Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs

Judi and Ron Barrett's classic children's book Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs may not have a huge following outside of America, but don't let that put you off this movie adaptation. It only bears a surface similarity to the source material anyway, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that the two were entirely unconnected.

The quirky original tale is fleshed out with a mad-scientist plot that unfortunately fails to get off the ground, but there are enough slapstick moments to keep the kids happy, and almost enough adult references to keep us grown-ups interested too. It may not be as slick as WALL-E, or as moving as Up, but Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs at least succeeds in tickling our funny bones.

The plot itself is so flaky that it could be made of filo pastry, but that's never stopped an animated movie before. Amateur scientist Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader) lives in Swallow Falls, the only town on a tiny island in the Atlantic, whose single claim to fame is their now-defunct sardine industry. Flint dreams of creating an invention that will put both the town and his name on the map, but so far all his efforts have been in vain.

Until Flint finally hits creative gold, that is. Flint Lockwood's Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator (or FLDSMDFR for short) actually seems to work, creating food out of thin air - or water molecules, to be precise. When the machine is accidentally supercharged by the town's power station and sent spiralling into the atmosphere, it looks as if Flint's one working invention may have vanished for good.

The FLDSMDFR remains suspended in the clouds above the island, however, and before long it starts raining food. Not just small amounts of food, either - we're talking entire storms of cheeseburgers, donuts, and ice cream.

The town mayor (cult B-movie actor Bruce Campbell) immediately seizes upon this opportunity to create a thriving tourist industry, and all finally seems to be going well for Swallow Falls. Greed is never a good thing, though, and events soon move beyond the mayor's - and Flint's - control.

The first half of Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs struggles a little with its wacky subject matter, but when the action finally takes off it kicks into another gear. If you can make your way through the initial clumsy plot-building then the finale pays dividends for both kids and adults alike.

Some of the vocal talents behind the animations are unusual enough to warrant mention too, as Bill Hader and Anna Faris are joined by the likes of Campbell, James Caan, and none other than The A-Team's Mr. T. There's no way that your kids will know who it is behind that microphone, but it's enough to provoke a wry smile from the rest of us.

Of course, it takes more than a few cult heroes to make a movie, and Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs still takes far too long to get its clumsy machinery off the ground. The animation itself looks clunky and old fashioned next to its immediate competitors too, so much so that you may wonder whether this is a lost movie from the late Eighties.

If you can battle through the obvious moralising and low production values, though, there's still plenty of wit bubbling beneath the surface, and the final course is a show-stopper. Just don't expect it to stand up next to Pixar's gourmet delights.

3/5

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs: Looks So Good It'll Make You Hungry Watching

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs
 
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs isn’t a platter that would win Iron Chef, but it will be enough to whet your animated appetite.
 
If you could make if rain whatever food you wanted what would you choose?  I’d pick tornado (pronounced tour-naa-dough) cooked medium-rare.  If you cook a steak too long it’ll lose all of its flavor.
 
I digress. 
 
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is an animated film about a scientist named Flint Lockwood, voice work done by Bill Hader, who’s not very successful.  His mom tells him at a young age to be who he truly is and not to hide it because of fear from bullies and the like.  Stop me if you’ve heard that before.  Although I don’t understand how you can support a kid who tries to invent flying rats.  The world is already littered with pigeons and no one likes them.
 
Flint strikes gold with an invention that turns water into food.  In the process of perfecting his machine he destroys the town’s project to reinvent itself.  Flint lives on an island that was completely supported by the sardine industry which goes belly up (excuse the pun) and causes the whole city to become food challenged.  Why they don’t import food or raise cattle or farm I’ll never know. 
 
Turns out his invention works so well that the power hungry mayor (that pun is more subtle) voiced by none other than Bruce Campbell wants him to crank up the power to attract tourists.  Of course he goes too far to impress his father, who never seems to accept Flint, and an attractive weather reporter named Sam Sparks (Anna Faris).
 
