Tag Archives: Family

2025

2025 Live Action “How to Train Your Dragon” Mostly Soars

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A decade and a half after he co-directed the animated film of the same name, Dean DeBlois helms the 2025 live-action version of How to Train Your Dragon (B), and it often soars. The cuteness and spunk of the titular dragon Toothless doesn’t fully translate into the real-life fantasy realm, but the flights of fancy, rugged adventure and central character conflict make for solid family entertainment. Action and adventure fans should not be disappointed; in fact, the dread and doom are heightened in this production. As the film’s protagonist, Mason Thames is a dynamic lead as he weighs whether to be a warrior or whisperer in dealing with the beasts plaguing his Viking island. Gerard Butler is a bit more basic as his boorish warrior dad, and few others in the ensemble were standouts. The effects are quite strong throughout, and the rousing score by John Powell enlivens even some overextended sequences. For those who savor repeat viewings of this favorite scale tale, the remake is nearly interchangeable with its modern classic predecessor. It traces the same arch but doesn’t bring all that much new firepower.

My FilmThirst video review is on TikTok.

2025

Jason Mamoa Salvages Comic Gold from Mayhem of “A Minecraft Movie”

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Director Jared Hess, cult auteur of films such as Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre, helms a high-concept studio movie based on what’s considered an “open sandbox game,” meaning he could choose his own adventure and use IP freely in the box trot of world building. Hess generally fares better in sequences set in his already off-kilter human world, even though most of the plot stays firmly planted in the cubic region. His approach is as tentative as the title: Sure, he’s ostensibly made A Minecraft Movie (C) populated with denizens, domiciles, atmospheres and accessories which a nostalgic generation will find familiar, but equal parts whimsy and writer’s block make quicksand of the situation. Of the misfit protagonists who journey Jumanji-style into the unknown, only Jason Mamoa gets an interesting character: As a paunchy, washed-up gamer-bro from the days of standing arcade championships, he is channeling a go-for-broke humor that lifts most of his sequences to a higher plane. Alas the child actors don’t stand out with inert characters amidst low-stakes peril. Jack Black brings only the screech of high decibels, and a game Danielle Brooks does what she can with a cheery throwaway role. Always funny Jennifer Coolidge makes the most of her divorced schoolmaster character on a date with a “Villager,” and her scenes feel like they’re as much from a different universe as he is. The movie has fun with creative crafting and contraptions, and there are a few funny and exciting sequences leveraging science and gadgetry, especially a flight of fancy with Black riding Mamoa’s back Pegasus-style through a sky battle. The subtext to make stuff not war and to wield one’s imagination to solve challenges has occasional appeal, but the jaundiced journey and strained visual pallet reeks of warmed-over Super Mario Bros., which looks like a high watermark in comparison. Black’s half-baked songs show further desperation in a meandering story that at least answers the question about whether pigs will fly (they do). Despite its box office potential, this is a bricklayer of the bracket season when it comes to much appeal for the adults who accompany the little ones who will undoubtedly will want to see it.

Note: “The Creeper” echoes this review on TikTok at FilmThirst.

2023, Rent It Tonight

Animated “Super Mario Bros. Movie” is a Nifty Nintendo Gift

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Plumbers mysteriously vanishing into an unknown universe isn’t just the scenario homeowners find themselves in when their toilets are backed up; it’s also the premise dogging video game siblings Mario and Luigi for damn near four decades. Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie (B-) animates Brooklyn’s cunning craftsmen with Chris Pratt spryly voicing heroic Mario and Charlie Day endearingly embodying his timid fraternal twin brother Luigi. Partnered with feisty fighter Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy), Mario must save his brother from the clutches of Bowser (Jack Black) who threatens to topple an idyllic Mushroom Kingdom the guys discover in an underground pipe lair. The movie is full bounce off the walls energy with kaleidoscopic colors and clever details dotting every horizon. But the uninspired script often throws a wrench in the good time with lackluster color by number plot points and groaner catch phrases. The highlight is Black’s Bowser chewing the scenery with relish and even tickling the ivories. He’s clearly in on the joke. Ultimately it’s hard not to be swept up in the parkour and pinball wizardry of the action sequences, and it’s largely good clean fun for the family. Despite some rather obvious needle drops on the soundtrack, Brian Tyler composes rousing music inspired by classic game play. The nostalgia factor is strong, and as Donkey Kong barrel battles and kart races on rainbows commence for the film’s mercifully brisk run time, you simply surrender and take the plunge.

2022, Rent It Tonight

Animated “DC League of Super-Pets” is Better Than Most of DC’s Cinematic Content Right Now

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Warner Bros/D.C. – Now in theatres.

