Penelope (2006)
Aug 6, 2024Modern Fairytale/Girl Cursed with a Pig-Like Face
This has the feel of a fairytale where Christina Ricci plays a girl who suffers from a hereditary curse that has left her with a pig-like snout
Russell Brand
Bedtime Stories (2008)
Dec 28, 2008Bedtime Stories Come True Comedy
An unfunny Adam Sandler film in which he plays a guy whose bedtime stories come true. Sandler regards himself as the funniest guy in the room and doesn't even seem to be making an effort.
Despicable Me (2010)
Jul 17, 2010Animation/Comic Travails of a Super-Villain
An animated effort about a mad scientist and three orphans. One entered this with zero expectation only for it to unexpectedly emerge as a side-splitting and completely charming pleasure
The Tempest (2010)
Jul 10, 2011Shakespeare Adaptation
Version of the Shakespeare play that gives us a female Prospero (Helen Mirren) but is otherwise surprisingly faithful. Director Julie Taymor opens the play up with considerable visual extravagance
Hop (2011)
Apr 14, 2011Talking Easter Bunny
A film about the Easter Bunny that comes remarkably devoid of any significance of the meaning of Easter and only consists of the usual smartass talking animal antics
Despicable Me 2 (2013)
Jul 2, 2013Animation/Comic Travails of a Super-Villain
Despicable Me was a charming lightning in the bottle hit. Here Illumination Entertainment merely recycle the familiar and already the cute sweetness and gags of the original are starting to feel like processed formula
Trolls (2016)
Feb 6, 2017Animation/Small Cute Creatures
A perfect example of all the things I hate about modern animation. Based around the popular Troll dolls, this is vapidly designed, content-free product based solely around simplistic storylines, manic slapstick sequences, song and dance numbers, and inane contemporary pop culture in-jokes
Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)
Aug 20, 2022Animation/Super-Villain and Cute Mischievous Creatures
The cutely nonsensical Minions have become a pop culture phenomenon. Here we get more of them in the second film outing, although this acts more as a Gru origin story