Lame.

I’m a fan of Futurama, and wasn’t happy with Fox’s cancellation of the series. Although I didn’t like the 1st movie that Matt Groening’s team put out, Bender’s Big Score, I thought I should at least watch the rest of the direct-to-DVD movies. Futurama as an animated television series was smart, funny, and great in-jokes.

Uh, yeah, this next installment, The Beast with a Billion Backs, was pure and simple lame. I didn’t like the story. I didn’t like the jokes. As a matter of fact, I thought it was a waste of my time. I give it one star. Very disappointing.

Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008)

After much anticipation, I finally remembered to rent 9, a film based on a story by Shane Acker. It’s an animated story that I first noted back early last year, that looked like a great story and cool animation. It features an all-star cast — Elijah Wood, Martin Landau, Christoper Plummer, Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover, and John C. Reilly, just to name the biggies.

After all that anticipation, after watching it, I was a little underwhelmed. Maybe it was the big build-up, but I did also read that other folks gave it mixed reviews. I felt that near the climax, the story collapsed somewhere along the way. I haven’t exactly put my finger on it. I wasn’t entirely invested in the characters the way that I should be, and the ending itself was half-baked. It’s a rental for the animation, but the story could have made this film more than the sum of its parts.

9 (2009)

Below is the first six minutes of 2009’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  I haven’t seen this movie yet, but if the intro is any indication, this looks to be a damn funny movie.  Nice cast listing too.  Man your battlestations — I’m adding this to the Netflix queue.

The original Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003)

[I want to talk about the new Star Wars animated series. If you don't wish to read about this, please cover your eyes, or move on to the next posting. This is your first and only warning. Star Wars geekiness to follow.]

Okay, the Star Wars prequels (Eps 1-3) did not live up the greatness of the original Star Wars trilogy (Eps 4-6.) The acting was eh. The dialogue was a bit boring. The kiddie jokes were almost bad enough to make you sick to your stomach (I’m looking squarely at you, Phantom Menace.) Once the dialogue stopped, and the action started, that was pretty good.

A few years ago in 2003, Cartoon Network broadcasted a series of animated shorts called Star Wars: Clone Wars. I completely missed out on them, but I heard they were pretty decent.  I stopped reading the Star Wars books many years ago, because there were so many, and you couldn’t keep up. To satisfy my SW lust, I’ve resorted in the past to playing my Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic games, and checking out the latest progress on the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG, which is scheduled to be released…. who knows when.

What is a Star Wars fan to do?  If you haven’t already, you need to check out Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network, because it is good. I believe it’s covering some of the same stories as the 2003 series, but I believe there are additional stories.  In any case, same idea — Lucasarts is filling in the timeline between Episodes 2 and 3.  It’s in the same animated style as the 2008 Clone Wars movie [same title, it seems] that came out last summer.  Now, is this series the greatest thing since….. Jamaican beef patties were invented?  No, certainly not.  Are these episodes as great as the original Star Wars trilogy? Not at all. 

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)

So why watch?  Well, they’re “good enough”, you could say.  The episodes are shorter than the long movies, so they’re bite-sized.  The stories are decent and interesting. The action is fun to watch. In a nutshell, you get your fix, and it is actually likeable. I’ve almost caught up on Season 1. Season 2 begins Oct 2nd, and I’m looking forward to it.

The movie 9 has finally debuted.  It’s getting decent reviews, and I would love to see it.  i09.com posted their review of 9. I don’t have any free time (sans kids) so I’m not sure what I’m going to do. Sigh. I wish I had more free time.

9

I have finally watched The Simpson Movie. It came out in 2007? That long ago?

It was really no big deal. I recorded it off HBO, and watched it while folding laundry. True, it’s 87 minutes long, but I had a lot of laundry to fold.

Back to my review.  It was okay. It’s the Simpsons, so you are just looking for some dumb, mindless entertainment.  Every so often, you get a little (LITTLE) thought-provoking theme or story, but for the most part, it’s just Homer doing something stupid.  I’m not looking for a tour de force.

After I turned it off, I thought it was an expanded Simpsons episode, but only a few occasional laugh out loud moments. As always, there are often a few quotes that make you laugh.  For the rest of it, eh, no biggie.

The Simpsons Movie (2007)

Yea, the Futurama cast is coming back!  I just read that negotiations continued, and the voice cast is returning. All five of us fans can rejoice. Read more here.

Rejoice, Futurama fans!

Green Lantern: First Flight, a direct-to-DVD animated movie, is coming out July 28th.  I’ve already added it to my queue. Movie trailer looks great, and good voice cast too. Lending their voices to the film will be Christopher Meloni (Law And Order: SVU) as Hal Jordan; Victor Garber (ALIAS) as Hal Jordan’s nemesis, Sinestro; Michael Madsen as Hal Jordan’s alien mentor, Kilowog; and the lovely Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica) as Green Lantern Corps member, Boodikka.

I saw two movies on one day.  The first movie I watched was Happy Feet, a 2006 animated children’s movie about an Emperor penguin.  According to the story, Emperor penguins sing popular soul, R&B, and rock tunes during the lives, including during mating season.  Hey, who doesn’t?  However, one penguin (voiced by Elijah Wood) can’t sing at all, but has been blessed with the tap-dancing skills of…, I don’t know, Gregory Hines comes to mind.  He’s outcast, finds more penguins, tries to find himself, tries to solve a mystery regarding where all the fish have gone, it’s man, saves the day, convinces everyone that being different is okay, lather, rinse, repeat.  Big all-star cast, including a lot of Robin Williams.

Anyone seen this movie before?

All jokes aside, it was a decent kid’s flick, but Josh was a little scared at specific times.  There’s a tinge more animal-on-animal hinted violence in this movie.  As he’s only 4-years old, he still thinks all bees make honey for the bears, because the bears would never steal the honey.  One day, he’s going to find out where the turkey and chicken, and beef he’s been eating comes from, and I don’t want to be in the room when someone explains it to him.

Happy Feet (2006)

Last month, I had blogged/rambled about how I loved Futurama, and missed it so.  However, the fact that I had never bothered to rent any of the Futurama movies underscored the little-known-fact that I’m an idiot.   So I immediately threw the Futurama movies onto the Netflix queue.  First up? Bender’s Big Score.

After everyone went to sleep, it was time for Joel’s movie night.  **WARNING: EXTREME IRONY ALERT** As I was about to pop in the DVD, I started browsing the channels.  I scanned the guide, and what is playing at that very moment on Comedy Central?  Believe it or not, it was Bender’s Big Score.  Oh yeah, that’s right, the same movie I waited all this time to watch, requested through Netflix, waited a week to watch, and had just popped into the DVD player, had started 13 mins ago on TV.  For free. Because Comedy Central will be premiering all of the Futurama movies in the next few weeks on TV. How did I miss that announcement?

Doh!

Well, whatever, I watched it on DVD anyway.  It was ok.  It was nice to see the cast and characters again, and the jokes were somewhat funny. I think the problem was that the story was a little sprawling, and the plot wasn’t all that cohesive.  Lots of things happening over 1 hour and 28 minutes, but it wasn’t the most interesting. Hmmmmm. I’m hoping the rest of the movies are better.  To save room on the Tivo, I’ll still rent the DVDs versus Tivo’ing them. The next movie is The Beast with a Billion Backs.

FYI, Comedy Central is premiering the latest Futurama movie, Into the Wild Green Yonder, on Sunday April 26th.

Futurama: Bender's Big Score (2007)