CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 Review

CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 Review

By Darin Skaggs

      In 2009 Phil Lord and Chris Miller released their adaptation of the classic children’s book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  It was one of the funniest films of the year and also one of the funniest of all time.  Now Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn give their try with the sequel Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.

     The film starts where the last one left off.  Flint has just stopped his machine from making any more food; the island is left a mess with giant pieces of food and everyone has lived happily ever after.  Then Chester V, the head manager at Live Corp and what is revealed to be Flint’s childhood hero comes to announce he is going to clean up the town while they are relocated.  It is obvious from there that Chester V is up to no good.

     As I said the first Cloudy is one of the funniest films ever made, so living up to it was going to be difficult.  Sadly it doesn’t and while being an enjoyable experience the film falls far too flat to be a good predecessor.  The film as it goes along gets more and more clunky.  Flint, our hero, is convinced way too easily that a scientist does not need friends.  After all he learned in the first film about his dad, his girlfriend and even chicken Brent, it was too strange that he went against them at all.  At times the film is just going through the motions of a “kids” film.  The hero is selfish, his friends are in trouble, and then he learns a lesson and becomes unselfish. 

     Another kid movie troupe is the humor in the film.  There are some big laughs that the film got out of me.  The food puns are all amazing, like Tacodile or my personal favorite Hippotato.  It has enough laughs to keep a smile on your face, but in between are a bunch of roll your eye jokes.  The “kid” humor in the film, which the first one didn’t have much of, is over used. There are several bodily fluid jokes.  Other jokes that are in the film are adult related humor which is a sign that the filmmakers had no faith that the adults bringing their children to the film would enjoy themselves.  It seemed they needed to throw in some crude humor so mom and dad wouldn’t be bored.

     The film is not bad but nowhere near great.  I wish Lord and Miller, who were probably busy making the hilarious 21 Jump Street, had been a part in the writing and directing of this film.  I saw its potential, but sadly it was not reached.  It could be fun to watch but probably not going to be a long lasting memory.