Secret Life of Pets 2 short on inspiration

Max (Patton Oswalt) in The Secret Life of Pets 2. Image courtesy Universal Pictures.

The Secret Life of Pets 2 is an average entry in Illumination's animation stable. It's colorful and cheery, containing a skosh of inventiveness and a hint of weirdness or inspiration, just enough to maybe think the movie will actually be sort of interesting. Illumination movies never come close to fulfilling those flashes of interesting because of uninspired animation and static writing. Because mediocrity is easy, and it's far more profitable to be inoffensive than experimental.

Picking up some time following the events of the first film, Secret Life of Pets 2 is divided into three plots. Plot A has Max (now voiced by Patton Oswalt) and Duke (Eric Stonestreet) dedicating themselves to their owner's (Ellie Kemper) son Liam. They spend much of the film at a farm, with Max learning lessons about courage from the bold Rooster (Harrison Ford, clearly not caring). Plot B has Snowball (Kevin Hart) joining new dog Daisy (Tiffany Haddish) in an adventure to save a white tiger from the evil Sergei (Nick Kroll) and his wolves. They also run into the crotchety Pops (Dana Carvey) along the way. Plot C has Gidget (Jenny Slate) taking cat lessons from Chloe (Lake Bell) to get a toy back from some vicious kitties. The three plots eventually intersect in the third act, with the pets joining forces before getting rewarded for being very good dogs, cats, bunnies, and tigers.

Good lord is Secret Life of Pets 2 boring. Even with three plots, there isn't a lot actually happening on screen because the narratives are unambitious. The jokes rarely land, sort of stuck in this weird liminal state between catering to children and serving adults. Despite having quality comedic talent (Oswalt, Slate, Bell, Haddish, and even Hart), it's impressive how few jokes land. There are a few interesting ideas – a nice animation sequence with Snowball, the conclusion to Gidget's story – but not enough to ever be memorable. Things happen in Secret Life of Pets 2, but they're more incidentally quotidian than engaging.

The mistake of splitting Secret Life of Pets 2 into thirds is a lack of time for story development. Max and Duke at the farm with Rooster could be interesting, if the film allotted more time to add depth to the adventures and provide a concrete lesson that doesn't feel rushed. Snowball and Daisy saving the tiger is a fun idea, but it needs more time to build tension and establish the wolves as a full threat and give the tigers something more to do than hide. Gidget and Chloe is about as complete a story as this film has, but it could still use more time to explore the divine weirdness of its premise. This is pretty par for the course for Illumination, which toys with cool ideas but strays away to provide a mundane viewing experience.

 

If there's one thing Secret Life of Pets 2 has in its favor, its the relationship between Max and Liam. There's an inherent sweetness to watching a dog and his boy bond, with Max evolving into a guardian for his adoptive child. Even if this plot, like much of the rest of the film, is underdeveloped, the moment at the end where Liam hugs his dogs still hits the heart strings effectively. The brilliance is in its simplicity; the scene succeeds because it connects to a lot of childhood memories. If the movie knows one thing, it's that dogs are more often than not the best. (All scientific evidence shows my golden retrievers, Currie and Haley, were the best.)

That's one of the reasons I liked this movie more than the original. Haddish is a nice addition to the franchise, and adding her cuts down on Duke. Secret Life of Pets 2 cuts back heavily on the time padding and replaces it with actual plot, and an incomplete plot is far better than no plot at all. Adding Liam and avoiding a repeat of the jealousy plot of the original makes for a more touching film, albeit one that still feels incomplete. Secret Life of Pets 2 isn't particularly interesting, but it's inoffensive enough to keep kids occupied until the next Toy Story movie comes out. It's also really difficult to make an unappealing film about dogs.

Review: Two and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: PG

Run time: 86 minutes

Genre: Animated

tl;dr

What Worked: Voice Talent, the Max-Liam Relationship

What Fell Short: Lack of enthusiasm, Underdeveloped Plots

What To Watch Instead: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

Gifted's sweetness can't mask plot, character flaws

Mckenna Grace and Chris Evans in Gifted. Image courtesy Fox Searchlight.

There isn't that much about Gifted worth remembering after its 101 minutes are over. It has a few good enough ideas in there, endearing performances and a couple of moments that can invoke involuntary weeping on occasion. But the final act is bitter, and the additional time to reflect reveals some notable plot holes and a thoroughly unremarkable final product. It's an enjoyable enough movie in the moment, but one that leaves viewers empty at the end.

That isn’t to say Gifted is truly bad. It is admittedly a pretty likable film starring very likable actors putting in tremendously charming performances. There's a great rapport between stars Chris Evans and Mckenna Grace, their performances as a low-key uncle and precocious niece balancing each other and forging a pretty great fictional relationship. The film also has Jenny Slate putting in a remarkably restrained performance as Grace's first-grade teacher, and Octavia Spencer is around to be Octavia Spencer and win over the audience with her pitch-perfect Octavia Spencer-ing. They contribute greatly to the much appreciated genial vibe the movie aims for in its first two acts. Even the drama over what to do with Grace's brilliance builds, director Marc Webb and screenwriter Tom Flynn avoid throwing in over-the-top screaming or additional theatrical moments to keep things grounded. The arrival of Evans' mother (Lindsay Duncan), who shows up to move Grace to Boston for more formal education, doesn’t result in forced drama either. The conversations between her and Evans remain civil enough and sometimes regretful about a broken past.

It's during the first 70-minutes or so that Gifted offers up an interesting philosophical question concerning the cost of genius. Grace's intelligence is at the center of the movie's drama, with Evans' wish for his niece to have a normal life fighting against Duncan's pursuit of her granddaughter's mathematical potential. Both sides make fair points about whether or not genius owes anything to society. A child should be allowed to be a kid, but having a brilliant child go through a regular school day is counterproductive to their needs and their greater potential. The debate itself is interesting and is handled with respect for both arguments and in a generally civil manner.

The problems arise when any additional thought is put into how a situation like this should be handled in real life. Gifted shifts its focus to an either/or proposition, with the girl either attending public school or going to an elite program and evolving into a computer. It takes until the very end of the movie for Webb and Flynn to admit that a third option, challenging the girl with collegiate courses part-time and send her to school to achieve the necessary socialization, both exists and makes the most sense. The belated realization of that course of action makes Evans' character, a former associate professor, look like kind of an idiot or at least a jerk, considering he was willing and eager to offer zero intellectual rigor for his niece. Childhood is designed to be challenging; revoking that aspect of it wholesale is bad parenting, and a point the filmmakers keep largely hushed even as the level of brilliance Grace's character exhibits increases every ten minutes.

Yet the worst characterization is granted to Duncan. Initially portrayed as someone willing to be moderately reasonable and have some compassion for her children is painted at the end as an absolute monster willing to ruin her granddaughter's life and let a beloved orange one-eyed cat die because the cat is an inconvenience. Aside from providing Evans a rare literal save the cat moment, it strips Duncan's character of her humanity and turns her into a cartoon villain nearly ghoulish in her pursuit of intellectual glory. Why the dark turn needed to exist is unclear considering Gifted went out of its way to avoid painting any one character as evil.

It's at this point when the flaws Gifted got away with for so long come to the forefront. The little clichés it used to carry the plot forward become clear, as do the less than stellar ways actresses like Slate and Spencer are utilized, wasting a fair amount of talent in the process. Gifted gets a lot of mileage from the performances by Evans and Grace, along with the presence of the one-eyed cat, but it doesn't do enough to support their efforts and presence. Charm can at least make a movie watchable, but it can't do much more than that without a well-told story and a strong final act.

Review: Three out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: PG-13

Run time: 101 minutes

Genre: Drama
 

Ask Away

Target audience: People who are interested in watching geniuses wrestle with their standards.

Take the whole family?: The PG-13 rating seems fair for the minor adult content and, mostly, the lack of interest anyone younger than that would have for it.

Theater or Netflix?: Wait for it to stream.

Does Chris Evans work as an everyman?: He does shine in one of the rare human roles he's gotten. Evans has a low-key charm that works for movies like this, sort of like Kevin Costner but with personality. If he does eventually leave the Marvel Cinematic Universe he hopefully finds a home of sorts in romantic comedies and mild dramas.

Watch this as well?: Director Marc Webb is responsible for one of my favorite romantic comedies from the last decade, (500) Days of Summer, which shares the underlying geniality as Gifted but is a more interesting and innovative movie.

LEGO Batman a fun takedown of the Dark Knight

Batman and Robin in The LEGO Batman Movie. Image courtesy Warner Bros.

The LEGO Batman Movie is worthy of appreciation solely for offering a humorous look at the eponymous vigilante, serving as a contrast to the űber-dour caricature inflicted upon cinemas for nearly three decades. The concept of Batman is silly, so having a resource that deflates the character's overwhelming seriousness – and far, far away from the Zack Snyder interpretation – is sort of a blessing in and of itself. That Will Arnett's vocal work adds an additional layer of sarcastic self-importance to Batman only adds to the fun the film offers for much of its run time. Arnett's take worked great in The Lego Movie, his Batman serving as one of the highlights of an overall terrific film. But as the lead of his own film things get a little squiffy. The joke about the super self-important Caped Crusader runs dry by the midway point and the lesson the character is meant to learn less interesting than the one offered by this film's predecessor. So while LEGO Batman Movie is one of the best films about Batman in years, it a less than stellar movie about toys that induce sharp pains in one's foot when stepped upon.

