We Said: “Ultimately the film is made strictly for 3-5-year-olds and often the jokes don’t land. This was a film that’s coming out probably 3 years later than it should have. The plot is rather simple… [If you] check your brain at the door you just might have a good time.” Rating: 2.5 out of 5
The Good: Seeing as I am not a 7 year old, I knew going in that this movie was not made for me, and adjusted my expectations accordingly. I can happily report that I didn’t really need to do that. This movie was surprisingly okay. The animation was solid, the voice cast is great, and a few of the concepts were clever enough. It is ultimately a harmless movie. If you’re kid wants to watch this, you could do worse.
The Bad: Lazily, Angry Birds puts forward very little effort into its humor and often comes across as just flat out annoying instead of funny. I guess kids like that kind of thing, but as the adult man I am, I sided with the eternally angry protagonist in loathing each obnoxious side character. A lot of the puns are also just dreadful, and the script clearly thinks they’re all clever, which just makes it all so much worse. And while I could just excuse it as dumb kids-movie writing, that’s hard to do when there’s a ton of overtly adult jokes and references throughout the script. Ultimately, I don’t know what audience this movie was made for, but I’m pretty sure I’m not a part of it.
Overall: It’s better than it could have been, but still falls short of being something actually entertaining for both adults and children. It could be worse, and if you’ve got a kid around 6 to 12 they might have some fun with this even if you don’t.
Special Features: 4 short films, Deleted Scenes, Music Videos, “Making the Music”, and More!
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In what many have already called the best documentary of the year, Raiders! recounts the stranger-than-fiction story of three friends who spent every summer from 1982 to 1989 filming a shot-for-shot remake of Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Focusing less on the film they made and more on how their relationships with each other changed while making it, this documentary centers around a 2015 effort to reunite the three former filmmakers, and help them finally complete their epic fan project.
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In this sequel/spin-off of 2014’s shockingly successful religious film, Melissa Joan Hart stars as a high school teacher who is the center of a prolonged and controversial court case after she brings up her religious faith in class.
Special Features: Deleted Scenes, “Man, Myth, Messiah”, “Between Heaven and Hollywood”, “Visual Effects of God's Not Dead 2”, Trailers
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Also Available: Hell on Wheels: The Complete Fifth Season, The Vampire Diaries: The Complete Seventh Season, Gotham: The Complete Second Season, and Once Upon a Time: The Complete Fifth Season
