The Roses (2025)

If you have forgotten The War Of The Roses (1989) then I encourage you to revisit it. Based on the book by Warren Adler, directed by Danny DeVito (who also gives himself a fun supporting role), and starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, who are both clearly having a blast in their main roles, it's about as dark and twisted a black comedy as you could hope for. Don't watch it if you're planning to check out The Roses though, which is a "reimagining" starring Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead roles. 

The Roses isn't bad. It just doesn't hold up when you compare it to the original film. 

The story is all about a married couple who seem to fall out of love. A lot has changed since they first met, and resentment grows into something that eventually makes them toxic and dangerous to one another. Some may want them to stay together, but many eventually realise that they'd be better separating. The lawyers (played by Allison Janney and Andy Samberg) look set to be the only real winners though.

It's odd that this was written by Tony McNamara, who must have seemed like a great choice after his recent work with Yorgos Lanthimos. In fact, I'll take the rare opportunity now to recommend the wonderful The Rage In Placid Lake, his directorial feature film debut, adapted from his own stage play. While this is passable entertainment, I can't really recommend this. It lacks real bite, which is even more of a shame when you get the feeling that both Colman and Cumberbatch would have enjoyed leaning even further into anarchy and viciousness.

While they're not on top form, I cannot blame either of the leads for their work here. They both do quite well with what they're given, although Colman easily outshines her male co-star in the second half of the film. Janney is very good fun as the out-for-everything lawyer, Samberg is fairly amusing as a more timid member of the legal system, and there's some fun to be had with Sunita Mani, Ncuti Gatwa, Zoë Chao, and Jamie Demetriou. The actors who play the Rose children also do well enough, but their characters are generally passive observers to the disintegration of the relationship between their mother and father. The biggest disappointment comes from Kate McKinnon, someone I often enjoy seeing in comedies. Her character here feels like she's been dropped in from a completely different movie, or (more accurately) a very weak SNL skit.

The main person I blame for this being such a disappointment is director Jay Roach. Roach can do comedy, but he has come unstuck before when trying to add some edge to the laughs. The fact that he also doesn’t have strong enough comedic talent here (with no offence intended to the leads) just undermines his decision to try to keep things more fun and funny until lurching sideways for the grand finale. 

Casual viewers should find enough to enjoy here, especially if you like either of the leads, and, despite my criticisms, I really cannot call it a bad film. It just feels completely neutered and toothless, which is something that could have been avoided with a bolder individual at the helm.

6/10

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Zootopia 2 (2025)

Whatever name it had when I saw it (I THINK it was called Zootropolis for a while here in the UK), I quite enjoyed Zootopia. It wasn't part of the cream of the animated movie crop from the past decade, but it was cute and enjoyable enough. This sequel is slightly better, although maybe that's just because I can't really remember much from the first film now, but it's nowhere near as good as you'd expect the new English-language box office champion of animated movies to be. I guess that's just a reminder that box office doesn't always represent the quality of the product.

After a short amount of time being celebrated for their work, Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) soon find themselves on the wrong side of the law. They start to figure out that something is wrong as they attempt to capture an alleged villain named Gary De'Snake (Ke Huy Quan), which leads to them investigating a powerful family who may have stolen and reframed the history of Zootopia.

With most of the main names returning, for the acting roles and the many "behind the camera" roles, Zootopia 2 should be praised, first of all, for expanding the onscreen world without feeling as if it's changing everything already shown in the first film. Writer Jared Bush, who also co-directed with Byron Howard, has an excellent instinct for details that are fun and imaginative, yet also feel perfectly plausible for a world designed for many different species of animals. 

As well as Goodwin, Bateman, and Quan, who are all great and feel well-suited for voicing their characters, there's room in the cast for performances from Fortune Feimster (playing the superbly-named Nibbles Maplestick), Andy Samberg, David Strathairn, Idris Elba, Patrick Warburton, Danny Trejo, and Shakira, as well as a number of other familiar names you may recognise once you hear them speaking.