Admittedly, the main issue comes from the films’ senses of humor. The comedic brilliance from Lego Movie doesn't shift over to Batman's feature film due to the absence of writing/directing duo Chris Miller and Phil Lord. They are replaced by director Chris McKay – whose work includes Cartoon Network staples Robot Chicken and Moral Orel – and a bevy of writers who can't replicate the mashing of plot and jokes accomplished by Miller and Lord. LEGO Batman Movie is a little looser with its plot, the jokes more often coming as asides than feeding from the flow of the film. (the comedic vibe is quite similar to the aforementioned Robot Chicken.) Not to say the film isn’t funny – the talents of Arnett, Zach Galifianakis, Jenny Slate, Doug Benson, Ellie Kemper and the rest of the cast keep things afloat – but the jokes are forced and come in a less organic fashion than its predecessor.

Fortunately LEGO Batman Movie retains the underlying inventiveness of Lego Movie that makes the latter so memorable. The master builder concept from the first film carries over, reinforcing the creative aspect of the product this film is trying to sell. The filmmakers also take advantage of the access to characters outside the DC universe, giving the filmmakers access to Batman's rogues gallery (Riddler, Two-Face, Joker, Harley Quinn and many others) along with random villains Voldemort, Godzilla, King Kong and the gremlins from Gremlins. It adds to the playfulness of the endeavor, along with contributing to the weird vibe the film taps into on a regular basis. Weird is good for a film about toy blocks, so the frequent non-sequiturs back to previous Batman iterations (including the shark repellent) add to the meta humor the film succeeds at hitting.

The filmmakers were smart enough to avoid retelling Batman's origin story and focus instead on his connections with new ward Dick Grayson (Michael Cera), new police commissioner Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson) and faithful butler Alfred (the wonderful Ralph Fiennes). Batman's tragic beginnings are well-trod at this point, so skipping them offers more time to analyze who Batman is now . LEGO Batman Movie has one of the better explorations of what drives Bruce Wayne to be Batman, even if it is done in a somewhat blunt and very child-friendly way. It explores how Batman would respond without villains to fight (Batman ennui is the best ennui), how far over the line Batman goes to capture criminals (along with the consequences of doing so), and the co-dependent nature between the character and his enemies. One of the main subplots, Galifianakis' Joker feeling spurned by Batman's blasé attitude toward him, is the most interesting interpretation of their duality depicted in a major motion picture. Viewers learn more about the Batman character in this film than they do after more than two hours of him acting like an idiot and waiting to fight Superman. That is one of the benefits of parody, as removing any sense of verisimilitude takes the audience a step away from the cinematic universe; the only way to fill the gap is to explore the character to the very bottom of his soul.

Review: Four out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: PG

Run time: 104 minutes

Genre: Animated
 

Ask Away

Target audience: Families, Batman fans and people who enjoyed The Lego Movie.

Take the whole family?: This film is generally tame and the humor is appropriate so even the younger kids won't have an issue with it.

Theater or Netflix?: A matinee screening would work just fine if you go see it.

What else is missing from this movie?: Mark Hamill. Zach Galifianakis does solid work as the Joker here, but it still pales in comparison to what Hamill did on Batman: The Animated Series and several other formats. Hamill could hit the light notes the film requires of its joker, but the moments of menace that Galifianakis can't quite hit would be filled perfectly by Hamill.

Watch this as well?: The Lego Movie is a helpful complement to this. This film also references a lot of the older stuff Batman has starred in, so including a few episodes from the Adam West era, the brilliant Batman: The Animated Series, and a couple of the Tim Burton/Chris Nolan reboots is handy as well.

The Secret Life of Pets is surprisingly mundane

Gidget, voiced by Jenny Slate, is pictured in a scene from The Secret Life of Pets. Image courtesy Universal Pictures.

The Secret Life of Pets marks the sixth film animation studio Illumination has spawned and it follows in the footstep of at least four of those (excluding the miserable Hop.) Like its predecessors, The Secret Life of Pets is a serviceable enough film with a few flashing moments of intrigue overwhelmed by mediocrity and profit hawking. It's the kind of film that references the studio's most popular franchise, Despicable Me, twice in less than an hour and a half. That followed a short film preceding the feature itself starring the company's breakout characters, the Minions.

Illumination knows exactly where it's bread is buttered and how to appeal to a wide consumer base. Making a movie with any true artistic statement, however, seems to be a little outside of its wheelhouse.

There's nothing overly wrong with The Secret Life of Pets. It's a cute enough idea with a few moments that capture the premise's adorableness aptly – most notably an end sequence set to Bill Withers' wonderful Lovely Day – and nice voice work from Jenny Slate, Lake Bell, Dana Carvey and a few glorious seconds of a menacing Al Brooks. Some of the jokes land well enough, most notably when the writers get a little macabre with their humor. It's a well designed film, in as much as the design is to appease kids without actually challenging them in any meaningful way.

Disney, Pixar and even (sometimes) DreamWorks have offered fair directed at children that has more depth, nuance and aesthetic pleasures than anything Illumination has cobbled together. And despite the animated format and the main appeal to a youth audience, viewers can and should expect better than the less than stellar tricks the film uses to tell its story. The Secret Life of Pets takes the proverbial easy way out from the very first frame that shows exterior photos of famous New York City landmarks set to Taylor Swift's Welcome to New York. A vehicular chase scene involving Brooklyn is scored to the Beastie Boys' No Sleep Till Brooklyn, whilst a fantasy sequence about friendship is coupled with Queen's You're My Best Friend. It's as if the multitude of filmmakers – the movie has two directors and three writers credited – are afraid of relying on audience a modicum of audience intuition.

Illumination is a fearful studio, happy to offend in trivial, kid friendly ways (this film has a fair amount of jokes about pooping and peeing) but not in a fashion that is daring or risky. The studio, and The Secret Life of Pets by default, is uninterested in being interesting, using the most generic building material possible to construct a nondescript house in the middle of suburbia. Nothing is memorable about this film except how unmemorable it is, a beige stain on a grey carpet.

The metaphor serves as a description of the film’s overall messiness. The Secret Life of Pets covers at least three subplots: one an Odd Couple lite story between main dog Max (Louis C.K.) and new arrival Duke (Eric Stonestreet); one a rescue mission led by Slate's love-struck Gidget; and one a revenge tale centered on an annoying rabbit voiced by Kevin Hart) in less than 90 minutes. Attempting to cover so much in such little time grants little to no proper development of any of those three plots. The writers even shoehorned a pair of fantasy sequences in to fill time in a movie where a lack of time is a major flaw.

Then there's the animation that, like Minions, The Lorax, and Hop before it, is never bad like Norm of the North, but is perpetually uninspired. That's vital for an animated film to create a world for the audience to get lost in, or at least replace the reality it eschews. Films like Zootopia and even the otherwise disappointing Finding Dory excel at fleshing out their fictional universes; The Secret Life of Pets has bothersome character designs and humans who always appear dopey in some capacity.

The Secret Life of Pets is a success because it isn't built for excellence. The film will sell toys and apparel, promote impending Illumination products (like more Despicable Me films) and keep kids relatively quiet for a spell in the summer. Pet owners will be somewhat charmed by the premise and the snuggle sequence at the end, although adults will more than likely leave a little unimpressed with the totality of the experience. That still counts as a success for Illumination; after all, it's nearly impossible to fail when the standards are this low.

Review: Two and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: PG

Run time: 90 minutes

Genre: Animated 
 

Ask Away

Target audience: Families too bored to do anything else this summer.

Take the whole family?: A fair amount of scatological humor might make this a bit inappropriate for some families, but the overall tone is light enough to avoid being too problematic.

Theater or Netflix?: Take the kids to the matinee if you need to get them outside the house this summer.

How is the Minion short?: Pretty uninspiring. The short, Mower Minions, has a gaggle of the little yellow things attempt to do lawn work for money. It's pretty much the same general shenanigans the Babel Fish infected walking Twinkies have engaged in/earned the studio much profit from in the last couple of years. Like the film preceding it, it's not bad, but it isn't particularly clever either.

Watch this instead?: The other movie to come out this year featuring anthropomorphic creatures, Zootopia, is leagues better than this. You could also search around for the old clam shell covered VHS version of 101 Dalmatians and put that back in the VCR.

'Zootopia' is deceptively cute

Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin), Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) and Flash (Raymond Persi) reenact the typical DMV experience in "Zootopia." Image courtesy Disney.

