"Hotel Transylvania: Transformania" Review- May The Franchise Rest In Peace
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania puts the nail in the franchise’s coffin and not a single tear was shed. It’s another film that can bring the family together, but it’s not very inspired. The stakes are logical, it builds on prior films, but there’s no special magic here.
The one thing that Drac (Brian Hull) has always held against Jonathan (Andy Samberg) whether seriously or in jest, is the fact that he isn’t a monster. So it would make sense that when Drac is ready to give his famous hotel to Mavis (Selena Gomez), realizing that Jonathan would help run it as well puts Drac on edge. In fact, he gets cold feet and states to Johnathan that he won’t be able to allow them to inherit the hotel due to a real estate clause that calls for the hotel to be monster owned.
What’s a loving, wanting to impress dad, slightly insecure son going to do to ensure the hotel is bequeathed to Mavis and himself? He talks to Van Helsing (Jim Gaffigan) about being turned into a monster. Of course, things don’t go as planned and we get to spend the remaining running time in a search for the cure for the monsters who have become humans and the human who has become a monster.
It’s hard not to like the good-hearted nature of the ensemble. The addition of voice actor Brian Hull, in replacement of Adam Sandler as Drac, is like a cat in the Matrix. You know something is a bit off if you really listen to Drac’s voice, but otherwise it’s a seamless handoff of the character. Overall, this is a slapstick comedy that earns its sympathy chuckles.
If you’re of a certain age, you remember that when movies would go straight to video it usually meant they weren’t very good. We’re living in an age when movies that go to streaming instead of theaters or a simultaneous release have the same meaning. This wasn’t a Toy Story 3 bow that felt like an end of a franchise and was done beautifully. Instead, this was squeezing the franchise for the last bit of blood it had left. May it rest in peace. You can watch this with the kids on Amazon Prime today!
Rating: C-
"Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping" Review
Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone are known for their comedy sketches and parody videos as a part of The Lonely Island. They came to prominence with their Saturday Night Live digital short “Lazy Sunday”. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is simply them coming together and fleshing out a feature length version of one of their videos. It’s a rock mockumentary for the popular culture of the 21st century, that’s actually funny.
Conner4real (Samberg) is a young singer/rapper at the top of his game. He started out in the hip hop group called The Style Boyz with his childhood friends, Owen (Taccone) and Lawrence (Schaffer). Stepping out from the group he catapulted himself to the top of the charts and hearts of his fans. After the huge success of his first album, we find Conner preparing for his latest, Connquest. To ensure the albums success, Conner wrote all of the songs and used 100 producers to create all of the beats.
With songs like “Equal Rights”, about marriage equality but stitched together with homophobic lines, and “Finest Girl” which makes references to killing Osama Bin Laden, Connquest tanks. The rest of the film is about Conner realizing he has a bunch of “yes men” around him and getting back to his roots.
While the set up is typical of a VH1 Behind the Music episode, that’s a part of what makes it wonderful. The film mocks pop culture, pop music, and hip hop in a way that’s right on the money by marrying the documentary style filmmaking with comedy. Popstar is written by Samberg, Schaffer, and Taccone and there is a palpable sense that they wanted to mock the culture while hitting dramatic beats and actually telling a story rather than stringing together numerous sketches.
As the film unfolds, numerous celebrity cameos of popular artists and comedians are woven into the film. Some are brief, and other’s continue to come back, but most of them add to the humor of the film because of the irony of making fun of the business they helped create or are still a part of. There are a few TMZ or CMZ as it’s called in the film, scenes that are hilarious! They nail Harvey Levin and crew’s office sessions.
This film is a little funnier than the trailer, and I cracked up watching the trailer. So if you don’t find the trailer funny, than you probably won’t find the film funny either. But there’s no escaping the fact that this is clever satire that encapsulates this social media/reality TV/need to be liked generation in an affectionate, genuine, comedic film.
Rating: B
