The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
Features  |  Reviews
TheBest2011-1000x50

Review: Gnomeo & Juliet

Inevitable movie allusions and a hideous flamingo don't do this animated flop any favors
By PETER KEOUGH  |  February 9, 2011
1.0 1.0 Stars

Following the blighted example of Gulliver, Kelly Asbury's vapid adaptation takes a great classic and makes it stupid for the kids. I'm referring, of course, to Toy Story, as feuding tribes of gnomes freeze into inanimate objects whenever a human looks at them. Too bad that doesn't hold true for the humans in the audience. Gnomeo (James McAvoy) of the Blues, after losing a power-mower competition to Red gnome Tybalt (Jason Statham), bumps into Juliet (best in cast Emily Blunt) and, despite their family enmity, fall in love. What do you want to bet there's a new ending? The Elton John soundtrack and a hideous plastic flamingo (Jim Cummings as a cross between Puss in Boots and Jar Jar Binks) don't make the film easier to sit through. Along with the Bardic quotes and inevitable movie allusions - from The Graduate to Borat - Gnomeo and Juliet justifies its existence as a paycheck for every British actor not in the last Harry Potter movie.

Related: Transporter 3, The Big Hurt: Frequently asked questions, Short and bitter words of love, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Elton John, Jason Statham, James McAvoy,  More more >
| More
Add Comment
HTML Prohibited

 Friends' Activity   Popular   Most Viewed 
[ 02/13 ]   Biffy Clyro + Moving Mountains  @ T.T. the Bear's Place
[ 02/13 ]   Fetish Fair Flea Market  @ Westin Providence
ARTICLES BY PETER KEOUGH
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   REVIEW: GNOMEO & JULIET  |  February 09, 2011
    Following the blighted example of Gulliver, Kelly Asbury's vapid adaptation takes a great classic and makes it stupid for the kids.
  •   REVIEW: SANCTUM  |  February 09, 2011
    As the helicopter cleared the jungle canopy for the first awe-inspiring, 3D look at the stony maw of the Esa-ala cave system in New Guinea, I thought: sanctum? It's more like a rectum.
  •   REVIEW: THE STRANGE CASE OF ANGÉLICA  |  February 09, 2011
    Now 102 years old and still turning out movies at the rate of one a year, Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira seems destined to live forever. So perhaps it's appropriate that his newest film observes, with Olympian detachment, the tragi-comedy of mortals in pursuit of eternal love.
  •   REVIEW: ON THE BOWERY  |  February 02, 2011
    Manhattan's Bowery now showcases pricy condos and fancy restaurants, but back in 1956, when Lionel Rogosin made this newly restored, groundbreaking semi-documentary, it was still the quintessential skid row.
  •   REVIEW: BARNEY'S VERSION  |  February 02, 2011
    The title narrator of Mordecai Richler's novel has the virtues of consistency and a compelling, comic voice — a TV producer with three blighted marriages and a murder rap behind him, he's a prick and proud of it.

 See all articles by: PETER KEOUGH

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2011 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group