Movie reviews

This is lovely animation that is every child's fantasy.

It follows an inventor Flint Lockwood played by Bill Hader (Knocked Up), who has been inventing items no one really wanted, and couldn't find a useful purpose for, such as shoes without shoelaces; that unfortunately he is unable to remove, as well as flying rats, a thought translator for a monkey called Steve; played by Neil Patrick Harris (Harold and Kumar escape from Guantanamo Bay),which has become his pet and his right-hand man for his projects, as well as a television that walks.

What adds to the hilarity is that all through the movie parts of his inventions make little cameos, the flying rats are never too far away, as well as the walking television.

Flint lives in a small town called Swallow "underneath the A of the Atlantic" that is known for its sardines, its sardines are found everywhere for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and the town mayor Shelbourne played by Bruce Campbell (Spider-Man 3) is trying to boost tourism by having a Swallow Sardines theme park complete with the original promoter of Swallow Sardines "Baby Brent" played by Andy Samberg, who has now grown but is still riding on his reputation.

Flint tries to invent a machine that makes food by simply adding water, but his dad Jim played by James Caan (Las Vegas) is tired of his many inventions that have so far served no meaningful purpose, and would like him to give it up to start working with him at the local family shop that sells Swallow Sardines.

Flint agrees to work with his father, but does not concede defeat. At the opening ceremony of Swallow Sardines theme park, he puts the finishing touches to his invention but manages to destroy the theme park in the process, much to the anger of the local policeman Earl Devereaux played by Mr T. (for some strange reason he seems to move around in acrobatics), but as luck would have it, his invention is blown away into the clouds, soon afterwards it starts to rain hamburgers. Everyone is fascinated as to how this came about, especially a news reporter Sam Sparks played by Anna Faris (F.A.Q about time travel) who has just started her new job, and meets Flint. Flint realising his invention works, tells Sam that it was his plan all along (to impress her).

Soon the magic of the movie takes shape with Flint being able to order anything from his base where his device in the clouds causes it to rain said product, be it eggs and ham, bread, toast, any food that can be thought of, is rained down.

The mayor realising the potential of a town that rains food (and getting overly accustomed to it) invites everyone in the world to Swallow, where they can have any food they want, simply rained down from above, he realises this will boost the town's tourism and put Swallow on the map.

Flint's dad on the other hand sees something very wrong with a device that just brings food from the sky, and tells him it doesn't feel natural, unlike his sardine business which has to be manually compressed into a tin, but Flint is caught up in the acceptance of his invention and the super hero status he has now cultivated after years of ridicule, so dismisses any worries with the device.

It has come classic scenes, especially where Flint is trying to get his dad to operate his computer. It is a unique and lovely movie the whole family will enjoy, especially the image of all kinds of food raining down from the sky.

Labels: animation, Anna Faris, Bill Hader, Cloudy with a chance of meatballs, comedy, fantasy, film review, film reviews, films, funny, James Caan, Movie Review, Movie Reviews, movies, Neil Patrick Harris, romance, romantic

Movie Reviews this week looks at the science fiction comedy Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel.

It stars the hilarious Chris O'Doyd (The IT Crowd, something about him reminds me of the sidekick priest in father Ted), as Ray, a science geek, fresh from losing his job, who along with two of his best friends Toby and Pete played by Marc Wooton and Dean Lennox Kelly (Shameless) respectively, are discussing time travel, in their local pub one day as only nerds can.

As Ray goes off to the bar to order three pints, he comes back to his friends and tells them an unbelievable tale of having met a girl at the bar who tells him she is from the future, his friends laugh it off, assuming he is either pulling their leg, or she maybe a local stripper with an American accent. The girl Cassie played by the lovely Anna Faris (Scary Movie) is really from the future, and is here to fix a "Time Leak", apparently in the future agents can go back in time with their bodies hardwired with it's own time machine, and of course the usual rules of not interfering with the future still applies, so strict about going back and interfering in a historical event, that could wipe out several blood lines, such as going back to prevent World War II.

Of course Ray's friends don't believe a single word he says, until one of them, Pete, goes to the toilet, but on returning to the bar sees that everyone in the bar is dead, he runs back to the toilet, comes back out again and apparently he is back at the bar with his friends and everyone is still alive, he tells them the unbelievable story, and although they laugh it off, he suggests that for it to happen to them, i.e. for them to travel in time, they would have to go through the same motions he did, to witness the future, and follows a hilarious scene where they follow his exact movements, even down to the way he shakes his hands after using the toilet. They go back to the bar, apparently not noticing anything odd, until they are almost at their spot in the bar when to their amazement, they see themselves, sitting at the bar only moments earlier, discussing what they were talking about earlier.

From this apparent "Time leak" they try to get back to their own time, meeting Cassie along the way who is trying to fix the time leak, apparently not succeeding each time, on one of their trips to the future, they find that they have been immortalized by humanity, with a huge gravity painting of them at the bar, discussing a very important piece of paper Toby has penned in his many attempts to write a good science fiction script, Hollywood would accept.

It is an enjoyable movie, combining comedy from both sides of the Atlantic many will sure to enjoy.

Labels: Anna Faris, Chris O\'Doyd, comedy, Dean Lennox Kelly, film review, film reviews, films, Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel, Marc Wooton, Movie Review, Movie Reviews, movies, science fiction