My Review: Mr. Peabody and Sherman (7/10)

"If a boy can adopt a dog, I see no reason why a dog can not adopt a boy." 

As soon as the credits began rolling my little brother looked at me and said "wow, this was even better than The LEGO movie." I wouldn't go as far as him, this isn't on the same level, but I was surprised considering I never thought this film would be any good. My expectations for this movie were really low, but as soon as Mr. Peabody and Sherman's excellent adventure through time began I was hooked. It was a fun little history ride as we got to travel with the characters to Ancient Egypt, the Renaissance, the battle of Troy, and the French Revolution. Some of the characters in this film were hilarious (I'm pointing at you Leonardo Da Vinci) and the gags and puns were witty. Mr. Peabody & Sherman is based on the Rocky and Bullwinkle segments from the 50's, "Peabody's Improbable History," and it was directed by Rob Minkoff (who has had more success directing animated films such as The Lion King than live action films like Flypaper and Forbidden Kingdom). This was a very pleasant experience and an animated film children and adults will enjoy  alike.

The screenplay was adapted by Craig Wright from Jay Ward's short animated series. We are introduced to Mr. Peabody (voiced by Ty Burrell from Modern Family), an advanced canine who happens to be a genius inventor. In order to teach his adopted son, Sherman (Max Charles), history lessons he builds a time machine called WABAC, and travels with him to the past. Together they share thrilling adventures, but the greatest adventure of all turns out to be Sherman's first day in school where he is bullied by a fellow student named Penny Peterson (Ariel Winter). After biting her for calling him a dog, Mr. Peabody is called to school by Ms. Grunion (Allison Janney) who threatens to take his son away from him. In order to make things right, Mr. Peabody invites Penny's parents, Paul (Stephen Colbert) and Patty Peterson (Leslie Mann), to dinner. Sherman gets into trouble again when he shows Penny the time machine and both of them end up in Ancient Egypt causing all sorts of trouble. Mr. Peabody goes to their rescue before Penny's parents discover anything is wrong, which would hurt his chances with Ms. Grunion to maintain his parenting rights.

Beside all the fun adventures through time, the film also happens to be a delightful and good hearted movie about father and son relationships. The supporting cast is memorable and Stanley Tucci's Leonardo Da Vinci is the standout. Some of the sweet and tender moments don't work as well as they should and there are also several poop and butt jokes that don't work, but despite those flaws the film manages to stay afloat thanks to some clever and witty jokes and some entertaining and colorful adventures. It's an engaging animated film that works much better than the trailers would lead you to believe. I had a fun time, but by no means is it as witty and engaging as the LEGO movie, but it works just as well.

My Review: Flypaper (3/10)

¨It´s like extra sad when a hot chick dies. When an ugly chick dies, it´s like, their life probably sucked anyway, so it´s no big deal.¨

The only thing Flypaper had going for it (beside my love for Ashley Judd) was that it was written by the screenwriters who brought us The Hangover, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. Despite my love for The Hangover, I really hated the script here. I found the film incredibly stupid; the performances extremely over the top and the jokes didn’t really work. Flypaper is a terrible comedy that makes any Adam Sandler movie look like a masterpiece. I thought the entire film was ridiculous and a mess from the very opening scene. The comedy just felt too forced and it was a shame because the premise was kind of interesting on paper. You have these characters assembled inside a closed space with several twists and surprises, but none of them ever feel authentic or funny. In trying to be clever Flypaper ends up being pretty stupid. I really couldn’t understand how such a talented cast would accept to work in a movie like this. Ashley Judd and Patrick Dempsey can do much better than this. The jokes and gags were absolutely terrible and I didn’t even smile during any moment of the movie. Rob Mincoff´s (The Haunted Mansion and The Forbidden Kingdom) film failed tremendously. I wasn’t expecting much from this film, but it was way worse than I thought it would be. Lucas and Moore proved with The Hangover that they can write clever and funny comedies, but I don’t know what happened to them here.

The film takes place almost entirely inside a bank where we are introduced to Tripp (Patrick Dempsey) who happens to be there changing a hundred dollar bill. He begins hitting on the teller, Kaitlin (Ashley Judd), but she´s engaged and not amused. When Tripp is about to exit the bank he realizes that a heist is about to take place as two red necks nicknamed Peanut Butter (Tim Blake Nelson) and Jelly (Pruitt Taylor Vince) begin pulling out their guns. Tripp jumps over the counter and protects Kaitlin from the robbers, but almost at the same exact time another bank robber team is present. Darrien (Mekhi Phifer), Gates (Matt Ryan), and Weinstein (John Ventimiglia) seem to have planned out their heist with much more professionalism than the red neck Peanut Butter and Jelly duo. In middle of the confrontation the two teams open gunfire until Tripp convinces them to stop as they both seem to have come for different heists, the pros for the vault and the amateurs for the ATM machines. Several twists begin to take place from this point on as Tripp tries to solve the mystery as to why two heist teams happened to arrive at the exact time. Could there be an informant inside the bank?

The premise might look interesting on paper because the concept is pretty interesting and original, but the execution is just terrible. From the very opening scene I didn’t buy any of the characters or could take any of them seriously because the performances were really over the top. The script was terribly delivered and the actors had nothing to work with really. The entire detective story seemed pretty pointless and I really didn’t care whether or not the mystery would be solved. At times I felt like I was watching a quirky staged play. I really hated this movie despite the fact that Ashley Judd had a lead role here. The only good thing I can say about this movie is that it only lasted about 85 minutes so it was over pretty quickly. By any means possible please stay away from this movie.

http://estebueno10.blogspot.com/