Home Sweet Home Alone: Better Than You Are Expecting

4/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A child, played by Archie Yates, is left home alone and must fend off against perceived burglars, played by Ellie Kemper and Rob Delaney.

I went into this one expecting the worst and was more than a little bit pleasantly surprised by what I got out of it.

I enjoyed Archie Yates, I though he played the role well and was funny. Likewise I enjoyed that this film gave the burglars a backstory, made them human, and made us like them. I thought this film was far more feel good than the original and I liked the ending where everyone just talked it out.

However, due to the fact that we like the burglars and we know that the whole thing this time around is just a big misunderstanding makes it hard to enjoy the traps. A big part of what makes a Home Alone film is watching the baddies get torn apart by the leads traps, however, here because we like them this is less pleasurable viewing and instead just makes the lead look like a brat. There really are no villains here and the conflict itself is entirely avoidable, a conversation would have defused it.

That said I won’t go so far as to say this film is better than the original but it certainly is as good. I really enjoyed this film’s sense of humour and it made me laugh a number of times throughout. Moreover, I like that it referenced the original films and teased us with the return of Kevin, McCauley Culkin.

Overall, a strong hit for Disney + that might be a bit too sweet for some.

Pros.

The humour

The baddies

Archie Yates

The ending

Cons.

The traps are less enjoyable because we like the characters they are hurting

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Clifford The Big Red Dog: The Worst American Accent You Are Ever Likely To Hear

1.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

An unpopular girl, played by Darby Camp, becomes friends with a gigantic dog.

This was one of those times when you go into a film with low expectation and they are met. There are so many baffling issues with this film and in reality it was doomed from the beginning. Chief amongst these is why does Clifford, the gigantic dog, look like that?

Indeed, I don’t know if it is become of covid limitations or budgetary ones but Clifford looks bad, there is something about the CGI render of him that looks at best uncanny at worst like something out of the early nineties. As a result of this Clifford is always shot in a very specific way, which if you know what to look for with good CGI just shows how poor it is, and suggests that maybe the filmmakers were aware of it.

I think the greatest crime that this film commits is that it wastes your time. Basically there was no reason for this film to be made, the story wasn’t there and neither was the audience, it was a cynical effort to cash in on decades old IP and one that looks set to backfire badly.

What upsets me the most about this film is what it does to Jack Whitehall. Whitehall can be very funny and can be a good actor, look at Good Omens for proof of that but here…….. Firstly they give him a god awful American accent that really doesn’t work and that there is no reason for this as his character’s sister, played by Sienna Guillory, is English and has an accent reflecting that so why can’t he?

Overall, your kids deserve better than this so don’t take them to see it.

Pros.

It is short

Whitehall has one or two good jokes

Cons.

Whitehall’s horrid accent

There is nothing new about it and it has no reason to exist

The Clifford CGI

It is a slog to get through

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Ron’s Gone Wrong: The Most Toxic Message Of The Year

0.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

In a dystopia where children need a personal robot to be their friend and post everything they do online one boy, voiced by Jack Dylan Grazer, complains to his family about not having one and then is unhappy when he gets a discounted one. An unhealthy friendship ensues.

Don’t take your kids to see this. Don’t waste your money. There are so, so many better animated films out there that actually have a positive message and enrich those who view them, this only serves to cause harm. This is one of the worst animated films I have seen in a long time.

Firstly, the main boy inspires no sympathy because whilst yes he is a social outcast once he gets a friend in his damaged robot Ron, voiced by Zach Galifianakis, he immediately puts him down and treats him like dirt. Insisting that he gets to pick his friends and because Ron is not perfect out of the box he doesn’t want to know him, what sort of message is this sending to kids? Yes, as the film goes on her learns the error of his ways, but by that point he is already a loathsome lead.

Secondly, this film seems to view the younger generation as being unable to function without constantly being online, which I don’t believe is true. Rather it is more likely to be a cynical Gen X or older view of ‘these young people today always on their phones’, which honestly was never more than a gross generalisation. The world that this film is set in is honestly a hellscape, with big tech companies being basically all powerful, and viewed in this context the whole film becomes incredibly depressing, was that the point?

