At age 30, I just watched this for the first time the other day, and I have to say, I know why I wasn't into it for as long as it's been out. There's something a bit less-than-family-entertaining about senile old people just trying to get by as a local gang of ruffians attempts to beat up tenants and muscle them out of comfortable living. Even a huge former boxer was afraid of these guys at some point, and then he turns out to be a 1-2 brawler out of nowhere. And for some reason, the story needs to hang onto the story of an artist who's courting a resident pregnant woman with no support for her in sight. It's chaos!
So out of nowhere comes some magic that patches the entire motley crew together. Must be nice! Where were you creatures in the 2012 movie? I won't give away what the movie poster doesn't give away already: a tiny spaceship is involved. The magic element of this spaceship (and possible other magic powers?) is what makes me groan all the way through the movie. I personally cannot stand watching a magic element at the beck and call of a rundown community.
The movie was fun at times, watching the spaceship animation in composite shots; I like watching older movies that still shot like this for special effects because they still seem a lot more "real" than CGI does. The story is very blah: it relies on the special magic forces that fix everything a little too much. Jessica Tandy and Tom Aldredge really took the acting duties for this one, mainly because the other characters were a bit bland. The gang that followed the one main Latin dude reminded me of most bad 80's gangs, almost like the rat gang in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.
Overall, I wasn't very impressed by it. I didn't have any childhood moments other than the dated special effects (good, but dated). The villains were there simply as a plot point without much background as to why these people had to leave this shamble of a building. Why would they stay? It's a hazard for god's sake! I would recommend it to those feeling nostalgic, but not for modern kids nor adults. It wasn't that entertaining.
So out of nowhere comes some magic that patches the entire motley crew together. Must be nice! Where were you creatures in the 2012 movie? I won't give away what the movie poster doesn't give away already: a tiny spaceship is involved. The magic element of this spaceship (and possible other magic powers?) is what makes me groan all the way through the movie. I personally cannot stand watching a magic element at the beck and call of a rundown community.
The movie was fun at times, watching the spaceship animation in composite shots; I like watching older movies that still shot like this for special effects because they still seem a lot more "real" than CGI does. The story is very blah: it relies on the special magic forces that fix everything a little too much. Jessica Tandy and Tom Aldredge really took the acting duties for this one, mainly because the other characters were a bit bland. The gang that followed the one main Latin dude reminded me of most bad 80's gangs, almost like the rat gang in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.
Overall, I wasn't very impressed by it. I didn't have any childhood moments other than the dated special effects (good, but dated). The villains were there simply as a plot point without much background as to why these people had to leave this shamble of a building. Why would they stay? It's a hazard for god's sake! I would recommend it to those feeling nostalgic, but not for modern kids nor adults. It wasn't that entertaining.