Wreck-It Ralph (2012)

4/5

Disney's Wreck-It Ralph was a surprisingly entertaining movie. The story follows Wreck-It Ralph (Reilly), the bad guy in a video game named after its hero, Fix-It Felix (McBrayer). Disgruntled and tired of being the villain, going home to a bed of bricks, he goes on a quest to win a medal in the hopes of being liked. He accidentally finds himself in a candy-coated racing game called Sugar Rush, where he meets a "glitch" named Vanellope (Silverman), who wants nothing more than to race in the big leagues. But she needs his medal to enter the race.

Now that we have all that plot out of the way, let's get to the good stuff. The movie is charming and sweet, but not too saccharine that it hurts. Although the movie is predictable in many ways, it still manages to surprise and delight along the way, thanks to its bevy of side characters and inventive plotting. And all the video game references are just icing on the cake, filling the movie with multiple aha! moments that leave you with a smile on your face. I honestly have nothing really bad to say about this movie. It's a fun way to spend an afternoon reminiscing about all those afternoons you spent playing video games as a kid. Highly recommended.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1772341/

Little Giants (1994)

3/5

Little Giants is one of those 90's movies that just don't get made anymore. It has a silly story, cheesy moments, and all the charm you can stuff in 100 minutes. Brothers Danny (Moranis) and Kevin (O'Neill) O'Shea are as different as you can get. Kevin escaped his small town home and became a football super-star while Danny remained at home and raised a family. When Kevin comes back to create a championship peewee football team, Danny feels bad for all the kids who weren't picked, including his own daughter Icebox (Waldron). Danny decides to create his own team and manages to wrangle all the misfits in town, and it suddenly turns into classic David vs. Goliath tale.

The movie is neither clever nor subtle, but it works precisely because it hams it up. Like all those cult classics you avoid unless you're part of the cult, you watch this movie with nostalgia for your youth and innocence. It reminds you of the times when you thought snot was funny and misheard words or misunderstood phrases were strokes of genius. The script is full of those awesome laugh-out-loud moments. The acting is passable but not believable. The characters are more exaggerated than circus drawings. The plot is more predictable than a Disney film. But it doesn't matter. It's senseless fun that you can appreciate it for what it is: a silly romp that never apologizes for being guilty fun.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110364/