Bad Weather Movie

Not Suitable For Vegetarians

By Guruchathram Ledchumanan

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs is a gimmick in search of a movie. The 3D aspects of it are very well done but other than technical merit, there is nothing appetizing about this entree.

It’s based on the children’s book that came out in the ’80s about a boy named Flint who lives on an island. When the sardine industry that his dad depends on goes under, he invents a machine that turns water into food. Jelly beans, ice-cream, chocolates, you name it, you got it.

There is some predictable conflict between Flint the wannabe inventor and his dad who wants him to help him run his bait and tackle shop instead. He does not see things the way his son does because he only has one eyebrow that somehow covers both his eyes.

There are cool special effects like a tornado made of spaghetti and meatballs, but even then it’s just stuff being thrown at you in the name of hokey 3D gimmickry. I have yet to see a movie in 3D that I wasn’t able to enjoy in 2D. For example, Disney’s Up was one of the best animated films I’ve seen since The Lion King. They could both entertain adults as well as children and like the best kind of childhood entertainment, both those films will grow up with you. Cloudy on the other hand is rather forgettable by comparison.

You can pretty much see plot points coming along a mile away and you know how it’s going to end two minutes after it starts. It is also rather manipulative in the way it squeezes out the cheese and lays in thick on the audience. For example, the father finally tells the son that he loves him and is proud of him at the end.

In Up for example, the first 15 minutes or so were like a silent movie that told the entire story of a man and his wife from their marriage to her death with no dialogue, and then the movie starts. That is genius and it is also manipulative, but it assumes the audience can wait for the story to unfold naturally as opposed to working the plot like clockwork.

Once you’ve seen one meatball almost hit you in the face, you’ve seen them all. The producers must think that we’re like the people who saw the first footage of a train in a cinema and jumped out of their seats thinking that it was coming straight for them.

The voice over acting is adequate. I had a soft spot for the policeman that was voiced by Mr.T, but that has nothing to do with Cloudy and everything to do with The A-Team. I did not mind giving him my money, Lord knows those gold chains ain’t cheap but I pity the fool who expects anything more than technology in this movie.

2/4 stars.

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