The movie may be as simplistic and recycled as animation storytelling can get yet it is still refreshing visually.  The characters themselves don’t exactly stand out as much as the environments do.  For Sony Pictures first trek into animation they do a great job.  The voice acting is done well by Hader, Faris, Mr. T as a security guard, and Andy Samberg as a former town celebrity named ‘Baby’ Brent.  Even with these actors many of the characters didn’t pop as well as they could have.
 
In the end Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is a cute film that the whole family can enjoy.  Parents might feel that they’d read this story before, but they’ll still be able to get into the characters enough to stick with the film and appreciate its artistic value.

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Recommendations: Shutter Island, District 9 (Neill Blomkamp, 2009), Morning Glory

Last updated: 2010-04-12 19:04:30 by jpgreenb

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Review

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs—HUH? What the hell does that mean? Oh! You mean HAIL the size of meatballs—No? Are you telling me that it’s going to rain food? If it rains meatballs, I will not be eating any of it, especially with all of the pollution in the air these days; I'm not a big fan of acid meatballs. And isn’t it enough that we have to dodge bird crap already and now we have to dodge meatballs too? What is the world coming to? Why can’t it rain money, or solutions to problems, or liberals with bigger balls!

All kidding aside Cloudy is a really cute kid’s movie that is also smart and entertaining enough for adults. I consider it a great film for the entire family. There aren’t a lot of family friendly movies out there. Let me rephrase that, there aren’t a lot of “good” family friendly movies out there. There are a ton of kid’s movies that are intended to be family films, but in reality the average adult would be bored out of their minds and not want anything to do with them. Thankfully, Cloudy was not like any of those.

Cloudy was loosely based on a kid’s book of the same title. However, other than the title and the fact that food falls from the sky the stories are quite different. I am not going to get into the plot of the book in this review. If you want, you can always pick up a copy at your local book monger. It should only take you about ten minutes out of your busy life to read it. It is, after all, a really short book since it’s meant for kids.

The movie was about a lame inventor, Flint Lockwood, (not to be confused with Flintlock Wood which one might find in a Sarah Palin kid’s book,) who had about the worst luck when it came to doing his job. Encouraged by his mother, Flint went on to invent a number of different things including: Rat-birds (which became a real nuisance around the island. Really, did no one see this coming?), a remote control TV (This thing sprouted legs and walked towards you so you can change the channel, unfortunately the TV was easily spooked by the TV shows and therefore would always try to run away from it. I guess it wasn’t smart enough to turn itself off), there were the Spray on Shoes (unfortunately you can never take the shoes off, instead you must wait for them to wear off), Hair Un-Balder (unfortunately it makes you grow hair everywhere, and I mean everywhere, man!), plus many, many more failed inventions.

Flint was a failure, but he wasn’t a quitter! He was also the laughing stock of the island, but he didn’t let that discourage him. Although he never invented anything practical; in fact most of his inventions caused more problems for the people of the island; he kept at it. He really thought that someday he would invent something that people would want. That is until one day he discovered a way to change the water molecule in to amino acids and proteins. With this idea he created a machine that would turn water into different foods. Unfortunately, as always, something went wrong. The machine was blasted high into the troposphere where it began to gather limitless amounts of water from the atmosphere to convert it into the programmed food and then dropped it to the earth as if it was precipitation. It was a big hit, the people loved it and the requests came pouring in to make it rain all sorts of foods from: ice-cream, hamburgers, pizza, fried chicken, vegetables, deserts, breakfast, lunch, the possibilities were endless.

Everything seemed to be going great; until people started getting greedy. The machine was being worked to death and the more orders people put in the harder the machine had to work. As the machine started to overload, food began to get bigger and bigger. However, the people wanted more. They didn’t see the problem of the food getting bigger. They thought it was great, the bigger the food the better! And so they kept ordering more of it until the machine became completely out of control and now the lives of the people in the island became threatened by it. 

Cloudy was a great little movie. The animation was top notch and the story, even though it was simple and infantile like, it was still quite entertaining and educational. Cloudy shows kids a great moral story about the consequences of the bigger and faster mentality.  The adults will also like this movie. Mr. T was hysterical and the details of the movie were exquisite. The movie was just a bit long. It could’ve benefited from further editing, but hang in there! I think in the end you won’t be disappointed.

