THE CRITIC-AL LIST
Reviews by Alan Jones
5 STAR FAB - 1 STAR RUBBISH

The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Inception
Predators
The Twilight Saga:Eclipse
Toy Story 3
Hot Tub Time Machine
Iron Man 2
Repo Men
The Collector
Clash of the Titans
Shelter
How To Train Your Dragon
Kick-Ass
Shutter Island
Alice In Wonderland
The Crazies
Case 39
The Wolfman
Legion
The Lovely Bones
Black Death
Daybreakers
Avatar
Ninja Assassin
The Descent: Part 2
Amer
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
The Box
2012
Disney's A Christmas Carol
The Horseman
Solomon Kane
Pandorum
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
District 9
An Education
G.I. Joe: The Rise Of The Cobra
Orphan
A Perfect Getaway
The Imaginarium Of
Doctor Parnassus
Up
Harry Potter
And The Half-Blood Prince
The Taking of Pelham 123
Transformers
The Revenge Of The Fallen
Antichrist
Terminator Salvation
Last House On The Left
Inglorious Basterds
Angels & Demons
Adventureland
Star Trek
Crank: High Voltage
Coraline
Dragonball Evolution
Let The Right One In
Drag Me To Hell
Race to Witch Mountain
Knowing
Monsters Vs. Aliens
Not Quite Hollywood
Lesbian Vampire Killers
Martyrs
The Children
Surveillance
Watchmen
The Unborn
The International
Friday The 13th
Franklyn
Push
Punisher:War Zone
The Good The Bad And
The Weird
Hush
Underworld
The Rise OF The Lycans
My Bloody Valentine
Bolt
Slumdog Millionaire

Directed by Chris Miller & Phil Lord. Starring Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Andy Samberg, Mr. T, Bruce Campbell and Tracy Morgan. Animated, USA, 2009, 90 min.

Hungry for thrills, excitement and laughs? My third favourite 3D cartoon this year (after UP and MONSTERS VS ALIENS) is co-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s expanded and terrific adaptation of Judi and Ron Barrett’s 1978 children’s book about a town where food rains from the sky.

Best described as Roald Dahl meets Irwin Allen, this animated marvel is smart, witty and wildly imaginative as it tells the tale of socially awkward wannabe inventor Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader) determined to solve world hunger. When his latest crackpot contraption, designed to turn water into food, accidentally destroys part of his hometown Swallow Falls and rockets ups into the skies, Flint thinks he’ll finally have to give up and run his father’s Sardine Bait and Tackle shop. But then cheeseburgers fall from the clouds, followed by hot dogs, doughnuts, pancakes, watermelons and a whole menu of mouth-watering meals that look set to turn his life around when Mayor Shelbourne (Bruce Campbell) figures Flint’s happy disaster can put the town on the map. However, things go terribly wrong when excess amounts of heavenly cuisine overload the nearby damn threatening to annihilate the area with a flood of junk food. Sam Sparks (Anna Faris) is the love-interest weathergirl covering the phenomenon who hides her intelligence behind a perky exterior, and Earl Devereaux (Mr. T) is the buttock clenching by-the-rules town cop. From spaghetti tornadoes and ice cream winter wonderlands to meatball meteors and jelly palaces, the inspired food-weather landscapes are gorgeous to look at and brilliantly executed. This is the second film this month, the other being the Ready, Steady, Cooking, JULIE AND JULIA, which should not be viewed on an empty stomach! But it isn’t just the electric-coloured Chocolate Factory visuals that excite the palette, it’s also the rich stew of great characters and deliciously sharp scripting that provides appetizing laughs. Flint’s father (James Caan) is hilariously etched as a mono-browed monosyllabic jobsworth until he’s fitted out with Flint’s Monkey Thought Translator and then cajoled to email the abort command to the renegade weather machine (itself a very creepy monstrosity of alien foodstuffs eventually spitting out enlarged portions). And when was the last time you heard a gag about ‘amuse bouche’ in a kid’s cartoon? Of Pixar quality and one of the most flat-out entertaining movies around at the moment, this feast for the eyes and ears is truly scrumptious.

Alan Jones

© London FrightFest Ltd. 2000-2009
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