THE CROODS

The nuclear family has a rich heritage in cartoon form. Portraying a prehistoric unit has pretty massive shoes to fill… THE FLINTSTONES. Maybe the filmmakers are counting on short-term memories? THE CROODS does not come close to that benchmark; nor recent animated doozy, THE INCREDIBLES. Little mind appears to have been paid to story or character, instead AVATAR-esque visuals are the dominating force. Crazy animals (e.g. flying turtle things) and fauna, saturated in a hallucinogenic colour scheme, should sate the appetite of the youngest audience members. Anyone else will be along for a bland sub-ICE AGE, sub-BRAVE (no corker in itself) ride. [To read more, click here.]
KICK-ASS 2

Opening on Dave Lizewski a.k.a. Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) getting shot in the chest, though wearing a bulletproof vest, by Mindy Macready a.k.a. Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz), echoing the movie’s predecessor. Mindy has taken over from her father, the deceased Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage), as the most lethal superhero on the streets of New York. There are plenty of reverberations from the first film, sometimes necessary to show some kind of grudging character progression, but its main use is lazy – to make the two main leads regress from their initial desire for adventure and justice, and instead take turns to question whether they are on the correct path. [To read more, click here.]