This origin story for the latest batch of superheroes is fetching indeed. Jared Stern’s delightful animated adventure comedy DC League of Super-Pets (B) focuses on Krypto (voiced by Dwayne Johnson), Superman’s caped canine companion, and how he and a ragtag gang of four-legged misfits work together to thwart Lex Luthor’s villainous lab rat (a sassy and sinister Kate McKinnon). There’s plenty of lively fun on the surface for the kids, but Stern’s comic book universe references and insider sensibilities are knowing and amusing throughout. It’s a bright, colorful and charming lark with outstanding voice work by top-flight comic talent including Kevin Hart, Vanessa Bayer and Natasha Lyonne. For a film so orchestrated as a land grab for intellectual property adjacent content, it is far better than one would expect. In fact, the women in the voice talent ensemble really steal the show. The sentimental through-lines for a dog to stay relevant to his owner and for characters to recognize the advantages of collaboration ring true in the movie. Stern demonstrates the instincts and insights to deliver an entertaining family fortress of jolly-tude.

2022, Rent It Tonight

Misbegotten “Lightyear” Doesn’t Have Much of a Friend in Me

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Now on Disney+ from Disney Pixar.

The outer space curse plaguing Disney from infinity to The Black Hole, Treasure Planet, John Carter, Mars Needs Moms and beyond has not yet been lifted. Director /co-writer Angus MacLane’s Toy Story prequel/ spinoff Lightyear (C+) stays largely grounded on an uninspiring planet and surrounds its bland titular space ranger protagonist with dubious sidekicks. It’s a missed opportunity given the daffy high jinks and emotional arcs present among Buzz’s creative fellow playthings, and the ingenuity just doesn’t carry through in this cosmos-set adventure. The story surrounds the famed space hero making amends for an unforced error, and alas the series of action set pieces and encounters with vapid villains following his fall from grace simply don’t rise to the occasion. There are several clever bursts, a cute cat from outer space and a few requisite Pixar moments of melodrama. But the film largely feels like a moribund money grab and missed opportunity never approaching the operatic canvas or ambition possible with the great wide yonder at its fingertips. Nobody’s getting a Woody over this one.

2020, Rent It Tonight

“Soul” Delivers Pixar in a Fresh Package

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Now streaming on Disney+.

Somewhere jammed between “all the feels” and “being very satisfied with itself,” this jazzy riff on purpose is semi scat-tat-tacular. No, it doesn’t explain the meaning of the universe per se, but Pete Docter and Kemp Powers’ cerebral entry in the Pixar pantheon, Soul (B), is often illuminating in its exploration of the ways of the world, its presentation of an iconic Black acting ensemble and its depiction of the magical and musical syncopation of Manhattan life. This animated opus told in a minor key keeps a tight grip on its voice cast, with Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey in prime positions as band teacher Joe and surly spirit 22, respectively. They’re both serviceable in rather ho-hum parts. When Joe experiences a freak accident whisking him into an overly complicated purgatory, he soon returns to NYC to hone his mentorship skills and be reminded of the sensory and interpersonal elements of city life that matter most. The real revelation here is not the complex universe the film paints nor the rote race against time propelling its winsome plot but rather the quality of the earthbound animation, what with the natural lighting and lens flairs adding sparks to bustling urban streets, brotherly barber shops and intimate music dens. Characters honestly get short shrift compared to the artisan craft at work here; and if it all falls a little short of the franchise’s best, it still finds ways to tickle some idiosyncratic ivories. 

2017, Rent It Tonight

Disney’s Live-Action “Beauty and the Beast” Remake Pretty Good

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Despite being overstuffed and overproduced, Emma Watson is by far the best special effect in Bill Condon’s live action Beauty & the Beast (B-) as the luminous leading lady who enlivens the fairy tale proceedings with enchanting radiance. Attempts to color outside the lines of the 1991 animated musical’s story and to lovingly re-create iconic classic sequences are both a mixed bag: the opulent “I want” song called “Belle” is simply smashing, awash with propulsive joy and resplendent color, but by the time an awkwardly unappetizing “Be Our Guest” is served up by curiously stilted anthropomorphic antiques, it’s more of a test of endurance than the whimsical showstopper that played out as a cartoon. A star-studded cast is squandered; set pieces seem limited to one village, one castle and one CGI forest; and the awkwardness of an inter-species romance feels a little strange when everyone isn’t rendered in line art. Luke Evans is quite good as Gaston, and there’s some new back story that provides intrigue for those concerned this will simply be a shot for shot remake. It’s good source material, so the original Alan Menken/Howard Ashman tunes are a delight (the new Alan Menken/Tim Rice song snippets aren’t as good). See it mainly for Watson’s game take on a Disney heroine (better still, see this actress in Perks of Being a Wallflower). Otherwise, there’s not much here that wasn’t there before.

