I can’t explain it…this movie was not among my top movies priorities (hell it didn’t even make the top 20), and yet it was thoroughly enjoyable. The comedy, the animation, the story…it was all spot on. They basically take the concept of the “scary house up on the hill” and take it a step further by making the house not just the residence of some scary old man, but a possessed house that will eat you if you disturb it. With a wonderfully talented cast of voice actors, the movie is a lot of fun and very enjoyable. About the only disparaging remark I can come up with against it is that the camera (it’s CGI so can I still call it that?) was way too jerky in the opening sequence/first half an hour (bouncing up and down and around so much I nearly got seasick)…I mean I was in the front row of the theatre leaning back in my chair almost horizontally and that didn’t ruin the film. Featuring the voice talents of Steve Buscemi, Maggie Gyllenhall, Jason Lee (YAY!), Kevin James, Catherine O’Hara, Fred Willard and Jon Heder, this movie is a must see family film.

This movie was a lot of fun…more fun than the reviewers are giving it credit for. Heck I was 20 minutes late and I loved it. But then again, with a great concept in “good hands” you can be as late as you like and still have a good time. Maybe it’s just the fact that I love comic books that makes this movie enjoyable…no that can’t be it. The basic movie structure? It’s like a PG-13 Wedding Crashers…one of those comedic romance flicks that tell a great story. I mean the concept alone is priceless: what happens when a superhero wants to fall in love? As a comic book fan I’m glad that they’re mainstreaming this issue…although Spiderman might have done the same thing (it is remarkably mainstream for a superhero film). What issue you ask? The issue of superheroes falling in love while maintaining a secret identity. How quickly do you initiate someone to the fact that you’re a superhero? How do you know you won’t break up with them bitterly and they will use your secret against you? I guess I just love the Spiderman 2 premise with a purely comedy shell. This movie is a must see! Oh wait, it’s falling out of theatre faster than a meteor…never mind.

This was a very intriguing film to watch. I love Phillip K. Dick stories and I fell in love with the cell-shaded actor’s not from seeing director Richard Linklater’s previous exploit, but from the trailer. The reason it was so intriguing was because I was kind of tired and didn’t really know what to expect and I kept getting vague about which characters were who and to top it all off it’s a movie about drug addiction, so that doesn’t help at all. Now I’m choosing not to comment on the plot/story until I read Dick’s original story because this was very obviously a story that was close to his heart because the very end of the movie (aside from not resolving the main storyline in my opinion) is either the author’s foreword or epilogue where Dick lists his close friends who are now paralyzed or dead because of drug addiction. The movie has some funny (in my opinion) moments, but the overall movie is more dramatic and very well done.

The movie takes place in Anaheim 7 years from now, which was kind of trippy for me…not because it was weird to see places I recognized (the painted tiles on the 5 freeway through Santa Ana and the Santa Ana water tower), but because I was seeing them through a cell-shaded lens which just made the recognition all the more poignant…I can’t explain it, can someone else?

Another thing I felt in this movie (this only applies to me personally and happened in a very minor moment), which I felt in Clerks 2 as well is how not grown up I am. Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves), (Robert Downey Jr.) and Ernie Lugman (Woody Harrelson) have their car break down on the freeway and they pop open the hood and are able to figure out what was wrong. How the hell do you learn that?

The movie is listed as being 1 hour and 40 minutes, but my 3:50 pm start time got out at 4:35 pm…that’s only an hour and 35 minutes if you throw in at least 10 minutes for trailers and commercials. Another confusing aspect of this movie.