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.

My movie facebook page is here

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brads-Super-Fantastic-Terrific-Page-of-Movies/178708865473822

Zookeeper (Family Movie Review # 6) 2011 6 out of 10

Zookeeper  2011   6 out of 10

Zookeeper starring Kevin James was about a nice zookeeper  that is trying to win back the girl he proposed to 5 years ago after bumping into her  again at his brother's wedding weekend.  She dumped him back then because she couldn't see herself being with someone that was just a zookeeper.    It was a very predictable story where you can see every plot point coming a mile away.   The movie also stars a bunch of talking zoo animals which quite frankly are not really important to the plot at all.   The advertisements made me think that it was going to basically be A Night at the Museum, but in a zoo,  which wasn't really the case. 

It probably would have been a more entertaining movie if it had gone this route.    The animals decide to break the code of silence to help him get the girl.  The animals have always been able to talk you see and just don't because it will freak humans out.  It borrows from the concept of Toy Story, where once the humans are away the animals all hang out together and talk.    They animals talking  is really not important to the story and we could have had pretty much the exact same story without the animals talking and giving him dating advice and it wouldn't have been much different.

    The highlights of the movie   surround Kevin James doing pratfalls like crashing into the ice sculpture at the wedding and riding a silly kids bike in an attempt to win back the girl on a pre-wedding event.   And the scene where the gorilla gets to go to TGIF's is funny as well.   It was a decent family movie,  but nothing extra special

A group of zoo animals decide to break their code of silence in order to help their lovable zoo keeper find love -- without opting to leave his current job for something more illustrious.

The Dilemma 2011 7 out of 10

The Dilemma 2011    7 out of 10

The Dilemma is a solid movie about a guy that finds out that his best friend is being cheated on right in the middle of a big deal that they are working on at work.  The Dilemma is how he should break the news to his best friend.   The movie was promoted as a comedy,  but it really wasn't a comedy at all.  Other than the fact that Vince Vaughn has some of his typical Vince Vaughn style dialogue it was much more of a drama.  His character struggles with breaking the news to his best pal played by Kevin James.  I thought it had a good solid plot which also dealt with Vince Vaughn's character dealing with his own trust issues in his relationship with the always beautiful Jennifer Connelly concerning his gambling addiction problems.  If you go into the movie expecting a comedy you may be disappointed,  but if you take it for what it is it was actually quite good. The subject matter is more serious than the trailer shows.

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.