Review: "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2"

I didn't much care for the first "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," and the sequel is no improvement. The characters are flat, the story is unimaginative, and the humor is aimed straight at the pre-kindergarten crowd. If it weren't for the terrific animation and amazing creature designs, it would have nothing to recommend.

For those who don't remember the last flick: never-do-well inventor Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader) invented a machine that could spontaneously produce food out of water. Of course, it went berserk and began raining down house-sized cheeseburgers and pizza on his island home town. Flint and a crew of unlikely pals eventually shut it down.

The sequel picks up right where we left off, with the folks celebrating even as their dwellings are uninhabitable. Cue the arrival of Chester V (Will Forte), Flint's childhood hero, a scientist who creates all sorts of neat stuff while exuding a sense of superior cool. He's the best thing about the movie, with his weird body that has the rubbery quality of a yoga master and the studied mannerisms of Steve Jobs.

Chester's company, LIVE Corp., is a not-at-all disguised spoof of Apple. They offer to relocate the people of the town while things are tidied up. Meanwhile, Flint is enticed with a job offer, including the potential to join the ranks of the Thinkonauts -- Chester's geek elite.

But, wouldn't you know, it turns out Flint's food machine is still cranking out exotic eats, so he's recruited to go back and set things right.

Joining him out a sense of camaraderie are meteorologist/girlfriend Sam Sparks (Anna Faris), grumpy beetle-browed dad (James Caan), bully-turned-doofus-sidekick Brent (Andy Samberg), doctor/videographer Manny (Benjamin Bratt), police officer/acrobat Earl (Terry Crews) and Steve (Neil Patrick Harris), Flint's monkey assistant. New to the crew is Barb (Kristen Schaal), Chester's pushy orangutan assistant.

Things get interesting when they arrive on the island, where it turns out the food is not only still getting cranked out, it's actually taken on sentient animal form. So Flint and friends are chased by a cheeseburger spider (much scarier than it sounds) and buddy up with a walking, talking strawberry.

I just loved the huge menagerie of critters the filmmakers came up with -- it's a real feast for the eyes. There are hippos that resemble potatoes, leek brontosaurus, a taco tyrannosaur, "shrimpanzees," and a whole lot more.

I just wish co-directors Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn, and screenwriters John Francis Daley, Jonathan M. Goldstein and Erica Rivinoja, could've come up with a story and characters to match the excellent visuals. The people struggle to qualify as one-dimensional, since they each have exactly one defining characteristic.

As for the 3-D, I would advise you to skip the upcharge -- the special effects really aren't special enough that you need to see them splayed out across your field of vision.

My almost-3-year-old seemed reasonably engaged throughout the movie, but rarely laughed out loud or started chattering or clapping excitedly. "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" is competent, nice-looking entertainment for little ones that will soon be forgotten, and deserves to be.

Review: "The Dictator"

It goes almost without saying that "The Dictator" is not as funny as "Borat" or "Brüno," Sacha Baron Cohen's two other comedies about crude foreigners who come to American shores and haplessly inflict their outrageous behavior on the natives. Really, no other outcome was possible.

"Borat" had a fresh, vibrant feel coupled with a mad hatter's sense of spontaneity. (It actually received an Oscar nomination for best screenplay, which I do not take issue with beyond questioning how much of anything was written down before they started filming.) "Brüno," if not nearly as consistent, cleverly uncovered some uglier parts of pop culture.

But the big difference those two movies had from this new film is that they were, at least ostensibly, mockumentaies. That is to say, most of the people reacting to Baron Cohen's antics were regular rubes trotted in as unwitting victims.

The joke was not Brüno or Borat acting out, but the reaction it provoked .

"The Dictator" is fundamentally different in that it's a scripted comedy in which everyone is an actor hired to play a role. Instead, their reactions to General Aladeen, the despotic ruler of the fictional Middle Eastern country of Wadiya, are preordained. And that just drains all the juice out of the movie.

In large part, that's due to the fact that the supporting cast doesn't really have any reaction. Aladeen will say or do something incredibly racist, or sexist, or some other -ist, and the people just sort of stare at him quizzically like they're addled.

