Monster House 4. What an interesting movie. I'm left with the gnawing notion that I'm not quite sure if it was a too-childish adult movie or a too-sophisticated kids movie. The animation style bugged me throughout and I eventually realized that it really shouldn't have been an animated movie at all (except for the house itself, of course). If it had actually been a live action movie, I think it might have more successfully walked that line between kids' movie and adult fare. I also think I heard it get touted so much by critics that it got too much of a build up, and I felt a little let down. Fun sure, with some nice plot twists, but neither wild enough nor cool enough.  ¶ 12:07 AM 0 comments

  Zoom 1. It's a "kids with super powers" movie.... certainly falls within my prefered genres. I'd seen the commercials and, fully realizing it might be a little more kid-centric than Sky High, thought "how bad could it be?" The answer is, sadly, pretty bad. Oh, I was somewhat entertained, but that was definately despite the writer and director... who, for all I know, was Tom Green off his Ritlin. It was obvious throughout this movie that the writer and/or director didn't give a shit about this thing. The story was incredibly choppy, the dialog was the Disney Channel at its worst, and the scenes made me feel like the director had somewhere else to be. ("Take one! ... Cut. ... Fine. ... Let's move on.") It's a shame, really, because it could have been a much more enjoyable movie. The basic plot was sound, and they'd managed to put together a cast who, under the right circumstances, might have done something magically fun (Tim Allen, Courtney Cox, Chevy Chase, Rip Torn, and an assortment of cute teens and preteens). Instead we got directionless meandering. I'm not going to pick this movie to pieces as, honestly, it's simply not worth it and I wouldn't know where to start. But I was left with one aching curiousity.... There's a fat kid who can expand any part of his body, who's obviously a normal sized actor-kid in a fat suit, who you figure at some point is going to become normal sized in the movie.... but he never does! The "expansion" is all done with cheap CGI, so what's up with the fat suit?? Why not just cast a fat actor? Was the director sadistic and just didn't like the kid?

Catch this in a couple months on the Disney Channel if there's nothing more interesting on the Weather Channel.  ¶ 6:11 PM 0 comments