This week in movies wraps up with two summer blockbusters, considering we are still knee-deep into the seasonal celebrations, which explains what we’ll be talking about today. First, Dracula, or Drac takes a cruise ship vacation, hoping to find true love. Then, The Rock decides to beat up a building this time with a prosthetic leg in Skyscraper. Let’s see how these movies fair!
(Directed By Genndy Tartakovsky)
After noticing how stressed out Count Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler) is by working too hard, his daughter Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez), surprises him on a cruise vacation, hoping to relax Drac with monster family fun. As it also turns out, our lord of darkness is seeking a new love interest, considering he hasn’t had one in years after his old wife passed.
His luck might have been in his favor when Captain Ericka (voiced by Kathryn Hahn) enters the scene to flirt with him, but little does he know that Erika is the great-granddaughter of his arch nemesis Vlad Van Helsing (voiced by Mel Brooks) and plans to avenge her family’s failures by cooking up the ultimate secret weapon that will destroy mankind.
Can Mavis snap Drac out of it before it’s too late and could Captain Ericka have a change of heart over her plan after spending time with Drac…you know where this is going to go.
I adored the first Hotel Transylvania, but it just seems that by each sequel, the series devolves from a funny and heart-felt monster tale to what is every Adam Sandler movie, with animation that’s way too good to be tied with such a lazy script (this sounds like Eight Crazy Nights now).
No longer do I see that loving father who wants the best for his daughter, only Adam Sandler as a cartoon character. Our main plot, from cruise trip to complicated dating, is ripped from every Adam Sandler movie, including the last one I saw, The Week Of. Only thing is, they pull a Despicable Me 3 to give everyone their own subplot and then toss them aside so we can continue on with an unrelated story.
At the last act, I seriously forgot what this movie was about until we got to the final showdown, which was a random DJ battle featuring 80s music, dub-step and the Macarena. That musical/dance number at the end of the first two films is multiplied by five throughout this one, so the last had to be the granddaddy of all dance numbers…for some reason.
That’s another thing, whatever was a hilarious joke in the first movie or at all funny in the second, gets repeated a few more times here, such as the embarrassing grandfather Dracula, who is in the movie to only be that. All of the other characters from the previous entries are either here for some quick gags or to have a subplot that will get pushed aside for another plot point, maybe coming back later for a conclusion.
It’s a blatant cash cow, favoring animation over writing, relying the gags on visuals or silly voices. I’ll admit, I’m a huge fan of Genndy Tartakovsky’s work in animation, creating a style you don’t see from anyone else, but admiring the animation can only go so far when you’re smacked in the face with humor way to young for your age demographic, along with sex jokes that do not seem appropriate for the time our society is in.
Hotel Transylvania 3 is clearly aimed at the youngsters for its telegraphed slapstick jokes, plenty of dance sequences and fast animation. At the start, I was willing to forgive and say that you should definitely take your kid and look at the cool presentation, but it came to a point where I took back any optimism and would instead insist that you rent this for your kid at home, or you know, show them the first then maybe a better family friendly monster film like Monsters Inc.
This wasn’t the worst animated film by Sony Pictures, but my gosh was it trying to get there. Please “Avoid” this one on the big-screen.
Skyscraper (Directed By Rawson Marshall Thurber)
Will Sawyer (played by Dwayne Johnson) just got his next big gig in Hong Kong after retiring from being a FBI hostage rescue team leader who got caught in an explosion and lost his right leg. This new job involves him being a security assistant for the world’s new tallest building, run by Zhao Long Ji (played by Chin Han). While the building is like Will says “a vertical city”, the company didn’t think the tower would later be overrun by terrorists, out for Zhao’s fortune.
When threats invade, progressively setting floors on fire with Will’s family trapped at the top, Will has to scale across the tall building in order to save his family and take out those terrorists. Folks who scoffed at the ridiculousness of the trailer, especially the shot you see above, are probably expecting this to be a bad film and it’s not.
I’ll enjoy a dumb B-movie if the film goes all out and has fun, getting creative while throwing Hollywood junk food on-screen. What I did not expect was real character chemistry at the start between Will and his wife Sarah (played by Neve Campbell). They feel like an actual loving couple, in which both are intelligent, hard-working individuals who are looking out for each other.
Sarah is no damsel in distress as they have a moment where she’s kicking terrorist butt, and is able to be more than a tough lady. I am let down by the kids, who don’t have nearly as much to do, but would at least be a small issue, had the movie not lay itself out like Die Hard right when Will enters the 220th floor.
At that point, I knew exactly how the movie was going to play out, right down to the fights and some of the lines. This is a clear Die Hard knock-off by the time we get to that job interview, lacking the strong writing that was presented at the very beginning.
Watching this, I had only two requests, allow the film to have fun with the absurdity we get later or stick with the heart-felt narrative. The problem is, this movie cannot make up its mind with cohesive intent, being serious while also being dumb, which only cancels each other out. Logic and physics are thrown out the window to ensure our hero can get through anything, which hurts the momentum during what should be tense action.
I’ll say one thing, the action does work when Will is struggling to climb and the camera lets you know how far the drop can be, feeding on fear of heights. Though I know the movie before it ends, it’s nice to see a film starring a muscular actor and seeing him not totally destroying his enemies for once. Will gets beaten down at the beginning and bleeds from time to time.
Skyscraper was entertaining as a popcorn flick that is shockingly “Decent” with a strong opening, Dwayne’s performance and playing with fears of height. Sadly, the extremely predictable structure, conflicting tones and forgettable characters outside of Mrs. & Mr. Sawyer, leave this to be a film you see once. not having he urge to go back for seconds.
If nothing else, enjoyment did exist, and I’m glad I saw it.
Pond's Press 