The Addams Family (2019)

It couldn't be a better day.

Bleak skies, cold rushing winds, a wonderfully creepy film, it's perfect. I loved this movie, they did dang near everything right with only one or two major grumbles, they treated the film with love and appreciation and for that it has my love and likewise approval. This is more of a love letter to the 60s series with dashes of the 90s movies and it balances very well. We follow our favorite macabre family once more as Gomez and Morticia find a perfectly haunted house and begin to raise their family, as they soon decide due to Wednesday's intrigue to venture down to the quaint and colorful town below to introduce themselves. But shock of all shocks they're not well liked and soon through a fear mongering retailer decide to oust the family from their town leading to a genuinely nice resolution. The first thing I have to say is, there is a bit of Hotel Transylvania in this, a group of people are chased into hiding in a large luxurious house before a young girl is interested in the outside world and forces both worlds to collide, and this really isn't a bad thing. Because it's a decent story and because they actually do something entirely of their own with it, it's not a ripoff of Hotel Transylvania but you do see some elements there. The animation style is excellent with the original designs by Charles Addams used for the characters and they all look great, with gorgeously gruesome backgrounds and great color choice. The cast was great I mean you have Oscar Isaac as Gomez which is already spot on, but Charlize Theron is wonderful as Morticia, Chloe Grace Moretz kinda stole the show as Wednesday which is funny because Wednesday in the show was just a cute girl and was nowhere near as morbidly hilarious as she's been in the past 25 years, Finn Wolfhard is really good as Pugsley, and even Nick Kroll was cast surprisingly effective as Uncle Fester, so cast is great without a doubt. I had a blast with the comedy also but I've always had an odd and dark sense of humor so of course I loved it and it made me laugh quite a lot and even when I wasn't laughing I had the biggest smile on my face and and a gross warm feeling in my chest cavity. Not many films can do that. The satire was also updated from the 90s movies going from a critique of shallow suburban life to shallow modern life with the town literally called Assimilation, where everyone is exactly the same, everyone is using their phones to know what the other neighbors are doing, and security cameras are everywhere. It's not trying to make a big statement but just poke fun at the tropes of today, and while some people would say it dates the film I don't think so. Originally Illumination was going to make an Addams Family movie but it got cancelled and I'm honestly thankful for that, I don't completely despise Illumination's movies but I'm just very happy it turned out the way it did. Now it does have some pop culture references but it's not horrendous, it's just cute gags and is not trying to be totally hip with the fellow kids, even with Snoop Dogg voicing Cousin Itt it still sounds like Cousin Itt (also known as the funniest thing in the world and I have no idea why)! They treated it with respect and not just some cash grab with a recognizable license, they wanted to make a fun and entertaining movie and that's exactly what they accomplished! It's great to see whether with friends, yourself, or just your family, it's just a nice well made animated movie. Maybe not a great movie, but I don't think it's trying to be a great movie and trust me when I say there has never been anything wrong with that. I give the movie 3.5 stars check it out! A lovely movie for the spooky season that might make you appreciate it even more.

Next week some cult favorites from the 80s, 90s, and 2000s.

Despicable Me 2

Okay, I surprisingly find this movie better than the last.

So Despicable Me 2 picks up about a year after the last with Gru being a single father, as he is recruited by an organization to help solve a case. And then, well a lot of stuff happens. Gru has a partner Lucy played hysterically by Kristen Wiig and they kinda got a thing going on, minions are disappearing left and right, and Margot has a crush. Boy that sounded like a bad recap to a tv show didn't it? So what do I think of this movie? I actually really like it, the characters have more depth to them, the comedy had me on the floor laughing at parts in fact I can sum the comedy to me in a single phrase: Comes in strong bursts. When a joke hits, it hits like a sandbag alright? Surprisingly most the things I laugh at in these movie are just tiny details in the character's design or how they spoke their lines, and not much the material intended to make you laugh. Good or bad? You make the call! But yeah, the comedy was waaaaay better than the first, the characters I thought were more interesting (although I will admit Gru is way more awesome when he is evil), and I like the plot more. So I can easily say this is a wonderful family film with excellent animation, great voice acting, bizarre yet effective jokes, and does make me want to see what happens next in this series. I'm thinking a double feature tomorrow, two brand spanking new movies out in theaters. Hopefully it will work out.

Despicable Me

Let me make one thing perfectly clear, I do not hate this movie. I'm going to repeat that again, I do NOT hate this movie.

It took me years to watch this movie, you gotta watch Despicable Me, it's so funny, the minions are hilarious, blah, blah, blah! I heard that for like 3 damn years! The minion thing was bad, it wasn't like now where they are on everything in the flippin' universe but it was still pretty bad. I was pessimistic towards it. But when I was finally forced to watch it, I found an okay movie. Now hold your fire, and do not castrate me, Despicable Me is a good movie. It's a great family movie to watch with an original idea, fun characters, and good bits of comedy. It is not Miyazaki, it is not Disney, it's not even really Don Bleuth in terms of acclaim. Again, let me explain. While the plot is decent, focusing on a villain who tries to steal the moon (brownie points for dreaming big hun.) and in the process adopts 3 little girls in order to accomplish his plan, it still falls into certain tropes. The guy who's kind of an ass but has a heart of gold will come to love and appreciate the girls he originally did not like, and they'll all live happily ever after. Doesn't take much beyond a 5th grader's intellect to guess where the movie goes. While the animation style is quite decent, some shots did look very clunky and rigid while other's were near flawless in execution. I know animation is the hardest job in the world, so I can't bash it much. Seriously the best parts of the movie are the girls and when Gru tries to attempt to steal a shrink ray, it just has a very Chuck Jones or Tex Avery style straight out of a Roadrunner cartoon, and I love that. The girls are extremely cute, like to the point you want to adopt them yourself but I swear I got the diabeetus when the littlest girl Agnes was on screen. The minions are not in the forefront of this movie, and they're comedy is....hit and miss. I'm either laughing my ass off or I'm just begging for the scene to end. My main question is, what was the target audience for this movie? Kids. Okay, how old? We talking kindergarten to maybe 6th grade? Not that there is a problem with that, I just am very curious since it kinda exploded and is now accesible to all ages from preschoolers to past fully grown adults. So overall, Despicable Me is indeed a good family movie and is great to watch if you just want a movie night with your kiddos but honestly I just am not that in love with it. Do I like it? Sure! Do I want to see the 3rd movie? Yeah, I mean that's why I'm doing this right? I'd tell you to rent or buy it but chances are every household owns a copy so there you go.