Everything is obvious and predictable enough from early on, but that's what happens when you have a mystery at the heart of an animated family movie, but there's still enough done to keep tension running throughout, despite the obviousness of the ultimate end point. There's a quirky character added to the mix every 10-15 minutes, most of the gags work well, and I admit that I laughed more than expected when I noticed that Ed Sheeran had a tiny cameo as Ed Shearin.

Amusing, cute, and nicely animated, Zootopia 2 should keep most viewers entertained. I'm still bemused by it being the most successful English-language animated movie of all time, but I guess I'm decades older than the target demographic nowadays anyway. Maybe I'm just slightly out of touch, despite my consistent immaturity.

7/10

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Prime Time: Hotel Transylvania: Transformania (2022)

With a lot of the key figures returning, and many of the voice actors reprising their roles (I cannot think of anyone I really missed from this adventure, which may say as much about them as it does about me), Hotel Transylvania: Transformania is clearly aiming to deliver more of the same fun for those who have enjoyed any of the previous three films in the series. And it succeeds.

Dracula (voiced by Brian Hull this time around) is getting on in years, which means he will soon be handing over his beloved hotel to his daughter, Mavis (Selena Gomez), but that means it also ends up being in the hands of her human partner, Jonathan (Andy Samberg). Knowing that his non-monster identity is a big problem for his father-in-law, Jonathan ends up volunteering for a process that will, to use the technical term, monsterfy him. That works, but it also turns a number of main monsters into normal humans, creating confusion and worry while everyone tries to rectify the situation.

The first full feature directed by either Derek Drymon or Jennifer Kluska, both having a wealth of experience in other main roles, this seems like a great way to ease into that role, considering the fun nature of the brand and the many cast members all having fun with their roles. There are three credited writers (Genndy Tartakovsky, returning from the third film, but making this one the first that he didn’t direct, Amos Vernon, and Nunzio Randazzo), and they have a great framework to work with, considering the canny casting of the main characters.

Alongside Hull, who sounds so much like Adam Sandler in the role that I didn’t realise the change until checking the credits, Samberg, and Gomez (and the focus is often on the first two as they work through the issues putting a strain on their relationship), you get fun turns from Steve Buscemi, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Brad Abrell, Kathryn Hahn, and Fran Drescher. It’s also worth mentioning Jim Gaffigan, playing an enjoyably unhinged Van Helsing. Whether they have been in all of the preceding movies or they have stepped in to take over the voice of a character, everyone does great work.

The animation style is in line with everything we’ve seen before, and there are plenty of wonderful visual gags complementing the dialogue, which makes it hard to imagine fans of this series being disappointed with this instalment. None of the sequels were particularly necessary, and I don’t think they were animated classics, but each one was enjoyably silly and entertaining. And each one presented some enjoyable horror archetypes in a kid-friendly form, while also maintaining focus on some valuable life lesson at the heart of the comedy.

A slight step up from the last film, which was the weakest (but still amusing enough), I recommend this to those who have enjoyed any of the previous animated adventures of Drac and co.

7/10

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Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)

I was really happy when I saw the trailer for Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers. It looked like a hell of a lot of fun. Finding out that it was being delivered by a couple of the main figures behind Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping just made me even more keen to see it. Then I started watching it, the smile fading from my face quicker with each passing minute. You can find a lot of people around who really liked this movie. I'm not one of them. There are some good gags, but I'll attempt to highlight some of the biggest problems I had with the film here.

