Wreck-It Ralph

Anti-Villain

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

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Rated: PG  Some rude humor and mild action/violence

Release Date: November 2, 2012

Runtime: 1 hour 41 minutes

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Director: Rich Moore
Writers: Jennifer Lee, Phil Johnston, John C. Reilly
Cast: John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk, Ed O'Neill, Dennis Haysbert, Mindy Kaling

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SYNOPSIS:  The villain of a classic video arcade game, Wreck-it Ralph, finally tires of being the bad guy while his game nemesis, Felix Fix-it, Jr. gets all the adoration of the game's citizens.

REVIEW: Small screen Drawn Together and Futurama animation series director Rich Moore takes to the big screen with his animated version of what happens inside video arcade games. Cedar Rapids and A Thousand Words writer Phil Johnston, along novice scribe Jennifer Lee and some input from John C. Reilly, creates something of a mash-up between the likes of Tron: Legacy and Toy Story 3.

Wreck-it Ralph (John C. Reilly, We Have To Talk About Kevin) has spent thirty years with the singular mission to wreck an apartment building filled with people. Never fear, though, because Felix Fix-it, Jr. (Kevin McBrayer, A Thousand Words) and his magic golden hammer is on the job to repair Ralph's structural damage and save the building's residents. Every time Felix wins a medal for completing the level, Ralph is thrown off of the top of the building into a mud pit. Wreck-it Ralph is an arcade video game. When the kids leave the arcade for the day, the characters in all of the video games lead their own lives. The problem is Ralph does not want to be a villain anymore. He just wants to move out of the trash dump and into the apartment building, and to be liked by the other residents. When Ralph confronts the other game characters during Felix's anniversary party, Ralph comes up with the idea that winning his own medal will make the others like him just like they do Felix. He ventures out of his own game and into another in search of a level medal that will solve his problems. He ventures into 'Hero's Duty' to fight for a medal, only to be thrown into another game, 'Sugar Rush', where he meets a glitch character Vanellope (Sarah Silverman, The Muppets) who just wants to win the big race in order to be accepted by her own game's characters. But Ralph's absence from his own game when the arcade opens and actions in the other games he goes to may mean trouble for not only 'Wreck-it Ralph' but for the others, as well.

Disney's Wreck-It Ralph is a clever animation that will delight both kids and adults alike. For the kids, the world inside of the arcade games is colorful and varied, bringing to true animated life the 8-bit landscapes of 'Wreck-It Ralph' and the hi-definition renderings of fierce Halo-esque soldier Calhoun (Jane Lynch, The Three Stooges) and the insectoid virus-ridden craggy battlefield of 'Hero's Duty'. In between is the almost too-sweet 'Sugar Rush' which is a candy land go-cart racing world akin to 'Mario Cart'. For the adults, there are nostalgic references to childhood favorites like Qbert, Pac-Man, Frogger, Tapper, and Street Fighter - all the games we enjoyed either in an arcade, at Chuck E Cheese, or in the comfort of our living rooms in front of an Atari, Nintendo, or Sega game console. Also included are references to adult themes like support groups (for video game villains) and 'random' villain profiled searches in Game Central Station.

The clever does not stop there. As Ralph travels from his own home game of 'Wreck-It Ralph' to the pub of 'Tapper' to seek advice from the game's bartender, slips inside the first-person shoot-em up adventures of 'Hero's Duty', or follows his missing medal into the sugary sweet world of 'Sugar Rush', Ralph takes the audience through well stocked and completely visualized world. We are not stopped at the pixels' edge because we have reached the end of rendered code. Game Central Station may be nothing more that a power strip to us, but the electrified ghosts in the machine use each plugs connection as a bridge to another land. While we travel primarily through 'Wreck-It Ralph', 'Hero's Duty', and 'Sugar Rush', I would have loved to see more! Sure we see a villain support group in 'Pac-Man's' ghost base, but what could have been waiting for Ralph in 'Frogger', 'Asteroids', or other arcade favorites?


The flick seems so straight-forward on the surface. A bad guy wants to be as accepted as a good guy. Seems simple enough! But while Ralph goes in search for a level medal that he hopes will make him accepted by his peers in his game, more sinister mechanisms seem to be afoot. Ralph's tour of duty in 'Hero's Duty' may have deeper repercussions in other game play. And while Ralph has a love/not love relationship with Vanellope, something is so sweet that it is rotten within the 'Sugar Rush' kingdom to make Ralph wonder why King Candy (Alan Tudyk, Ice Age: Continental Drift) and the rest of the racers are so set against Vanellope racing at all.

As with almost every Disney animation, the audience will smile and will be on the verge of tears. Sure, no animated mothers or fathers were harmed in the making of this video game movie (a la Bambi or Finding Nemo). The code that bonds Ralph to the misunderstood Vanellope, and Felix to the tragic back-storied Calhoun make for great story and characterization. These heroes and villains are as familiar as the joysticks, roller balls, and shoot buttons we were raised on, but with a twist that makes them more than just 2-dimensional extensions of our 'jump-jump-up arrow-shoot-left arrow' commands.

Wreck-It Ralph is a lovely cross between Tron and Toy Story, combining the hidden unknown worlds of the binary universe and what happens when real people are not watching. Great for kids and adults, this is a film that you will not mind adding more quarters to.

