Hotel Transylvania 3D

Monsters Are People, Too!

★ ★ ★ ★ out of 5 buckets | Matinee and DVD

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Rated: PG Action, scary images, and mild rude humor

Release Date: September 28, 2012

Runtime: 1 hour 31 minutes

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Director: Genndy Tartakovsky
Writers: Peter Baynham, Robert Smigel, Todd Durham, Dan and Kevin Hageman
Cast: Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, CeeLo Green, Jon Lovitz, Brian George

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SYNOPSIS: Centuries ago, Count Dracula builds a lavish hotel for all monsters to travel to for vacations without worry of dangerous human interference. 118 years later, his daughter Mavis yearns to go out into the world. With Dracula's daughter trying to leave and human Jonathan discovering the hotel, Dracula struggles to maintain control over his daughter, the hotel guests, and the unruly, strange human hiker.

REVIEW: Writer/director/producer of such Cartoon Network animations as Samurai Jack, Dexter's Laboratory, and Star Wars: Clone Wars, Russian-born Genndy Tartakovsky is well versed with dynamic cartoon characters and stories. Written by the team of Peter Baynham (Arthur Christmas), SNL's Robert Smigel (Don't Mess With The Zohan), based on a story idea from Todd Durham, and Dan and Kevin Hageman, we are treated with life of monsters from their own point of view.

In the late 1800s, Count Dracula (Adam Sandler, That's My Boy) coos over his infant daughter Mavis and overlooks construction of a beautiful, hidden castle/hotel deep in the mountain plains of Transylvania. When Mavis (Selena Gomez, Monte Carlo) turns 118 years old, she reminds her father on the eve of another one of his lavishly planned birthday parties that she was promised that she could venture out into the human world. With all of her close family friends at the hotel for the occasion - including Uncle Frankenstein (Kevin James, Grown Ups) and Aunt Eunice (Fran Drescher, The Nanny),  Wayne (Steve Buscemi, Grown Ups) and Wanda (Molly Shannon, Casa de mi Padre) Werewolf and their kids, Murray the Mummy (Ceelo Green, The Voice), and Griffin the Invisible Man (David Spade, Jack and Jill) - Mavis decides to forsake her dreams of traveling into the human world. But when a human named Jonathan (Andy Samberg, That's My Boy) manages to find the hotel by accidental luck and encounters Mavis, the Count does everything in his powers to try and get rid of the young man, including disguising Jonathan as a monster named Johnny Stein, using fear to scare him off, and using his mind powers.

Tartakovsky is well-versed in dynamic animated writing and direction, and seems to be the perfect director to bring undead monsters to life. With excellent 3D effects and a humorous and sweet story, Hotel Transylvania 3D is fun for the entire human family. When monsters have all of the same issues as us vacationing humans, you can't help but giggle or smile at the same issues that we have been through ourselves. Humanizing the monsters who fear humans makes for a funny and endearing story.

With a controlling vampire being the proprietor of the Hotel he built, plus the father and protector of the daughter he loves, Dracula is a controlling, undead boss and parent obsessed with keeping his fellow monsters and daughter safe from the rampaging humans who only offer torches and pitchforks against them. The Hotel Transylvania is a refuge and oasis for all monsters, allowing them to unwind in old world luxury and service without fear or worry. But with any traveling families, couples, or individuals, there are always the normal vacationing problems. Wayne Werewolf has a litter of growing pups that tear, pee, and race all over the place, plus a wife with another litter on the way. His howling days are behind him, but he does want to kick it with his friends Drac and Frank! The Invisible Man finds himself as a disadvantage when playing Charades, one of Dracula's planned Hotel activities. Frankenstein's wife Eunice nags him about wanting tandem spa treatments, asking Frank if he even scheduled any of the things she wanted to do.

The voice talent that Sandler assembles for the film is most of his usual suspects, each perfect for the roles they play. Kevin James is great as the gentle flower picking Frankenstein with Fran Drescher as his high-pitch voiced bride. Sandler himself embodies all of the stereotyped inflections of the Universal Studios monster vampire. Buscemi is great as the worn-out werewolf father of dozens. David Spade's Invisible Man is a treat as the prim and proper transparent man who still is self-conscious of his appearance. CeeLo Green wraps up the voice of Murray the Mummy like a present. Selena Gomez's voice comes shining through like the morning sun as the anxious and dream-filled young vampire Mavis. And Andy Samberg voice for the unsure, but 'rolling with it' Jonathan is just what Samberg is best at - being Andy Samberg. Upbeat, silly, and looking for a fun time, Samberg's Johnny Stein just wants to experience life wherever his feet take him and his backpack.  

The characters are silly caricatures of the monsters we grew up with, from Bigfoot to the Creature from the Black Lagoon, from Frankenstein to Quasimodo (Jon Lovitz), from a classic Greek mythical Hydra to gargoyles and witches who serve as waitstaff and housekeepers. Only the Invisible Man is drawn the way you expect - just kidding! Griffen still wears swim trunks around the hotel pool. The scenes are beautifully rendered, and the use of 3D is superb. The sweeping camera fly-throughs are dizzying and exciting, the magical effects of Mavis changing from vampire girl to bat are colorful and near-mystical, the swirling mist, long shadows, and flickering torchlight adding ambience and depth. The film is fun to watch and the story is funny, exciting, and touching.

Hotel Transylvania 3D is a fun and touching broom-stick ride through the long, tight corridors of a medieval castle that doubles as a 5-star vacation destination. In the hotel suites, monsters struggle with their unruly kids, have money issues, face discriminations, and feel love and suffer loss. Dracula may be a bloodsucker, but he still only want what's best for his daughter.

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That's My Boy

Whazzup!!

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Rated: R  Nudity, crude sexual content, pervasive language and some drug use.
Release Date: June 15, 2012
Runtime:  1 hour 56 minutes

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Director: Sean Anders
Writers: David Caspe
Cast:  Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Leighton Meester, Vanilla Ice, James Caan, Milo Ventimiglia, Tony Orlando, Will Forte, Rachel Dratch, Nick Swardson

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SYNOPSIS: Teenager Donny has an affair with his teacher, fathering a child, and raising Todd as a single parent until Todd's 18th birthday. Disappearing for years, Donny returns on the eve of Todd's wedding.

REVIEW: Director Sean Anders is most notable for writing and helming the farce Sex Drive, as well as being a comedic writer for films like Mr. Popper's Penguins, Hot Tub Time Machine, and She's Out of My League. This time around, Anders leaves the writing duties to Happy Endings creator and writer David Caspe. With the comedic talents of Adam Sandler and the SNL Digital Short wunderkund Andy Samberg, we can only hope for a raunchy good time better than Sandler's Jack and Jill or Samberg's Hot Rod.

As a young thirteen-year-old boy Donny Berger (Justin Weaver) was the big man on school grounds. He and his beautiful teacher Ms. McGarricle (Eva Amurri Martini, Isolation) realize their soulmate passion for each other while in detention for Donny's inappropriate sexual innuendos. After a lengthy trist, they are eventually found out and Ms. McGarricle stands trial and is convicted for her relationship with a minor. Donny's father is given custody of the unborn baby until Donny turns eighteen, at which point Donny would take over parental duties. But when Han Solo Berger (Andy Samberg, Hot Rod) turns eighteen himself he disappears and becomes estranged from Donny. Years later, Donny finds himself in trouble with the government due to back taxes, owning $43,000. Fortunately, Donny sees that his son, now Todd Petersen, has become a successful hedge fund manager and is engaged to a beautiful girl Jamie (Leighton Meester, Country Strong). With an opportunity to get the money if he reunites him, Todd, and Ms. McGarricle at the prison, Donny crashes the wedding weekend at Todd's boss's summer house. Trying to keep the truth from his soon-to-be in-laws Gerald (Blake Clark, Rango) and Helen (Meagen Fay, Halloween II), Jamie's brother Chad (Milo Ventimiglia, The Divide), and his boss Steve Spirou (Tony Orlando), and Grandma Delores (Peggy Stewart, The Runaways), Todd does all he can to keep Donny away from the people in his new life and his secrets intact.

Very worried going into this film, I dreaded a repeat of Sandler's Jack and Jill. Comedies and comedians are really only as good as their last project, most people forgetting Sandler's pre- Jack and Jill funny and silly romantic comedy film with Jennifer Aniston, Just Go With It, or the grown up buddy flick, Grown Ups. In his latest work, Sandler channels the spirit of one of his earliest creations, Billy Madison, into a 40-year-old reckless, down-and-out, former tabloid celebrity who gained all of his notoriety from being the willing underage 'victim' to a beautiful bombshell teacher. Instant fame, a six-figure payday for the rights to his story for a television movie of Donny's exploits, and poor child-rearing experience, lead Donny to a place where he has no money, lives on the generosity of strippers still enamoured with him, and drives a barely running Pontiac Fiero. Using his sometimes stuttering, sometimes loud, sometimes stammering, always Sandleresque ways, Adam brings his typical juvenile ways to an adult delinquent role who just wants to be a good guy.Thrust into the spotlight by stellar work on his Saturday Night Live Digital Shorts, Andy Samberg trades in his legacy of viral hits such as 'D**k in a Box', 'Lazy Sunday', and the Grammy nominated 'I'm on a Boat' for the glimmer and glamour of the big screen. With his tenure on SNL officially at a close, we can only hope that his graduation from small screen to big screen to be an easy transition. In That's My Boy, Samberg brings his physical, rubbery ah-shucks but uptight presence to his role of Todd Petersen AKA Han Solo Berger. Completely reinventing his life and back story, Todd is wholly unprepared to deal with the sudden reappearance of his father Donny. With a father who was but a kid himself, Todd ends up with so many issues that he needs a barrage of pills to keep stable.

