Movie Review:
Shorts
Rated by 3 members
Rated PG for mild action and some rude humor.
Recommended for ages 7 to 11.
Run Time: 89 minutes
Quick Take: This booger-laden flick is a total kids' pick. (Get it?) Will parents like it? "Snot" as much.
Kids Will Love Packed-With-Wacky Shorts
You know those family movies you'd go to see even if you didn't have kids?
Shorts isn't one of them.
Exhibit A: boogers.
Exhibit B: kids picking boogers, kids eating boogers, boogers eating kids, a boy named Loogie ... you get the idea.
Does that make Shorts a bad movie? Not if you're 9. Then you'll be in kid heaven. Which isn't a bad thing. I remember 9, and I probably would have loved this movie.
The, um, short story is the movie's about a magic rock that wreaks havoc on a small Texas town. Turns out, it's a wishing rock, and with great power comes great responsibility, yada, yada, yada. And since the human race has proved time and again that it simply doesn't have the capacity to wield such omnipotence without messing it up, it's a nanosecond before the town is overrun by miniature aliens, ravenous crocodiles, genius babies, and an attack of the 50-foot boyfriend. Fantastical things springing to life is a tad Jumanji-esque. And apparently, one can never get too many crocodile barf moments.
Shorts gets an interesting twist -- and its name -- in the way it's told. Out of synch. Kind of like Memento. Ok, not really. But events do work their way backwards, in short scenes, meaning kids will have fun picking out stray puzzle pieces -- like candy bars randomly exploding from a boy's pocket -- that are only explained by paying attention, and in retrospect. Grownups don't get much respect. (Not even William H. Macy!) But this is a kids movie and in a kids' movie, kids rule.
And the kids enjoyed it. Immensely. Some parents were pretty amused too -- no doubt the side effect of sharing a moment with your progeny.
It's got boogers after all, proving director Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids) has a finger on the junior-set funny bone, among other places. And it's got barf. Though, come to think of it, there wasn't a single belch.
Ah well. That can be in the sequel.
Kids Will Like:
Shorts is kidville from beginning to end, a genie-in-a-bottle wish fantasy with wacky stuff coming out of the woodwork. Does the Academy give awards for best performance by a booger? Extra bonus: Grownups are all slightly dim bulbs.
Parents Will Like:
Hmmm. Well, some of Loogie's brothers have ambitious wish ideas, like world peace. And William H. Macy, Leslie Mann, and Jon Cryer are in it.
Related Features:
Family Movie Night Ideas
More 2009 Movies
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