Charlie from the office raided her son’s DVD collection and has lined me up with a whole month’s worth of Kids Film Fridays. Now my only choice is which order to watch them in.
Monsters Vs Aliens
Much more fun than cowboys.
A meteor lands on a woman named Susan just before her wedding. Instead of crushing her into a big red puddle, she ends up growing 50 feet tall (luckily her wedding dress does a Hulk though – it rips and splits but still covers all the important parts). Captured by the army, she is confined to a special base overseen by General W. R. Monger, with more monsters: Dr Cockroach (mad scientist who accidentally turned himself into a cockroach), the Missing Link (ape-fish-man-thing, discovered frozen under the ice sheet), B. O. B. (sentient gelatinous goop. What happens when you inject a tomato with irradiated Ranch dressing), and Insectosaurus (side-effect of nuclear testing). When an alien arrives to retrieve the matter that makes up Susan’s meteor – and kill or enslave all humanity – it is up to the monsters to save the Earth.
Confession time: It is almost midnight and I’m about to fall asleep. I don’t think my brain will cope with any kind of real analysis here, so I’m going to do this review in list form. What I particularly liked about Monsters Vs Aliens, and what I didn’t.
What I particularly liked about Monsters Vs. Aliens:
- Every moment that President Stephen Colbert is on screen, particularly Axel F.
- Dr. Cockroach’s maniacal laugh.
- Keifer Sutherland channeling Gen. Buck Turgidson as Monger.
- Seth Rogen. Between this and Paul, his voice-over characters seem to be much more endearing than his live-action roles.
- Gallaxhar, and his army of Gallaxhars. Hail Gallaxhar (Hail me).
- “Would you like a gun?” “Yes I would.” I may have peed myself slightly at this point.
- INSECTOSAURUS! I never thought I would want to hug a 350 feet tall grub before.
I was actually cheering at this bit. Yes, I know how sad that is.
And what I didn’t:
- Um…
So there you have it. Overall, it’s a win. I could go on about the themes of self-discovery and acceptance, and the strong female lead, and all the little easter egg references to classic monster and sci-fi flicks, but I really need to go to sleep. What I will say is that I was watching this on the bus home from work tonight and I embarrased myself several times by bursting out laughing. If that’s not a recommendation, then I don’t know what is.
One of these guys can build a death ray out of a pizza box, two tin cans and a paper clip.
Five Word Movie Reviews 
It’s pretty awesome when you realize that Dr. Cockroach is also Hugh Laurie aka House MD.