After moving his family back to his hometown to be with his friends and their kids, Lenny (Adam Sandler), finds out that between old bullies, new bullies, schizo bus drivers, drunk cops on skis, and 400 costumed party crashers sometimes crazy follows you. From: IMDb.com
After moving his family back to his hometown to be with his friends and their kids, Lenny (Adam Sandler), finds out that between old bullies, new bullies, schizo bus drivers, drunk cops on skis, and 400 costumed party crashers sometimes crazy follows you. From: IMDb.com
Directed by: Dennis Dugan
Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock and others
The all-star comedy cast from Grown Ups returns (with some exciting new additions) for more summertime laughs. Lenny (Adam Sandler) has relocated his family back to the small town where he and his friends grew up. This time around, the grown ups are the ones learning lessons from their kids on a day notoriously full of surprises: the last day of school. From: IMDb.com
Directed by: Dennis Dugan
Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock and others
Even though this movie is cute and harmless to watch, I just can't call
it a very successful one. I can see what it tried to do and be like and
this all works in some parts but more often it just doesn't.
I really have some mixed feelings about this movie. Can't say that i
hated it and I quite enjoyed it in parts but its approach just doesn't
always work out too well. It's a movie that tries to be a realistic
drama about life, involving family but it inserts some crazy and highly
unlikely situations and characters, that just don't blend in very well
with the movie its story and the approach it was taking. It's an
approach that could work out very well for a movie of this sort, as
long as all of its situations remain somewhat realistic, which just too
often isn't the case for this movie.
It even makes the movie somewhat tiresome after a while. You start
wondering were it all be heading at and what the overall point and
purpose of the entire movie is. Luckily the movie doesn't ever get
annoying, so it still remains a watchable enough little film.
It certainly has some charm to it, which is the saving grace for this
movie. Cute is a good way to describe this movie, that luckily doesn't
ever become a bittersweet, cuddly one. It's deliberately small and
simplistic with its story, characters and settings, which makes this an
all the more warm movie to watch. I can certainly see some people still
really enjoying this movie, especially females in their 30-40's, which
this movie seems to aim towards.
I definitely like Chris Rock better in this sort of roles, instead of
flat out comedy type of roles. Sure, this movie is still being a comedy
but a far more subtle one, that also definitely requires its actors to
do a whole lot of acting. So really, even if you just can't stand Chris
Rock, you are still able to really like him and his performance in this
movie. He doesn't goes overboard with anything and it's being a really
humble and human-like performance by him.
It still seemed like an odd choice to me to do this movie mostly in
French. It's a movie set in New York but yet Julie Delpy manages to
still turn this into mostly a French movie. Nothing wrong with that of
course but I just feel that this will scare off a lot of people from
ever watching this movie.
It's a fun and sweet enough little movie but also nothing more than
just that really.
Marion (Delpy) has broken up with Jack (Two Days in Paris) and now lives in New York with their child. But when her family decides to come visit her, she's unaware that the different cultural background held by her new American boyfriend Mingus (Rock), her eccentric father, and her sister Rose who decided to bring her ex-boyfriend along for the trip, added to her upcoming photo exhibition, will make up for an explosive mix. From: IMDb.com
Directed by: Julie Delpy
Starring: Chris Rock, Julie Delpy, Albert Delpy and others
Having not been the biggest Madagascar movies fan, this third movie
came as a bit as a surprise to me. It was much better and more fun than
basically the two previous installments combined.
Thing I mostly disliked about the previous two movies, was that they
felt rushed and had two much jumping around and bright colors in it. It
didn't seemed all that worried about telling a fun story or having
impressive looking animations in them. They thought that simple,
childish actions and comedy would be enough to draw in a big crowd. And
I guess they were right about it but it didn't exactly made them good
movies to watch, at least not to me.
This third movie feels far more well thought out. Everything was
written far better and all of the comedy was being much more clever and
got executed better in the movie. I can even actually actually say that
most of the comedy and gags really hits and the movie had me smiling
and laughing, basically the whole time.