Filled with the usual menagerie of characters, Sandler continues to support the careers of his friends such as Blake Clark. But he also illicits the help of other clever and silly people such as long-time strip club patron Kenny (Nick Swardson, 30 Minutes or Less), overweight motherly stripper Champale (Luenell, Think Like A Man), new-age co-worker Phil (Will Forte, Rock of Ages) and his wife (Rachel Dratch, Just Go With It), always formidable Father McNally (James Caan, Detachment) and former rapping star Vanilla Ice (himself). They round out the cast nicely, bringing an absurdity to the story that is over the top, silly, and out loud funny.

Funny and raunchy, the Samberg and Sandler team-up reinstates Sandler as the comedic top-dog, erasing the horrid double showing of him as a man and his sister in Jack and Jill. Filled with beer guzzling, grand-cougar sex, bare breasts, and the return to lost youth and juvenile delinquency, That's My Boy both tickles the funny bone enough to tears (especially if you liked movies like The Hangover) and has that near tender moment that Sandler likes to put in some of his films such as Click.

That's My Boy is the typical Adam Sandler fair. If you like him, you will love this movie. The film is outrageous without being outrageous for the sake of it. There are gratuitous shots of flesh and plenty of potty humor, but their use all seems to work for the right laughs. There are even some sight gags and one-liners so subtle that you may miss their humorous worth. That's My Boy brings a great soundtrack, filthy humor, crude language, and a touching message to a theater near you. Whazzup!!!  

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WORTH: Matinee or Rental

Jack and Jill

Wonder Twin Powers, Deactivate!

Director: Dennis Dugan

Writers: Steve Koren, Ben Zook
Cast: Adam Sandler, Katie Holmes, Al Pacino, David Spade, Nick Swardson

SYNOPSIS: What starts as the short annual Thanksgiving holiday visit from his needy and annoying twin sister Jill, ends up being a battle for Jack to find a way to get her to leave.

REVIEW: The list of Adam Sandler movies is long. Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, Grown Ups, and Just Go With It, just to name a few. And for the record, Dennis Dugan has directed them all, including the now in theaters Jack and Jill. Written by Steve Koren (Click) from a story by Ben Zook (Can't Stop Dancing), Jack and Jill marks an Adam Sandler acting career spanning almost a quarter century.

Jack Sadelstein (Adam Sandler) and his family prepares to host his twin sister Jill (Adam Sandler) for the Thanksgiving weekend. With the death of their mother earlier in the year, the needy and annoying Jill decides to make her first lonely holiday season stay much longer. As Jack tries unsuccessful different ways to curtail her stay before his family cruise to Europe, he starts to realize that Jill may hold the only way to snag Al Pacino (himself) for a Dunkin Donuts commercial. All the while, Jack's landscaper Felipe seems to also have taken a shine to forlorn Jill.

Filled with Adams usual suspects from his other films, we get a look at Norm MacDonald as a perspective Jill suitor with the screen name of 'Funbucket', Allen Covert as a homeless man invited to Thanksgiving dinner by Jack and Jill's parents, Nick Swardson as not-thinking-before-he-speaks co-worker Todd, and even David Spade as Jack ex-girlfriend Monica. New to the universe of Adam Sandler films, Katie Holmes stars as Jack's wife Erin, with Elodie Tougne as daughter Sofia and Rohan Chand as scotch tape obsessed son Gary. Cameos abound with celebrity pop-ins and stand-outs, but most seem to be cheese and missed opportunities.

I am a fan of most Sandler's films, loving his romantic comedies of 50 First Dates, The Wedding Singer, and the different concept Click. Even Grown Ups had a goofy, silly, and sweet story. While Steve Koren gave us a caring silly romp with Click, Jack and Jill starts off as an interesting concept that ends up being lame jokes, potty humor, weird acting, and a story that gives us a few laughs, but little else. The best parts of the film are when Nick Swardson's Todd comes on screen to put his foot in his mouth in front of his boss, and one of the best two minute cameos involves Dana Carvey as a intestine puppeteer.

Sandler fans beware. Jack and Jill should not be added to your list of must sees or must haves. An interesting concept gone wrong, I can see you coming out a few smiles and gross-out laughs heavier, but a few too many dollars lighter.

WORTH: Rental

Just Go With It

Obvious, But Funny

[Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Brooklyn Decker, Nick Swardson]

image from onlinemovieshut.com

RANT: Another wonderful display of poor theater etiquette today. A group of older women were chatting before the presentation. Once the last commercials faded to black and the theater ran its concession and "Please be quiet" reels, the previews started. Of course, the ladies still blathered on about the cost of a scarf and whether one of the woman had read the novel, Water for Elephants. The guy sitting next to me finally told them to shush and shut up already! Well played, sir... well played!

