Weekend Bites: "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs"

- Posted by Ace



The ACESTER is back in the game. Sorry for the long hiatus, I had some personal matters to attend to. But now it’s back to work.

Since there was absolutely NOTHING good that opened this past weekend, I decided to check out something that opened LAST weekend, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which opened at No. 1 for the second straight weekend. So now I have the great fortune of reviewing a food themed movie on a food themed movie blog.

Overall Rating: 2 ½ bites [out of 5]

For those of you who don’t know, the film is an adaptation of the well-known children’s book, written by Judi and Ron Barrett. The basic plot summary is about the town of Chewandswallow where it precipitates food and beverages three times a day. It’s been FOREVER since I’ve read the book, but I remember it being featured on Reading Rainbow, back in the day, and honestly, who didn’t love this book as a kid? Who didn’t love the idea of food raining down from the heavens? Or school being closed because a giant pancake smothers it?

But I digress.

Naturally, I was curiously excited about this film. Based on the trailer, I thought there was genuine ingenuity behind the adaptation of turning a twenty page children’s book into a full-length feature film. And to my surprise, it was in 3-D. I don’t think I’ve seen a 3-D movie since Captain Eo at Disneyland, so I was actually pretty excited about it. But to my disappointment, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was kind of mediocre. Don’t get me wrong—I’m not being cynical because this is a kid’s movie. I’m a kid at heart and still love watching cartoons. But this one just wasn’t up to par.

The film’s adaptation of the book revolves around Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader), an aspiring inventor whose inventions usually end in disaster. He finally finds success with the invention of a machine that can create food out of water. Through one disastrous turn of events, his machine is launched into the upper atmosphere over Swallow Falls (later Chewandswallow), causing the food-based weather anomalies.

So here’s the good—Mr. T. His character was probably the coolest and funniest of the cast. And it’s glad to see, or rather, hear Mr. T in another acting gig. Secondly, the Gummi Bear fight scene was the only moment that made me laugh out loud. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just leave it at that. Lastly, it was great to see that the directors captured a few of the iconic moments from the book, for example the pancake crushing the school, and of course, the split pea soup fog. At least for me, those illustrations in the book stand out in memory to this day.

And now onto the bad news… it just wasn’t funny. It tried really hard to be funny, but the jokes all fell short of hitting its mark. I was sitting in a movie theatre full of kids, and there were very few moments when even the kids laughed out loud. It honestly felt like they were pitching a thousand different jokes, in hopes that at least one of them would stick, rather than letting the comedy come naturally. I can’t recall one other funny moment in the film, other than the Gummi Bear scene.

Some people may think that I’m being a little harsh, but I think that today’s audience has become accustomed to some great animated feature films, all of which possess mass appeal to all audiences. But Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which had so much promise and the nostalgia factor, failed to meet its potential.

Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures