Mostly Sunny

So, the other new movie I saw this past weekend was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I was curious about the movie for two main reasons.

First was familiarity with the book upon which it is based; it was around the house to read to my littler brothers and sisters when I was younger. I wanted to see how the screenwriters would flesh it out to get an actual movie out of it.

Second was who those writers were. Phil Lord and Chris Miller (who also directed the movie) aren't household names, but they have a key credit on their resume -- they were writers and producers on the TV show How I Met Your Mother during its first season. And I love that show enough for that love to spill over to anything peripherally related to it.

It turns out, this movie had all the same cleverness I was hoping for from people who worked on that clever show. It was full of wry dialogue aimed squarely at the adults attending this kids' film, very much in the spirit of a Pixar film. (In fact, unfortunately for this film, they used one element exactly as it appeared in a Pixar film -- Up -- that of a voice box technology that communicates the thoughts of an animal. It appears that three to four years ago, the same idea was thought up independently at the same time, and Pixar "got there first.")

Visually, it's an impressive film. There's a clear style to all the characters, and at the same time a great realism to all the scenery -- and to all the food raining from the sky. It's a cool blend that keeps the movie fun and engaging. The voice acting is solid, featuring work from (among others) Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Bruce Campbell, Mr. T, Benjamin Bratt, and Neil Patrick Harris.

But to come back to that Pixar comparison (and to make a rather lame food joke), this movie isn't quite the full meal that most Pixar movies are. On the humor level, it's top notch. But the quieter, more emotional scenes don't always land as solidly. They occasionally feel a bit staged and overly manipulative. Or maybe that's because a fair amount of the more serious content in the film is delivered by Mr. T. It's not exactly his wheelhouse.

In any case, it's still a movie not to be skipped if you want to laugh and have a good time. I give Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs a B+. I think it's one of the five best movies of the year so far.