April Fools: Superhero Movie (2008)

Written and directed by Craig Mazin, it's worth noting right away that Superhero Movie is one of the few spoofs with "Movie" in the title that is actually relatively painless and enjoyable. It's nowhere near the daffy greatness of Not Another Teen Movie, but it's miles better than the likes of Date Movie.

Drake Bell stars as Rick Riker, a young man who develops superpowers after he's bitten by a radioactive dragonfly. From start to finish, this is a riff on Spider-Man, with plenty of nods to other superhero hits of the past few years. And that's about all you need to know. Christopher McDonald is great as Lou Landers, the villain of the piece, Sara Paxton is very sweet as Jill Johnson, and Leslie Nielsen and Marion Ross are Uncle Albert and Aunt Lucille, respectively.

Okay, this is still an easy movie to hate if you automatically hate these kinds of movies. It's not often aiming for the cleverest comedy, but it is always aiming for laughs (unlike the horrible approach of just copying scenes with little to no changes, an unfunny approach used by some people, who shall remain nameless).

The great cast help to make up for the weaker, groan-inducing, gags. Bell and Paxton are a sweet central pair, McDonald is a great baddie (as anyone who has seen him in Happy Gilmore or Dirty Work can attest), Nielsen and Ross are good fun, and the rest of the cast includes Brent Spiner, Kevin Hart, Tracy Morgan, Robert Joy (equally amusing and tasteless as Stephen Hawking), Regina Hall, Robert Hays, Nicole Sullivan, Jeffrey Tambor, Craig Bierko and Simon Rex, among others. A bunch of big names does not a good movie make, but this lot certainly help to keep everything lively and entertaining enough.

There are still a few too many toilet humour gags, but there are a lot of jokes that target specific superheroes or superhero movie moments, and they work surprisingly well. They may be easy gags, but they work. And if enough laughs are created, then that means that a comedy movie has done its job. Even if it's far from the best out there.

6/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Superhero-Movie-DVD-Drake-Bell/dp/B001A47G8O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391377035&sr=8-1&keywords=superhero+movie

So I put together a book, yes I did.

The UK version can be bought here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1395945647&sr=1-3&keywords=movie+guide

And American folks can buy it here - http://www.amazon.com/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395945752&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=TJs+ramshackle+mov

As much as I love the rest of the world, I can't keep up with all of the different links in different territories, but trust me when I say that it should be there on your local Amazon.

Abominable Christmas (2012)

Despite the fact that I've given this Christmas animation a low score, I can honestly say that I still think I've been quite generous. I can also honestly say that the few other comments I've seen on the film are even more generous. This piece of rubbish currently has a rating of 6/10 on IMDb, for goodness sake. People seem to forgive a lot when something is aimed at kids, but that's no excuse for the minimal effort put on display here.

The story revolved around two little snow creatures, Abby (Ariel Winter) and Adam (Nolan Gould). They are warned by their father, listed as Abominable Dad (Ray Liotta) to avoid humans, and to especially avoid being spotted by a scientist named Margaret Knowhow (Jane Lynch), so they play around for a while and end up being spotted, dashing off to hide in the house of Mr. Winterbottom (Emilio Estevez) and his son (Drake Bell) and daughter (Isabella Acres). Abominable Dad searches for his kids, while also trying to avoid the attention of a local dog catcher (Matthew Lillard).

The best thing I can say about Abominable Christmas is that it's brief. It runs for just over 40 minutes, which makes it slightly easier to bear. Being aimed at very young viewers, it has nothing complicated in the mix. In fact, most of the little lessons throughout the script, written by Michael and Samantha Shear, are just fine for little ones to learn.

The cast all do okay, but they're not exactly stretched in any of the roles.

Director Chad Van De Keere does the least amount possible, providing viewers with visuals that I can honestly say look worse than the Monsters, Inc. game that I used to play on the Playstation One. It makes for a frustrating experience. Yes, children may be more easily entertained, and may actually prefer the simpler designs, but I suspect that a fair few of them will be just as disappointed as any adults having to watch the thing.

It's unfair to expect Pixar levels of quality from every animated movie, but it's also unfair to fob viewers off with something that looks like it could have been made on a Commodore 64.

3/10

http://www.amazon.com/Abominable-Christmas-Emilio-Estevez/dp/B00CSW0706/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387282530&sr=8-1&keywords=abominable+christmas