Thirdly, and in my opinion the most grievous of all, this film treats online issues as throwaway lines and worse yet jokes. Within the film one of the characters Savannah, voiced by Kylie Cantrall, becomes the victim of online bullying as she is labelled ‘poop girl’. This presents the film with the opportunity to tackle an issue that is effecting a lot of young people around the globe, however, rather than do this it trivialises the issue, overlooks it in favour of continuing the main plot and then uses it as a joke as the film almost wants you to laugh at her for being called ‘poop girl’. In my mind not only is this a wasted opportunity but also it is incredibly dangerous.

Overall, this film highlights everything wrong with modern animation, and children should not be allowed to see it.

Pros

Ron is a nice character who made me laugh

Cons.

It is harmful

Using online bullying as a joke

The main kid is a brat and the film says his friend with Ron is good when in fact it is deeply unhealthy

Kids today, and how again Hollywood executives don’t know the first thing

It’s message is rotten

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The Addams Family 2: Still Trying To Live Up To The Live Action Version

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The Addams Family are back once again, and this time they are going on a road trip.

Whilst this is not a great film, it still pales deeply when compared to the live action version, it is better than the first animated film which did not seem to understand the IP. This film at least seems to understand the characters better and uses them in a way that feels truer than what we got the last time around.

There are a number of wonderfully weird moments sprinkled in throughout this film that I feel enhance it, they help to tap into the odd sensibilities of the franchise and play on its macabre sense of humour to a great degree. Some of these moments are better than others of course, but most are at least somewhat entertaining.

My issue with this film is that the central story of Wednesday, voiced by Chloe Grace Mortez, not fitting in with her family and then believing herself to be adopted, being kidnapped, only to then be rescued and reassured by her actual family, the Addams, is contrived. How many times will we have to repeat the same stories over and over again in Hollywood before writers come up with something new? Honesty it is getting to a point where I can accurately predict the endings of films within the first few minutes, please freshen up your story telling.

Overall, a slightly better version of the previous film though the story focus does hold it back.

Pros.

It understands the characters more

There are some deeply strange moments

The sensibilities are there

Cons.

The whole Wednesday story

Fester’s side arc

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Nightbooks: We Need More Of Krysten Ritter In This Role

4/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A young boy, Winslow Fegley, obsessed with all things horror is kidnapped by an evil witch, Krysten Ritter, and forced to write her scary stories.

I enjoyed this film quite a lot, it turned out to be much more narly and hardcore than I was expecting it to be, and it managed to create some great horror visuals over the course of its runtime. In some ways this was more scary than a lot of the adult horrors out there.

The best thing about this film is easily the performance given by Ritter. By now you should all know that Ritter is an incredible talent, but if you didn’t know it for some reason this film proves it to you. She manages to pull off so many different emotions with just her face alone without even the need for words. She captures comedy, sadness and intense anger and rage completely, and manages to make her character both sympathetic and loathsome.

Even the child actors were fairly good, that in and off itself is a big deal as child actors are never good.

Overall, a lot of fun.

Pros.

Ritter

The scares

The ending

The characters

Cons.

The Hansel and Gretel twist was a bit too obvious

Monsters At Work: Welcome To Monsters, Incorporated

2/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A new character who has always dreamed of being a scarer, has to come to terms with the change in direction at Monsters Inc and try and find his place.

So this show is exactly what I was expecting it to be- needless. There is no reason for this show to exist at all, did we really need to see how the business would run once they switched over to laugh power instead of fear? The answers we get are boring and easily guessable.

Furthermore, the new characters, whose names I cannot even remember are also entirely pointless. Clearly they are being written to fill the whole in the show that comes as a result of Mike, Billy Crystal, and Sully, John Goodman, taking a reduced role. Can they even hope to be worthy replacements? If this first episode is anything to go by no.

Finally, I am left to wonder who is this for? If it is for long time fans who loved the film when it came out and have then grown up with it why only have Mike and Sully in such small roles, if this is to attract new people then why not just create a fresh idea altogether. As it stands this show is for no one.

Overall, the only reason it got a 2 is because the animation is good, and the score is suitably jazzy.

Pros.

The animation

The score

Cons.

The new characters are bland and uninteresting

Why does this exist?

It answers questions no one asked

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Ritchie Rich: Kevin McAllister’s Adventures After Home Alone

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

This film almost feels like a spiritual follow up to Home Alone. That is not just because Culkin is basically playing the same character, but also because it continues America’s fascination of stopping those who are after their wealth, and the idea that if you’re rich you will have to defend your fortune at least once.

