00s Movie Review - The Emperor's New Groove

Director: Mark Dindal
Genre: Comedy/ Animation/ Fantasy/ Family/ Adventure
Runtime: 75 minutes
Year: 2000
Starring: David Spade, John Goodman, Eartha Kitt, Patrick Warburton, Wendie Malick, Tom Jones

Description: Emperor Kuzco (David Spade) is turned into a llama by his ex-administrator Yzma (Eartha Kitt), and must now regain his throne with the help of Pacha (John Goodman), the gentle llama herder.

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2022 MOVIE CHALLENGE.
WEEK 8: A MOVIE WITH A NONHUMAN MAIN CHARACTER
 
Review: The young emperor Kuzco is an arrogant and self-absorbed emperor. He always feels elevated above everyone, is unkind to everyone and always pushes his way through. Kuzco is aided by his counselor Yzma, an ugly power-hungry, cunning woman. One day Kuzco fires Yzma, upon which she seeks revenge. Together with her not-so-bright henchman Krink, she plans to poison Kuzco. Through a mistake, Kusco does not die, but turns into a llama. The one one who can help his is the farmer Pacha. During their adventure to stay out of the hands of Yzma and Kronk and turn Kuzco back into a huma, Kuzco slowly realizes he can get more done if he’s kinder to Pacha and if he cooperates with him.
“The Emperor’s New Groove” was Disney’s 39^th film in its ‘classic’ series. And once again they managed to create something completely different and ow. “The Emperor’s New Groove” is primarily a comic animation. The story itself is quite simple and the theme of courage, humor and friendship is not new. But the complete idiotic way the humor and the many puns are woven into the film are new.
“The Emperor’s New Groove” is very enjoyable because of the humor and absurd story. A very short film too and I believe a very popular film among true Disney fans.

Rating: 3,5/ 5

Movie Review - The Wrong Missy

Director: Tyler Spindel
Genre: Comedy
Runtime: 89 minutes
Year: 2020
Starring: David Spade, Lauren Lapkus, Nick Swardson, Rob Schneider, Molly Sims, Geoff Pierson, Jackie Sandler, Sarah Chalke, Jorge Garcia

Description: Tim (David Spade) thinks he’s invited the woman of his dreams on a work retreat to Hawaii, realizing too late he mistakenly texted someone from a nightmare blind date.

Review: Happy Madison Productions, Adam Sandler’s production company, pooped out a new film. And this is hardly a good sign (also since I used the word ‘pooped’). This new comedy with David Spade is no exception.
Tim Morris has a crazy blind date with Melissa, also known as Missy. She almost causes a fight, pulls out a knife on her first date and declares his love for him already. Because of this terrible date, Tim decides to stop dating for a while. But then he meets another Melissa at the airport, who appears to be his soulmate. Tim doesn’t think one second and asks her to a work retreat in Hawaii with him. But it all turns into a disaster when he invites the wrong Melissa and accidentally has to take Missy from the blind date from hell to Hawaii with him.
With a complete lack of humor, this so-called comedy unfolds on the island. The screenplay relies heavily on juvenile sex jokes and unnecessary slapstick. Missy is a terrible character, with no substance whatsoever and her drunk adventures get boring and old very quickly. And after a half hour or so, you start to get annoyed. It’s hard to find any redeeming qualities in her character and the sudden opinion switch Tim makes about her is just illogical. Because the other Melissa is clearly the better woman for him in this story. Sidekicks Rob Schneider and Nick Swardson try hard to be funny, but never are. Since writing humoristic dialogue seems to be a difficult task. The film is just one cringeworthy moment after another.
Did people actually have fun making this film? David Spade even seems uninterested and it looks like he really didn’t want to be in this movie. Everything lacks inspiration: the direction, the script, the actors, they simply miss a soul.
This film is terrible and make 89 minutes feel like forever.

Rating: 1 / 5

100 Movie Challenge 2016 - # 94: Hotel Transylvania 2

Director: Genndy Tartakovsky
Genre: Animation/ Comedy/ Fantasy/ Adventure
Runtime: 89 minutes
Year: 2015
Starring: Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Fran Drescher, Molly Shannon, Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, Dana Carvey, Rob Riggle, Mel Brooks, Chris Kattan, Jon Lovitz

Description: Dracula (Adam Sandler) and his friends try to bring out the monster in his half human, half vampire grandson in order to keep Mavis (Selene Gomez) from leaving the hotel.

Review: A couple of years ago Sony brought us “Hotel Transylvania”, not one of the best animations, but successful and very enjoyable. And because the young audience liked it, the inevitable happened: a sequel.
At the end of “Hotel Transylvania” hotel ownder Dracula realizes that he has to let his daughter go and let her live her own life. In this second film, it looks like he has taken a step back. Mavis marries Johnny and together they have a son. Dracula doesn’t want little Dennis to grow up in the ‘normal’ world, but as a monster.
The opening of the film is a bit rushed, a lot happens in the first half hour. The film is beautifully animated and has some really good jokes. And although “Hotel Transalvania 2” is entertaining, it brings us nothing really new or memorable.

Rating: 2,5/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2015 - # 126: Hotel Transylvania

Director: Genndy Tartakovsky

Genre: Animation/ Comedy/ Family

Runtime: 91 minutes

Year: 2012

Starring: Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Steve Buscemi, Kevin James, Andy Samberg, David Spade, Fran Drescher, Jon Lovitz, Molly Shannon, Cee-Lo Green, Rob Riggle, Chris Parnell

Description: Dracula (Adan Sandler), who operates a high-end resort away from the human world, goes into overprotective mode when a boy (Andy Samberg) discovers the resort and falls for the count's teen-aged daughter (Selena Gomez).

Review: Prejudices are everywhere: in our society kids are afraid of monster, but in the monster society kids are thought the be afraid of people. And not without reason, because the men armed with pitchforks and fire are a true threat to vampires, werewolves and zombies. But times change. Dracula, who is a lot nicer than you might think, build a giant castle behind a haunted forest and a creepy cemetery and turned it into Hotel Transylvania. Monsters can come over but it’s human-free.

Besides the owner of a hotel, Dracula is a single dad of Mavis, who just turned 118. This means not only a big party, but Mavis is a grown up now. And she is allowed to go outside and discover the world. Dracula pulled off some tricks so that Mavis will never go outside again. When this works, Dracula is glad that he succeeded in protecting Mavis. That is until they are visited by Jonathan, a human backpacker.

The animation by Sony doesn’t only look good, the humor is outstanding and well dosed and it’s enjoyable for the entire family. Some jokes are a bit easy, but the overall humor is great. The story might be predictable, but who cares. “Hotel Transylvania” is a very entertaining amination, perfect for some quality time with the family. Or just for fun off course.

Rating: 3,5/ 5