Movie Reviews: Mr. Peabody and Sherman (2014) and The Lego Movie (2014)

by Tony Dayoub

With one unorthodox animated feature (discussed at the end of this post) capitalizing on parental nostalgia at the box office, it's expected that another more conventional one would try and do the same. And Mr. Peabody and Sherman is that... conventional. Admittedly, it is funny, with many of its jokes sailing over younger heads and right towards the hearts of their gen-x parents. But they aren't anywhere near as dryly hilarious as the one-liners which seemed to fly out a mile-a-minute in the "Peabody's Improbable History" segments of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (1959-1964).

NYFF09 Movie Review: Life During Wartime

by Tony Dayoub



Director Todd Solondz revisits the characters of his most (in)famous movie, Happiness (1998), in the sort-of sequel, Life During Wartime. In Happiness, the gag was how Solondz could mask the sickening acts perpetrated by a child molester/psychologist and an obscene caller—and how those acts affected their friends and family—with a defiant Leave it to Beaver vibe that made one's skin crawl even more. Life During Wartime is decidedly less repulsive, exploring the impact the events of the first film had on those characters more than a decade later, and whether forgiveness or redemption are even possible given the heinousness of such acts.

Movie Review: Juno - Cast For Long Life

by Tony Dayoub



So it wasn't as precious as I feared. And once you divorce the hype behind its Oscar nominations, Juno is a nice little gem of a movie.

See, I was afraid that Diablo Cody's screenplay for it would be so hip, ironic and of-the-moment that it would date the film years from now. And as Entertainment Weekly and Glenn Kenny at Premiere both pointed out, "honest to blog" it will. With too-clever slang like "pork-sword" for the male organ, and curses like "Phuket, Thailand" for "F*** It", the film does tap into today's kids and their crafty doublespeak meant to keep adults out of the loop. Like The Breakfast Club is forever an 80s movie, and American Pie is distinctly 90s, Juno is one for the 00s (double aughts?).