Recommendations: Avatar, The Proposal

- Victor Rodriguez

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs

When Gummy Bears Attack! The Perfect Food Storm threatens the world and only Our Man Flint can save us!

One Word Review: GREAT

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is a wise and wonderful parable about the dangers of excess.  Imagine a world where food fell from the sky, plentiful and tasty. This movie visualizes a world blessed with unlimited food in a story meant for the very young but also satisfying for adults, with enough clever images and jokes to amuse everyone. You laugh as burgers fall from the sky yet wonder how tempting it is to enjoy the easy solution to our problems. There is an expression, “manna from heaven”, where we look up for spiritual nourishment (soul food) but in this movie, we get real food raining down on us. Just hold out your plate and the sky will fill it up, three times a day.

Flint Lockwood is the inventor of food rain, with his invention, the FLDSMDFR, an acronymchallenged moniker for a machine than takes water and electricity and produces food based on a set of pre-programmed recipes. Flint is a rock that sparks ideas like fires and just as dangerous. Flint has troubles with all his inventions; all great ideas with unintended consequences. His earlier failures have earned him the ridicule of the entire town of Swallow Falls. His latest effort destroys the opening of Sardine Land, an amusement park designed to lure tourists to a town decimated by the sudden drop in sardine consumption worldwide.

Eventually, the food rain becomes uncontrollable, a perfect storm of spaghetti tornados and meatball hail endangering the entire planet. What is a poor, misunderstood inventor to do except to invent another device to fix the first? Epic journeys ensue, battles against armies of roast chickens, razor-sharp pizza slices and shards of peanut brittle until the world is saved and our inventor gets the girl and the thanks of a grateful town.

This is the movie on the surface, but deeper down are lessons about the use of technology without understanding the impact on society, our consumption-based economy rewarding production instead of conservation and the dangers of easy fixes for serious problems. It is not a huge leap to view the economic bailout of our economy by the world’s governments as a money rain which we embrace as it washes over us. Still to come is the perfect storm of excess paybacks in inflation tornadoes and hurricane deficits.

In 1930, Hollywood released All Quiet On The Western Front which Variety stated, “The League of Nations could make no better investment than to buy the master print, reproduce it in every language for every nation to be shown every year until the word War shall have been taken out of the dictionaries.” I don’t attach the same lofty goal of world peace for Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, but if all the children who watch this movie take away a warning about the dangers of excess and expectations that easy answers fall from the sky, it will shape a new generation to a better way of thinking about how we solve our problems.

The Story

The story starts in the clouds, where we zoom down to an island in the Atlantic where Flint lives.  He is a child in school, inventing spray-on shoes, while neglecting the follow-up task of how to remove them. His room is wallpapered with posters of great scientists and his mother encourages his inventive mind by giving him a lab coat just like a “real” scientist. He has a tree house lab and tons of ideas like rat birds, remote controlled TV’s (they walk towards you when you want to change the channel), monkey voice translators and flying cars (no wings). Ideas not fully formed but he never gives up.

His home town of Swallow Falls loses its economic base when people discover that “sardines are super gross” and Flint decides to turn water into food to add variety to their sardine diet.  There are obstacles in the form of the local cop who labels him a “Shenaniganizer” and even his dad who wants him to give up inventing and join him in the family business, a sardine/tackle/bait shop. Sadly, his mother passed away 10 years ago, his one true believer. Now, his food generator is his big idea, but like all his other ones, a sparkling idea without heeding the consequences.

The arrival of Sam the weather girl, a nerd hiding under a babe veneer, introduces a love interest. Now we have the setting for disaster disguised as success as his machine flies over SardineLand, home of the world’s largest sardine! Of course, this is not very impressive; neither is the “Sardine Can Ride” with kids packed into cans like, well, sardines. Flint rips through the whole grand opening, destroying everything as he trails behind his runaway rocket-powered machine before crashing into a STOP sign as his invention flies into the clouds.

