|
|
Friday, April 26, 2024
|
|
HOLLYWOOD HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2
EDITOR'S PICK
'Hotel
Transylvania 2' - A moderately funny, feel good film
Rating:
**
If you expected the mad monster party to continue in "Hotel Transylvania
2", be forewarned, the frenzied party is over. This one is a limp, kiddy
party that is neither exciting nor engrossing.
Taking off from where it left in the first edition, this tale is a matured,
domesticated exposition of Dracula (Adam Sandler) becoming a doting and
overbearing grandpa to Dennis (Ashler Blinkoff), son of his daughter Mavis
(Selena Gomez) and her human husband Jonathan (Andy Samberg). The crux being,
both sides of the family waiting to see if the little one, born of mixed
heritage, will ever grow a pair of fangs thereby indicating if he is a human or
a monster.
And to add to the conflict, Mavis contemplates to move to California away from
the watchful eyes of her father. Tension builds up farther with Grandpa Vald
(Mel Brooks) kept in the dark about the human side of the family.
The script, written by Smigel, Baynham and Adam Sandler, moves at a moderate
pace, episodic in structure in a slapdash plot. There are the goofy monsters and
their antics, which include Dracula and his friends touring their old haunts and
training Dennis in the proud vampire tradition, which meant scaring people and
flying like a bat.
Humour arises in the form of relatively mild jokes and gags on familiar monster
lore, pop culture references in which technophobe Dracula discovers that it's
tough navigating touch screens with freakishly long fingernails and parenting
jokes like Mavis' attempt to childproof the hotel and its staff.
To add credence to the visuals, director Genndy Tartakovsky has very ably
managed to match the stellar voice cast with his characters, giving them a
glamour quotient. The others included in the list are Kevin James as
Frankenstein, Steve Buscemi as Werewolf Wayne, David Spade as the Invisible man
Griffin, Keegan Michael Key as Mummy Murray and Nick Offerman and Megan Mullall
as Dennis' human grandparents.
The 3D animation does not help in elevating the viewing experience.
Ultimately, "Hotel Transylvania 2", about the need for open mindedness
in life and love, in its entirety is a feel good, fun film which is neither
ghoulish nor overtly comical, where the message is simply lost.
The Drac pack is back for an all-new monster comedy adventure in Sony Pictures Animation's Hotel Transylvania 2! Everything seems to be changing for the better at Hotel Transylvania... Dracula’s rigid monster-only hotel policy has finally relaxed, opening up its doors to human guests. But behind closed coffins, Drac is worried that his adorable half-human, half-vampire grandson, Dennis, isn’t showing signs of being a vampire. So while Mavis is busy visiting her human in-laws with Johnny – and in for a major cultural shock of her own – “Vampa” Drac enlists his friends Frank, Murray, Wayne and Griffin to put Dennis through a “monster-in-training” boot camp. But little do they know that Drac’s grumpy and very old, old, old school dad Vlad is about to pay a family visit to the hotel. And when Vlad finds out that his great-grandson is not a pure blood – and humans are now welcome at Hotel Transylvania – things are going to get batty!
