Animated movie # 6: Hotel Transylvania 2012 9 out of 10

Hotel Transylvania   2012   9 out of 10

I was surprised by Hotel Transylvania when I finally saw it.  When the trailers for this one came out I didn't think it looked like it would be that great.   A hotel for Monsters just didn't seem fresh enough an idea to get me to see it in the theaters.  I mean it is basically a throw back to Mad Monster Party or even ground already touched upon so perfectly by The Nightmare Before Christmas.     Well we finally got a chance to see it at a free movie at the beach night  (which my wife will probably not be going to anymore because people at free movies are totally rude.)  The movie was actually very clever and entertaining.  It featured the voice talents of half the cast of the uninspired  Grown-ups movie  (which turns out they are better animated as monsters).    The movie focuses on Dracula's castle where he is throwing a party for his daughter's 118th birthday.   A human stumbles across the party and Dracula tries to get rid of him because all the monsters are afraid of humans.  It was funny and adventurous and the cast of monsters was very entertaining.   I recommend this animated movie to those who like me originally passed it by.   Free movie night on the other hand......NOT SO MUCH......Unless you want to hate people for awhile.

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Grown Ups 2010 5 out of 10

Grown Ups 2010    5 out of 10

Grown Up was an extremely average comedy that didn't really deliver for me despite a reunion of all star ex SNL members.  It is the perfect example of a movie that all the best scenes are in the trailer and no surprises are in the movie at all.   The plot was thin,   a group of unlikely basketball champions reunite after the death of their childhood coach and basically hang out together.  There is a tiny bit of story where they have a rematch with the bitter rival team at the end, but mainly the movie is just the guys hanging out with their families and exchanges mild insults with each other that don't even equal the insults thrown around in an episode of a Rules of Engagement diner scene from the show David Spade stars in.

The movie wasn't terrible, but it really wasn't much of a movie.  It kind of felt like you were just hanging out with this group of actors instead of a movie.   Like being a part of a comic panel as opposed to watching an actual movie.  It was just to mellow.

Of course it made money so a sequel is on the way.  Hopefully they will make the sequel into more of a film than the first one.

Benchwarmers 2006 5 out of 10 Antibullying with a laugh or 2

A movie with a message about anti-bullying starring  Rob Schneider??   The movie itself was just okay the message or heart of the movie was unexpected. Jon Heder---plays an adult nerd that still wears a helmet and for an acting choice he basically just plays the character like Napoleon Dynamite with a helmet  (what range).  David Spade is basically just nerdier version of his exact same character he always plays with a bad haircut and  Nick Swardson is basically wasted as  Spade's brother that is afraid of the sun.  They all play a bunch of losers that never got picked to play ball back in the day that stand up to a bunch of young bullies that are picking on a kid.  This brave action  and the help of another former nerd that is now a billionaire (Jon Lovitz) leads them to  band together to take on little league teams and get payback.   The  humor in the movie is pretty average---nothing special or exceptionally funny.  The message was actually pretty heartfelt one about anti-bullying which was a bit of a surprise coming from Deuce Bigalow and Joe Dirt.  Rob Scheider --who to me is usually a throw away character with a few funny moments in Adam Sandler movies actually does a pretty good job as the main character that isn't exactly what he seems.   That plot point was predictable-but worked well anyway.  All in all it was a so-so comedy that was only slightly more than I expected it to be.