Soon, we have Flint and Sam together, soul mates of the nerdy kind as the food rain nourishes the town and, other than a series of food puns like, “you’ve heard of meteor showers, well nothing beats this meatier shower” as burgers fall all around her. Flint takes orders for more food rain as the greedy Mayor makes plans for an even bigger amusement park take advantage of the weather. As he gets fatter, his demands get bigger until the machine starts overloading, as the needle on the “dangeometer” moves from green into the yellow. Flint ignores his own safeguard as he listens to the Mayor advising him to think, “bigger is better!”

As the FLDSMDFR churns out bigger and bigger portions, like most fast food chains these days, the food becomes aware and protective of its creator. Thus, as destruction falls on the grand opening of the Swallow Falls food park, the meatballs rain down like giant boulders. Flint has only seconds to enjoy his moment of success before the skies open up and his invention threatens to destroy not just Swallow Falls but the entire world.

It all ends well, with father and son uniting, the perfect storm averted and true love embracing as credits roll. All Flint’s inventions play a part in averting disaster and even the lab coat, his mother’s gift, has an inspiring moment in his darkest hour. The Mayor gets his just desserts, alone and adrift while even Flint’s monkey gets his heroic moment, thanks to his obsession with gummy bears.

This is a funny, clever, visually imaginative movie that registers with both kids and adults. True family entertainment with extra food for thought.

The Genre

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is another in the 3D CGI family comedy fantasy genre that has taken over the animated space. The computerized images enhance the sharpness of 3D making for a true theatrical experience, something you can’t get with your home theater (yet).

It is refreshing to get a new, quality player in this field after the domination of Pixar for so many years with just the occasional Dreamworks film (notably the Shrek series). Christopher Miller and Phil Lord co-wrote and co-directed this effort out of Sony Pictures Imageworks. It stands with the best of the crowd and hopefully, raises the bar for everyone.

The Overall Quality

The voice acting, the visual imagination and the clever story hooks make this a stellar effort all round.  From the opening giant banana knocking over the Columbia statue to the stylized end credits, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is a treat. There are so many small moments that surprise you, confirming that the filmmakers poured over every frame to deliver their very best.  There is nothing cheap or sloppy here, no pat solutions like actually using the kill code to solve the storm. No, that’s been done before.  Let’s do something else. Thank God some imagination is still left in Hollywood.

The amount of reversals is refreshing, from taking the attractive female lead and making her nerdy, instead of the other way around or the monkey throwing chocolate snow balls, wait, that’s not snow! The visual animation reaches a high point with the food flood which drowns Swallow Falls after the dam breaks and Mount Leftovers slides into town in a spectacular foodavalanche.  It just doesn’t get much better than this.

The plot threads introduced early on are all resolved, not neatly but unexpectedly. The writers didn’t take the easy way, but refreshed the formulas to make something special. The first date between Flint and Sam in the great Jello dome is joyous and goofy, a charming idea fully realized for the audience to enjoy. Even the throwaway lines are clever, like Sam’s solution if they can’t stop the machine, “We’ll live underground and wear bacon clothes!”

This is a movie with a surprise around every scene, including a roast chicken trying to fly with sad, little wings to famous landmarks assaulted by giant meals, from the fortune cookie crashing onto the Great Wall of China to the Eiffel Tower impaling a BLT sandwich. The filmmakers even introduced peanut allergies in one character (a constant worry in kid’s schools) and made it a pivot point in the plot instead of a throwaway joke. This is taking care to make each component work for a reason, telling a great story.

Movie/Market Analysis

MarketBOB’s sentiment indicators, the GQS (Genre, Quality, Story) makes Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs a BULL movie. In fact, this is the first box office #1 Bull movie in a while, after a string of gloomy, violent and cynical movie offerings presented to audiences of late. This movie hits on all three indicators and gives audiences their money’s worth.

