Review #875: 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2' (2013)

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs was a pleasant surprise back in 2009, with directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord - before they hit the big-time with 21 Jump Street (2012), it's sequel 22 Jump Street (2014) and The Lego Movie (2014) - taking a rather ridiculous premise based on a slim children's story and making it both hilarious and supremely inventive. It was a story that was wrapped up nicely as not to require a sequel, but with box-office success comes the inevitable follow-up. Miller and Lord lampooned the whole idea of sequels with 22 Jump Street, but decided against helming the next chapter in Flint Lockwood's eccentric world, which makes it all the more surprising that Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 is even more delightful than the first.

With the town of Swallow Falls engulfed by giant food as a result of the events from the first film, Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader), his girlfriend Sam (Anna Faris), his father Tim (James Caan), and the rest of his fellow townsfolk are relocated to California by inventor and TV personality Chester V (Will Forte) while the place is cleaned up. Flint, Chester's biggest fan, is invited to work at Live Corp., where he will be allowed to work on his crazy inventions undisturbed in the hope of landing a permanent job. His 'celebrationator' creation falls flat, but Flint is still summoned by Chester to be informed that the search-parties back in Swallow Falls have gone missing, and the place is now overrun by giant cheeseburger spiders.

The cheespiders are just one of many delightful and bonkers 'foodimals' in the film, others of which include shrimpanzees, tacodiles and watermelophants. They're the type of physics-dodging nonsense a child would come up with while bashing plastic figures together, so no doubt children will love them. Adults too, will no doubt get a certain kick out of temporarily switching off the logical side of the brain and turning up the nostalgic side. It's also beautiful to look at, in a hyperactive, blink-or-you'll-miss-it sort of way, with the sheer volume of these bizarre creatures darting in and out of the picture providing a feast for the eyes, and the cheespiders proving to be somehow terrifying and cute at the same time.

Above all, it's laugh-out-loud funny and relentlessly chaotic, and there's probably a 'message' in there somewhere as well. Not that the film is too concerned with preaching morals and not that the audience will call for it; it's too busy being exhaustively entertaining for all that. The returning acting talent (although Terry Crews replaces Mr. T as super-ripped cop Earl Devereaux) is uniformly excellent, and newcomer Forte, along with some loopy character design, helps turn Chester V into a charismatic and ever-bending (literally) super-creep. Like a packet of sweets, it can be like a sugar overdose at times, but you'll most likely keep on eating and feel buzzed for a short time afterwards.


Directed by: Cody Cameron, Kris Pearn
Voices: Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Will Forte, Andy Samberg, Benjamin Bratt, Neil Patrick Harris, Terry Crews, Kristen Schaal
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #834: 'Gone Girl' (2014)

David Fincher has made a career of showing us his extremely dark vision of the world in which we live. Even his films that don't call for such an approach, such as 2010's exhilarating story of the forming of Facebook, The Social Network, are infused with a grimness that combines clever editing, flawless cinematography and a twisted score (here by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) to achieve its purpose. Gone Girl, an adaptation of the best-selling novel by Gillian Flynn (who also adapted it for the screen) is no exception. It's seemingly formulaic tale of a girl gone missing starts with all the familiar genre tropes, but soon turns into something infinitely more contorted, unsettling and thought-provoking.

Academic underachiever Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) returns home to find his coffee-table smashed, a blood smear in his kitchen, and his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) gone without a trace. He's generally a laid-back sort of guy, but his lethargy soon puts him under suspicion by investigators Detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens) and Officer Gilpin (Patrick Fugit). A media frenzy soon descends upon him, as his inability to act appropriately in front of the prying cameras and the mounting circumstantial evidence leads to a social media witch-hunt. Support from his twin sister Margo (the excellent Carrie Coon) leads to ridiculous allegations of 'twincest', so Nick is forced to reach deep into his pockets to hire superstar defence attorney Tanner Bolt (Tyler Perry).

Around the half-way mark, a major twist is revealed. It isn't that hard to figure out, but this isn't the point. It is merely the next stage of Flynn and Fincher's dark vision of the sanctity of marriage. Peppered throughout the early scenes are flash-backs involving Amy's romance and eventual marriage to Nick, with Amy's narration of her diary entries providing the memories. It's here that Fincher toys with us the most, placing doubt into the reliability of the narrator, causing you to question our belief in everything we see. But this is no cheap narrative trick. It's been said that Gone Girl has the power to break up couples, and with the way the movie places doubt into audience's mind as to how much they truly know their partner, it's not difficult to see why.

For an actor who has experienced a difficult time at the hands of the press of late - until he reinvented himself as a director (and an Oscar winning one at that) - Affleck surpasses all expectations and puts in the performance of his career. He is perfectly suited to a character who is in no way totally likeable or even sympathetic - he cheats on his wife and has become a layabout due to money troubles) - but his mixture of smugness and disillusion makes him a perfect and easy target for the witch-hunters. But the film belongs to Pike. A brave choice given that she's mainly used in supporting roles, she is a mixture of the beautiful, intimidatingly intelligent, and just plain terrifying.

As the credits roll, you may be staring open-mouthed at the screen trying to figure out what the hell you have just witnessed. One shocking burst of violence especially jolts the film onto another level. The film stayed with me for a long time after, and it seemed implausible, glossy and almost like a soap opera. But Fincher pulls apart the idea of the happy, all-American family in a similar way to David Lynch. It may all be smiles and expensive lunch dates on the surface, but if you dig deeper, you may just find something horrifying. It's a commentary on America's tendency to put people on a trial by media, the loss of privacy due to social networking, the laughable idea of the 'nuclear family', and just a bloody good story to boot. This is Fincher's finest work since Zodiac (2007).


Directed by: David Fincher
Starring: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Carrie Coon, Kim Dickens, Patrick Fugit, Tyler Perry, Neil Patrick Harris
Country: USA

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie

Review #684: 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' (2009)

Based on the 1978 novel of the same name by Judi and Ron Barrett, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller took the foundation of the literature and created a sort of 'origin' story. The book told of a fantastical town where it rained the inhabitant's daily meals until the portions span out of control, creating gigantic food storms and oversized grub. The film imagines this phenomena is caused by science-nut Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader), who after witnessing his small town getting shut off from the world and forced to eat nothing but sardines, thinks he can win the hearts of the townsfolk by creating a machine that turns water in the food of your choice.

At the opening of Sardine Land, hosted by Mayor Shelbourne (Bruce Campbell), Flint's contraption goes haywire and shoots off into the sky. Soon enough, pickles, buns and cheese are raining from the sky, which soon become full cheeseburgers. The townsfolk lap it up, plying Flint with requests, and even the intern reporter Sam Sparks (Anna Faris) starts to enjoy her pun-filled reports. That is until the machine starts to lose control and begins spewing out giant spaghetti tornado's and giant steaks.

Similar in a way to the Belgian madcap comedy A Town Called Panic, released the same year, Cloud With a Chance of Meatballs find most of it's charm in its relentless and hyperactive approach. Jokes litter both the foreground and background of the movie, producing some inventive, old-fashioned slapstick alongside some modern, more neurotic humour. It's an insane film at times, but there's a lot of genuine wit here. In a montage of Flint's failed inventions, we see televisions that walk to you on legs so you can change the channel, spray-on shoes that never come off, and ratbirds. The inventions are then seen throughout the film, either taking an active role in the plot or, in the television's case, looting the town's electronics store for an enjoyable throwaway gag.

But beneath all the frenetic energy, there's some heartfelt moments involving Flint's father (voiced by a gruff James Caan) who can't quite communicate with the son he doesn't understand. There is also some subtle commentary on humanity's wastefulness and penchant for greed. All the uneaten food gets flung miles over a hill so it can rot away out of sight, and as the dollar signs increase in size in Mayor Shelbourne's eyes, so does his waste size. The ending takes the disappointing route of continuing the current trend of animated films having overblown, action-packed climaxes, but if you can put that aside, there is a lot to savour here.


Directed by: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Voices: Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Bruce Campbell, Mr. T, Benjamin Bratt, Neil Patrick Harris
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie