I'm not ashamed to admit that I enjoyed Alvin and The Chipmunks; I even enjoyed Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squekquel, albeit a little bit less than the original. The two movies combined for a gross of over 400 million dollars. No, that's not a typo, I said 400 million dollars! It goes without saying that 20th Century Fox had a money maker on their hands, and was going to keep going to the well until it was emptied. Anyone who has seen Alvin and The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked should be able to tell you that the proverbial well is BONE DRY!
I wish I could tell you that Chipwrecked was just a tad beneath the quality of Squekquel. I wish I could tell you that the Chipmunks and the Chipettes were just as cute as you remember. Unfortunately, that's just not the case. The musical numbers were forced; the shenanigans were tired and old, and more important that anything, the chipmunks as a whole just weren't cute and funny. ******************************SPOILER ALERT******************************** David Cross, who can be quite funny, is relegated to spending the entire movie in a bird suit. Jason Lee, who must be getting an overwhelming payday to keep coming back, spends most of the time whining. The introduction of Zoe, played by Jenny Slate, was a cheap attempt to add a foil to the characters. Honestly though, she came across more as irrelevant. By no means was I looking for a movie written by Aaron Sorkin, Academy Award winning screenplay writer of The Social Network, but a little bit of an effort would have been nice. It seemed as the Writers were only worried about how many songs they could squeeze into the film and how many movies they could spoof off of, most notably Castaway, The Lord of the Rings, and James Bond; there's even a bit of The Jersey Shore thrown into the mix. Once you add it all up, it equates to nothing more than very lazy writing.
My wife and I took our 8 year old son and 5 year old daughter with us, and although the two of them were entertained, my wife and I were both extremely disappointed. If the intent is to move forward on additional films, then the writing is going to have to improve. I find it hard to believe that after 2 movies, the writers can't come up with any original ideas. If that's the case, then I think it's time to put the film franchise back in the vault and bring the Chipmunks to Saturday morning cartoons.
Grade: D
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I wish I could tell you that Chipwrecked was just a tad beneath the quality of Squekquel. I wish I could tell you that the Chipmunks and the Chipettes were just as cute as you remember. Unfortunately, that's just not the case. The musical numbers were forced; the shenanigans were tired and old, and more important that anything, the chipmunks as a whole just weren't cute and funny. ******************************SPOILER ALERT******************************** David Cross, who can be quite funny, is relegated to spending the entire movie in a bird suit. Jason Lee, who must be getting an overwhelming payday to keep coming back, spends most of the time whining. The introduction of Zoe, played by Jenny Slate, was a cheap attempt to add a foil to the characters. Honestly though, she came across more as irrelevant. By no means was I looking for a movie written by Aaron Sorkin, Academy Award winning screenplay writer of The Social Network, but a little bit of an effort would have been nice. It seemed as the Writers were only worried about how many songs they could squeeze into the film and how many movies they could spoof off of, most notably Castaway, The Lord of the Rings, and James Bond; there's even a bit of The Jersey Shore thrown into the mix. Once you add it all up, it equates to nothing more than very lazy writing.
My wife and I took our 8 year old son and 5 year old daughter with us, and although the two of them were entertained, my wife and I were both extremely disappointed. If the intent is to move forward on additional films, then the writing is going to have to improve. I find it hard to believe that after 2 movies, the writers can't come up with any original ideas. If that's the case, then I think it's time to put the film franchise back in the vault and bring the Chipmunks to Saturday morning cartoons.
Grade: D
Please visit our site at www.twodudereview.com