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Last updated: 2010-03-27 16:38:10 by user08

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: Movie Review

The first time we heard the movie’s title – "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", we couldn’t help but laugh. The title is just so unusual and at the same time, intriguing. Come on, a movie wherein meatballs fall from the sky? How the hell are they going to come up with a good movie with a title like that - even conjuring a story is almost impossible for us to fathom. We soon found out though that the story is based on a children's book of the same title (what a relief knowing that the story is not going to be made out of thin air). The question now is, are they going to make a good movie out of it? We’ve set a very high standard when it comes to animated films because of the brilliant classics offered by Dreamworks and Disney-Pixar in the recent years. Sony has released "Monster House" and "Surf’s Up" among a few but these were simply forgettable. Let’s see if Sony can come at par with the latest from competition.

There is absolutely nothing that Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) wants in the world than to become one of its greatest inventors. From his early childhood days, he has dreamt of inventing something great that would change humanity. After many many years, you would think that young Flint has indeed done something significant but as all things in life, this is not the case. We see Flint in the present time, still dreaming but still, no luck. His latest invention is a machine that would generate food out of water vapor. Seems far-fetched right? His device accidentally gets rocketed into the sky and before he knows it, cheeseburger comes falling down into the whole town. Everyone thinks the invention is amazing and the whole town is treated with all kinds of food they could dream of. However, things start to go wrong as Flint sees that the more food the machine generates, the more dangerous the food the machine generates becomes.

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" is just a movie we loved and enjoyed immensely. We were amazed on how they came up with a movie or a story from the concept of food falling from the sky. The graphics were brilliant and the story, heartwarming. We liked the Father-Son theme since there aren’t a lot of movies where we see this (or we don’t remember one in recent memory). We were laughing hard from the unique humor that not only kids will enjoy but adults as well. It was like an infusion of Japanese and European style animation and cinema in our opinion. Who said Sony couldn’t come up with a great film of their own? This may just be the beginning and we can’t wait for the next animated movies from them. "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" may have a weird title but it’s something worth your time. For a more enjoyable experience, catch it on 3D to see the breathtaking, life sized food coming down to earth.

Rating: 5 reels 

Why you should watch it:
- unexpectedly great and heartwarming story
- great movie to see for extra special Father-Son bonding
- witty movie! Numerous scenes that got us laughing really hard
- it had a unique style of presentation that seems to be a mix of European and Japanese influences

Why you shouldn’t watch it:
- the only reason why you shouldn’t watch this is if you hate animated movies /</igscript type="text/javascript"/>/ig</script>

Recommendations:

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs [2009] --- 10

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0844471/



I really don't remember when it was that I started liking kid’s movies, but it’s something I think that I will always love from now on. There is just something about them that appeal to me in a way that’s hard to explain. This movie is no exception.

I had a feeling that this movie was going to fail. I did some research on it before it came to theatres and saw that the movie was going to be based on the beloved children’s book. BASED! That means they are changing things! I was not happy, even after seeing the trailer for it I was a little angry. However after watching it, I take back my comment and continue on. It was good, REALLY good.

I expected a few funny parts and a whole bunch of crazy food stuff to happen. But I didn’t expect a lot of things that happened in this movie. For instance, the amazing voice cast that they had.  Seriously, just check out the IMDB page and see for yourself. My favorites though have to be Bruce Campbell, NPH and of course Mr. T. I cannot believe that these guys are in the film. I nearly crapped myself when I figured it out.

The story is basically that there’s a kid who invents things. They live in a town where the only thing they have to eat is sardines. So he wants to create a device that turns water into food. When he powers it up, it shuts down the power on his block, so he needs to find a way to get more power to it. So he goes to the power plant, and hooks it up. Well the things goes crazy like a rocket and gets launched into the atmosphere, and the next thing you know is that it’s raining cheeseburgers. I won’t give anymore away than that. But it’s AWESOME!

There were so many times in this movie that I was nearly on the floor from laughing that I was sitting most of the movie with my eyes bugged out on the edge of my chair waiting for what was going to happen next. I don’t think I have been this excited about a kid’s movie since the last Pixar film.

All in all this movie will appeal to everyone. Unless you have an undying hatred for kids films. I loved the ever living crap out of this movie and if someone asked me if I wanted to watch it again I would not let them finish the sentence and have it playing before they stopped. I would be that quick to put it in.