Having gone on separate career paths over the years, Chip (John Mulaney) and Dale (Andy Samberg) are reunited by a worrying phonecall from their friend, Monterey Jack (Eric Bana). Jack's addiction to stinky cheese has landed him in trouble with the wrong people, and he fears that he will soon be kidnapped, altered slightly, and trafficked to somewhere overseas that has characters creating bootleg versions of their works in perpetuity. Chip and Dale have to get back into old habits, hoping to crack the case in time to save their friend. They end up dealing with the police, in the form of Captain Putty (J. K. Simmons) and Officer Ellie Steckler (KiKi Layne), a variety of twisted cartoon creations, and a big baddie who goes by the name of Sweet Pete (Will Arnett).

When you look at the separate elements here, this is hard to view as anything other than an easy win. Chip ‘n’ Dale have always been my favourite animated chipmunks, nostalgia is arguably one of the most profitable filmic commodities right now, and the direction from Akiva Schaffer is decent throughout. There are also some fun gags in the script, written by Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, who also wrote the very enjoyable, although formulaic, Magic Camp and the less enjoyable Dolittle. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough good gags, especially when you have scenes too busy cramming in familiar personalities and entertainment archetypes. And those gags feel harder to laugh at when you realise the dark truth being reconfigured as something of an extended punchline throughout the second half of the film. I am willing to give both Gregor and Mand the benefit of the doubt, willing to believe that they were trying to pin the comedy on one serious point, on one subversive critique of the Disney studio system (of old?), but it doesn’t work. It rankles as much as that book by O. J. Simpson called “If I Did It: Confessions Of The Killer”. I would never want to read that book, and I never want to revisit this movie.

Another big problem that the movie has, and I know this will sound like a very silly complaint, is a lack of any rhyme or reason to the different types of characters. Who Framed Roger Rabbit is the nearest touchstone for this, underlined in a scene that actually has a cameo from the man himself, but that had clearly defined populations of people and toons. This doesn’t. You get some people living their lives, some cartoon characters everywhere, some cgi creations, muppety puppets, even the difference between Chip and Dale feels very random (one traditionally animated and one fleshed out into a CGI animated character). I know there is a reason for it, but the reason feels a bit arbitrary. 

Mulaney and Samberg are a great fit in the lead voice roles, Simmons is equally enjoyable, and there are entertaining turns from Arnett, Seth Rogen, Eric Bana, Tim Robinson (in the absolutely brilliant role of Ugly Sonic), and many others. Layne also does well, playing one of the few actual humans onscreen, and there’s no faulting the mix of live-action and animation throughout.

There are jokes that work, and some scenes are very funny. References to the uncanny valley are a lot of fun, as is a special appearance from Post Malone, and the meta commentary of older properties being freshened up for a new audience is surprisingly effective, acknowledging that all of these things are just as formulaic as standard sequels or remakes. This is fairly easy to like and enjoy, and many people have done just that. I just couldn’t manage it, especially when I kept circling back to the backstory of the villain (not to mention the way in which it attempts to put a darkly comic spin on people trafficking, which is equally misguided). So I guess I will just wait to see if the inevitable Roger Rabbit sequel will work better. There’s going to be a Roger Rabbit sequel now, right? Right??

4/10

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Prime Time: Palm Springs (2020)

The feature film debut from director Max Barbakow (who has a number of shorts and a documentary already to his name), Palm Springs is a time loop comedy-drama that focuses on two wedding guests who get to know one another better as they try to make the best of their situation.

Andy Samberg is Nyles, a man who seems to know everything that is about to happen, which helps him to make a strong impression on Sarah (Cristin Milioti). After spending a memorable evening together, things start to get crazy when Nyles is attacked by someone wielding a bow and arrow. Crawling into a glowing cave, Nyles implores Sarah not to follow him. Not heeding his pleas, Sarah enters the cave, which takes her into the same time loop that Nyles has been experiencing for a very long time already. Freaked out, obviously, we see Sarah go through a number of phases that Nyles already went through. She is confused, she wonders if death can end the loop, she tries to right some wrongs, and she and Nyles have some fun, in between conversations about the lack of consequences and the meaning of life.

