Turbo

ANIMATED, FAMILY

He's Fast. They're Furious.

8.5 out of 10 | Movie or DVD

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Rated: PG Some mild action and thematic elements
Release Date: July 17, 2013
Runtime: 1 hour 36 minutes

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Director: David Soren
Writers: Darren Lemke, Robert D. Siegel, David Soren
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Michael Pena, Samuel L. Jackson, Luis Guzman, Bill Hader, Snoop Dogg, Maya Rudolph, Ben Schwartz, Richard Jenkins, Ken Jeong, Michelle Rodriguez, Mario Andretti, Mike Bell

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SYNOPSIS:  A freak accident might just help an everyday garden snail achieve his biggest dream: winning the Indy 500.

REVIEW: David Soren has had his hands in the creation of Shark Tale, Madagascar videos and television shorts, and Over the Hedge. Now he hits the big time as the director for an animation bout a snail who dreams of speed. Building a shell for the slug is Jack the Giant Slayer scribe Darren Lemke and Big Fan writer Robert D. Siegel, focusing on a little snail that could.

Theo (Ryan Reynolds, The Croods) is a normal garden variety garden snail. He dreams of going fast, following in the footsteps of his idol and legendary Indy car driver Guy Gagne (Bill Hader, The To-Do List). His brother Chet (Paul Giamatti, Rock of Ages) tries to get Theo to stop thinking about speed and to start thinking about what all other snails think about - tending to the garden and harvesting tomatoes. When an accident makes Theo reassess his slow life, he finds himself injected with nitrous oxide which gives him super speed. Both Theo "Turbo" and his brother are found by a taco seller named Tito (Michael Pena, Gangster Squad) who dreams of making his and his brother Angelo's (Luis Guzman, The Last Stand) taco stand successful. When Tito finds out about Turbo's speed, he and the snail decide to enter Turbo in the Indianapolis 500 race to gain exposure and acclaim!

Dreamworks has a knack for creating unique and interesting animated stories. While Disney Pixar seems to have started to rely on sequels like toy story and spin-offs like the upcoming Planes, dreamworld has dazzled with their recent efforts. Turbo is no exception. Taking a story of a snail that wants to race seems absurd, but they make a great story out of it anyway.

Turbo has a silly cast of characters, especially when dealing with snails. Even though turbo has NOS speed, that doesn't stop other 'need for speed' snails from slithering out of the woodwork. Led by Whiplash (Samuel L. Jackson, The Avengers), Turbo encounters Smoove Move (Snoop Dogg, Starsky and Hutch), Burn (Maya Rudolph, The Way Way Back), Skidmark (Ben Schwartz, The Other Guys), and White Shadow (Mike Bell, Kung Fu Panda 2). All of them are decked out in racing strips and tail fins. Joining the snails are a human cast of characters that seem to have move faith in a turbo-charged snail than Theo's own brother. Tito recruits the other owners in the starlight plaza, including auto mechanic Paz (Michelle Rodriguez, Fast and Furious 6), hobby store owner Bobby (Richard Jenkins, Killing Them Softly), and nail stylist Kim Ky (Ken Jeong, Despicable Me 2).

The animation is dazzling, on par or better than the raceway created on Disney's Cars. From the grooves in the track, to the camera work around and under the other Indy cars, to the discarded tire rubber 'pebbles' on turn four, Turbo does not disappoint. No where near photo realistic, Turbo lets the snails and their human counterparts take on their characters with their voices. The snails are cute and loveable, each with an unique look. The streak trail that Turbo leaves behind is a character all its own, allowing Turbo to speak to Tito in pictionary format when the snail needs to get his point across.

When you are a snail that dreams of speed, you are an outcast from the rest of the snail world. When dreams come reality, Turbo still finds himself a loner until he meets other snails that share his racing vision. At the end of the day, though, Turbo must rely on his own heart and spirit - not turbo-charged speed - if he is to get the job done.

Turbo is a fun ride for kids and adults. Silly, well-rendered, and having a great story of heart and of following a dream, this film will get your motor running.

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Tower Heist

A Heist Gone Wrong

Director: Brett Ratner

Writers: Ted Griffin, Jeff Nathanson, Adam Cooper, Bill Collage
Cast: Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Casey Affleck, Alan Alda, Matthew Broderick, Judd Hirsch, Téa Leoni, Michael Peña, Gabourey Sidibe

SYNOPSIS: After a wealthy business man of a New York luxury high-rise apartment is caught embezzling money in a Ponzi scheme, the residents and employees of the apartment building, realizing their retirement investment is gone, draw up a plan to steal a secret stash from his penthouse home.

REVIEW: Brett Ratner, director of the Rush Hour films and The Family Man, jumps behind the camera to helm the new Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy heist film. Written by the collective group of storytellers Ted Griffin (Matchstick Men), Jeff Nathanson (The Terminal), and Adam Cooper and Bill Collage (Accepted), Tower Heist looks like it could rise to new heights as a funny buddy cop...er, buddy criminal comedy.

Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller - Night At The Museum) is the general manager of the Tower, an up-scale luxury high rise apartment building in Manhattan, New York, tasked with handling the staff, the operations of the building, and the comforts and whims of the tenants. One of the most powerful, influential, and wealthy residents living in the penthouse, Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda - M*A*S*H), is accused of a Ponzi scheme affecting thousands of clients and their money, as well as the retirement savings of the Tower's staff. Shaw is placed under house arrest in his penthouse apartment by a team of FBI agents led by Special Agent Claire Denham (Téa Leoni - The Family Man). Josh, feeling responsible for asking Shaw to invest the staff's money, goes up to the penthouse to confront the financier. When things get out of hand during his visit, Josh and some of the other staff are summarily fired by their boss, Mr. Simon (Judd Hirsch - Taxi). Looking to make thing right with everyone on staff who lost their retirement and life savings, Josh enlists the help of fired soon-to-be-father concierge Charlie (Casey Affleck - Ocean's Eleven), divorced ex-Wall Street trader soon-to-be-evicted Mr. Fitzhugh (Matthew Broderick - The Producers), and newly hired, newly fired elevator operator Enrique Dev'Reaux (Michael Peña - The Shooter). Realizing that he is going to need more than coworkers and former tenants, Josh bails out an actual thief, Slide (Eddie Murphy - Shrek), from jail to add some expertise and training to the men in his crew and to the his plans. Rounding out the crew is maid Odessa (Gabourey Sidibe - Precious) with a perchance for lock-picking.

Part Rush Hour and part Ocean's Eleven, Tower Heist is true to its namesake. Shaw stands accused, nestled into the cushy confines of his house-arrest penthouse and the rumor of $20 million stashed in Shaw's apartment leads Josh and his amateur crew of criminals to take on a plan that none of them are trained or capable of pulling off. Stiller plays the Meet the Parents straight man, but without the manic ticks and jitters. Eddie Murphy comes along as the elder version of Trading Places Billy Ray Valentine, with less laughs and more swearing. Broderick is defeated, Peña is clueless, Affleck looks like he strolled out of Ocean's Eleven, Alda plays it so cool his guilt is truly unknown, and Leoni, in spite of her pert nose and shining eyes, adds a tough exterior to go along with her federal badge.

In Tower Heist, the journey should be a fun, crazy ride, with the best parts are shown in the trailers. With high hopes for more funny hijinks, disappointment abounds with lackluster laughs and a watered down Ocean's Eleven-style heist plan. Stiller is too serious, and Murphy is too hardened and brazen. There are some funny parts, and a decent twist at the end, but the end result is a film that falls short on laughs and intrigue. Once the credits start scrolling, you may feel like there was a heist... on your wallet.

WORTH: Rental

30 Minutes or Less

Waiting For The Delivery

Director: Ruben Fleischer
Writers: Mihael Diliberti, Matthew Sullivan

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, Nick Swardson, Aziz Ansari, Michael Peña

SYNOPSIS: Two wannabe criminal masterminds kidnap a pizza delivery guy, strap a bomb to his chest and order him to rob a bank for $100,000.

REVIEW: Ruben Fleischer, director or Zombieland, takes a script from relative scribe newcomers Michael Diliberti and Matthew Sullivan to bring us a day in the life of an average pizza delivery guy Nick. Reteaming with his Zombieland star Jesse Eisenberg, Fleischer tries his hand at a more obvious, less subtle comedy.

Jesse Eisenberg stars as Nick, a snarky pizza delivery guy who endangers life, limb and a beat-up mustang to try and get the hot pepperoni pies to their final locations in, you guessed it, thirty minutes or less. Cut to a couple of wannabe criminal masterminds Dwayne (Danny McBride from Pineapple Express) and Travis (Nick Swardson from Comedy Central's Reno 911!) who realize that they want to get their hands on Dwayne's father's remaining lottery money. In order to get the money, lap dancer Juicy (Biana Kajlich from CBS's Rules of Engagement) plants the seed that Dwayne should have a professional assassin kill his father so he, and her, can get the money. Of course, a professional hitman costs $100,000 that Dwayne doesn't have in his wallet. Dwayne and Travis concoct a plan to build a bomb vest, lure a pizza delivery guy to a scrap yard location, knock him out, strap on the bomb, and set him out to rob a bank for the $100,000 within 10 hours before the bomb explodes on its own. Once the money exchanges hands then Dwayne and Travis would give Nick the code to disarm and disrobe the bomb vest. Enter Nick's friend Chet (Aziz Ansari from NBC's Parks & Recreation) who Nick seeks out to help him get out of the vest to no avail and then participate in the actual robbery.

Similar in feel to Zombieland without the heart that Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson and Abigail Breslin brought to that film, 30 Minutes or Less is just a manic, 5-hour energy boost of a movie compressed into a hour and a half. Eisenberg is becoming the stoic straight-man caricature that he portrayed in The Social Network, Adventureland and Zombieland. Even Nicks's heartfelt 'final' goodbye to Chet's sister Kate (Dilshad Vadsaria) lacks any visual cues hinting at emotion. Maybe Eisenberg is getting the same roles, or maybe he needs to expand his facial expressions. Ansari brings his small screen mugging and outbursts perfected on Parks and Recreation to the role of Chet although the best scenes were already run through the movie's preview trailers. Danny McBride's Dwayne is classic McBride, full of venom, furrowed brows and bad judgements. Nick Swardson seems to be the most versatile as Dwayne's sidekick Travis, showing a little ingenuity and remorse. The breakout character is Michael Pena as Juicy's hitman boyfriend Chango. His off-beat gangster speech and mannerism provide the most laughs, along with Ansari's Chet.

Running at under one and a half hours, 30 Minutes or Less is a quick ride with a few potholes, a few blown lights and a few misses. We never find out what happens to Dwayne's father, The Major (Fred Ward) once Chango happens upon him. We have to suspend our disbelief much longer than usual to believe that Travis has the internet reading and general mechanical skills to create a stable bomb vest with a remote detonator, a countdown mechanism and loads of C4.

This film seems like a quick hit, but lacks the substance that will attract mass audiences greater than 18 to 25 year old males. Fleischer's Zombieland had laughs, action, and a solid cast and story. 30 Minutes or Less, with its great list of comedic actors, somehow just doesn't capitalize on itself, opting instead to deliver the goods after the time has expired.

WORTH: Matinee or Rental