CINEMA: AMC Tyson's Corner 16, McLean, VA AUDITORIUM: 3 PRESENTATION: Digital IMAX (Liemax) 3D. PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Minimal. 3D was turned off for the 3D trailers. During the film, there was a black frame that flashed in the right view only three times throughout the entire film. RATING: 4.5 out of 10
The new Universal 100th anniversary logo is pretty nifty.
PLOT (consensus): Unless someone unlike me cares an awful lot, this bastardization won't get better, it's not.
My body was aching throughout the film. It has it's moments, other than its just a dreadful cutesy disaster. There was one musical number I really cared for in comparrison to the rest of the film. Other than that, it really is not as warm as the book and TV special, and Danny DeVito leaves a bad taste in my mouth being out of all things, The Lorax.
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-04-2012, 05:53 PM:
Sad, considering it's "From the creators of Despicable Me" (which was a really good movie). I wonder if Mrs. Dr. Seuss is still signing off on these increasingly-bad Seuss movies?
Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 03-04-2012, 06:19 PM:
Overall I found The Lorax to be very well done. I am not familiar with the book or the TV special, so I don't have a basis for comparison.
My only issue with the movie is the environmentalism themes are so heavy handed that it was a turn off for me. That's not to say I have anything against the message of the movie, just that the themes were too heavy handed for "entertainment".
Posted by Michael Riley (Member # 5693) on 03-05-2012, 01:03 AM:
This had it's moments, and it certainly looked good, but the film was lackluster. There wasn't much in the way of narrative here, and I agree that it was heavy on the obvious political rhetoric which came off as preachy and pretentious and was out of place in a film meant for children. Perhaps it's time for Hollywood to give up on the Dr. Seuss adaptations.
Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 03-06-2012, 12:17 AM:
CINEMA: Cameo Theatre, Newberg, OR AUDITORIUM: 1 PRESENTATION: 35mm/DTS (or whatever they're calling it now) PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Picture was a bit soft RATING: Two and one half stars (out of four)
Some Guy buys his ticket, walks into the lobby, sees the two doors to the auditorium, gets confused, and asks which auditorium the movie is playing in.
"We only have one auditorium."
Looks at doors again, still confused.
THE PLOT: A guy invents an organic Sham-Wow. Wackiness ensues.
I probably should have given this two stars, but I liked the animation and the ending.
And that's about it.
Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 03-09-2012, 12:08 AM:
Connor - that black flashing on the right hand of the screen also happened during 'Journey 2 the Mysterious Island' at Tysons - why is this occurring?
I was in Columbia today and I caught 'The Lorax' on Columbia Mall's IMAX-Digital screen - jeesh, what a pathetic small screen.
As for the movie, it wasn't great but it was entertaining. The one scene that I thought was hysterical was when the Once-ler's horse just rolled his eyes and put his head down at the onslaught of the song with the bears, fish and the Once-ler - it was a great little bit of animation where you could really read his expression from his facial moves: "oh brother" [face palm]
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-23-2012, 11:39 PM:
We watched the movie for a test screening last night. I must say, I liked it more than I thought I would although I also found the "message" a little much. The look of the movie was great. The songs were catchy without being annoying and there weren't too many songs, which is always a plus.
My favorite scenes were when the bad guy's stooge said "Our research shows that when we put things in plastic bottles, people will buy them." (Truer words were never spoken in a cartoon, I think) and the scene where the two bears were used as a defibrillator.
The other great thing about this movie is Ed Helms, who plays the Once-Ler. He is one of those few people who can get laughs just by his tone of voice -- he doesn't need funny "material" to be funny. (Which is good, because not a lot of the material in this movie is all that funny.)
One weird thing I've been noticing about animated movies of late is....they still haven't quite gotten fur right. Any furry animal comes off looking like a plush toy. They don't have the lifelike quality quite down yet....they're too busy trying to animate 10 bazillion individual hairs to worry about making it look organic. Or something, I can't quite put my finger on it.
I like how they're using the Minions from Despicable Me in the opening Illumination logo. Fox should pay attention here. THIS is how you subtly promote your upcoming movie...not by sticking the same tired trailer-that's-not-a-trailer everywhere.
I would say, 3 stars out of 5 for me. Easily the best Seuss movie since The Grinch.
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-27-2012, 10:14 PM:
This movie also has a whole lot of influence from "The Truman Show." It's the same story, except instead of an evil guy running a TV program while a guy is kept in a fake world, it's an evil guy cutting down trees while people are kept in a fake world.
Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 05-15-2012, 02:00 PM:
A new candidate for the worst movie ever made. TURD end to end.
Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 05-16-2012, 12:17 AM:
I'm with you, Bill.
And I'll add:
Over the top environmentalist anti-capitalist propaganda indoctrination.