Day 177: "Birds versus monkeys! "

Watching Rio, sitting in my hotel in Vegas, my good friend and roommate turned to me and said,"Dude, this is like watching Angry Birds, the Musical starring Will I Am."  He is of course correct.  Rio is a brightly colored, musical, childish fantasy made by the same guys who did the Ice Age series.....only worse.  The story of a highly domesticated (he's so domesticated he can't even fly) blue Macaw who lives in Minnesota with his owner, is called upon by a Brazilian bird sanctuary worker.  There is an opportunity for Blu (the pet Macaw) to mate with a female in Rio de Janiero to aid in repopulating the species.  They go, he gets kidnapped by bird smugglers, then he and the female, Jewel, spend the rest of the movie vying for their freedom.....with songs.  It's Disney gone wrong.  It was overly geared to kids, and I felt really patronized as an adult.

Jesse Eisenberg plays Blu, and even tries his hand at singing.  He should stop.  He is a good actor in a crap role here.  Anne Hathaway is Jewel, yet another role for her trying to break out of her Princess Diaries-esque parts.  Keep trying, Anne.  The usual cavalcade of guest stars also appears in minor support roles as well, no big surprises there.

If you have kids, they'll love it.  Otherwise, skip it and go watch Ice Age, you'll have more fun.  I'll catch hell for this review, but you know what?  Don't care.  It's my blog and I'll hate when I want to.  I just couldn't like this one, it was just too cute and patronizing.  5.25/10.

See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!