Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Oh. My. God. This has to be the craziest movie I’ve seen in a long time… AND I LOVED IT!!

When it came out last year, I was all “Ehh, a movie about raining food? Not interested” and passed on watching it on theaters. And I probably would’ve never bothered to see it, if it hadn’t been because I caught a glimpse of it on a DVD test in a store I was visiting yesterday. It got me to laugh SO hard right from the opening credits, that I said “I’ve GOT to see this movie!” and rented it tonight.

I must say, I can see why some people wouldn’t like it; besides the WTH premise, this is a rapid-fire comedy, with jokes coming at you every two seconds; it’s like watching an hour-and-a-half Stand-Up Comedy act. Now, I AM a fan of standup, but I can see how some people can get tired of that sort of narrative. And yet, despite the constant humor, the movie WORKS- not just as a story, it even has some genuine touching moments too!

And inventiveness. The story not only brings up the kind of ideas you never would think of (like when Flint tried to romance Sam by building a mansion out of Jell-O) The movie also satirizes Disaster Movies magnificently- by subverting most of their cliches, but preserving the important ones (like the hero and the girl getting together in the end). I admit that I’m a cerebral kind of guy; I tend to overanalyze things, and that sometimes prevents me from enjoying a movie or a cartoon the way other people do. But here, I just turned off my brain and just went with the flow…and I’m very glad for the experience. :slight_smile:

Here’s the basic premise: Flint, a guy who’s always tried to earn people’s respect (including his own) by inventing something unique finally (after a lot of hilarious failures) succeeds in inventing a machine that turns water into food. After accidentally launching it into the sky, he becomes the celebrity of the town when it causes food to rain! In the process he meets a clueless weathergirl (that he gets a crush on) and is tricked (by the town’s conniving mayor) into causing more and more food-related weather phenomena (for the publicity)… but of course, the abuse of the machine gets it out of control and soon the world must deal with the absurd yet very real threat of- Giant Food Storms! Beat that, 2012!!
:hahaha;

Besides the great writing, the movie has other things going for it: for one thing, the characters- it’s got a real quirky cast that somehow manages to be more interesting than those of most live action movies. Heck, it even has a Mr. T stand-in!! My favorite character, other than Flint (OK, I admit it, he reminds me a lot of myself :stuck_out_tongue: ) was Flint’s father; not only the poor guy seems to be the only sane guy in the world, but his whole “trying to connect with his son and failing” subplot actually works!!

Additionally, the movie’s graphic effects are incredible, even the fairly mundane ones like the aerial shots of the town- VERY good attention to detail!

It’s no PIXAR movie, but for what it is, is VERY good, and if you like your comedy routines to last an hour and a half AND sprinkled with moments of heartwarming, give it a check.

Oh, and get this: The people who made this movie? Are now working on… The Lego Movie. Yes, seriously. That’s another one I’d have skipped entirely, but after seeing what they did with “Cloudy” I’ll definitely give it a chance!

My favourite part was when the father made Flint look him in the eye and swear to something. Then his big bushy eyebrows go up to reveal his small eyes.