Hotel Transylvania: Transformania - Movie Review

Starring the voices of Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kathryn Hahn, Jim Gaffigan, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Brian Hull, Fran Drescher and Brad Abrell.

Written by Amos Vernon, Nunzio Randazzo & Genndy Tartakovsky.

Directed by Derek Drymon & Jennifer Kluska.

★★

It wasn't until I was a few minutes into the movie when I realized Adam Sandler and Kevin James were not providing their voices this time around. Oh, no WONDER this skipped theaters and went straight to Amazon Prime!

These movies have always been frantic, but compared to the crack-fueled kinetic speed of this one, the first three movies look like models in subtlety. This movie is for kids who put sugar on their Fruit Loops in the morning. It makes Ren & Stimpy look like Studio Ghibli.

Here, Dracula is looking to retire, but he can't bring himself to leave his hotel to his daughter and son-in-law Jonathan just yet. In fact, he lies about a clause that says he can't transfer ownership of his hotel to a human. Jonathan then decides the best way around that is to turn himself into a monster. Hijinks ensue.

My kids laughed a few times; it's so hyper-obnoxious I kept hoping it'd find some scenes where it would calm down. It never did. It's funny though, cuz Brian Hull does a decent vocal job of mimicking Sandler, so I can't say he's sorely missed. 

P.S. A couple days later I watched the first half of The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild on Disney+, and that movie made this one look like Moana by comparison.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 - Movie Review

Starring the voices of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Will Forte, Andy Samberg, Benjamin Bratt, Neil Patrick Harris, Terry Crews and Kristen Schaal.
Directed by Cody Cameron & Kris Pearn.

Grade: B-

If you haven't seen the first one, fear not. This movie recaps it pretty effectively in the first 90 seconds.  It also picks up mere minutes after the first one ended, with their island covered in food, but the disastrous water-into-food machine destroyed.

This is one of those mild-enjoyment animated movies. There's "genuine enjoyment" films like most of Pixar and half of Disney, there are arms-folded hope-the-kids-liked-it movies like Escape from Planet Earth, and somewhere in the middle we get movies like this. I you liked the first one, you'll like this one too. I liked the first one.

Flynn and friends go back to their home to find the island overtaken by sentient food-animal type creatures, like spiderburgers and shrimpanzees.  We therefore get a quick-paced, frantic, colorful explosion of creatures and characters somewhere between The Croods and Alice in Wonderland.

The voice work I enjoyed the most was Will Forte as the duplicitous scientist using Flynn for his own nefarious purposes. My main quibble: Mr. T did not return to voice policeman Earl. It's covered by Terry Crews. Why no Mr. T?

New TV Show Reviews

ABC's LUCKY 7 - It wound up being exactly what I thought it would be, and I didn't have high expectations. It's a semi-sweet little drama about seven people who win the lottery, but it doesn't solve all their problems, and no one had a story I felt like following.  Grade: C-

CBS's HOSTAGES - The set-up is interesting. I don't know how far it can go, but this 15-episode season is set up with a rogue FBI agent (and some helpers) kidnapping the family of a surgeon (Toni Collette) who's scheduled to operate on the US President. She needs to let him die during surgery, or they will kill her family. The ratings have helped me decide to not add it to my DVR rotation.  Grade: B

CBS's WE ARE MEN - CBS's once powerhouse Monday lineup is getting less and less funny. This one actually isn't that bad, which means if I had to choose between watching another episode of this or 2 Broke Girls, I'd pick this. It's not worth hunting down, though. It's about four guys who've been wrecked by bad relationships who serve as each other's wingmen when looking for love.  Kal Penn, Tony Shalhoub, Jerry O'Connell and Chris Smith (who?) are the four guys. Grade: C+

FOX's DADS - I already reviewed it, but just wanted to point out again it's terrible. Grade: F

FOX's BROOKLYN NINE-NINE - Much better show that comes on right after Dads, and it deserves a better lead-in.  Andy Samberg is about what you'd expect as the fun-loving but competent detective, the Hawkeye in this MASH unit, if you will.  Andre Braugher gets to show off some comedic chops as the straight-laced captain (who's also gay).  Probably the funniest of the new comedies I've seen thus far. Grade: B+

AMC's LOW WINTER SUN - I gave this three episodes, and the second two were better than the pilot, but the new episodes were adding up on my DVR and after seeing its ratings I just deleted them. I liked the cast, and maybe it could have grown into something special, but it starts with the main character murdering someone. He's doing it because he thinks this dirty cop killed his girlfriend, but he finds out afterward that his girlfriend is still alive.  He's already crossed the line, so what am I rooting for?  Grade: C+

Hotel Transylvania - Movie Review

Starring the voices of Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, Fran Drescher, David Spade, CeeLo Green, Molly Shannon and Jon Lovitz.
Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky.

★★½

Well, hey, Adam Sandler has evolved to the next logical level - animation.  He's learned the lesson from his first attempt, with 8 Crazy Nights.

What we have here is a conventional 3-D animated movie that riffs on monsters like so many have before, from Mel Brooks to Abbott & Costello.  Sandler voices Dracula, owner of Hotel Transylvania, a refuge from monsters to be able to stay somewhere human-free. And it's all to keep his daughter Mavis safe.

But a human (Andy Samberg) wanders in and throws everything into a tizzy.  He's someone Mavis (Selena Gomez) finds cute and so Dracula spends half the movie just trying to keep him away from her and still sneak him out of the hotel before anyone else finds out he's a real human.

Since it's a Sandler movie, he's hired his buddies to round out the monster voices, with mixed results.  Kevin James is Frankenstein, Steve Buscemi is the Wolfman, David Spade is the Invisible Man, and Jon Lovitz is Quasimodo.  The movie is at its best when it focuses on the father-daughter-beau triangle.

It's a pleasant enough diversion. There's a ton of fart jokes.

Random Movie Stuff - 5/27/11

- Snow White & the Huntsman (starring Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron) had its release date moved up to June 1, 2012. In response, Relativity moved its Snow White movie (starring Julia Roberts and Lily Collins) to March 16, 2012. The Relativity one is said tob e more family-friendly, while Snow White & the Huntsman is going to be more for the PG-13 Twilight crowd.

- Jessica Biel and Bill Nighy are joining Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale and Bryan Cranston in the Total Recall remake, scheduled to open August 3, 2012.

- Andy Samberg (Saturday Night Live) and Rashida Jones (Parks & Recreation) will star in Celeste & Jesse Forever, about a divorcing couple who try to remain friends. Elijah Wood and Emma Roberts co-star.

- Zach Braff (Scrubs) has joined the cast of Oz: The Great & Powerful, a prequel starring James Franco (The Wizard), Michelle Williams (Glinda), Rachel Weisz (Witch of the East) and Mila Kunis (Witch of the West). It's scheduled to open March 8, 2013.

- Jeff Conaway has died after being taken off life support, which he's been on since a drug overdose on May 11. He was the star of movies (Grease, Pete's Dragon) and television (Taxi, Babylon 5) and appeared on VH1's Celebrity Rehab in 2008. He was 60.