Sunday Short Reviews

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Every Sunday, Gill delves into his archive of over 800 movie reviews and randomly selects three for your enjoyment! Here are this week’s…in post-converted 2D!

Monsters vs. Aliens
A middle-grade computer animated family film that’s funny and cute, but doesn’t inspire any real emotion beyond mild amusement. The celebrity voice cast featuring the likes of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogan, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Paul Rudd, Stephen Colbert, Rainn Wilson, Kiefer Sutherland and MORE are all doing their best to keep the movie entertaining. The animation is good, and you can tell that the film was designed for 3D because there are a lot of flying objects. I do wish I could have seen it in 3D, because it looks like it would have been cool, but thankfully the film is totally watchable without the 3D gimmick. Monsters vs. Aliens‘ biggest fault is that the filmmakers occasionally mistake pop culture references for humour, but it’s a minor quibble. This movie is nowhere near the level of movies like Wall-E or How To Train Your Dragon, but if you have to watch a movie with a bunch of kids, Monsters vs. Aliens is fun and entertaining, if not thought-provoking.
3.25 out of 5

Drive Angry
A stupid movie, but at least it knows it. Drive Angry is basically the combined result of two other Nicolas Cage movies: Gone in 60 Seconds and Ghost Rider. Cage plays John Milton, a man who broke out of hell and came back to earth to avenge the death of his daughter at the hands of the leader of an insane cult. Chaos and car chases ensue. For all the gore flying around the screen, Drive Angry sure doesn’t have a lot of brains, but thankfully it revels in its b-movie exploitation style, and the few manic Nic Cage moments make it a good time. William Fichtner also kicks ass as hell’s accountant. There’s some entertainment value in Drive Angry, but this is definitely not a movie I would ever encourage anybody to rent.
2 out of 5

Sanctum
Sanctum‘s premise plays like The Descent without the monsters, but the film itself is much closer in tone to movies like Vertical Limit. This is C-grade, airport-bookstore-novel-caliber writing, and the film is very predictable. The thrills are basically non-existant, the dialogue is clunky, and the one-dimensional characters effectively prohibit any acting that might have been done. Personally, I’ll take the better-written, genuinely scary, monster-filled Neil Marshall version of this story, thanks.
1.5 out of 5

See you next Sunday for three more thrilling short reviews!

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