Skip to main content

The Secret Life of Pets (2016)

Source
The Secret Life of Pets is a made for kids animated comedy directed by Chris Renaud and Yarrow Cheney, and written by Brian Lynch, Cinco Paul, and Ken Daurio.  The film tells the story of what our pets are getting up to when left alone at home by their parent owners.  Hmmm…
Source
Max (voiced by Louis C.K.) is adored by his owner and loves her right back.  Hmmm…
Source
Unfortunately for Max, his owner adopts a newer, bigger, cuddlier dog called Duke (Eric Stonestreet) who threatens to steal the limelight entirely.  Hmmm…
Source
The two end up lost, fending for themselves in a scary city.  Hmmm…
Source
Eventually they come cross what appears to be an evil gang of animals, hidden away from the rest of the world.  Hmmm…
Source
Eventually they see past their earlier grievances and form a team, becoming good friends in the process.  Hmmmmmm…
Source
The Secret Life of Pets is an unoriginal 90 minutes of cute animals relentlessly moving from one slapstick scenario to the next without any real care put in to the bits in between.  I couldn’t name one character walking out of the cinema, and that’s because you’re really not bothered about them or the plot.  The character decision making and story are really incoherent, and it's all just a vehicle for a cat to fall off a table and a dog to run in to a wall.  The voice acting’s good (Mel Brooks a personal highlight) and I did laugh at bits, but although it will keep the kids entertained for the duration it’s pretty unmemorable and unremarkable.  When you have films such as Zootropolis (2016) showing that kid’s films can be challenging as well as extremely entertaining, why lower your standards?

I would advise you watch the trailer for The Secret Life of Pets (as that is essentially the film's opening 10 minutes anyway, and its best bit by a mile), and then go and pre-order Zootropolis.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Sara Simone8 May 2017 at 13:43

    This type of pets movie is what kids love. Thats what made toy story such a great success.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kong: Skull Island (2017)

Source Although it only feels like Peter Jackson's King Kong was released a couple of years ago, it is now actually 12 years old. I'm going to blame ITV4 for confusing my timeline seeing as they have the remake on every single weekend, but it still feels very soon to be having another interpretation of the 1933 classic in cinemas. I remember watching the original during a school half term and being really surprised at how much I enjoyed it and it's now dated effects. There's a charm to the stop-motion special effects used so well in King Kong, and I think I've loved that style since the terrifying skeleton army in Jason and the Argonauts (1963). Jackson obviously took the special effects to another level in his 2005 remake, but I was pleased with how the heart of the story, and the tragedy of it remained. Kong is more than just a mindless monster that smashes and crashes in to things and Jackson captured that essence really well, even if the run time could have ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Star Trek (2009) / Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

Source Ahead of watching the new Star Trek film, Charlotte and I decided to go back and revisit JJ Abrams’ Star Wars audition and its sequel. The first I knew quite well, but I had only seen the second the once at the cinema, and it became one of many DVDs I have sat on my shelf still in its cellophane.  I’ve never been a Star Trek fan by any stretch. I’ve probably seen a little of the original series, and then the odd episode of Star Trek Next Generation TV series as a kid while waiting for The Simpsons, Robot Wars or Malcolm in the Middle to come on. I was always a big Star Wars fan and seemed to think you could only be in one camp or the other for some reason. As far as I’m aware Trekkie reception to the 2009 and 2013 reboots were largely positive bar the pretty one dimensional villain in the first, and the whitewashed return of a popular villain from the Star Trek canon in the sequel. This film seemed to cater for all though. If you wanted comedy, you got it in abundan...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hacksaw Ridge (2017)

Source We're in the thick of Oscar buzz as the 2017 nominations were announced today.   Suicide Squad (2016) is now an Oscar nominated film (kill me), and a win for Lin-Manuel Miranda's 'How Far I'll Go?' in the brilliant Moana (2016) would make him the youngest ever EGOT winner (what am I doing with my life?).  Last night we caught a showing of a film that appears to be flying under the radar a bit.  I'm not sure if that's anything to do with it's director, Mel Gibson, and his previous misdemeanors, or just show how strong a year this year's line up really is (as a quick aside, I'm really pleased to see 2016's excellent Hell or High Water make the noms).  With the bar set as high as it is this year round in the Best Motion Picture category in particular, it's going to take a lot to surprise and shock.  Gibson's war epic, Hacksaw Ridge did both. Source Just as with Lion (2017) which we caught the night before , Hacksaw Ridg...
6 comments
Read more