BEE MOVIE
RYAN: Welcome back to Hollywood, Jerry Seinfeld, with what I predict will the be the #1 movie at the box office this weekend, “Bee Movie.”
CAROLINE: This movie will undoubtedly be huge. If it’s not, I’ll laugh really hard because no one has more shamelessly promoted a movie than Jerry Seinfeld has this one.
RYAN: I think one minute into the movie I leaned over to you and said, “This movie is going to be big.” It’s just so cute and so well done that the kids are going to eat it up.
CAROLINE: I must say I that the animation is pretty incredible. Surprisingly, I did not hate this movie; I actually liked the first 30 minutes a lot despite my abhorrence of all things animated. It was very clever and witty. The only thing that bugged me is that all the bees have 4 legs, and as we all know from science class, insects have 6 legs.
RYAN: I wonder if Jerry Seinfeld purposely asked Oprah Winfrey to do a voice in the movie because he knew he would be able to promote it on her show.
CAROLINE: It’s possible, though Jerry Seinfeld and DreamWorks don’t really need help in the publicity department.
RYAN: I didn’t know much about the story ahead of time, but Renée Zellweger plays a human and her eyes are never going to look as big in real life as they did on her animated character.
CAROLINE: Ugh, she’s so slitty-eyed. And it was so weird to hear her whiny voice without seeing her squinty face. I don’t think she’s that great an actress to begin with, and then to hear her disembodied voice was so grating.
RYAN: I think I would have enjoyed this movie so much more if it were a musical.
CAROLINE: Isn’t that true of every movie, honey?
RYAN: Yes, but I kept thinking it would be so appropriate for them to break out into song right now, but they never do. And with actors like Renée Zellweger and Matthew Broderick in the cast, both of whom have done movie musicals, I was surprised they didn’t throw a few songs in here and there.
CAROLINE: I could only get into it for about a half an hour and then I started to doze.
RYAN: You dozed 3 or 4 times.
CAROLINE: Yes, but it was the kind where you jolt yourself awake after 2 seconds so I didn’t miss anything. And even though this movie is only about 90 minutes, it still felt too long to me. The story got convoluted and weird.
RYAN: I kinda liked it. It turns into a fun courtroom drama and I love that in any film. I loved John Goodman as the bad guy; he’s been playing a lot of that lately. But this movie has much less innuendo and adult humor than most animated films usually have, which tends to make it more enjoyable for an adult audience. This one very much plays to the kids.
CAROLINE: I did notice some clever jokes though, and even the title is a cute pun. Bottom line?
RYAN: It’s very cute, and kids will love it. I could definitely see it having a sequel; there are so many more things those little bees could do. But I would recommend that they make the sequel a musical.
CAROLINE: The fact that I liked this movie for even 30 minutes was a minor miracle. I just don’t think I’m made to see these kids’ movies because all I could think was how farfetched it got and how many inaccuracies there were.
RYAN: These are talking bees, Caroline.
CAROLINE: I realize it’s a children’s movie and if I’d had a child sitting next to me, I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more.
RYAN: I wish for once you could suspend your bias against animation and subjectively judge a film.
CAROLINE: I don’t feel I should have to do that.
RYAN: Well then why even go see animated films anymore if you know you’re not going to enjoy them?
CAROLINE: Good point. You’ll be going by yourself in the future.