Welcome to MOVIE MATH where we review a movie and see if it adds up to family fun.

If you read the post earlier in the week about folks we knew cutting in line, you know Julia was VERY excited to see this movie.  And after the cutsy debacle, and an aborted attempt to get good seats, we finally got in to a later show. Was it worth all the heartache, betrayal and agony?

 

CLOUDY, WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS (3-D) – On the surface (and by that I mean the trailers we were bombarded with for weeks prior to its release) this movie looked like a fun children’s flick. It had all the elements. Goofy man character, spunky love interest, giant food and the increasingly popular 3-D. But what was served up to us in the theater was a bizarre, rather nightmarish tale that felt more like Tim Burton and less like Pixar. The setting was depressing and creepy. Sardines play prominently in the plot. And you know how everyone feels about sardines. It’s about a misfit inventor living in a dying sardine-manufacturing town. He is an outcast and misunderstood until he invents a machine that turns water into food and accidentally shoots it into the sky. The result: It’s raining food, hallelujah! And while the food falling from the sky is initially amusing, eventually it turns into something out of a bad dream. In fact, I think I had this dream once after a rather large Thanksgiving dinner. Only the food was chasing me instead of falling on me. Anway, big food stops being funny when it threatens to crush you to death. Also, when you mix monkey poop with ice cream. And when a character gets so fat he looks like Jabba the Hut. At a certain point Julia (7) started to find the whole thing really scary. And when human-sized headless roasted chickens swallow a guy whole, well, she was pretty much DONE with the film. Now I personally didn’t hate it. I mean, it wasn’t SHARK TALES (ugh). It had a nice message about acceptance, a touching father-son subplot and fun twist when we learn the ditzy weather girl character is secretly super smart. Plus the 3-D was quite good. And Randy the perfekt husband really enjoyed the bizarre, twisted humor. He laughed out loud several times. But for the discriminating and, yes, okay, uber-sensitive 7 year-old in our midst, it was a definite and resounding NO!  (Now playing in theaters)

 

BIZARRO PREMISE + WACKY SCENARIO + TWISTED HUMOR = A WEIRD DISH NOT FOR ALL TASTES