 Title: The Boss Baby Director: Tom McGrath Starring: Alec Baldwin Studio: DreamWorks Animation Genre(s): Comedy Rated: PG (For some mild rude humor) |
iCritic |
To:
|
Readers
|
Kevin T. Rodriguez
|
|
3/31/2017
|
|
“The Boss Baby” Review
|
|
Memo to readers of the site,
I have come back from seeing the animated family movie “The
Boss Baby” from DreamWorks Animation.
Much as it is important for a businessman to write a good memo, it is
important for a critic to write a good review.
A funny quote from the movie involves the main character saying “cookies
are for closers” with a straight face.
After this review is finished I hope to celebrate another successful
critique by eating some cookies myself as well as indulging in the mixing of
chocolate with milk. For if my review is
written we enough I will have convinced you that “The Boss Baby” is a
very…alright, to be honest, I’m not sure what this is. Is it a good movie? Not really.
Is it bad? Um…I’m not willing to
go that far either. For what I observed
was a movie that was colorful and fun, with a unique premise that may not have
been as ambitious in its execution as it was in its concept. That seems to be a reoccurring issue with
DreamWorks Animation in general, and hopefully they can finally work on these
performance problems now that they have new owners.
The idea to make Alec Baldwin the voice of a businessman in
diapers is a good one and is likely the main catalyst to the movie turning out
the way it does. For the directors milk
the most out of Baldwin’s smug, arrogant charm.
For the title character is indeed very charming, mostly funny, and has a
lot of personality. It is one of those
rare casting choices that hits the audience perfectly, much in the same way
Eddie Murphy struck gold with Donkey and Jack Black did with Po. It is strange, then, that most of the jokes
involving him revolve around his bare baby bottom than his rhetoric. The storyline itself revolves around the Boss
Baby needing to put a stop to a new breed of puppy that will never age. If the puppies actually make it to market, it
will decrease the demand of babies, which has been in sharp decline for many
years as is (heck, even my mom got a yorkie years after not liking dogs in
general, so this seems like a valid fear).
The person who might put a stop to him is his older brother
Tim, who finds the presence of this new baby to be a problem (as well as
suspicious since he was delivered by a taxi and not a doctor). He is more than willing to help him achieve
this goal if it will get him the promotion he desires and out of the
house. In fact, the movie is never able
to really confirm if any of this is actually happening the way we are being
told. Tim has a very active imagination
which results in several dream sequences that are colorful and visually
riveting. It even looks like some hand
drawn animation was employed to make these sequences, which is a nice change of
pace from the constant CGI this company bombards us with, and I’m hoping the
sporadic uses of the technique will eventually result in a return to the art
form that has long been forgotten. The
question must be addressed though: does any of this make “The Boss Baby” a
movie that is worth seeing when “Beauty & the Beast” is still playing
theaters?
Because contrary to my two star review, I did not hate that
movie, and certainly see some enjoyment to be had. But that movie can be rented at home in a
much better version and for a fraction of the cost. “The Boss Baby” is original if nothing
else. It has lots of nice colors and
(unlike “Storks” from last year) knows to slow the action down from time to
time. Yet the movie never achieves
brilliance. It comes on the screen with
an aggressive premise and then wastes lots of time with visual jokes involving
bare baby bottoms. From a business
perspective, this seems like a B-movie you spend about $30 million on, yet
DreamWorks have sunk almost $200 million into it. That is a business decision the Boss Baby
himself might be insulted by. Given the
choice between the two, “The Boss Baby” is going to offer you something new to
see at least, but “Beauty & the Beast” is probably more enjoyable despite
the fact it’s essentially an expensive rerun.
Now, with that said, I successfully close another review. I now must go for there are Oreo’s waiting.
|
|
| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents, the offensive parts of the movie all involve bare baby bottoms. Some people may be offended by such images, but I think most are at the point where this is a non-issue. Recommended for ages 6 and up.
|