Although Andy Samberg is the male lead here, those who might not always enjoy his schtick should know that this performance is nowhere near his usual full-on Samberg. He's actually perfectly cast, a mix of confidence and understandable fear. Milioti, who I am much less familiar with, is equally perfectly cast. She's likeable, strong, and very capable of pushing Samberg's character towards being a better person. Meredith Hagner is fine as Misty, the girlfriend of Nyles (who we find out very early on isn't being faithful to him), but the only other person who really gets to stand out is J. K. Simmons, playing Roy, a man who ended up stuck in the time loop after a night of partying with Nyles.

Barbakow directs well enough, keeping things lively and clear throughout (markers dotted throughout, of course, and a montage here or there), helped in no small way by the script, from Andy Siara. Although it takes what is, by now, a premise that could be seen as overly familiar, Siara adds some layers to be peeled away on the way to the ending, one or two twists that help to explain different character motivations, and he also does enough in the third act to make the science seem remotely possible. 

If you like time loop movies, and I do, then Palm Springs is a worthy addition to the sub-genre. It's a lot of fun, but it also takes some time to remind viewers of why we should value the lives that we lead, whether time seems to march on too quickly ahead of us, or whether we are sometimes stuck with the consequences of bad decisions. Those consequences mean that your life is having an impact, on yourself and on others. Worrying about the time you have available to you means that you have things you want to do with your time that have meaning to you. But, let's face it, being stuck in a time loop for a while would be pretty damn cool.

8/10

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Ani-MAY-tion: Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018)

Love or hate Adam Sandler, and most people fall firmly into the latter camp nowadays, it's hard to deny the easy appeal of the animated movie series that cast him in the role of Dracula. Almost every classic monster you can think of makes an appearance, the jokes are no less amusing for their obviousness, and everyone seems to be having fun doing their voice work.

This time around, after surviving the perils of seeing his daughter fall in love with a human (in the first movie) and then figuring out how to best be a grandparent (second movie), Dracula is taken on a holiday on a cruise ship. The whole gang is with him, of course, and there's an immediate connection between Drac and the ship's captain, Ericka (Kathryn Hahn).

Although not quite as good as the two films preceding it, this third adventure for "the Drac pack" has plenty packed in it to keep fans of the series amused. None of the characters are twisted into something they shouldn't be, mainly because that work was done in the first movie when the monsters realised they could get along with humans, and the straightforward plot has a couple of twists that you can see coming from the opening scenes and a finale that basically falls back on that old standard, a dance off.

Sandler is good in the lead role. In fact, I would say that most people will find him much more enjoyable as an animated Dracula than in his normal, live-action, guise. Selena Gomez and Andy Samberg are just as good, playing Drac's daughter and son-in-law, respectively. Hahn is good fun as the cruise captain with an obvious secret, and Kevin James, David Spade, Steve Buscemi, and a few others return to join the monster mash.

Also returning is director Genndy Tartakovsky, who has been at the helm since the first movie a few years ago. He also co-wrote the script, with Michael McCullers, which manages to keep focused on the leads while also providing a selection of amusing moments for each one of the main supporting characters.

If you enjoyed the previous Hotel Transylvania movies then you should enjoy this one. I'd prefer them to end it here, having already started creeping down the slope of diminishing returns, but I also know that I will watch any future instalments.

6/10

There's a good triple pack here.
Americans can pick it up here.

Ani-MAY-tion Month: Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 (2013)

I really enjoyed Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs. Really REALLY enjoyed it. So I don't know why I assumed the sequel was just some rushed cash-in, without any of the same people in the main voice roles. It's not. In fact, this is a sequel on a par with the first movie. It's consistently cute from start to finish, but manages to undercut that cuteness with sharp humour, amusing puns (okay, I found some of them hilarious), and bright, imaginative sequences throughout.

Leading directly on from the events of the first movie, the residents of Swallow Falls are invited to move elsewhere while their island and town are cleaned up. Inventor Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) is given the chance of a lifetime, when he's offered a job at LIVE Corp, the company ruled over by his hero, Chester V (Will Forte). But Chester V has a secret agenda, and only wants Flint nearby to keep an eye on him. The machine that caused so much trouble in the first movie hasn't shut down. It is, in fact, now helping to create a variety of food-based lifeforms. Flint is asked to go back to the island to help fix the situation, and his friends won't let him go back alone.

Just like the first movie, every aspect of this film just feels right. That's not to say that it's a perfect film, oh no, but it IS a load of fun from start to finish, full of creativity and jokes that should make you laugh out loud (well, they made ME laugh out loud). Hader and Forte are both very good in their roles, but they're helped out by a supporting cast that includes Anna Faris, Andy Samberg, Benjamin Bratt, James Caan, Terry Crews (voicing the character originally voiced by Mr. T in the first film), and Kristen Schaal.

Directors Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn have a lot of fun working from the script by Erica Rivinoja, John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein. They have so much fun, in fact, that it fills up almost every frame, guaranteeing that viewers of all ages will keep smiling throughout.

Anyone who hates some quality punning may be a bit put out, but I distrust anyone who hates some quality punning anyway. Everyone else is pretty much guaranteed a great time. If you liked the first movie as much as I did then you'll also like this. It's smart, it's silly, it's highly rewatchable. Get to it ASAP if you have good taste (taste, see, because of all the food content in the movie - see? See?).*

8/10

http://www.amazon.com/Cloudy-Chance-Meatballs-Disc-Combo/dp/B0090SI39I/ref=sr_1_4?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1399762396&sr=1-4&keywords=cloudy+with+a+chance+of+meatballs+2

*Yeah, sorry about that.

Hot Rod (2007)

Personally, I think that Hot Rod is hilarious. It's inconsistent and not one of my favourite comedies of all time, but it's damn good during the many moments when it hits that sweet spot. I also know that many people absolutely hate it so do remember that, just in case you somehow take in my praise of the movie, give it a watch one day and end up hating it so vehemently that you feel the need to track me down at home and urinate all over my movie collection.

Rod Kimble (Andy Samberg) is a young man who spends his time creating and taking part in fearless stunts. He's supported by a team that includes his younger brother (Jorma Taccone) and two good friends (Danny McBride and Bill Hader). The only problem is that Rod isn't a very good stuntman. In fact, he's rubbish. When it comes to light that his stepfather (Ian McShane) is very ill, Rod is determined to finally do something right and to raise the money needed to save his life. He will have his own courage, the spirits of the animal kingdom, a number of '80s power ballads and a very cute lady named Denise (Isla Fisher) to help him. But will it be enough?

You either like this kind of comedy or you don't. It's not surprising to learn that this was initially created as a vehicle for Will Ferrell, but Samberg brings the same unrelenting silliness to the role and proves to be fairly likeable in the lead role, even if his character teeters on the edge of being a complete douchebag at times.

Director Akiva Schaffer does a perfectly acceptable job with the material and the script by Pam Brady is full of fun lines, though I assume that a lot of improvisation was also incorporated considering the people involved.

Ian McShane has good fun throwing insults at his onscreen stepson and beating him in many fights, Will Arnett sneers dismissively (and hilariously) at Rod and his chums and there are many great lines and moments from Taccone, McBride, Hader, Fisher, Chester Tam (always dancing and eager to help the troupe) and Chris Parnell (promoting the magic of AM radio). Sissy Spacek may not get as much to do, but she's the kind, calm centre of Rod's life.

Featuring the best use of classic tune "You're The Voice" by John Farnham and a hilariously brilliant spoof of a memorable Footloose scene, this movie may have its heart in the '80s, but it's a comedy that fans may well find themselves revisiting again and again in the future.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hot-Rod-Blu-ray-Sissy-Spacek/dp/B001S3GDQS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1359208278&sr=8-2