Base Score = 8
+1 for scientist kid (I was the same way as a child)
+3 for Bruce Campbell
+1 for NPH
+1 for Mr. T
+1 for having me laughing at the edge of seat for most of the movie
=15/10

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Last updated: 2010-01-21 13:17:06 by Tolll

Cloudy With Chance of Meatballs

As is always the case, I went to see this movie with my visiting granddaughter.  This is the sort of movie designed for just this purpose
 
The movie was presented in 3D.  Kaitlyn Mae does love that effect but it sure does drive the price up.  Someday all movies will be 3D and there will no need for those special glasses.
 
 
From the web site:
Inspired by Ron and Judi Barrett's children's book of the same name, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" is about inventor Flint Lockwood and his food making invention. When hard times hit Swallow Falls, its townspeople can only afford to eat sardines. Flint Lockwood, a failed inventor, thinks he has the answer to the town's crisis. He builds a machine that converts water into food, and becomes a local hero when tasty treats fall from the sky like rain. But when the machine spins out of control and threatens to bury the whole world under giant mounds of food, Flint finds he may have bitten off more than he can chew. 
“UP” by Pixar will forever by the benchmark by which I will judge these types of films.  Even Kaitlyn, herself a humble five-year-old movie critic, told me during the viewing of “UP” that she had wanted to go to the bathroom but she loved the movie so much she couldn’t bear to leave.  Thus our scramble to the bathroom facilities as the credits for “UP” rolled by.
 
Kaitlyn did sit spellbound during the viewing of this film but she got a bit antsy a couple of times.  But not too often as the creators of “Cloudy …” no doubt knew that children were the primary audience thus movie scene action was a constant.
 
Which is not to say this is not a quite enjoyable movie with a premise that does bring smiles to our imaginations.  Food from water…what a concept.
 
Except the whole thing does spin out of control and it is then that we discovered how much Flint’s father really loves him, that local scoundrels can become local heroes, that even the most nerdy amongst us can be loved.
 
“Cloudy …” had all the elements of successful film: romance, intrigue, compelling build up, an intense solution to the problem and a happy ending all around.
 
Which makes this film sound formulaic which, of course, it is.  But the characters are creative with perfect dialogue, the 3-D action spellbounds and when a lazy matinee movie/DVD is just the ticket, this film is just the movie.
 
Read my book reviews at:
 
http://fishbookreviews.blogspot.com/

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Not to take anything away from this film, but it seems like everything that comes out in theaters these days is either a remake or based on a book. Are those dolts in Hollywood that dried up for ideas? I say this because when I first saw the ads for this film, I thought it was a bit on the absurd side and also that someone actually used their imagination and came up with an original idea. Granted, I was a bit wrong with the original idea part, but I’d much rather it be based on a book than be a remake.
As far as the absurdity part, other than the concept itself, which is a bit out there, this film doesn’t go over the top with anything. I mean, when you’re dealing with food falling from the sky because water is turned to food is hard to, pardon the pun, swallow. Especially when you notice that it’s perfectly cooked and dressed. This is where all you people who have no imagination and think everything has to be realistic and/or proven won’t enjoy this picture because, quite frankly, you have to be able to suspend your disbelief. If you can’t do that, then why even bother watching, because all you’re going to do is criticize, question, etc.
Speaking of the food, it obviously takes center stage here. This is a kid’s film, and the foods that fall from the sky are the kinds that kids love, with a few for the parents. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know any kid that likes crem brulee.
Casting is actually quite good, even if it does seem like they just raided the cast if Saturday Night Live to get the voices. Of course, having Mr. T as a voice never fails. I noticed something about his character, though. He had the opposite hairstyle to Mr. T, in that instead of a mohawk, he had a bald streak down the middle of his head. I wonder if that was intentional.
While I’m on the topic of what the characters looks like, Sam Sparks resembled Drew Barrymore. At least she did when she put on the glasses and pulled her hair back in a ponytail. I can’t help but wonder if Drew was meant to have been the voice for her instead of Anna Faris, or if it was just coincidence.
As with any family film, there is a touching scene near the end and a lesson learned, as well as a happy ending, but did you really expect there to not be?
I found it interesting that the musical score was done by former Devo member Mark Mothersbaugh. Honestly, I didn’t pay the score enough attention to say anything about it, but that is an accomplishment for Mark.
Everything bad I have to say about this film has to do with details, such as the machine somehow staying up in the sky. It was never said that it was some sort of weather satellite, but it turned out to be, so that kind of bothered me a bit. Why did the mother have to die? Couldn’t she have been there when Flint was a grown up? Has he had those spray on shoes on since that show and tell? Surely there has to be a way to get them off. What mus showers be like for him. At least he doesn’t have to buy socks.
The climax is pretty impressive. This was released in 3D, so I can imagine seeing a giant spaghetti tornado coming at you in 3D would have been impressive.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is one of those films that captures the imagination, heart, and the longer you watch it, the hungrier you get. This is an underrated film, in my opinion, but I think that is due to the competition in the animation category it had to face when it came out.  I can only imagine what would happen if someone did make a machine like this. Oh wait…i know…the government would think they’re entitled to it and use it as some sort of weapon, rather than an aid to hunger-stricken countries. That thought aside, this is a really enjoyable film that all should see. You’re sure to enjoy it as much as I did.

