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Pratt's Barley (left) and Holland's Ian take departed dad for a long ride. |
Truth be told, any distaff fireworks come from widowed mom Laurel Lighfoot (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and a newfound pal, the mythical manticore now running a local, Fantasyland dive and properly vocalized by Octavia Spencer.
Of course, it's the teen-age Lightfoot siblings, Ian (Holland) and Barley (Pratt), dominating the show. They're actually a couple of elves taking off on a rather bizarre road trip that keeps them looking for the top half of their dead father's body.
Huh? Yes, ya really gotta see it to understand, but just-turned 16-year-old Ian never knew dear ol' Dad, older bro Barley barely remembers him and, perhaps not so ironically, their mom is now dating a cop (Mel Rodriguez), who doubles as a centaur with an exceptionally big bottom to boot.
Too many other odd creatures to count also show up throughout the mish-mash directed and co-written by Dan Scanlon ("Monsters University"), but another warm Pixar ending finds a way to pardon its assorted sins.
Rated "PG": action/peril and some mild thematic elements; 1:42; $ $ $ out of $5
Also opening today is the satirical "Greed," a dark take on a rich man (ever-reliable Steve Coogan) who loses his way early on, thanks to a surly disposition and doting mother (Shirley Henderson).
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Coogan is the wealthy fool, but certainly no hero in the farcical "Greed." |
The story of the immensely unlikable Sir Richard "Greedy" McCreadie (Coogan) starts with his handing out sizable bonuses to a few connected employees of his monolithic fashion company, then literally jumps to "5 days earlier" in Greece, where his lavish 60th birthday party is in the works.
That brief interlude runs into a "3 months earlier" cue and the beginning of what will become the mogul's recurring -- and always dull-- appearance at a parliamentary subcommittee investigating his shady business practices. Add the other unkindly events screen-splashed before us in "1973" (extremely creepy school days), "1977" (London's rag district), and "1990" (a Sri Lanka sweatshop), and it too quickly becomes a hammering onslaught of how slime turns into wealth.
Thank goodness for McCreadie's often bewildered biographer (David Mitchell), his dimwitted daughter (Sophie Cookson) with her scripted reality show, and some particularly funny bits involving a few celeb lookalikes hired to appear at the aforementioned birthday bash. Otherwise, we might truly get suffocated by "Greed."
Rated "R": perversive language and brief drug use; 1:44; $ $ and 1/2 out of $5
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