Click Here For Our Interview with Anna Faris

Click Here For Our Interview with Bill Hader

Click Here to Read the Theatrical Review!

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Movie Grade: C

DVD Features Grade: C-

Overall Grade: C-

Making children’s books into feature length films is something I will never fully grasp. The current trend of films like The Cat In the Hat, and Chicken Little, has only supplied films that do poorly at the box office and managed to destroy the whimsy that the stories once granted. Turning a book that only takes five minutes to read into something that takes ninety minutes to watch doesn’t make much sense to begin with. The only example of something in this category that has received some level of praise is Where the Wild Things Are, which somehow remained true to the original story without becoming to ridiculous or preachy.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs doesn’t suffer from being overly preachy, but may in fact be one of the most ridiculous movies of all time. The title does give out some warning to its absurdity, but the fact that it rains food in this town isn’t what takes it took a bad level. The thing that brings it to this point is the fact that almost every joke makes absolutely no sense. Yes, it is a kids movie and there has to be some sort of wackiness, but all of the puns, the character voices by Mr. T, and baby Brent, not to mention everything else are torturous to anyone watching it for a child.

The plot is secondary to the crazy shenanigans: Flint (Bill Hader) is a scientist with a supportive mother and a unappreciative father. After his mother passes away, Flint continues to work on his experiments and ultimately tries to turn water into food. After his machine gets shot into the sky it starts to rain food on Flints command and the town they live in becomes famous for raining food. After the mayor gets far and greedy, everything goes array and the food mutates into a pasta tornado and wrecks the town. Flint manages to save the day in the end and gets the girl who is far out of his league just as everyone knew from the very start.

As if having to sit through all of that wasn’t enough, there is an entire second disc loaded with special features adults won’t have interest in because the film is of poor quality, and kids won’t have interest in because they’re kids. The only exception to this is the food fight game that didn’t play on my laptop, but will probably be enough to entertain younger children who don’t have an xbox. There is a making of, a voice casting, some extended scenes, early development scenes, a progression reel, and a music video. The music

video and extended scenes might get a play or two, but the rest seems wasted on the demographic of this movie.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs could have been a one disc set, and it could have also been about an hour shorter than it was. Even though young children could enjoy this movie it doesn’t say much because they will enjoy almost anything intended for their age group. When I was younger, I like Small Soldiers: that’s not something I ordinarily admit, but it’s true. As someone who can really enjoy a good kid’s movie, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs isn’t something to watch unless you have children to entertain.

Movie Grade: C

DVD Features Grade: C-

Overall Grade: C-