Cryptozoo

This is weird. I mean, my thoughts in composing this review are weird, in that I hardly know what to say about this movie—but “weird" also simply applies to the film itself. It’s an animated story about bizarre creatures, bizarre humans—who are perhaps even weirder than the cryptids of the story—and a series of events that comes across as the product of a truly stoned-out-of-one’s gourd mind. The story is strange to the point of being ridiculous, the animation style is, to put it mildly, eccentric, and the whole thing comes across as a senior thesis from someone who is a film major at the most absurdly liberal college in the solar system. So it’s unexpected, to say the least. I don’t want to be cruel, because clearly someone put a lot of effort and creativity, of a sort, into making this movie, so I won’t give it a HISS. But you have to be pretty stoned to see this thing ascend to even MEOW territory. Maybe, as the movie itself suggests, there’s a reason that mysterious creatures remain obscure and mostly unseen. Make of that what you will. 

Sausage Party

Is this a case of the munchies gone out of control? It sure seems like it. With Seth Rogan’s meaty, stoned fingers all over this movie, one would be forgiven for assuming that’s the case. The film does, in fact, display a certain amount of impaired judgement; everything that the filmmakers assumed would be riotously funny only hits that mark on rare occasions. There are a number of good, laugh-out-loud moments, but probably not as much as these folks were expecting. While I’m not one to shy away from crude humor, this movie overdoes it. A bit of well-placed smuttiness can work wonders for a comedy, but in the volume displayed here it becomes overwhelming, almost numbing to the funny bone. Finally, this movie shows the downside of the now ubiquitous product placements in films; the generic nature of the food products that star in this show--a once standard industry practice--now comes across as weirdly artificial and distracting. You pretty much expect to see brand names on all the featured foods, and it actually hurts the film that they’re not there. (Contrast with the Toy Story movies, where the familiar toy brands and models provide shortcuts to the audience recognizing the characters and their natures.) Overall, there’s laughs here, but not enough, and too many places where things just go wrong. Making a truly adult animated comedy was worth a shot, but this one ultimately misses the mark.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

After five minutes, I really wanted to hate this movie. It seemed determined to prove that video games really do make you stupid. Plus it seems to declare, in giant flaming letters, the end of the "Michael Cera era"--you get the worn out feeling of watching the same guy playing the same character in the same kind of movie...And yet, somehow, the movie finds away, through all of its visual hokum, its all-too-clever hipster/millenial street cred, and all of the reworked Matrix and Kill Bill moves, to rise above and deliver enough wit, good cheer and fun times to make for a movie that's impossible not to enjoy. A neat trick, and worthy of our appreciation.

Superbad

This one comes out of the gate like a house afire, then glides down the back stretch and final turn with a little bit of fade. Still, you get a comedy that delivers a lot of great, laugh out loud moments and finishes near the top of the leader board. For a teen comedy, it's hard to expect more than that.

Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind

This is worth it just to see some of those old Gong Show acts coming back for one last wretched appearance. As for the story, you can't help but smirk over the "is it true or not" aspects of Chuck Barris' "unauthorized autobiography." It's preposterous, but just preposterous enough that it may be true. Meanwhile, first time director George Clooney proves himself to be...a first time director, with lots of self-aware camera angles and other directorial hooey. But none of that is too intrusive, and does not get in the way of an enjoyable story

Frequency

The premise requires a lot of "go-along" goodwill from the audience--modern day cop talks to his long-dead father via ham radio, thanks to ionic storms--but get past that and the story really works. Exciting and touching at the same time.