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2016

Disney’s Live-Action “Jungle Book” Dramatically Inert

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jungleDespite clear technical craft in creating simulated forests and talking (sometimes singing) animals, Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book (C) is dramatically inert. Swinging wildly in tone and staking the weight of its storyline on a pint-sized protagonist of limited range, the film falls flat in moving emotions while it swirls episodically through remake facsimiles of Disney’s own animated feature. It squanders most of its visual effects wizardry in the beastly congregations of the first reel only to be followed by a long wasteland of coasting on mildly amusing Bill Murray voice-over work as a lazy bear. I’m sure there will be a man cub fan club for the action of this Kipling claptrap, but it fell staggeringly short of surprises and wonder in my book.

2015

“Goosebumps” a CGI-Laden Mess

imageRob Letterman’s Goosebumps (D) joins this summer’s Pixels in a series of kids’ films that value effects over imagination. Jack Black plays R.L. Stine, reclusive author of the titular young adult book series. With a vaguely academic accent and face frozen on “concerned,” Black provides a performance only slightly more irritating than Slappy the vaudeville dummy, the worst doll antagonist since the last installment of Child’s Play. Teen actor Dylan Minnette is slightly more expressive and makes the film’s first thirty minutes a bit charming before he accidentally unleashes a potpourri of blandly designed CGI monsters trapped in books. The filmmakers cynically leverage a popular kid lit franchise to lure a big crowd to the box office, but it’s all an auto pilot triumph over creative inspiration.

2015

Game Over for “Pixels”

imageThere’s lots of inspired stuff in a movie about a 1982 time capsule that prompts modern-day extraterrestrials to co-opt nostalgic video game iconography to attack the planet, but director Chris Columbus and an Adam Sandler-led comedic ensemble drain Pixels (D-) of any sense of wit or charm. The filmmakers barely summon hand-eye coordination in mishandling a story about how a rag-tag group of misfits conjure their inner joysticks and roller controllers to topple Galaga, Centipede, Pac-Man and a gaggle of galactic meanies. When a film employs intentionally dated graphics and an absurd premise, it requires credible acting and a logical thematic through-line; that’s why Ghostbusters worked so brilliantly. Alas the game is over long before it starts for Pixels, with everything from Tom Arnold playing the U.S. President as Sandler’s best friend and Michelle Monaghan as Sadler’s love interest being but two of the plot points catalogued in the not-credible category. As Sandler and Josh Gad exert their action antics and moribund comedy to a not-at-all thrilling conclusion, one simply wonders what would have happened had the studio chosen a different adventure with better talent to tell this tale. For a better foray into the 8-bit heyday, I recommend the documentary King of Kong.

2015

“Tomorrowland” a Dubious Destination

imageDisney’s history of imagination is unparalleled, but the studio’s shaky track record of sci-fi is paved with the likes of The Black Hole, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and Tron Legacy. So the squandered opportunity for redemption is mighty in Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland (C-), an ambitious film that is full of ideas but misses the mark on executing most of them. The vapid protagonist played by Britt Robertson speaks mainly in cliches, and when she partners with George Clooney in what is basically an extended cameo, he doesn’t add much either to the proceedings aside from faux Han Solo gruffness. There’s lots of overreach about saving mankind from its own destiny, but Bird doesn’t do a good job outlining the plot to properly take audiences along for the ride. What’s left are a few lovely nostalgia scenes, some half-sketched visions of the future, some awkward robots (TV’s Small Wonder was more believable) and an underdeveloped sense of majesty. The film, overstuffed with good intention, is mostly a bloated bore.

2015, Rent It Tonight

“Paddington” is a Charming Delight

imagePaul King’s British live action/animated comedy Paddington (A) is quite simply one of the most consistently satisfying family films ever made, following each instinct of visual whim and whimsy with clever and entertaining results. The film chronicles a polite young marmalade-obsessed bear’s journey from the jungles of Peru to the heart of modern-day London as he is taken in by a kindly family (charmingly headlined by Sally Hawkins and Hugh Bonneville) and embarks on a series of madcap adventures. The art direction and production design are exquisite and would leave Wes Anderson slackjawed with its artisan detail. The family home rendered as a dollhouse, the city archives like a scene out of Brazil, the menacing Natural History Museum populated by juicy taxidermist villain (a delightful Nicole Kidman) and the colorful streets filled with antiquities and street music troubadours dot the movie with resplendent visuals which are a wonder to behold. There is also genuine menace in some of the action sequences and an affecting level of sentimentality that never crosses into preciousness. The crafty screenplay is full of double entendres and fun asides that deliver a droll and altogether unexpected joy that adults can appreciate as much as kids. It’s brisk, funny and memorable and joins films such as Babe, The Muppet Movie and Willy Wonka as family classics.