Movie Reviews

Monster House

The cheese and momma cheese decided to spend the sweltering late Sunday afternoon in the comfort of a large environment controlled box and headed down to the local googleplex. The nearest starting film was Monster House, which momma cheese wanted to see anyway, and we quickly ushered our way into theatre. Overall, the cheese is getting sick of all the cg animated films being produced (sidenote: just because you're "famous" does not mean you are entitled to voice a character in a cg film, that's right Martin Lawrence, the cheese is talking to you!) but this one was actually quite good. It wasn't the greatest thing ever, it ran a fairly predictable plot. From about the 5th second it's evident that the supposed "bad guy" is not, in fact, "bad." But the animation is in a more realistic style than, say, Pixar, though not like that crappy Final Fantasy film. More importantly, the three main characters (which are kids) are pretty realized (well, maybe not Chowder). Some of the sequences at the end are actually pretty inventive, when the house starts to "go crazy." Plus, the voice cameos are actually done well (i.e. they're understated). Overall, the cheese rates Monster House at a solid B-.

Clerks II

Last night the cheese finally made his way to see the new Kevin Smith offering. Look, the cheese loves Kevin Smith. In fact, the cheese is even willing to defend Jersey Girl. And on one level, Clerks II delivered pretty much what was expected. Gratuitous cock and pussy jokes, offensive matter, and beastiality. On another level, though, the cheese wonders whether or not Kevin Smith isn't running out of material. The concept of looking at Dante and Randall ten years on is a good one. But the execution seemed lacking. In much the same way as Jay and Silent Bob, the cheese wonders if a Clerks sequel wasn't better as an idea. Remember after Dogma when everyone thought that a Jay and Silent Bob movie would be the greatest thing since Jesus, and then it came out and it was good, but not exactly great. Same thing here (sidenote: the parts of Clerks II with Jay and Silent Bob made the cheese wish for a Jay and Silent Bob movie, until he remembered it was already made). Parts of Clerks II were inspired, but unlike, say Dogma or Chasing Amy, it had a lot of down time, and was the donkey show really necessary. The cheese doesn't object on the ground of content, but rather, it seemed a bit forced. Nice turn on the "Kelly" thing, but overall that whole sequence seemed forced. The film did have a satisfying ending, in that Dante and Randall, as characters, now have some closure. But, where the hell was Justice? Are you honestly telling me that Jay would let her get away? Come on! Either way, Mr. Smith needs to do something like Dogma next. Something that incorporates his "style" without over powering the plot. Final rating B-.