Madagascar (PG)
Mike:
Scott:
Scott: Today we are reviewing Madagascar
, the latest animated flick from DreamWorks. This tale is about four zoo friends who escape the NYC zoo and travel to the wild lush forests of Madagascar.
Mike, what did you think?
Mike: I laughed and I think it's a great family movie.
Scott: The kids will love this one.
Mike: The kids tonight certainly did, especially the butt jokes. Kids sure like the "potty" humor.
Scott: Yes, lots of butt jokes, but I think that is a requirement of kids' movies. There was scenes-o-plenty with childish pranks to make the kids scream in delight. There were a few jokes for the grownups too.
Mike: I was amazed at how many adult movie references there were. They will go right over the kids' heads, but not in an offensive way.
Scott: What was that phrase Marty the Zebra, played by Chris Rock said when he was being chased?
Mike: Uhhhh... It was Sugar Honey Iced Tea.
Scott: If you piece the letters together, that might mean something else... hmmmm?
Mike: I think that might be code. Lets look at those initials... There also was the HELP sign that turned to something else.
Scott: There were several references to other movies, can you name them?
Mike: Planet of the Apes, American Beauty, Castaway, Saturday Night Fever, and an obscure Twilight Zone reference.
Scott: The Twilight Zone reference was also used in a Simpsons episode, I saw that, but never caught the Twilight Zone episode.
Mike: Musically there were a couple of songs for old people like me.
Scott: The movie had a good soundtrack; lots of older songs for people old like Mike.
Mike: "Born Free" and "The Candyman", as well as "Staying Alive".
Scott: I am too young to have recognized most of them.
Mike: I'm sure you are. Baby.
Scott: I liked the movie, but I don't think it will be as big a draw as their other animated movies. It just wasn't that funny.
Mike: It definitely had its moments.
Scott: Yes, but the humor was spread thin.
Mike: As far as DreamWorks pictures, I think it was more Shark Tale than Shrek.
Scott:I never saw Shark Tale, but it certainly wasn't Shrek, it didn't flow as well.
Scott: The person/character that stole this movie was Julian, the King of the Lemurs, played by Sacha Baron Cohen aka Ali G.
Mike: Who knew Lemurs could be so funny? I didn't know who that guy was, but he was hilarious.
Scott: Every time you saw him, you laughed, we just didn't see him enough.
Mike: I actually thought that David Schwimmer as the hypochondriac Giraffe was funnier than Chris Rock, as Alex the Lion, and Ben Stiller, as Marty the Zebra. I did not expect that.
Scott: I liked Schwimmer, he was a good giraffe. I thought he whined too much on Friends, but in this his complaining was funny.
Mike: "I got nature all over me!"
Scott:This movie had a lot of comedy going on in the background of scenes, which was different from other animated movies. Did you notice that?
Mike: Yes, especially the Zebra. I still love "All hail the New York Giants!", even if it was all over the commercials.
Scott: Sometimes they take the funny scenes and put them in the commercials and ruin the movie. They did that with several scenes in this movie.
Mike: I also want to add that the animation was excellent.
Scott: It was very good, very clean. The best part was the background, it seemed to move and flow like a real life set would.
Mike: As we said before, I think the kids will be all over it. My nephews Jason and Eric have been waiting for this movie for months.
Scott: Oh wait, we didn't talk about the penguins!
Mike: You are right! They are a scream.
Scott: They were hilarious, I don't know where they got the idea for militant penguins, but it worked. They reminded me of the Dodo birds in Ice Age. So, what is your rating?
Mike: Overall, I give it a 3, but I give it a 4 as a family movie, a definite DVD rental.
Scott: I'd say 2.5 overall, a little worse than the average movie for me. I would wait for DVD simply because the kids can watch it 100 times in a row.
Mike: Kids will want to own it.
Scott: Yeah, but it's not worth taking the kids to the movie.
Mike: You only say that because you don't have any.
Scott: You are correct sir!
Mike: Most kids are not going to be able to wait.
Scott: The young ones can, they can't drive anyway.
Mike: Dude, you are harsh!
