Movie Review: Coyote vs. Acme

A live action/animation hybrid that will be compared to “Who Framed Rodger Rabbit,” and although it doesn’t reach the lofty heights of that classic film, it is still a fun and occasionally heartwarming movie in its own right. Overall, the film does a solid job of combining the slapstick comedy of Looney Tunes and the live-action courtroom setting. The plot is seemingly basic, but it has enough twists to propel the narrative forward, while also finding plenty of moments for cartoon hijinks that don’t feel out of place. Will Forte and Lana Condor do a good job in their performances and are able to pull off the over-the-top nature of the premise and also the grounded moments. John Cena also works well in the villain role, even though he’s ultimately not given a lot to do. The film’s weakest link it Wile E. himself. As a character that doesn’t speak and has always been purely defined by his never-ending quest to catch the Roadrunner, it’s tough for him to rise above that gimmick or to truly create any chemistry with the human characters. However, by the end they are able to just about hit the mark where he forms an emotional connection with the audience. As for the film’s humor, for the most part the jokes land. It’s the same type of stuff we’ve seen with these characters for decades, but they still make a lot of it feel fresh.

*** out of *****

Movie Review: The End of Oak Street

Check out the SPOILER review on YouTube

A fairly entertaining film that is essentially “Jurassic Park” in the suburbs in the 80’s, but with a sci-fi twist. Everything from the score to the suburban setting to some of the directing choices is very much in line with Spielberg films from the 1980’s like “E.T.” However, this film has some unique directing choices by writer/director David Robert Mitchell, with his favorite technique having an extreme closeup of a character in the foreground while keeping the background character in focus as well. While this works most of the time, other times it just feels like a gimmick. The pacing is solid for the most part, but going into the final act it stumbles a bit. The story itself initially feels original, but later portions struggle to avoid feeling like another “Jurassic” film. The film also pushes the PG-13 boundary as far as it can, which helps sell the danger of streets filled with hungry dinosaurs. Surprisingly, the movie takes a bit of a dark twist in the third act that shifts the tone and makes things feel more unpredictable. (This point in the film helps add some depth to some of the characters that felt somewhat one-dimensional up to this point.) While the effects look solid, it’s clear that all the dinosaurs are CG. And even though CG dinosaur scales were pretty much mastered back in the 90’s, the more accurate feathered dinosaurs featured here still need some extra work to look more realistic.

**1/2 out of *****