SYNOPSIS: A man who has used the lie of being in a bad marriage to have harmless one night stands, finds himself having to use his assistant to fake his divorce in order to convince his younger girlfriend that he is faithful and available.

Adam Sandler and Happy Madison Productions comes back to the screen with his new romantic comedy, Just Go With It. Directed by Dennis Dugan, a collaborator of Sandler's with Grown Ups, You Don't Mess with the Zohan and I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Just Go With It brings Adam back to a romantic comedy on par with 50 First Dates.

The film follows plastic surgeon Danny (Adam Sandler) who walked away from his first wedding and realized that night, while drowning away his sorrows, that he got plenty of sympathy and companionship from beautiful women if he claimed to be in a loveless or abusive marriage. After years of this practice Danny meets Palmer (Brooklyn Decker), a woman he discovers a connection with - that is until she finds his fake wedding ring in his pocket. Enter Danny's assistant Katherine (Jennifer Aniston) who puts herself and her kids in the middle of Danny's life and lies in order to convince Palmer that Danny and Katherine - now Devlin - are just finishing their divorce.

As with any Sandler movie, there are plenty of pratfalls and juvenile humor. But in Just Go With It, the casting of Aniston provides a little maturity and a lot of heart. Add to that the crazy performance of Nick Swardson as Danny's cousin Eddie, the loveliness of Brooklyn Decker, and the scene-stealing of Bailee Madison and Griffin Gluck as Katherine's children, Maggie and Michael, and you got yourself a comedy romantic riot! Shot in California and in the picturesque Kaua'i and Maui, Hawaii, one gets beautiful locales. Put Decker and Aniston in bikinis, one gets the bonus of beautiful bodies.

The story is charming and funny, although far-fetched and obvious. But the hook of the tale is not in the plot set-up, but in the chemistry between Sandler and Aniston. And to not ruin the surprise, there are a couple great characters that run paths with Danny and Katherine while on the islands, and a great scene with hula dancing and a coconut. If you are a fan of Sandler and 50 First Dates, just go with it!

Worth: Matinee or DVD

Butter Popcorn Meter

Grown Ups

Oh, To Be A Kid Again

[Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade]

I have nothing really to rant about today. I wasn’t able to sit in the row with the railing in front of it, but that was my own fault because I arrived at the theatre with scant moments to spare before the reviews started. But at least I was able to get some gym time in to counteract the effects of the large bucket of popcorn I consumed during the film. I couldn’t help it… I received a free small popcorn coupon with my ticket because I have a Regal Crown points card. Curses!! Free popcorn upsized to a large for $2.00 is something no man can withstand.

SYNOPSIS: Five childhood friends return to their hometown for the funeral of their beloved basketball coach. Now grown up, they try to recapture their youth long forgotten, as well as instill some of that childhood excitement in their kids and spouses.

All of the reviews I peeked at prior top going to the theater claimed that “Grown Ups” was more like “Groan Ups”. I do make a point not to be biased by other critic reviews except to see what their final ratings are (C+, 3 stars, etc.). In this case, I went to the movies with low and little expectation. But, of course , I went anyway because I like Sandler and crew.

But maybe I did expect something. I mean, all of these guys are funny in their own right. Sandler plays the smart-alec with the heart, James plays the lovable oaf, Schneider the misunderstood weirdo, and Spade the single free womanizer. Only Rock plays against type a little bit by playing the overly sensitive stay-at-home dad.

Regardless of what roles they play, all (except Spade) now have families in tow with all of their own unique dysfunction. The film is classic Sandler in that there are plenty of pratfalls, some moronic juvenile humor, good-natured barbs at each other, and a fairly simple moral message. All of them have grown into unique individuals, some successful, some less so. But they all have grown up problems – Sandler realizes that his kids have become snobs and his wife (Salma Hayek) is work obsessed, Rock is not appreciated by his wife, kids or mother-in-law, James can not assert himself as the man of the household, Schneider is tragically attracted to older women, and Spade is the perpetual bachelor not realizing that he should be searching for something more.

As with “Click”, Sandler and pals have to realize that there is something missing in their lives, and use the time back at the lake to find ‘it’ again in themselves and their families. And, of course, the movie would not be complete without a childhood rival looking for a rematch, Colin Quinn, from the championship basketball game who felt that Sandler’s foot was on the line when he shot the winning last-second jumper.

The movie is juvenile and sophomoric, but it’s light and simple. It put a smile on my face and got a few laughs out of me, too. For a hot, humid late June day, it was just the ticket.

Worth: Matinee