“Zootopia” is one of those films that starts off on a very good note and just continues to build from there. In this case, it’s an opening sequence that provides useful exposition in a unique and credible manner and establishes the personality of its main character, a bunny named Judy Hopps.  Hopps, depicted in the opening as a child but voiced later by Ginnifer Goodwin, is shown as an inventive, optimistic, smart, melodramatic and resourceful rabbit willing to stand up for what she thinks is right no matter what the consequences may be. Viewers learn all of that within five minutes, and the important attributes of the little bunny (and female role model) that eventually can are built upon from there.

That little tidbit is isn’t the most important reason to enjoy this fun and clever little flick, but it does showcase the very good filmmaking behind “Zootopia” and puts faith in the audience that the filmmakers can handle the topic they are about to address. This film is about racism, a topic that is difficult to discuss or even write about because of its complexities, yet one the filmmakers handle with grace and a gentle hand. “Zootopia” tackles this issue head on and hammers the message home with the help of some good character buildings and oodles of humor that – to cop a phrase from another Disney film – helps the medicine go down.

Back to Goodwin's little Judy Hopps, who starts off as a rabbit living in a small town with her farming family (her parents are voiced by Bonnie Hunt and Don Lake) but dreams of becoming a police officer. Her goal is an ambitious one – no rabbit has ever served as a police officer because rabbits are small and seen as meek – but she finishes at the top of her class at the police academy and is assigned to work at a station in the heart of the titular city, Zootopia. Hopps imagines Zootopia as a place where animals from all backgrounds come together and thrive; the reality is a messy city where major conflict lies just under the surface. Even her dream job is a letdown, as her boss, Chief Bogo, (Idris Elba) assigns her to be a meter maid and dole out tickets as the rest of the department searches for more than a dozen citizens gone missing. She soon finds herself assigned to the case of a missing otter at the behest of assistant mayor Bellweather (Jenny Slate) and enlists the help of con artist fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) in the search. The investigation takes them all over the city's vast terrain and into a complicated conspiracy that puts the future of Zootopia in jeopardy.

At its heart, “Zootopia” is a film about racism. It’s a movie that outlines the dangers of racial stereotypes, explains how easy it is for people to succumb to and be manipulated by preconceived notions of other people (or animals in this case). That’s the funny thing about the world depicted within the city of Zootopia, a place Hopps initially imagines as a Utopia but a place that keeps it together out of necessity. So while a giraffe and a tiger might mingle on a bus, an elephant can and will deny service to a fox like Nick Wilde because of blatant racism, and a leopard can get demoted because of his perceived nature. Those are big notes to hit, the easy kind that when left in isolation create pablum like Academy Award winning picture “Crash,” yet “Zootopia goes for institutional racism – Hopps’ storyline is rooted in that issue – and even casual racism that pops up in quotidian situations. The fact that “Zootopia” takes a minute to discuss the use of certain words and outlines the problems of, say, touching people’s hair is rather impressive and much more nuanced than other films that tackle race like the one mentioned earlier.  

“Zootopia” presents all of this in a brightly colored and very hilarious package that limits the onslaught of animal-related cultural puns that cheapen the experience and opts instead to craft some subtly spectacular jokes. That sloth sequence shown in the trailer plays just as well in the theater – that slow-building smile is terrific – and “Zootopia” complements that with pratfalls, sight gags, clever word play, pop culture references and a few killer punchlines to form a rather fun time at the cinema. At least until the third act, which sees the film drag a little as its burdened by a complex yet easy to figure out plot. Then again, neither problem is a fatal flaw for a film targeted at children, and “Zootopia” does so much right (how many films successfully tackle race and feminism?) it earns a little forgiveness for those flaws. It’s easy enough to rail against kid-centered films like the loathsome “Norm of the North” that represent everything wrong with children’s entertainment; “Zootopia” on the other hand, is an example of what the genre can be at its best.

Review: Four and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: PG

Run time: 108 minutes (One hour and 48 minutes)

Genre: Animation

Ask Away

Target audience: Families and people interested in anthropomorphism.

Take the whole family?: Kids old enough to attend a movie screening without automatically bursting into histrionics will find this film very entertaining.

Theater or Netflix?: Take the kids to the theater for a fun day out; just avoid paying for the unnecessary 3D or IMAX options.

How many pop culture references are there?: Not quite as many as one would find in a “Shrek” film, but “Zootopia” does have its fair share. Some, like a “Godfather” reference or one about Adele, are a little easy, but they're balanced by a rather fun “Breaking Bad” shout out and a subtle reference to the great Christmas special “Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas.” Most importantly, the humor works without needing to know what is being referenced.

Watch this as well?: Anything within Disney's recent run – “Wreck-It Ralph” is my favorite – makes for a solid companion to this one. Add to that another little family film that deals with racism in spectacularly clever way while maintaining a strong sense of humor, “Paddington.”