Flint Lockwood [Bill Hader] has always wanted to be a great inventor.  He has invented many things, but none of them work or turn out the way he wants them to.  One day when his town falls to economic problems and everyone is made to eat sardines he decides to invent a machine that converts water into any food he wants; and it works.  However – as expected by a story like this – eventually everything goes out of control and Flint must save the town from his own creation.

This is the latest animated film to thrown at me in digital 3D and I am unimpressed.  I am the kind of guy that loves silly childlike humour and also I love the new 3D but at the same time I felt like the film not only suffered from poor writing and direction but also from a lack of vision.  There are some awesome characters in the movie but the place the film decides to go really doesn’t allow for these characters to shine and at the same time it can’t help if your weakest character is the main one.

Now I know it isn’t fair for me to use my ever so accurate Logic-O-Meter 5000 – yes I just made that up – to tell you about all the absurdities in the film, because this is a children’s book which tells the tale of how a bumbling inventor creates a machine to change water into food.  I mean the movie plays on a joke where the headline in a local newspaper says “SARDINES ARE SUPER GROSS”.   I would give this movie a pass if I saw it in a theatre filled with children – which I was – that were non stop laughing – which they weren’t.  I felt that the film wasn’t a complete snore-fest but it wasn’t far from it.  The film had huge pieces of food being thrown at me from the heavens and somehow the director was unable to wow me with some insane 3D effects.

The best parts of the movie went to the supporting line-up which included: Earl Devereaux [Mr. T] who plays the police officer who is always looking out for people who break the law and blaming everything on Flint, Mayor Shelbourne [Bruce Campbell] the mayor of the small town who wants to find something to make the town great and therefore make his career the better and Sam Sparks [Anna Faris] the stupid and perky intern who gets her first break as a weather girl to go to the small town where Flint makes craziness happen but turns out to be a huge nerd in disguise.  The film definitely throws out the usual underlying message of being true to one’s self for the children in the crowd who always never get it until the revisit it in their teen years and at the same time hate themselves for having pretended to like the movie at all.

My favourite part of the movie I think has to involve Flint and Sam bouncing around in a gelatine shaped castle and a ice-cream covered winter scenery.  But the fact that those are what stand out astounds me.  The movie couldn’t do better at wowing me with some great set pieces that I would only experience in real life if I was a cast member of Saved By The Bell during the 90s filming a food fight scene.

The film fails to entertain me and I think just barely passes for children.  It’s poorly written and lacks the visuals to be worth the extra you’re paying for the 3D.  Take my advice and stay home and watch some more Sponge Bob with your child if you’re thinking about taking them to this; or start renting more Pixar films.

IMDB says 7.1/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 86%

I say 5.0/10