4 out of 5 Minivans

We saw this movie together as a family, in the evening of the opening night. It was very true to the original style and look and feel of the characters by the beloved Dr. Seuss. The attention to detail in the character design was astonishing. The hair and clothing were excellently detailed and very sharp and crisp looking.

As a fan of the Dr. Seuss series as a kid, I was impressed that the studio did not try to make some 3d looking ultra sharp character that ruined the look of the characters and environments, it was still kind of mystical looking and the backgrounds were not crisp and ultra real looking it has the Dr. Seuss look to them that is hard to describe but it seemed at times as if the background were hand drawn images that came to life and the character as well was very detailed but also very true to the original that we all know from the storybook.

As usual in many 3d films the all star cast was incredible, Jim Carrey the voice of Horton was excellent, and Steve Carell, the Mayor of Whoville the two were a comedic success, I thought they may be trying to crack jokes over eachother but they turned out to be a great team.

A definite family recommended movie from My Family Review . com for sure, take the kids they will love it and you will enjoy some amazing 3d animated visual imagery that will bring back memories from your childhood if you had ever read the book.

3 out of 5 Minivans

We saw this movie today as a family. Surprisingly, It was a good movie the only part was the voices get a little annoying after hearing them for too long. They are of course sped up to have the chipmunk sound we all know and love, right? I was expecting it to be like Garfield or along those lines animated characters with real human actors etc. It was much better than Garfield. Isabel loved the singing and dancing, as she was jumping and dancing around the movie theater. Although, she did get bored during the times where the story was developing and the chipmunks are not singing or dancing she was restless and not interested in the film at all. I guess thats the drawback to having a movie like this, they have to build the story for the parents and adults and the kids get bored with the “fluff” between the entertaining parts.

The only really not necessary part of this movie was a sort of love story squeezed in the main story, of the awkward Dave Seville and his ex girlfriend trying to get back together while he is trying to be a “father figure” to the Chipmunks, they could have focused on him building his relationship with the Chipmunks instead of going after the girl, but I think they did is for the tv commercial so they could have Alvin shaking his booty and tail saying bow, chicka, wow, wow.. which I didn’t even see in the movie, but Alvin does dim the lights and put on the romantic music for setting the mood for Dave’s big date. It was probably all about marketing and getting people to go to the movie, it makes it look funnier than it really was overall. But don’t get me wrong there were some funny quotes and witty chipmunk humor like this one below…

David Seville: “They’re savings bonds. In seven years you will get enough money from them to buy something nice.”

Alvin: “Do you have any that you bought seven years ago?”

I was impressed with some of the animations etc, the visuals were good, they blended right into the living room and mansion environments they were living in it didn’t look like cartoon rodents were placed on top of the environments they looked quite natural there in the apartment and mansion. After getting rich and famous, the chipmunks are living large in this movie in a huge mansion with as many toys as they could get packed in one room, it was like every boy/mans dream opening the mansion doors and seeing every imaginable toy all piled up for them to dig in and destroy the place.

At one point they were doing their act and wearing shiny rapper like costumes, with full on backup dancers shaking their booty etc, it was pretty entertaining. It was not just what you would expect the playing of the Christmas song etc. They mixed in some hip hop, rap and other sounds to the movie. They created the scene of the Chipmunks singing the christmas song very well exactly like the original even the starting up the song Dave was saying the names of the Chipmunks while he was playing the piano intro, are you ready Simon, Theodore, Alvin, etc., they reply ok Dave.. It was very true to the original song that made Alvin and the Chipmunks famous long ago I believe it was in the late 50’s, with the song and later for the cartoon series.

We would suggest this movie for families with young children, especially if they are like our little one that likes to stand up and shake it and dance along with the characters in the movie, we had a good time at this movie this morning. It always puts a smile on our faces as mom and dad of the cute little girl that is dancing and saying alright, while she puts up her thumb showing her approval of the movie.

3 out of 5 Minivans

Cast:
Tobey Maguire
Kirsten Dunst
James Franco
Topher Grace
Bryce Dallas Howard
Thomas Haden Church
The much anticipated Spiderman was sort of a let down for myself and some of my friends. We were expecting the greatest summer blockbuster, much like the two previous Spiderman films.

The cast was good for the most part, and special effects were great. We could have done without the two singing performances by Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). The story seemed to be all over the place.

Parker was still trying to make sense of his purpose and of course trying to find love with M.J., he goes through his usual ups and downs and is infected with a parasite from a meteor rock, that amplifies certain parts of his personality, even more than the two previous films. Parker battles his own inner demons, while battling more than enough bad guys for one film.

There were a few cheezy scenes like when Parker puts on the Black Spiderman suit and starts thinking he is gods gift to women, and starts strutting his stuff down the streets of New York.

The bad guys pile up in this film, of course we have Goblin Jr, Harry Osborn (James Franco), who is still seeking revenge for his fathers death, then there are new comers The Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), and Eric Brock Jr., AKA Venom (Topher Grace), who is desperately trying to replace Parker as the staff photographer at the Daily Bugle.

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The film seems to jump around and tries to be a love story, comedy, action thriller etc and is stagnant at times. Parker’s mood swings, M.J.’s singing, which isnt really that great, and too many bad guys to keep track of, ending in a predictible good vs evil battle royale, it could have been better.

Overall I am still a Spiderman fan, but the previous two films were better, hopefully the next one will be even better if the film makers learn that you cant try to pack all these storylines into one film. The budget must have been huge and the movie goers did come out in full force but after this film I am not sure about the next installment I hope the creators step it up a notch.

Will there be a Spiderman 4, originally Maguire said there will not, at comic book conventions and TV appeararances, but after the box office success of this film, I bet they will want to cash in on the franchise and keep them going unless they totally flop the next installment.

At the time of writing this its reported that Spiderman 3 has made over $879 Million and climbing, I think they have a little left over to make the next film dont you? I just wonder how much Mr. Stan Lee gets, since he created Spiderman and many other characters when he was an employee of Marvel, I know he must be doing all right but I bet he had no idea that he would be giving life to a character that would have 3-4 major motion pictures and millions in sales in merchandising etc..

“Everybody needs help. Even Spider-Man.”