It also definitely makes all of the characters work out as much better
ones. In the previous movies they all had something annoying to them as
well but that's all truly gone in this film! They are all simply
amusing and the movie introduces a whole bunch of new fun characters as
well this time. This also has as a result that there is no time and
room for any distracting side-plots, featuring either Marty (Chris
Rock), Melman (David Schwimmer) or Gloria Jada Pinkett Smith. It makes
the movie feel more balanced and focused, since there aren't really too
many distractions from its main story this time around.
But even though that the story story is far better written, I really
can't say that the movie is being anything too brilliant with its
actual story. It's all being some incredibly formulaic stuff but at
least they knew how to make things fun and the story really doesn't
feel that important for the movie at all. The story leaves plenty of
room and opportunities for fun and gags, involving all of the
characters, new and old ones.
Also the animations seemed to be more smooth, as if they decided to
spend some more money and/or to put some more time into the making of
this movie this time. Some great choices, that helped me to finally
truly love a Madagascar movie and made me interested in actually seeing
more Madagascar movies now. I most definitely would rather want to see
another Madagascar movie than a new Shrek, that's for sure!
A really fun movie to watch, I'm surprised to say.
(Review originally written at 1 May 2009) To be honest, I though that the first "Madagascar" movie was often being more irritating than funny. "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" is a big improvement however, as this movie is actually really pleasant to watch. The comedy has been really improved for this movie. While "Madagascar" was often more relying on its fast pace and lots of screaming and jumping this movie actually builds up its comical moments, providing the movie with plenty of laughs. There are lots of returning comical characters for this movie, as well as some new ones. The most fun characters from the first movie luckily make their appearance again but it also gives the new characters their room. It makes the movie a bit full perhaps when it comes down to all of its characters. You can even wonder if Marty, Melman and Gloria were truly necessary for within this movie. They often cause the movie to slow down and drag at points, as the movie in essence is mostly about Alex who is getting reunited with his parents after a failed flight back to New York from Madagascar. The story, though also not much special, is more interesting and memorable than was the case with its predecessor. The movie has a villain, a love story and basically everything else in it that is required to make a typical enjoyable animated movie with. The movie is fun entertainment for the entire family. The animations still aren't exactly top-notch looking when comparing it to different genre movies but in this movie this gets actually less distracting since the movie is simply almost constantly so fun to watch. The animations of course also still are an improvement from its 2005 predecessor but it really visually isn't the best the genre has to offer this present day. All of the big voice-actor names are back for this movie as well such as Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen and Cedric the Entertainer. The movie its cast list got expanded this time with Bernie Mac, Alec Baldwin and Will i Am. It was one of Bernie Mac's final roles and this movie got also dedicated to his memory. A definite improvement over the first movie! 7/10 Watch trailer
This is a real pleasant animated movie, that doesn't really stand out, but surely will give you a good time while watching it.
Because Jerry Seinfeld is foremost a stand-up comedian, a lot of jokes in this movie are also verbal ones, rather than visual ones. It makes this movie a little different from the usual animated one, of which so many get released these days. Not of course that there are not any visual jokes, there are still also plenty of those and as well some typical cartoonish slapstick like moments.
Some plot lines are introduced but they are not wrapped up properly or just abandoned after a while. It makes the movie its story, especially in the second halve, a bit of a disjointed one. As if they were just still chronologically coming up with the story during the animation process. Same goes for some of the characters. As the movie progresses some of them are being introduced as new 'big' characters but then suddenly disappear again out of the story completely without making a relevant enough addition to the movie as a whole.
Just like the previous Dreamworks animated movie "Madagascar", the movie it's animations aren't among their finest in the field. It's at times a pretty simplistic looking movie, without too much details or complicated shots. It's as if Dreamworks only wants to spend some real money and their expertise on the Shrek-serials.
Still pretty amazing how many well known people lend their voice to this movie. Also some people you wouldn't expect it from such as Barry Levinson, Sting, Oprah Winfrey and Ray Liotta in an hilarious cameo as himself. But above all, it of course still is a Jerry Seinfeld movie. Also John Goodman and Patrick Warburton plays some fun parts. My only wish would be that Patrick Warburton's role was just a bit bigger.
Not the sort of movie you'll still talk about 10 years from now but I simply had a good time while I was watching it.
