We both enjoyed watching the first film Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007), and thought it was decent. Unfortunately, this film was an utter disaster. I thought the acting (even the animated chipmunks) was horrible. Nearly the entire cast bombed. The chipmunks didn’t even resemble themselves in comparison to the first film.
Honest to God, what was Hollywood thinking? This film ideally had potential, but the script completely stunk which was written by Jon Vitti, Will McRobb, and Chris Viscardi. The fact that another film is on the way proves profit is the first and foremost the motivation for filmmaking nowadays. Only little children could enjoy such mindless nonsense. I mean we knew what to expect from the previous film. And certainly the cartoons and comics were enjoyable. I didn’t expect too much, but not this…
The film had a budget of $75 million and grossed $442,859,798. That’s quite a profit, and the reason had to be small children dragging their parents out to see this. I don’t know what to say about director Betty Thomas who was responsible for this film. I however enjoyed a few of her other films. I can see why children would find this to be enjoyable to some degree; however it was torture to watch as an adult. I’ve seen my share of animated children films, but this fell way short, lacking an imaginative storyline among other things.
Something else that bothers me was not seeing more of Jason Lee reprising his role as Dave. Where did he go? He was lying on a hospital bed for nearly the entire movie. He was such a presence in the previous film. I don’t understand why they didn’t use him more unless there was a contractual disagreement or scheduling problem. It was a slap in the face to Jason Lee in my opinion. Instead, we got Zachary Levi who plays a character named Toby; he was heartless, thoughtless and clueless. If that was the intention then he did his job as an actor. I found the character to be quite bland and boring.
David Cross who was in the previous film returns as Ian, the voices of the chipmunks were done by: Justin Long as Alvin (voice), Matthew Gray Gubler as Simon (voice), Jesse McCartney as Theodore (voice), Amy Poehler as Eleanor (voice), Anna Faris as Jeanette (voice), and Christina Applegate as Brittany (voice). It was good however to see Wendie Malick getting another role again; she plays Dr. Rubin in this “Squeakquel”. Anjelah N. Johnson plays Julie, Kathryn Joosten plays Aunt Jackie, Kevin G. Schmidt plays Ryan, Chris Warren Jr. plays Xander, and Bridgit Mendler plays Becca.
Around next year sometime in 2011, there is sup post to be the release of the third film titled Alvin and the Chipmunks 3D. Let’s hope it will be much better. This time around the jokes fell flat.
I watched this one the other day, thought it was quite good for an animated film. It was a creative throwback to the monster movies from the past. It was directed by Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon. A collaborative effort on the screenplay was done by Maya Forbes, Rob Letterman, Wallace Wolodarsky, Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger and the initial story was contrived by Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon.
The cast includes an interesting mix of talent such as Reese Witherspoon who is the voice of Susan Murphy aka Ginormica. Her character was surely inspired by Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958) feature. Paul Rudd is the voice of her love interest named Derek Dietl who is a newscaster at a local network station trying to move his way up the ladder.
Seth Rogen is the voice one of the monster characters named simply B.O.B. this character was a tribute to the slimy creature The Blob (1958) starring the late Steve McQueen. There was a remake of the film The Blob (1988) as well. Hugh Laurie is the voice of Dr. Cockroach Ph.D. a mad scientist type character which I think was inspired by The Fly (1958) starring the late Vincent Price. Again, there was a remake of this film directed by David Cronenberg with the same title The Fly (1986) starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis.
Will Arnett is the voice of The Missing Link which is a character inspired by the classic Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) with Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, and Richard Denning. Kiefer Sutherland brings his voice as the over the top General W.R. Monger who is a stereotypical military man. Rainn Wilson is the voice of Gallaxhar the alien invader. Stephen Colbert best known from the network station Comedy Central is the voice of President Hathaway. Julie White is the voice of Wendy Murphy, Jeffrey Tambor is the voice of Carl Murphy, Amy Poehler is the voice of the Computer on the alien spacecraft, Ed Helms is the voice of the News Reporter, Renée Zellweger is the voice of Katie, John Krasinski is the voice of Cuthbert, Sean Bishop is the voice of Private Bullhorn, the Helicopter Pilot, and Advisor Ortega.
The story is about a woman (Susan) who gets hit by a meteorite and things dramatically change in her life affecting her in ways she doesn’t realize until later in the story. She is surrounded by new unusual friends and together they must save our planet from the sinister alien invader. There are a few life lessons thrown into this story which were good values for younger children to learn. Overall, I think this is something anyone can enjoy and it holds your interest throughout the length of the film.
Don’t let the name fool you, this is a standout comedy. If you are in the mood for a campy comedy, then this is a good one to see. The leading actors did a nice job with their roles. There are a few remember able scenes done by director Craig Gillespie who is best known from his television directing specifically commercials. The screenplay was written by Michael Carnes and Josh Gilbert. This is a comedy which deals with sports as the underlining theme.
Billy Bob Thornton portrays Jasper Woodcock who is a PE (Physical Education) director at a junior high school. In the gym class he constantly belittles the students into deep psychological states of mind. Most if not all of the students can’t stand Mr. Woodcock. The later setup focuses on the lead character named John Farley who is played by Seann William Scott, he is best known as the character Stifler from the American Pie series of films. Susan Sarandon plays his mom Beverly Farley and grabs the romantic interest of Mr. Woodcock, which leads to all kinds of chaotic and overly outrageous scenes.
John Farley later in life writes a commercially successful self help book. Amy Poehler plays Maggie who is John’s literary agent and manager she constantly tries to get his attention for the book tour. There are a number of other characters in this such as Melissa Sagemiller playing Tracy, Ethan Suplee is Nedderman, Jacob Davich is Nedderman’s Brother, Kyley Baldridge is the Young Farley, Alec George is the younger Nedderman, M.C. Gainey is Hal the barber, Brent Briscoe is another barber, Dave Kuhr is Bookish Guy, Lisa K. Wyatt appears as a housewife, Kurt Fuller is Councilman Luke and Joseph Michael Sargent is the Younger Watson.
There are a number of scenes where Mr. Woodcock and John Farley get into aggressive competition and things turn comical. I think you will appreciate their antics to some degree at least. The story is pretty straightforward overall.
This film had a modest budget of $22 million, and it grossed $33,035,245 worldwide. I guess it is more of a cult film now, and for those who might appreciate slap stick type humor situations. I will recommend it, I thought it was pretty funny and certainly keeps you entertained throughout the picture.
