Just Enjoy It...

Rating: 9/10 (4 February 2010)

Based on Judi Barrett's 1978 children's book of the same name, CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS hits the right spot for kids and adults alike. It is whimsical almost to the point of such old cartoons as The Road Runner and Popeye. Which I found to be a refreshing break from the more in-your-face animated features that try to stuff political/social commentary down our gullets (see WALL-E and HAPPY FEET as two that did this to an extreme degree). Now I'm not saying that we shouldn't try and educate little Johnny and Jane, but we should, sometimes, give their minds a break and allow them a moment of sheer entertainment. And CWaCoMB does that.
Take one part kid scientist-wannabe and add to the mix an intelligent weather forecaster and a father who wants his son to join the family business, and you get spaghetti tornadoes, cheeseburger hailstorms, and Jello castles. Yep. That's the type of whimsy I'm talking about.
Bill Hader (TROPIC THUNDER) stars as the voice for Flint Lockwood, the crazy kid scientist who's creations seem to go wrong more often than not. But his one creation, a machine that mutates water into food, is a resounding success. That is, until something goes terribly wrong. But before it does, Flint meets up with sexy newscaster Sam Sparks (Anna Faris, MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND), who caught a break and is on the scene in Flint's sardine stricken town when his new machine launches itself into the stratosphere and starts making it rain food. Sam is very excited by this astronomical development. But on Flint's other side is his father, Tim (James Caan), who only wants his son to stop these ridiculous experiments and get into the family bait and tackle business.
As Flint's machine begins raining down watermelons instead of water, the people of Flint's town become enamored with their new whiz kid and the world's interest in their little corner of the globe. This includes town Mayor Shelbourne (Bruce Campbell, SPIDERMAN 3) who's gluttonous nature (in both food and fame) lead not just their own town, but nearly the entire planet, into ruin. Flint's machine goes into overload mode when too much is asked of it and, in fact, it begins to resemble features we've seen in various science fiction films. Remember the egg layer in ALIENS? Make sure you look at the machine whenever Flint and his crew catch up to it toward the end of the film. And sentient food that plans to destroy its maker? Foodinator! (Ahem... I mean Terminator). And remember the first STAR TREK motion picture with V-GER? How the Enterprise had to go through layers of V-GER's outer "ship" in order to reach its core? Keep an eye out for those similarities, too.
So the film has a few extra bangs for fans that pay attention. But even if you don't, it'll still be very entertaining. And it won't be shoving poli-sci junk down your throat, which ought to at least please a few of us on news media overload.