No one personifies this better than Zoey, Aladeen's would-be American love interest. A crunchy, Birkenstock-wearing "sustainable Earth" type, Zoey (Anna Faris) is absolutely appalled when all that hatred comes tumbling out of Aladeen's mouth, wrapped into a twisted braid of bent vowels that's supposed to represent a Wadiyan accent. But other than a couple of mild admonishments, she never tells him where to go.

Director Larry Charles and Baron Cohen, who co-wrote the screenplay with three others, don't attempt much in the way of plot. Aladeen comes to America after the United Nations threatens action over his country's development of nuclear weapons, and somehow he gets switched out with his simple-minded sheepherder of a body double.

Tamir (Ben Kingsley), Aladeen's ambitious right-hand man, sees an opportunity to install a puppet and run the show himself. Curiously, Tamir's big plan is to turn Wadiya into a democracy so he can start selling his country's vast oil wealth on the international market.

As evil schemes go, it's a pretty benign one.

I won't deny there are some good laughs in "The Dictator." I counted three that actually got me guffawing loudly, and perhaps a half-dozen others that evinced a smile and a chuckle.

But there are also many long, dull stretches where not much is going on. Despite the movie's skimpy 83-minute run time, it often seemed to drag itself out unnecessarily.

The interesting question is where Sacha Baron Cohen's career goes from here. He's too famous now to pass himself off for goofs, and clearly his model of humor isn't geared toward scripted fare. Based on "The Dictator," I'd say his reign of funny has come to an end.

1.5 stars out of four

Review: "Yogi Bear"

I'm all for dopey flicks designed to keep small children entertained, or at least distracted, for a while. I've got a rugrat myself now, so I'm sure I'll soon be making the acquaintance of Sponge Bob, Barney and Elmo.

But does programming for kids -- I won't deign to call it filmmaking -- have to be as aggressively bad as "Yogi Bear"?

Straight from the lame school of "Garfield" and "Alvin and the Chipmunks," "Yogi" stars live humans interacting with computer-generated versions of cartoon characters. The effect is not convincing, nor is it expected to be. Every minute Yogi and his vertically challenged sidekick Boo Boo are onscreen, they're calling attention to the fact that they're not really there.

Dan Aykroyd does a reasonable facsimile of Yogi's voice, which was originally done by Daws Butler, who was doing a knockoff of Art Carney's character from "The Honeymooners." Justin Timberlake provides the voice of Boo Boo, and instantly wipes out all the good feelings I had about his burgeoning acting career after "The Social Network."

If you remember, Yogi is "smarter than the average bear," and traipses around Jellystone Park with Boo Boo scheming up ways to steal food from visiting humans. Yogi has a major craving for, as it comes out in his rollicking speech, "pick-a-nick baskets."

Tom Cavanaugh plays Head Ranger Smith, who inherited his post from his father and has spent his whole life learning the ins and outs of Jellystone. Alas, attendance has been dropping for years, and his only companionship is dimwitted Ranger Jones (T.J. Miller), who's a rookie but already has eyes on the top job.

Things get shaken up with the arrival of Rachel (Anna Faris) -- or, as Yogi dubs her, "movie-maker lady." She wants to film a documentary about Jellystone's famous talking bear. Though I don't know how famous he can be if nobody comes to the park to see him.
Needless to say, Ranger Smith and Rachel are soon making moony eyes at each other.
The evil mayor (Andrew Daly) is facing a shortfall, and wants to close down Jellystone and auction off its prime acres to the timber company. So it's up to Yogi, Rachel, Smith and Boo Boo to come up with the cash.

Now, think about that last paragraph. The mayor of a city is going to shut down a massive park encompassing thousands of acres? What kind of park like that is inside municipal limits? And even if it were, Jellystone (a parody of Yellowstone) is clearly a national park under federal jurisdiction.

This movie is dumb, dumb, dumb. At 80 minutes long, it felt like eternity sitting through it. My advice: Run. Run now. If your kids really want to see Yogi Bear, show them some of the Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

1 star out of four

Video review: "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs"

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" falls into that spectrum of animation aimed squarely at kids. It's clear to me that "Meatballs" is a well-made film, even if I didn't like it all that much. I simply am not the target audience.

