Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs / Planet 51

I am going to do a little double-dip with this review as I have gotten myself a little backed up, and really these two films sort of go hand-in-hand.

I will start with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I had only recently checked out the children's book - which is quite small by the way - and wondered how on Earth they could make a full-length film out of it.

It wasn't spectacular, but it was well worth a watch.

Swallow Falls has been well known for its sardines, and everyone eats them - even though nobody enjoys eating them.

Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) invents a contraption that can change water into any food that you can desire. As he is about to show his invention to the town, it is accidentally shot into sky.

At first, the town is amazed when it begins to rain food. They no longer have to eat sardines and it also puts Swallow Falls back on the map as Sam Sparks (Anna Faris), a weather reporter, announces to the world this amazing feat.

However, things begin to go a little haywire with the contraption and the food begins to get a little bigger - and then massive. And, finally the weather begins to turn and the food starts acting like a tornado.

It is up to Flint and his gang of misfits, including Sparks, a Gummi-Bear loving monkey named Steve (Neil Patrick Harris) and the town's former well-known celebrity 'Baby' Brent (Andy Samberg).

It was a pretty good watch and my son loved it. It is nowhere near the quality of say the Pixar films, but definitely give it a shot.

Planet 51, was also a pretty interesting watch, but I don't think I would give it a second look. Where as I would probably watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs again.

Planet 51 is sort of a bizarro-E.T. as instead of the alien landing on Earth - a human is the alien landing on another planet.

Captain Charles T. Baker (Dwayne Johnson) lands on Planet 51 and claims it in the name of the United States. As he turns around, however, he notices that he is not alone and becomes a fugitive on this alien planet.

The planet itself is a lot like Earth, however, 50 years in the Earth's past. The main character is Lem (Justin Long), a kid who is trying to become head of a planetarium and also has the hots for his next door neighbor, Neera (Jessica Biel).

As General Grawl (Gary Oldman) and the alien army try to capture Captain Baker - Lem and his buddy Skiff (Seann William Scott) do everything in their power to keep him safe and get him back to his spaceship.

It was a pretty good watch and it was fun to see a lot of other movies given some sort of homage in the film - like the Planet 51 dogs looking a lot like the alien from Alien.

Still, it could have been a lot better - but it was good for one watch.

Grades:
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Planet 51