A Daily Thing

It is customary to warn people beforehand, so I will do no different: my little rant – err, movie review – will contain spoilers.  For what?  For ‘Up‘.

I feel like I should warn people about how depressing and annoying a movie it is: that’s right, don’t let the colourful balloons on the poster fool you!  (They fooled me, so I’m speaking from experience).

I heard someone say the first 7 minutes of the movie are alone worth their weight in gold.  Thank god we don’t use the gold standard then.

Here are the first 7 minutes – tell me if that doesn’t depress you: they fast forward through the life of a young boy who meets the love of his life, gets married, sees their common dream slip away, grows old and then boom – his wife dies.  Wonderful.  I cried (yes, I’ll admit it).

What follows is a predictable chain of events (which include violence and blood – you read it right: blood in a Pixar movie) that leads the old grumpy bushy-browed hero to uproot his house with the help of a monster load of helium balloons.  An annoying chubby little scout happens to tag along for the ride.  I kept on hoping that chubby little scout would fall off the airborne house (or off the big blimp where a lot of the ‘action’ goes down) but no such luck.

Add a LOT of dogs, a chocoholic bird, a mean recluse, and there you pretty much have it.

‘Up’ is a boring, annoying, far too long and predictable downer.  Yes, I am happy I made that pun.  But it’s true: ‘Up’, a spirit-lifting movie?  Right: and my bum, it’s chicken*.

(Image is from here, accompanied by another ‘Up’ review that I applaud – because I agree with a lot of what is said).

*Go here if you have doubts about what I am trying to say.

PS: I will concede the part where the house flies over the city is pretty amazing – so redeeming points for some beautiful images (but they are way too far and few).