Saturday, July 21, 2018

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018)

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018)


IMDB Rating : 6.4/10 ( as on 21.07.2018)

PG | 1h 37min | Animation, Comedy, Family |
While on a vacation with his family, Count Dracula makes a romantic connection.
Director: Genndy Tartakovsky
Writers: Michael McCullers, Genndy Tartakovsky
Stars: Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez
 IMDB link Here



Recently the actor Sandra Bullock said in an interview that “children should review children’s films,” which made me think, “Sure, why not. Save me some work.”
With this aim in mind, I persuaded some friends to loan me their delightful 8-year-old daughter, Willow, for a press screening of “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation.” Willow is familiar with the premise of the franchise; utterly unbothered by the potentially adult-disturbing logic of building a children’s entertainment franchise around an undead vampire hero (the most famous one, Dracula, voiced once more by Adam Sandler) and his monster friends; and most tickled by the recurring character Blobby, the Jell-O-like creature who can vomit miniature versions of itself.
This installment opens with a 19th-century flashback showing Dracula besting the vampire hunter Van Helsing: think a caped and fang-bearing Bugs Bunny versus Elmer Fudd. In present day, Dracula’s daughter, Mavis (Selena Gomez), arranges a cruise vacation for dad, and on board he falls for the ship’s captain Ericka (Kathryn Hahn), the granddaughter of Van Helsing and a foe who could turn friend. Both Willow and I saw this plot development several miles before its reveal.
The scenes of Dracula befuddled by a mobile phone were familiar; those in which the vampire’s garlic “intolerance” preludes a flatulence joke predictable. Returning a third time as director, Genndy Tartakovsky lends his usual graphic savvy, providing a not-quite-saving grace.
One of the problems with the child film reviewer model, it turns out, is the changeability of children’s opinions. During the end credits, Willow said she “loved” the movie. On the ride home, she said she “liked” most of it, but some parts were “a little scary.” Upon overhearing me tell her parents that the picture wasn’t my cup of tea, she loudly proclaimed it “the best movie ever made.”
 Read complete review at New York Times


Movie Rating: ★☆☆☆☆  


 The Adam Sandler franchise seems to have finally run out of all jokes
Shalini Langer 


The law of diminishing returns had already set in by the time Hotel Transylvania swung around the second time in 2015. Three years later, the story of Dracula and his daughter running a hotel for monsters in Transylvania seems to have finally run out of all jokes. And, frankly, ideas, with the film returning to its first idea, of a monster and human falling in love, this time in the form of Dracula (Sandler) and Ericka. Hahn, a vivacious actor, has none of her vitality in the role of Ericka, while the affair between her and Dracula is devoid of that forbidden angle that made the first Hotel Transylvania click.
The two partners of the older love story, Mavis (Gomez) and Johnny, also seem to share less and less chemistry — a consequence inevitable in all affairs that end in marriage, and hence best avoided on screen. Anyway, they also have less and less to do in this film dominated by Sandler for the most part, including when Ericka enters the picture. They encounter each other when Dracula’s daughter Mavis plans a family vacation on a cruise, but then takes the entire monster brood along. Ericka is the captain of the ship, but also the grand-daughter of Van Helsing (Gaffigan), who has been chasing Dracula for ages and is now reduced in his old age to a contraption, with its only human parts the face and neck. Ericka sets out hating Dracula, but then they ‘zing’ (a concept of love taken straight out of the Twilight films).
The cruise, meant to end at the Atlantis, sets off from the Bermuda Triangle and halts in the middle at an undersea volcano and a deserted island. If you are imagining lots of adventure, hold your thought. Most of the action happens on the ship, where Dracula walks around in beach shirts and mini-mini-shorts, and his dad in briefs and a distended belly. When the film enters the water, it is a mish-mash of blinding colours. There is some chatter of inclusivity etc, of treating different people the same, but you are clearly meant to keep your eyes focused on Dracula at all times.
All said and done, as Dracula himself puts it, a cruise is nothing but a hotel on water. And it’s about time this film checked out of one.
 Read complete review at Indian Express


Movie Rating: ★✬☆☆  
Monsters take a trip but formula stays the same
Jake Wilson 

Hollywood may be obsessed with battles between good and evil, but the computer-animated Hotel Transylvania films, like those in the rival Despicable Me series, continue to insist that sometimes supposed bad guys are just misunderstood.
Take Count Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler), not the bloodsucker of legend, but a lovably bumbling patriarch whose biggest flaw is an occasional failure to move with the times.
This anti-bigotry message surely carries a personal meaning for director Genndy Tartakovsky, whose family left Europe to escape anti-Semitism. Scattered through the series are hints that being a vampire can be taken as a metaphor for being Jewish, a subtext which is probably lost on most children, but which might lead adults to wonder how far anti-Semitic ideas have influenced vampire mythology all along.
The plot is interspersed with a lot of gags about what the Mummy (Keegan Michael-Key), the Invisible Man (David Spade) and Drac's other pals might get up to on vacation. Much of the innocently silly humour stems from the character designs, such as the giant puppy which Drac's grandson Dennis (Asher Blinkoff) smuggles on board in a trench coat.
There are occasional sinister images, such as the giant, dark ship itself, but the overriding suggestion is that even the weirdest-looking monsters are just plain folks.
The most daring subplot involves a werewolf couple (Steve Buscemi and Molly Shannon) who start to get frisky after they find a babysitter for their demanding brood of pups.
While the suggestive content here is very mild, the theme is still an oddly adult one for a family film, especially in parallel with Mavis' unease at her father allowing a new romance into his life. But this, too, seems destined to go over the heads of kids.
Read complete review at Sydney Morning Herald

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