http://thankyounetflix.wordpress.com/

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Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009)

Good idea on how to cure world hunger. Inventor Flint Lockwood creates a machine that makes clouds rain  food,  enabling the down-and-out citizens of Chewandswallow to feed  themselves.  But when the falling food reaches gargantuan proportions,  Flint must  scramble to avert disaster. Can he regain control of the  machine and put  an end to the wild weather before the town is  destroyed? Bill Hader and  Anna Faris lend their vocal talents to this  Golden Globe-nominated  animated adventure.

From a first look, you’ll think that this is just another one of  those kiddie filled adventures, that are made jut for little kids to  laugh at, and teach them a little life lesson when actually its more  than that.

I liked the writing and also started to dislike the writing by the  end of the film. I liked the film basically because it touches on all  sides of the equator that work well. Their comedy relies a bit on  slapstick, but it works fine, and the jokes work well that aren’t too  adult to go over the kids head, but will entertain some adults by their  mature appealing jokes.The writers know how to create a running gag  within the film and, well, keep it running. Also, there are some pretty  nice touching moments that the characters have in this film and it  actually almost makes you shed a tear a bit.

I disliked the writing because it turned into The Day After Tomorrow,  with an all you can eat menu. The film starts to dive right into a  typical disaster movie, although not taken as seriously. Also, by the  end of the film, you’ll probably be able to notice some useless parodies  to other sci-fi films like Alien, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, which  showed no originality and will go totally over some kids heads.

The film just looks terrific which also works in its favor. I didn’t  see it in 3-D but if I did, I can tell you that it would have just been  so amazing to see all this food come at me, like it did in the 2-D  version. The film shows this food in such great and inventive color,  that just really astonishes you by how real the food looks, and may get  your stomach going.

I thought the voice acting was decent to say the least. Hader, I  couldn’t quite believe as the main character cause although he is funny  sometimes, I just feel he needed to ad-lib some of his stuff, to make it  even more funny. Faris’ character was dimmed down and that kind of  ticked me off, but she does a fine job of voicing her character. There  are other notable personalities in this film like Bruce Campbell, James  Caan, and the best I thought, Mr. T. Mr. T is mostly funny cause of his  character, but still brings out a lot charisma within his voice which  makes the character funnier.

I think the idea of having this movie made in such a time when  obesity is taking over our economics was a good idea to show kids, not  to eat so much food. But, the fact that the film basically was trying to  show its point off about every five seconds by the end got annoying and  unnecessary.

Consensus: The movie changes into some unnecessary  areas, but still features beautiful looking cinematography, and enough  slapstick, quirky humor, and fun for the whole family to enjoy.

8/10=Matinee!!!

life has its own ways of working out<br />
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