It's about a scientist, Flint Lockwood, who invents a machine that can turn water into food. Through a series of misadventures, his gizmo gets launched into the stratosphere over the island town of Chewsandswallows, resulting in a downpour of burgers, pizza, steak and candy whenever it rains.

Flint had been the town screw-up, but now he's hailed as a hero. He even finds a love interest in Sam Sparks, an intern at the Weather Channel who gets her big break when she's sent to cover the weird weather. Sam's a brainiac who is forced to hide behind a veneer of weather-girl dorkiness, but Flint sees through it.

Trouble looms when the food keeps getting bigger and bigger, until Buick-sized meatballs are raining down and causing havoc.

Although anyone over the age of 10 may find the movie tedious, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" is likely to leave young audiences hungry for more.

Video extras are rather meager with the DVD, but really pile on the buffet in the Blu-ray version. (A DVD/Blu-ray combo is available, which also includes a digital copy.)

Both versions come with a commentary track by co-directors/writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller plus star Bill Hader, who did the voice of Flint -- few insights, but moderately entertaining.

The making-of and voice casting documentaries are pretty typical fare; I liked the shots of animators working at their computers with big plates of food close at hand so they could study how spaghetti behaves when whirled about, or how a burger plops when dropped.

There's also two extended scenes; featurettes detailing the animation process; the "Raining Sunshine" music video; a "Food Fight" Space Invaders-type game; and a "splat mode" where kids can throw digital food at the screen while watching the movie.

Movie: 2.5 stars
Extras: 3.5 stars

Review: "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs"

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" falls into that spectrum of animation that makes no bones about the fact that it's aimed squarely at kids.

Yes, it's nice when a movie can appeal to both adults and tykes, such as "Kung Fu Panda" or pretty much any of the Pixar flicks. And I've been very pleased with the growing number of animated films that are best appreciated by adults -- "9," "Waltz with Bashir," "Persepolis," etc.

But let's give the kiddie flicks their due: Somebody's got to entertain the wee ones, and they might as well do it well.

So it's clear to me that "Meatballs" is a well-made film, even if I didn't like it all that much. I simply am not the target audience.

Co-writers/directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller -- both rookies -- adapted the best-selling children's book by Judi and Ron Barrett. It's about a young scientist, Flint Lockwood, who invents a machine that can turn water into food. Through a series of unintended mishaps, his gizmo gets launched into the stratosphere over the island town of Chewsandswallows, resulting in a downpour of burgers, steak, pizza and candy whenever it rains.

Flint had been the town screw-up, with all his many backfiring inventions, but now he's hailed as a hero. The island had been stagnating because its main staple, sardines, had been discovered to be gross by the world population. (I love the newspaper headline: "Sardines are gross!") So everyone on the island is sick of eating sardines, with the possible exception of Flint, who runs the local bait and tackle shop.

The daily manna from heaven is a huge boon to Chewsandswallows, even attracting the attention of Sam Sparks, an intern at the Weather Channel who gets her big break when she's sent to cover the weird weather. Sam's a brainiac who is forced to hide behind a veneer of weather-girl dorkiness, but Flint sees through it and soon they're an item.

Trouble looms when Flint overloads the machine at the behest of the town's greedy mayor, and soon things start to go screwy. The food keeps getting bigger and bigger, until Buick-sized meatballs are raining down and causing havoc.

The movie has a terrific voice cast, with Bill Hader as Flint and Anna Faris as Sam. James Caan, as Flint's dad, manages to find an emotional center despite only uttering a few dozen words. The redoubtable Bruce Campbell is the mayor, Neil Patrick Harris is a hoot as Flint's best friend/pet monkey Steve, and Mr. T is a revelation as the town's overly enthusiastic police chief.

As we've come to expect, the computer animation is crisp and inventive. Watch people's hair, in particular -- you can almost feel it tickle. If you can, make sure to catch the movie in 3-D -- the filmmakers manage to achieve a multitude of layers in every scene, without too many obvious objects flinging themselves at the camera.

Although anyone over the age of 10 may find the movie a bit tedious at times, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" is sure to leave young audiences hungry for more.

2.5 stars