Movies For Juniors – Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Road Chip
Cinema: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip (2015)
If you listen to the 60 Minutes With entertainment shows you will know that I love going to the cinema with my 3 year old daughter. I find it a completely magical experience and it doesn’t matter what we watch as I think there is nothing like seeing a movie on the big screen. I have especially strong memories of going to the cinema when I was a child and I want to have those moments with my daughter.
Luckily for us Cineworld have a scheme called ‘Movies For Juniors’ and although the films on offer may not be the latest releases, the benefit is that it costs £1.80 per person. We’ve been going to the cinema for almost two years and on our latest trip it occurred to me that I could write a review of the movie from my perspective and also give an insight into how my daughter enjoyed the film.
I don’t usually give movies a review score but I thought I’d do something different with these. At the end of each review will be a score out of five based on the following criteria. Laughs: Self explanatory enough, but did the movie provide some laughs for kids and especially me? Peril: Were there any scary moments or did the movie make me cry? I cry at most things so this may always be a high score. Fidgets: How many times did my daughter get fidgety or seem a bit bored with the film? A high score in fidgets isn’t necessarily a good thing. These scores will be out of 5 and hopefully our illustrious leader Dave will put in the appropriate symbol next to the score (I tried and failed. Any tips people? – Dave)
Anyway, enough of the reasons why I’m writing these reviews and the explaining the rules, let me tell you about our latest trip to the cinema.
This weekend we decided to watch Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Road Chip. I’ve never really been a fan of Alvin but my daughter watches it on Nick Jr so it seemed like the best movie on offer. I also remember that the trailer for this film was on the kids channels non-stop so maybe advertising does work!
For anyone who has never seen Alvin And The Chipmunks before, they live with a human called Dave. There are three chipmunks called Alvin, Simon and Theodore and they usually get into some mischief where the catchphrase “Alvinnnn” is screamed by Dave. The other thing to know is that the chipmunks speak in extremely high pitched voices. Now; this will either drill into your skull and annoy the crap out of you or you will find a way of tuning it out. Luckily I fell into the latter camp.
The plot of the movie sees Dave (Jason Lee) going to Miami with his new girlfriend Samantha (Kimberly Williams-Paisley). The chipmunks think he is going to propose to her effectively leaving them behind, so they make their way across country to try and stop it from happening. Samantha has a young son and he and the chipmunks don’t get along but will they learn to become a family? Throw in a deranged sky marshal who is pursuing the chipmunks and that should be enough to keep kids happy for 93 minutes…..shouldn’t it?
From my point of view I thought the film was ok. The chipmunks are CG characters and the cast do well reacting to essentially nothing. It’s always great seeing Jason Lee as I’ve been a big fan of his since I first saw him in Mallrats and later on in the superb Chasing Amy.
As is usually the case with kids films there are references to other movies to keep the adults happy. I spotted nods to The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, The Matrix, The Shining and even The Exorcist.
My daughter is 4 years old in June and maybe the live action nature of the film was a little too grown up for her, as I think she prefers purely animated movies. Despite this there were some musical numbers that had her dancing away. I laughed a couple of times but it wasn’t especially funny, although my wife would disagree with me.
Overall, I thought Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Road Chip was ok but I won’t be rushing out to buy it on DVD.
Laughs: 2/5
Peril: 1/5
Fidgets: 3/5
Overall: 2/5
Review by Chris (co-host of 60 Minutes With and The Same Coin)
