A Disney family movie isn't really my cup of tea. And Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day was exactly why.
But let's address the elephant in the room first. That title, that gimmick, did it work? Not with me. I didn't think it's cute or found it funny that I couldn't remember it. I just felt very slightly annoyed and dismissed it completely.
There was the setup where nothing really happened. We just got to know the family members and what their next day would be like. Took a little while to get there but it finally did.
And the pay-off wasn't that great. There weren't any memorable moments that were so funny that I could recall right at the top of my head.
The only thing I thought was clever, and this may not even be intentional, was when they first introduced Bumblebee at the beginning. I actually thought it was a Transformers action figure. And every time after that when they mentioned it again about how important it was, it got me thinking about how Bumblebee was important in the movie franchise as audiences loved him.
The story actually was interesting enough to keep me curious and hoping that something hilarious would happen. But it fell back to lazy cliches like how Jennifer Garner's day fell apart right at the final second when it could have been saved so easily. Also, Steve Carell's most important moment at the restaurant wasn't as disastrous as the movie made it out to be.
But the adaptation by Rob Lieber and the direction by Miguel Arteta failed make it seem more convincing as plot points. It felt too lazy just putting it there as the driver to the next plot point.
I did like Dylan Minnette and Bella Thorne's sub-plot. That was the only more interesting relationship I wanted to find out how it would end.
This really was a movie that families can go watch together. But it was just too... safe for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment