In lieu of anything better to do, I checked out the new Sony Animation joint Surf’s Up. This summer being what it is, the film instantly gets three points for not being a sequel or a prequel. It immediately loses five points, though, for being a film about penguins, and five more points for being an animation with animals that talk. Not a good omen.
Voices: Loses points for having Jon Heder voicing a weirdo chicken, but gains points for having Jeff Bridges and James Woods bringing their respective crazies and being very funny. Shia LaBeouf voices the main character, Cody, whose life story is being told, and in that sense, it reminded me of A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints, but it’s a very limited comparison.
As for the film itself, it has quite a high concept - MTV style documentary – for what is undeniably a very kiddy story. All the usual be-true-to-yourself and winning-isn’t-everything and don’t-be-a-bully stuff applies, and there are way more poop jokes than you’d expect. At 80 minutes, it feels a little incomplete, though. The big climactic surfing scene is pretty short, and if you’ve seen any kid’s movie ever (let’s say Pixar’s Cars), you can guess what happens. Often times with films for kids, there’s at least stuff for the over-10s to laugh at too, but here that was kinda lacking.
So Surf’s Up, then: Funny for kids, actually quite boring for not-kids, and all soundtracked by Green Day and the New Radicals.
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In other news, I don’t know if you’ve seen Mr. Brooks, the crime thriller with Kevin Costner and Demi Moore, that’s in cinemas now. Either way, you should definitely check out the latest episode of The Best Show for a fantastic spoiler-heavy assessment.
Tom on Dane Cook: “I’m not gonna be mean, but this guy’s a whole lotta bad… You could feel kids not liking him anymore”.
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