Movie Review: The Boss Baby

The Boss Baby ** ½ / *****

Directed by: Tom McGrath.

Written by: Michael McCullers based on the book by Marla Frazee.

Starring: Alec Baldwin (Boss Baby), Steve Buscemi (Francis Francis), Jimmy Kimmel (Dad), Lisa Kudrow (Mom), Tobey Maguire (Adult Tim / Narrator), Miles Christopher Bakshi (Tim), James McGrath (Wizzie / Elvis Impersonator), Conrad Vernon (Eugene), ViviAnn Yee (Staci), Eric Bell Jr. (Triplets), David Soren (Jimbo).

 

I read a story book – or two, or three – every night to my two girls (ages 5 and 3) – and it’s a wonderful time. The best kids’ books have a wonderful premise, and clever execution, and are over in the span of five minutes or so. It may feel natural for Hollywood – bereft of ideas as we’re always told – to adapt these children’s books into movies – it works for novels, right? – But more often than not it doesn’t. The Boss Baby is the latest example of a clever children’s book that doesn’t work when it’s blown up from a book that takes five minutes to read, into a movie you spend 98 minutes watching. That’s a lot of additional material to come up with – and to be honest, the strain shows. Yes, The Boss Baby has a fine premise – as a book, I’m sure its good (I’m going to look for it to read to my girls) – but as a movie, it’s one of those mild distractions for kids and adults alike, that never really gets off the ground.

 

The premise though is killer – cast Alec Baldwin as the voice of a baby wearing a business suit, who shows up one day and treats his new family like a demanding boss treats his employees – conducting meetings at all hours, making unreasonable demands on time, etc. Poor seven-year-old brother Tim sees this new arrival like an employee would see the company who just bought out his own – as someone who may look to replace him, because after all, he’s become redundant. Then Tim discovers that his new brother isn’t what he seems at all – he isn’t a regular baby, he’s really from the Management Group at Babycorp. (located in heaven – it’s kind of confusing, but the movie doesn’t dwell on it, so let’s move on) – and he’s been sent to spy on Tim’s parents – because they work for Puppy co. – and puppies are stealing all the love from babies – and as they are about to launch a new “product” that could eliminate babies forever. All of this is narrated by a grown up Tim (Tobey Maguire) – who tells the story like you would to a child, which I think it probably a smart choice (it makes the leaps in logic seem plausible, because it’s clearly all “dad humor” – the type of thing I pull on my girls all the time (the five year old is onto me though).

 

Baldwin is a pure joy in the role – the type of casting that is obvious and inspired at the same time, because he truly is the only voice you’d accept here. Yes, he’s basically doing Jack Donaghy as a baby, but that premise itself is funny. When the movie works at all, it’s because of Baldwin, who leans into all the references to 30 Rock or Glengarry Glen Ross (he knows why he was cast) with apparent glee. It’s too bad that the film has to force this premise and character into a plot at all – especially a not inspired one about a rivalry between puppies and babies, and that casts Steve Buscemi as the voice of the evil corporate bad guy – that casting is as obvious as Baldwin’s, but not nearly as inspired, mainly because no matter how good a voice actor Buscemi is (and Monsters Inc. and Monster House prove he’s great) – he cannot do anything with what he’s given.

 

The Boss Baby is a Dreamworks animation film, and it shows. Throughout the years, Dreamworks often has inspired premises for their films, but fall down in the execution – taking the easy way out, and rushing through production, when a few more passes at the screenplay stage could have turned out something better. The Boss Baby isn’t a horrible film – both my girls liked it well enough, and it didn’t annoy me or give me a headache like the worst animated films for kids do – but that’s not very high praise, is it?

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: Megamind

Megamind ***
Directed by: Tom McGrath.
Written By: Alan J. Schoolcraft & Brent Simons.
Starring: Will Ferrell (Megamind), Brad Pitt (Metro Man), Tina Fey (Roxanne Ritchi), Jonah Hill (Tighten), David Cross (Minion), J.K. Simmons (Warden), Ben Stiller (Bernard).

A super villain cannot really exist unless he has a superhero to duel with. Life would become too boring if he was simply able to roll over everyone in their path with their superior intellect, strength or weaponry. This is the problem that poor Megamind faces early in his movie. He may not have been born to be a supervillian, but given his childhood it’s not really a surprise that he became one. As his galaxy was being eaten by a black hole, his parents sent him to earth in one of those pods – unfortunately another child from another planet was also sent at the same time. While Megamind is blue and has a huge head, and ends up being raised in a prison, the other child looks human, although incredibly attractive, and is raise by rich people. Megamind cannot seem to do anything right, while the other kid does everything perfectly – and can fly to boot. They hate each other from the beginning, and when they grow up, they start a war in Metro City, where poor Megamind always loses to his foe – now known as Metro Man. Megamind’s only friend is Minion, his fish. But then a strange thing happens – Megamind wins. Metro Man is killed, and no one can stand in Megamind’s way anymore. He can everything he always wanted – and he is miserable.

Megamind, the movie, feels right at home in the superhero genre. It is a bright and colorful animated film, that knows the rules of the genre and has a lot of fun with them. It doesn’t reach the heights of The Incredibles a few years ago, or even Despicable Me from earlier this year which also centered on a supervillian, but it’s fun in its own right.

I particularly loved the voice work in the film. Will Ferrell is certainly having fun as Megamind – I love the way he slightly mispronounced words (like Metrcity instead of Metro City). He is wonderful as the supervillian suffering delusions of grandeur, and relishing in his own evil, and he also does a nice transition when Megamind finds his conscience. Brad Pitt, who I think may be doing an impression of his friend George Clooney, is great as Metro Man as well – all perfect and shiny, it can’t be easy to be a hero like him. I love the overly dramatic David Cross as Megamind’s Minion, appropriately named Minion (which, I presume coincidently, is what Gru’s minions were called in Despicable Me). Jonah Hill is quite good as a loser cameraman who becomes a hero – and then a villain – pretty quickly. And Tina Fey is perhaps best of all as a spunky female reporter – aren’t they all.

Megamind is not a great animated film. It is a little too by the numbers for that, and as I mentioned, the film doesn’t reach the thrilling heights of The Incredibles, and doesn’t quite melt your heart like Despicable Me. And yet, it is a film that I think is a must see for super hero fans. So many of the superhero movies now take themselves so seriously – even great ones like The Dark Knight. It’s nice to see a movie in this genre with a sense of humor about itself. And Megamind fits the bill.