Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Movie Review: "Ice Age: Continental Drift" (2012)

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Movie"Ice Age: Continental Drift"
Director: Steve Martino and Mike Thurmeier
Year: 2012
Rating: PG
Running Time: 1 hour, 28 minutes

When Pangaea starts to break apart, Manny (Ray Romano), Diego (Denis Leary), and Sid (John Leguizamo) are separated from Ellie (Queen Latifah), Peaches (Keke Palmer), Crash (Seann William Scott), and Eddie (Josh Peck). Now, left floating on an iceberg, Manny, Diego, and Sid must find a way to reunite with their family, but on their journey home, they run right into the pirate Captain Gutt (Peter Dinklage), who wants to take them prisoner and force them to join his crew. 

"Ice Age: Continental Drift" is the fourth film in Blue Sky Studio's "Ice Age" series. As per usual, the entire original cast returns in their ever so familiar roles. New to the cast this time around are Keke Palmer, who plays Peaches, the daughter of Ray Romano's Manny and Queen Latifah's Ellie; Josh Gad, who plays Louis, Peaches' best friend; Drake, who plays Ethan, the cool mammoth Peaches has a crush on; Wanda Sykes, who plays Granny to John Leguizamo's Sid; Peter Dinklage, who plays the villainous pirate Captain Gutt, and Gutt's crew, comprised of Squint, voiced by Aziz Ansari, Flynn, played by Nick Frost, and Shira, played by Jennifer Lopez. Shira is a female saber-tooth tiger character...gee, we wonder if she is going to be a love interest for Denis Leary's Diego!? Color us shocked! Like most of the "Ice Age" films, Scrat acts as a sort of catalyst to the oncoming catastrophe in this installment as well. This time, in a very Loony Tunes-esque manner, Scrat makes his way to Earth's core, causing it to spin irregularly, initiating the separation of Pangaea into the continents we know today. As Pangaea splits apart, Manny, Sid, Diego, and Granny get separated from the rest of the group and now have to make their way back, fighting Captain Gutt and his crew the whole way.

We went on a bit of a tirade during our review for "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" because it seems like all this franchise has to do plot-wise is to take a vaguely science-related adventure and combine it with the addition of a romance or the introduction of a child character. Well, this third sequel isn't much different, and in an excruciatingly recycled format, it seems even worse and more forced than last time. Something big happens always happens, sending our protagonists on an adventure to get some place before something happens. A, meet B, meet C. Along the way, more characters get introduced to the ever-expanding cast to make their family/herd grow even bigger than it was before. As per usual, there are just a few laughs here and there, but there are none of what we'd consider belly laughs in this sequel. Wanda Sykes does get a couple good lines that provide a chuckle or two, but we definitely missed Simon Pegg presence in this installment. Peter Dinklage has a good voice for the main antagonist Captain Gutt, but that's about it.

Much like the other films in the series, "Ice Age: Continental Drift" is extremely forgettable, though it's not much worse than the others, but it certainly is not much better, either. Blue Sky Studios appears to be milking as much as possible out of this multi-billion dollar franchise, and when "Ice Age: Collision Course" gets released later this week, this franchise will most likely scoot right over the $3 billion dollar worldwide box office gross mark for all 5 films, which means these sequels might never end....

My Rating: 5/10
BigJ's Rating: 5/10
IMDB's Rating: 6.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 37%
Do we recommend this movie: Meh.
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One year ago, we were watching: "Along Came Polly"

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