Sunday 19 May
 
 

The Last Stand

Early in The Last Stand, the small-town sheriff played by Arnold Schwarzenegger says, "It's my day off. Should be a quiet weekend." That's the new way of saying, "I've got one week to retirement," because it signals — with flashing neon and everything — that life is going to royally upend those plans.
05/17/2013 | Comments 0

Texas Chainsaw

One of the most inconsistent franchises in movie history is the one beget by Tobe Hooper's 1974 classic, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. How does one follow all those less-than-beloved sequels? Lionsgate's latest in the series — the seventh — has a solution: Ignore 'em.
05/17/2013 | Comments 0

Captain America: Collector’s Edition

Not long after Batman changed Hollywood in the summer of 1989, every studio wanted to have the next comics-based blockbuster. I remember visiting Penn Square Mall’s multiplex (as I did often back then) and seeing a poster for Captain America. The one-sheet was comprised of little more than a close-up of Cap’s iconic shield and a promise to arrive next summer.
05/16/2013 | Comments 0

Dark Circles

With the Broken Lizard comedy troupe becoming increasingly broken, member Paul Soter has branched off to write and direct something about as far away as one can get from the likes of Super Troopers and Beerfest: a horror film. Now that I've seen it, I'm thinking maybe he should stay on his own.
05/16/2013 | Comments 0

Die! Die! My Darling!

File 1965's Die! Die! My Darling! under that now-dead subgenre dubbed "Grande Dame Guignol." The Hammer Films production may lack the dueling duo of two twilight-era titans of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and the others, but truth be told, Tallulah Bankhead is fierce enough to provide all the fire it needs.
05/14/2013 | Comments 0
Home · Articles · Movies · Children's · Surf's Up
Children's

Surf's Up


None June 15th, 2007

surfsup

Reviewer's grade: B

Let's concede right off that the world didn't exactly need another movie about cute 'n' cuddly penguins, but "Surf's Up" is no knockoff. This computer-animated, family-friendly flick visits the world of penguins, but the resemblance to last year's "Happy Feet" ends there.

 

"Surf's Up" is more charming and less bombastic. Consequently, parents might actually enjoy it more than the kiddies. Taking a page from the Christopher Guest comedies and TV's "The Office," "Surf's Up" is set up as a faux documentary chronicling the saga of Cody Maverick (voiced by Shia LaBeouf), a spirited rockhopper with a love for surfing. He travels to the world penguin surfing championship in Hawaii, where he is schooled in the ways of surfing by Geek (Jeff Bridges), a laid-back surfin' bird whose approach to the sport is decidedly Zen-like.

 

Some of the humor will soar over the heads of the youngest viewers, but the relationship between brash Cody and his mellow mentor might touch audiences of all ages. PG

 

-Phil Bacharach

 

View trailer

 
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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