HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3- BLEH BLOOH BLAH

I have never been a big fan of the Transylvania Franchise and that’s mainly because of Adam Sandler. I don’t like him much and I find his goofy accents excruciatingly annoying and every time Dracula opens his mouth to speak, I want to punch that pasty face, all because of Adam Sandler.

Dracula and his family and friends are otherwise quite lovable and funny (to some extent) but then Sandler just goes and ruins it all with that atrocious twang.

I watched the first two instalments on TV but decided to watch this in the theatre for Skip. (For those who are confused as to who Skip is or haven’t read our earlier posts – Skip is my grandmother’s son-in-law’s grandchild). I had seen the trailers on the large screen and this instalment looked interesting. Also Skip likes the trailer soundtrack “Cake by the Ocean”.

PLOT: Dracula (Adam Sandler!) and his daughter, Mavis (Selena Gomez) are overworked and in desperate need of a vacation. Also, Dracula is lonely and needs to find someone to date (preferably someone without too many eyes or tentacles). Mavis surprises her father by booking a vacation on a cruise ship for their family and friends. The captain of the ship is Ericka (Kathryn Hahn), a human who has this special vacation planned just for monsters.

Dracula is smitten with Ericka and also literally tongue tied (aaargh, more of the goofy accent). But Ericka has a secret and all is not as it appears.

NOT A SPOLIER (this is revealed in the trailers too) – Erika is the great grand daughter of Abraham Van Helsing (Jim Gaffidan), who comes from a family of monster hunters and has been on a quest to kill Dracula since a long, long time. Having failed to do so on numerous attempts, his great grand-daughter Erika has now taken it upon herself to vanquish all monsters especially Dracula, by taking them to the lost city of Atlantis where lies hidden a weapon that can finally kill all the monsters.

Meanwhile, Mavis is not too pleased with the idea of her father dating somebody and she has her own suspicions about Ericka.

Will Mavis succeed in revealing the truth behind Ericka’s flamboyant monster vacation? Will Ericka and her grandfather succeed in destroying all monsters? Or will Dracula find true love at last?

Sadly, like its predecessors, this instalment too fails to tug at one’s heartstrings.

The problem (of course, besides Adam Sandler!) is the unremarkable scriptwriting and weak storyline.  To cut a long story short, the movie is just plain silly. Skip laughed out loud at some scenes that involved monsters jiggling their bodies and passing wind. I must admit I may have laughed out loud too but it is for the sheer silliness of certain scenes especially the final scene that involves a battle of the DJs- Dracula’s son in law and Grandfather Van Helsing.

The other characters in the film (the werewolves, green Blobby, Mummy, Invisible Man, Frankenstein’s monster) are all cute but that’s all they are.  There’s no novelty in their presence. The only new “monster” introduced was ‘Tinkles’, the family pet.

Sequels very rarely match up to their predecessors but in this case, it’s not like they had a tough task at hand.

Skip wasn’t particularly pleased about the fact that they didn’t play “Cake by the Ocean” in the movie. I liked the songs played in the film, even the corny ones played at the end J

For those who missed watching this movie last weekend, worry not if it’s still not running the next weekend...

INCREDIBLES 2

I love superhero movies and I have watched quite a few lately -new releases and the one’s I’ve been catching up on television. When PV announced last week that Incredibles 2 would release this week, I quickly saved it as a reminder on my phone. Skip and I LOVED Incredibles 1.

After gulping down a doughnut each, Skip and I ran towards the theatre and plonked down on the seats to watch this eagerly awaited film.

PLOT: The film begins with the Incredible family and Frozone trying to capture the Underminer. Underminer escapes and the Superheroes’ attempts at trying to save the City from the Underminer ends up in them wrecking the place. As a result of which they are arrested by the police and the Project for the Superheroes that was initiated in the first film is scrapped and Supers continue to be declared illegal.

The Incredibles get called by Winston Deavor who runs Devtech with his tech genius sister, Evelyn. They have come up with a plan to legalise the Supers and they recruit Mamma Incredible to help them bring their plan to fruition. (Much to Pappa Incredible’s annoyance).

The movie runs parallel, covering the lives of Mamma Incredible who is on a mission to portray to the world, the real and heroic efforts put in by Superheroes in saving the lives of people. She is constantly challenged by Screenslaver, a mysterious villain who controls the minds of people by hypnotising them. While Mamma is basking in the glory of her reclaimed fame, Pappa Incredible is going ballistic at home trying to control a moody teenager, a high-powered pre-teen and a cookie loving baby that is just discovering its superpowers.

Who is the mysterious Screenslaver? Will Mamma Incredible bring him to justice? Will the Supers be legalised?

Sequels very rarely match up to their predecessors and this one didn’t either, the reason being that the sequel loses out on the grounds of absence of novelty and  inadvertent comparison running through the minds of the viewers.  

I ought to make it clear that I did enjoy this movie and would definitely recommend watching it but please do not go with high expectations.

The first one was funnier and with more action and adventure. Baby Incredible did manage to evoke some laughter out of the audience and one was looking forward to seeing his super powers being used against the villains. I was disappointed that it was grossly under-used during the climax.

While Pappa is left to tend to the children, Mamma is out there “kicking ass”. She gets to wear the superhero costume, ride an electric bike, stop a speeding train and fight the super villain and party at night. While he’s at home trying to figure out complex math problems and get a baby to stay asleep. While this may make one remark that the “hero” of the film is clearly Mamma Incredible, I beg to differ. Pappa Incredible is also the hero in his own rights and you’d agree if you’ve been in his shoes!

This was the kind of movie where you step out of the theatre with nothing to discuss about. (No bricks or bouquets to toss).