If Madagascar 3 had more moments like that, then the movie could have been something a lot more than what it is – a diversion for kids, who will undoubtedly enjoy the non-stop barrage of action and color, but pretty tedious for the adults in the crowd. Madagascar 3 seems to want to do as much as possible as quickly as possible – so by the end of the film’s not quite 90 minute running time, after countless chase sequences and dazzling high wire circus acts, that foregoes any connection with even the slightest bit of reality, I was exhausted. The damn movie never lets up for a second.

The basic plot concerns Alex and his friends wanting to get out of Africa, and back to the Central Park Zoo. They have been waiting for months for the penguins to return from Monte Carlo with their winnings, which will get them home – so long that they decide not to wait anymore and just head there themselves. They get there, surprisingly quickly, and then almost immediately are spotted by the cruel animal control captain Chantel DuBois, who wants Alex’s head for her wall. They pull off an improbable escape, and end up on a train full of circus animals, heading to Rome and then London – where a big time American circus promoter will be in attendance, and if they do well, they’ll all be headed for America! But of course, the circus is a joke, and it’s up to Alex and his friends to give these once great circus animals their confidence back – and dodge DuBois, who will not denied her lion head, even though she clearly has no jurisdiction most of the places she goes to.

Surprisingly, the screenplay was co-written by Noah Baumbach – who normally makes his own indie movies like Greenberg, Margot at the Wedding, The Squid and the Whale or combines efforts with Wes Anderson on screenplays like The Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. I can only imagine that Baumbach wrote this one for the money, because there is nothing in this movie that has his normal wit or emotional underpinnings. The dialogue in this movie is worse than the other two Madagascar movies – hardly great to begin with – and favors a lot of rapid fire jokes, than occasionally make you chuckle, but mainly inspires groans.

There is a reason why Pixar movies are more critically acclaimed than most animated films aimed at children – and that’s because Pixar (normally) spends as much perfecting the screenplay as it does with its brilliant animation – and because Pixar doesn’t treat audiences like their idiots. A movie like Madagascar 3 simply wants to be a feast for the eyes – some brightly colored crap to amuse kids for a little while. On that level, I guess, the movie succeeds. Kids obviously like the movie. But for adults looking for something for them will simply end up bored by the movie.

Movie Review: Monsters vs. Aliens

Monsters vs. Aliens *** ½
Directed By: Rob Letterman & Conrad Vernon
Written By: Maya Forbes & Wallace Wolodarsky and Rob Letterman and Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger.
Starring: Reese Witherspoon (Susan Murphy/Ginormica), Seth Rogen (B.O.B.), Hugh Laurie (Dr. Cockroach Ph.D.), Will Arnett (The Missing Link), Kiefer Sutherland (General W.R. Monger), Rainn Wilson (Gallaxhar), Stephen Colbert (President Hathaway), Paul Rudd (Derek Dietl), Julie White (Wendy Murphy), Jeffrey Tambor (Carl Murphy), Amy Poehler (Computer), Ed Helms (News Reporter), Renée Zellweger (Katie), John Krasinski (Cuthbert).

Monsters vs. Aliens is good old fashioned fun. It is a colorful, funny fast moving animated film, loaded with nods to science fiction films in the past – everything from cheesy old 1950s space invaders movies to Spielberg and Kubrick – that is both action packed enough to appeal to kids, and clever enough to appeal to adults, without slipping into the constant nudging and winking that marred the Shrek films. In short, it’s entertaining as hell.

The story opens with Susan (with the voice of Reese Witherspoon), as a normal Modesto woman on the day of her wedding to local TV weatherman Derek Dietel (Paul Rudd). A meteor strikes earth, landing directly on top of her. Instead of being crushed to death, the meteor gives Susan special powers. She grows into a giant, and has pure energy coursing through her veins. Of course, she is immediately brought down by the government, and put into a holding cell with other “monsters”. There is Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), a mad scientist, who turned himself into a life sized bug, The Missing Link (Will Arnett), a sea monster that is millions of years old, and Bob (Seth Rogen), a talking pile of blue sludge with no brain. Oh and there’s Insectasaurous, a giant caterpillar, who doesn’t talk, and gets easily distracted by bright lights. When an evil alien warlord, Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) discovers that the meteor that crashed on earth has the energy source he needs to clone a race of other Gallaxhar, he sends his giant robot underling to get it back, before heading to earth himself. Earth’s only chance to save itself, is to rely on these monsters to stop him.

And that’s the story in a nutshell – but then you probably figured that out based on the title. But the story isn’t really what holds our interest. It’s the characters, and the thrilling animation. 3-D is perhaps the perfect way to see a film like this. It’s a nod to the old 3-D movies that were popular in this genre in the 1950s, but done with expertise. True, I could have done without some of the more overt effects (a man playing with a paddle ball for example), which just reeks of showing off, but like Coraline earlier this year, the filmmakers use the 3-D not simply to create awe inspiring effects, but also to deepen the field. The effect is jaw dropping. The animation beyond that is also wonderful. The characters have a unique design to them, and the colors pop consistently throughout. In short, it’s a joy to simply watch the great animation.

The voice actors also do a terrific job. Witherspoon has a wholesome innocence in her voice that makes her perfect for Susan. Will Arnett has a cocksure arrogance about his voice as the Missing Link. Hugh Laurie Cackles manically as Dr. Cockroach. And best of all is Seth Rogen, who seems to be a natural playing a monster with no brain. They are supported by an excellent, evil Rainn Wilson, Kiefer Sutherland, going all George C. Scott in Dr. Strangelove as General W.R. Monger, the monsters jailer, and of course the great Stephen Colbert as the arrogant, asshole President, who seems just about as delusional as Colbert plays on his TV show nightly. That the screenplay is also constantly funny (apparently with some ad-libbing done by the cast), helps to keep the movie constantly entertaining.

Monsters vs. Aliens does not approach the level of genius on display in many of the Pixar movies (Wall-E for example), but then I’m not really sure the filmmakers are trying to do that. They are looking at making a loving homage to the science fiction films they love, and in that they succeed wonderfully. The score, by Henry Jackman, does a wonderful job at paying tribute to John Williams. The monsters themselves are, of course, based on the B-films Attack of the 50 Foot Women, The Fly, The Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Blob, and Galaxhar looks like he stepped off the pages of some 1950’s Amazing Stories book. The nods to E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind work wonderfully. But even if you aren’t interested in what the films that this movie pays homage to, Monsters vs. Aliens works wonderfully well as a film by itself. It is one of the most entertaining movies I have seen so far this year.