The Three Stooges

Nyuk! Nyuk! Nyuk!

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Rated: PG  Some rude and suggestive humor, slapstick action violence and language
Release Date: April 13, 2012
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins

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Director: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly
Writers:  Mike Cerrone, Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly
Cast: Sean Hayes, Will Sasso, Chris Diamantopoulos, Jane Lynch, Sofia Vergara, Jennifer Hudson, Stephen Collins, Larry David

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SYNOPSIS: Left on the doorsteps of the Sisters of Mercy Orphanage as babies, Larry, Curly and Moe grow up and are never adopted. As bumbling adults, they set out to save the orphanage but find themselves embroiled in a murder plot and connected to a reality show.

REVIEW: The Farrelly Brothers, Bobby and Peter, creators and directors of Stuck With You, Shallow Hal, and Hall Pass, return to the big screen with their Me, Myself and Irene co-scribe Mike Cerrone to adapt the long running slapstick trio of Larry Fine, Curly Howard, and Moe Howard - also known as The Three Stooges.

Left on the doorsteps of the Sisters of Mercy Orphanage as infants in a duffel bag, the Three Stooges start off as adored babies by the nuns, except for Sister Mary-Mengele (Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm). Ten year later, young Moe (Skyler Gisondo, Psych), Larry (Lance Chantiles-Wertz, Pan Am) and Curly (Robert Capron, The Sorcerer's Apprentice) have managed to frazzle the patience and good will of the nuns, including Sister Rosemary (Jennifer Hudson, The Secret Life of Bees) and up to the Mother Superior (Lane Lynch, Glee) herself. Never properly adopted, the trio grows up and become ill-suited handymen around the orphanage grounds. Adult Moe (Chris Diamantopoulos, Under New Management), Larry (Sean Hayes, Will & Grace), and Curly (Will Sasso, Life As We Know It) bumble about causing more damage than they fix. When Monsignor Ratliffe (Brian Doyle-Murray, Groundhog's Day) announces to Mother Superior that the orphanage has run out of funds and will be forced to close in 30 days, the Stooges take on the challenge to go out into the world and raise the hundreds of thousands of dollars themselves.

I remember the Stooges in many incarnations as I watched their syndicated exploits on Saturday morning as a pre-teen, and watched them more after midnight into Sunday morning during my late teens and twenties. If you close your eyes during the Farrelly Brothers' version of The Three Stooges, you could swear that you were transported back to those similar times. With every "Whatsa matta with you?", classic boink sound effects, "Nyuk!" and "Whoo, Whoo, Whoo!", its hard to imagine that any times has past at all. Always a fan of the slap stick symphony of The Three Stooges, I believe the Farrelly Brothers did the ages-old entertainment trio franchise justice.

Both Chris Diamantopoulos and his younger counterpart Skyler Gisondo have perfected the classic Moe scowl. That, plus the bowl hair cut that preceded Jim Carrey's Lloyd Christmas by decades, make both of them modern carbon copies of Moe Howard. Sean Hayes uses his follicle challenged curls and over-sized wardrobe to embody the man named Larry. And Will Sasso uses his size, facial expressiveness and mannerisms to mold into a stooge named Curly. The Three Stooges have been parodied and copied countless times over the years since the decline of the Stooges popularity due to illness, line-up changes and death in the troupe, but Larry, Moe and Curly have left an indelible mark on entertainment and pop culture. The Farrelly Brothers do a good job both honoring the spirit of the purely American comedy act with its roots in vaudville and making a enjoyable popcorn comedy to boot.

The Three Stooges film is broken up into three connected short episodes just like we remember from our local Saturday morning affiliates. Each episode or vignette carries the classic title card for the Stooges with each member's face mugging with their names plastered beneath them. The first episode deals with the Stooges origins and their growing up in the orphanage. The second has them setting off to raise the money to save the orphanage, going to the big modern city, and finding themselves smack in the middle of a murder plot to kill a husband by gold-digging wife Lydia (Sofia Vergara, Modern Family) and her boyfriend Mac (Craig Bierko, Superhero Movie). The third episode finds Moe leaving his stooge pals after a blowup and ending up been discovered to be added to a popular reality show.

For me, the best part of the film is the first episode. The physical gags and slapstick works best when the stooges are still on orphanage grounds. It may be because it resembles closest to what I remember from the 40s and 50s short subject films watched in my youth - timeless in its hijinks. I have some critics bending my ear that the movie should have been left in black and white (what is this, The Artist?), but I feel it still holds an earlier era feel with the sets and costume through the first act. The rest is still funny, moving the stooges to the big modern city to contend with murder plots and reality shows. The best gag is Curly's reaction to an iPhone. And I am complete as I live vicariously through Moe as he contends with real reality stars like he would the absent Larry and Curly.

All in all, the Farrelly Brothers bring to the theater a light-hearted slap-sticky comedy that can appeal to the young and old. Kids will like the physical comedy like we all did as kids, and the adults will enjoy watching the Stooges in new situations. I would have liked to see something more inventive in spots, like a Matrix-y slo-mo action sequence as Moe is hammering away at Larry and Curly, but the Farrelly Brothers remain true to the original source materials and the men that made the comedy trio cultural icons. And for that I tip my hat and say Nyuk!, Nyuk!, Nyuk!

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WORTH: Matinee or Rental