The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
 
Features  |  Reviews
Best2012Vote-1000x50

Review: The Smurfs

An uninspired rip-off
By BRETT MICHEL  |  July 26, 2011
1.5 1.5 Stars



It may be a 3D movie set in a world populated by computer-animated blue-skinned natives, but this isn't Avatar. No, Raja Gosnell's movie is an uninspired rip-off of Disney's Enchanted. Driven from their, yes, enchanted village by evil wizard Gargamel (a live-action performance by a made-up, very animated Hank Azaria) into a portal, the Smurfs — created as a comic strip by Belgian artist Peyo before becoming an '80s-era cartoon-cum-cottage industry — are transported to the "realm" of New York. Led by their 546-year-old Papa (voiced by Jonathan Winters), Grouchy (George Lopez), Brainy (Fred Armisen), Smurfette (Katy Perry), and (new to this movie) the kilt-wearing Gutsy (Alan Cumming) must rescue Clumsy (Anton Yelchin), who's tripped into the Manhattan apartment of marketing man Patrick Winslow (Neil Patrick Harris) — with Gargamel still in pursuit. "I hated this much less than I expected," complains Grouchy near the end. Cranky (this critic) disagrees.

Related: Jenny Holzer's projections remake buildings, Review: Love, etc., Review: Manhattan Short Film Festival, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , New York, 1980s, Comic Strip,  More more >
| More

 Friends' Activity   Popular   Most Viewed 
[ 02/01 ]   Red Baraat  @ T.T. the Bear's Place
[ 02/01 ]   Rise Against + A Day to Remember + The Menzingers  @ Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell
[ 02/01 ]   Superior Donuts  @ Lyric Stage Company of Boston
ARTICLES BY BRETT MICHEL
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   REVIEW: THE VIRAL FACTOR  |  January 17, 2012
    Made for a modest budget of $17 million — and feeling like it (who needs convincing explosions in an action movie?), Dante Lam's latest still gets the job done from a run-and-gun standpoint.
  •   REVIEW: EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE  |  January 17, 2012
    Too soon? For Stephen Daldry's 9/11 drama, the right time is "never."
  •   REVIEW: THE DIVIDE  |  January 10, 2012
    Many a teleplay for The Twilight Zone threatened atomic Armageddon, and though Frontier(s) director Xavier Gens nukes New York in the opening shots of his latest thriller, he finds more inspiration in the horrors of human nature as seen in the old TV show's episode "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street."
  •   REVIEW: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL  |  December 20, 2011
    Impossible Missions Force agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) returns to the screen in dramatic fashion as new teammate Jane (Paula Patton) and the returning Benji (Simon Pegg) break him out of a Russian prison.
  •   REVIEW: WE BOUGHT A ZOO  |  December 20, 2011
    Matt Damon plays Mee, a journalist who decides that he and his daughter (a precocious Maggie Elizabeth Jones) and sullen teenage son (Colin Ford) need a new start after the death of his wife, so he spends his life savings on a house in the country.

 See all articles by: BRETT MICHEL

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed