There really should be a secondary category of movies: the movies you watch when you just had your teeth drilled so you can't laugh out loud or think too hard because of the Tylenol with codeine the dentist thankfully prescribed. If this movie was rated by that scale, and I had enough medication in my system, I MIGHT agree with my nieces that this was "the best movie ever." Or, at least, in that category somewhere. And there would be an explanation for why I continue to find "Bring It On" so oddly fascinating.
Since there isn't another category, since I didn't watch this under medication, and since I've already seen "Arsenic and Old Lace," "Animal House," "Holiday," "the Lady Eve," "Blazing Saddles," and a number of other classics (IMHO), I have some standards to measure "the best movie ever." This certainly doesn't meet them. Although the basic concept was cute, the slow moving story made each twist easier to spot than cell phone use in silicon valley. Come to think of it, this movie moved at about the same predictable pace as "The Computer That Wore Tennis Shoes" and "The Barefoot Executive," so maybe this is the pace that Kurt Russell requests when Disney rings his phone.
So yes, I found the movie dull - ideal for the disability crowd - with the only dip in the dance being Major Pain's heritage, and even that might not have been a surprise if I hadn't dozed off. The characters were likable but also dull (rather like the Disney board of directors ...interesting coincidence); even the villains weren't particularly memorable. Only Danielle Panabaker sticks with me, standing out as an environmentally conscious sidekick.
If I devoted any thought to this movie (which under pain medication I wouldn't, and then these details wouldn't bother me), I'd wonder how this superhero business was managed. With all these kids, the town had to be absolutely mobbed with parental superheroes like the Strongholds trotting around masquerading as pharmacists, postal workers, etc. How would you decide which superhero should save the world today? Lottery? Think of the chaos.
And if you went to high school together, wouldn't you know each other's secret identity? Would you get married as superheroes AND as mild mannered postal workers? How would you keep the villains from telling your secret identity (or, at the very least, blabbing your algebra score)?
And what about those amazingly solid costumes that Kurt and Kelly had to wear? They look distractingly like the original corvette fiberglass shell rather than a real superhero costume. Why don't they make nail polish out of that stuff? No wonder they could stop a speeding bullet. I bet I know a few high tech corporations who would like to use them at executive board meetings.
I forgot about the movie's key redeeming quality: it teaches us several important lessons - thank goodness there are movies to teach us - about compassion, the value of friends (even if they're not heroes)...wow. It was heavy. No, that's quite right. It was heavy handed. Pardon my sarcasm, which I must have learned from Billy Wilder.
I found "the Incredibles" far and away more entertaining, in part because of the creative and amusing things that can be done with animation (if only I could park my car the way they were allowed to park the camper) and in part because it showed family dynamics with far more depth and humor ("Bob, it's time to get engaged!") than in this movie. And questions like multiple superheroes in town were solved. No outstanding issues, thank you very much.
But I think "Sky High" was supposed to appeal to the demographic I described - the just had teeth drilled, or not thinking, or never seen a decent movie before.
Oh, it did have a good soundtrack - for the parents - with some songs from the Talking Heads, Cars, & They Might Be Giants. Importing the choir for the mighty fight scenes so they could "ahhhhh" away was a bit much though.
Since there isn't another category, since I didn't watch this under medication, and since I've already seen "Arsenic and Old Lace," "Animal House," "Holiday," "the Lady Eve," "Blazing Saddles," and a number of other classics (IMHO), I have some standards to measure "the best movie ever." This certainly doesn't meet them. Although the basic concept was cute, the slow moving story made each twist easier to spot than cell phone use in silicon valley. Come to think of it, this movie moved at about the same predictable pace as "The Computer That Wore Tennis Shoes" and "The Barefoot Executive," so maybe this is the pace that Kurt Russell requests when Disney rings his phone.
So yes, I found the movie dull - ideal for the disability crowd - with the only dip in the dance being Major Pain's heritage, and even that might not have been a surprise if I hadn't dozed off. The characters were likable but also dull (rather like the Disney board of directors ...interesting coincidence); even the villains weren't particularly memorable. Only Danielle Panabaker sticks with me, standing out as an environmentally conscious sidekick.
If I devoted any thought to this movie (which under pain medication I wouldn't, and then these details wouldn't bother me), I'd wonder how this superhero business was managed. With all these kids, the town had to be absolutely mobbed with parental superheroes like the Strongholds trotting around masquerading as pharmacists, postal workers, etc. How would you decide which superhero should save the world today? Lottery? Think of the chaos.
And if you went to high school together, wouldn't you know each other's secret identity? Would you get married as superheroes AND as mild mannered postal workers? How would you keep the villains from telling your secret identity (or, at the very least, blabbing your algebra score)?
And what about those amazingly solid costumes that Kurt and Kelly had to wear? They look distractingly like the original corvette fiberglass shell rather than a real superhero costume. Why don't they make nail polish out of that stuff? No wonder they could stop a speeding bullet. I bet I know a few high tech corporations who would like to use them at executive board meetings.
I forgot about the movie's key redeeming quality: it teaches us several important lessons - thank goodness there are movies to teach us - about compassion, the value of friends (even if they're not heroes)...wow. It was heavy. No, that's quite right. It was heavy handed. Pardon my sarcasm, which I must have learned from Billy Wilder.
I found "the Incredibles" far and away more entertaining, in part because of the creative and amusing things that can be done with animation (if only I could park my car the way they were allowed to park the camper) and in part because it showed family dynamics with far more depth and humor ("Bob, it's time to get engaged!") than in this movie. And questions like multiple superheroes in town were solved. No outstanding issues, thank you very much.
But I think "Sky High" was supposed to appeal to the demographic I described - the just had teeth drilled, or not thinking, or never seen a decent movie before.
Oh, it did have a good soundtrack - for the parents - with some songs from the Talking Heads, Cars, & They Might Be Giants. Importing the choir for the mighty fight scenes so they could "ahhhhh" away was a bit much though.