reviews: March 2005 Archives

Vin Diesel is following in Ah-nuld's footsteps, as he makes the leap into comedy. His performance is passable, if implausible. The entire story is quite unbelievable, but the characters keep you engaged, and it is a cute film overall. Vin should probably stick to the action/adventure genre, but hey, it's his career.

This movie is entertaining. Tommy Lee Jones is perfectly cast as the gruff Ranger with a heart. If you're going to see this movie because you like Cedric the Entertainer, save your money and just download the trailer a few more times -- all of his scenes are in it. There was plenty of eye candy, though -- Monica Keena and Kelli Garner may be the four best reasons to see this movie.

The CG is, of course, stunning -- there doesn't seem to be much difference in quality anymore these days from movie to movie. I didn't think this movie was as original as Ice Age and the humor wasn't as sophisticated (there *were* a lot of kids in the theater). Robin Williams seemed to trying too hard (if that's possible for him?) in his vocal performance. Overall it was an average film -- probably best to wait for video.

Will Smith does a good job of playing the straight man to Kevin James, although through the magic of flashbacks he does get to cut up a little bit. This is definitely a chick flick, but it is very entertaining, and thankfully not *all* the funny parts are in the trailer, so there are a couple of surprises.