I felt that this film was sweet and heart-warming, not Home Alone charming but still fairly feel good. Though the film can feel overly sentimental at times, it also still feels fun to watch. For the most part I enjoyed the story, I found it entertaining to watch this little kid use gadgets to defeat an evil corporate man intent on stealing his families fortune: it really is Home Alone.

We do manage to feel some sympathy for this incredibly privileged character and though he could have felt somewhat unrelatable or even cold if it were an adult in the same role, Culkin makes the character easy to like and we do root for him to befriend the local children and be able to be a normal kid just like everyone else.

I found the plot of the film to fall apart the more I thought about it, but I won’t overly analyse this as it is a kids film, and they are not known for their air tight logic or quick wits.

Overall, fun and breezy, but not something that you will think about again once it is over.
Pros.

Culkin

The fun

It is basically Home Alone all over again

Cons.

The plot falls apart

It is insanely predictable

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The Boss Baby 2: My My Dreamworks Is On The Decline

1.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The brothers from the first film are now grown up and now there are new talking babies.

This film is only slightly better than the first. The only reason I have given it a half mark improvement is because they don’t go into the secret world of babies in as much tedious detail as the first film did. We are not subjected to exposition scene after exposition scene this time around.

However, what we do get here is not much better.

The film goes out of its way to show how after the first film, even though they were friends at the end of it, that the two boys have now grown apart as adults and have nothing to do with each other. As such the film spends a lot of it’s time showing them bonding, for some odd sense of sentimentality that never really comes together.

Moreover, the film never really justifies it’s own existence. That is probably because there is no reason for this film to exist. The new threat is laughably dull, and surely the secret baby organisation could have had any number of their agents deal with it, there is no reason why it has to be the boys from the first film.

Furthermore, the new female boss baby, voiced by Amy Sedaris, is totally needless as she adds nothing to the film and is really just there to be the new talking baby for the film. It is just gimmicky.

Overall, this film is entirely needless and is only very minorly better than the first film.

Pros.

Less exposition

Two funny jokes

Cons.

It is needless and doesn’t need to exist

It forces sentimentality for the sake of it

The new boss baby has nothing to do and no reason to be there

It is boring

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Ice Age: Thawing Our Hearts

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

I fondly remember the first few Ice Age films from my younger years, and though they are still watchable and entertaining enough, they are nowhere near as good as I remember them being.

Firstly, the voice John Leguizamo does for Sid the sloth feels vaguely offensive and more than a little reminiscent of the voice than accompanies certain Adam Sandler characters. I found the voice to be noticeably jarring throughout.

Secondly, despite not being on for very long this film suffers from pacing issues, particularly in the first half, with their being little of interest beside the Saber-Toothed Tiger attack. Things get better as the trio assemble however.

Once we get all of the main character together and the journey truly begins then the film starts to work. Though I would not say the film soars to the emotional heights of say a Pixar film, it does get close. You feel the bond the characters have with one another and with the little human baby they are protecting, as such when it comes time to see the child reunited with his family and leave the company of our main characters it is deeply effecting.

I think it is in this emotional dimension that this film shines.

Overall, one of the better entries in the series but perhaps not as strong as you remember it being.

Pros.

The emotion

The ending

Our main trio of characters

Cons.

A very slow assembly

Sid’s voice

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Father Of The Bride Part II: Slightly Less Sociopathic

2.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Whilst I gave the first Father Of The Bride film a hard time I do think this is marginally better. Mostly this is allowing to the fact that this film feels less whiney and cynical, and Steve Martin’s lead actually feels like a loving family man rather than a sociopath who wants to control everyone in his life.

In that regard I think the film does a lot better to make you feel sympathetic towards Martin’s character and to warm to him. There is a scene near the end when Martin is waiting outside the room as his wife gives birth worrying for her and their babies’ safety and we feel for him, this is a million miles away from the self-obsessed ego maniac in the first film that moaned about being comfortably off and living in a large house.

The stereotypes and accents are still an issue with the film’s comedy, and no they don’t age well as you can imagine. I found the film more emotionally feel good then I did funny, I had several moments where the film made me feel warm inside and I had no moments where the film made me laugh- or even really smile.

Overall, it is a shame as Martin is trying but sadly these films just aren’t very funny, to me at least.

Pros.

Less obnoxious

A few heart-warming moments

Cons.

It is not funny

The accents and the stereotypes

The plot makes very little sense

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