Not So TALL Tales From The Director Of 'Spy Kids'
A young boy's discovery of a colorful, wish-granting rock causes chaos in the suburban town of Black Falls when jealous kids and scheming adults alike set out to get their hands on it.
Genre(s): Family
Runtime: 89 minutes
Rating: 4.7/10 (698 votes)
Release Date: 7 August 2009
Country: USA, United Arab Emirates
Languages: English
Company: Imagenation Abu Dhabi FZ
Sound: DTS, Dolby Digital, SDDS
MPAA: Rated PG for mild action and some rude humor.
Director(s): Robert Rodriguez
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Producer(s):
Mohamed Khalaf Al-Mazrouei - executive producer (as Mohammed Khalaf)
Elizabeth Avellan - producer
Ed Borgerding - executive producer
Stacy Cohen - executive producer
Dan Lin - executive producer
Hunt Lowry - executive producer
Tom Proper - associate producer
Robert Rodriguez - producer
Asif Satchu - executive producer
Modi Wiczyk - executive producer
Writer(s):
Álvaro Rodríguez - additional material
Robert Rodriguez - written by
Cast:
Jimmy Bennett - Toe Thompson
Jake Short - Nose Noseworthy
Kat Dennings - Stacey Thompson
Trevor Gagnon - Loogie
Devon Gearhart - Cole Black
Jolie Vanier - Helvetica Black
Rebel Rodriguez - Lug
Leo Howard - Laser
Leslie Mann - Mom Thompson
Jon Cryer - Dad Thompson
Music: George Oldziey, Robert Rodriguez, Carl Thiel
Mohamed Khalaf Al-Mazrouei - executive producer (as Mohammed Khalaf)
Elizabeth Avellan - producer
Ed Borgerding - executive producer
Stacy Cohen - executive producer
Dan Lin - executive producer
Hunt Lowry - executive producer
Tom Proper - associate producer
Robert Rodriguez - producer
Asif Satchu - executive producer
Modi Wiczyk - executive producer
Writer(s):
Álvaro Rodríguez - additional material
Robert Rodriguez - written by
Cast:
Jimmy Bennett - Toe Thompson
Jake Short - Nose Noseworthy
Kat Dennings - Stacey Thompson
Trevor Gagnon - Loogie
Devon Gearhart - Cole Black
Jolie Vanier - Helvetica Black
Rebel Rodriguez - Lug
Leo Howard - Laser
Leslie Mann - Mom Thompson
Jon Cryer - Dad Thompson
Music: George Oldziey, Robert Rodriguez, Carl Thiel
Posted on: August 25, 2009
Posted in: Family
August 21st, 2009
This is a masterful piece of movie-making, something typically missingfrom non-animated kids movies. I took my kids and thoroughly enjoyedthe whole experience. Although the story sort of lost strength(fizzled) in the end, the characters, cinema-photography, and editingfully engaged me and my children right from the beginning. RobertRodriguez masterfully weaved this movie going experience into somethingbigger than the story itself. Jolie Vanier who plays the antagonist tothe young hero is such a joy to watch that the weakness of thestoryline becomes less important, and we all laughed all the waythrough.
August 21st, 2009
I saw the movie and thought it was 2 ridiculous. However, some of thekids in the audience laughed and seemed to enjoy it, so we should giveit a chance.
The high spot was child-actress Jolie Vanier who played the femalelead. I predict a great future for her.
Computer graphics and special effects were great and very well done.
Actually, it is hard to believe that anybody thinks this movie will besuccessful.
I would say that this movie is not suitable for anybody over ten.However, one adult I spoke to after the movie said that she liked it.
Sam Sloan
August 23rd, 2009
Shorts is amusing and doesn't take itself seriously at all. Itresembles Malcolm in the Middle, with the central kid's narration, thehigh-speed montages, and exaggeratedly eccentric characters.
The plot winds around a strange rainbow-colored rock that grantswishes. Inevitable, this results as you would expect, with carelesslythought out wishes backfiring for some good-natured slapstick comedy.
The actors make a pretty good ensemble cast, and seem to be enjoyingmaking the film, but I think they know there won't be a lot of Oscarshanded out for this movie. The montages are used as a buffer betweenscenes. They simulate video camera rewinding, or the kid's confusedmemory right after eating too much sugary cereal–I'm not sure. But Ido think they're used too much, making them distracting. The story istold in non-linear style, jumping from the present to flashbacks andback again, but this seems more of an unnecessary gimmick that reallydoesn't help tell the story.
The adult characters are nutty and over the top, but the actorsfaithfully go for the silliness and do adequately. The child actors dowell too, especially newcomer Jolie Vanier, as the bitter rich girlbully. She has one of the few characters with enough dimension (albeitcomically exaggerated) to logically evolve throughout the story, andplays the role to the hilt. Her facial expressions are hilarious, anddominate every scene she's in. This actress has a promising future.
What the movie makers were wishing for was a simple kids' comedy, andthat's just what this film is, no more–no less. It's all just somegood clean fun, clowning around for its own sake.
August 23rd, 2009
Shorts (PG, 1:29) — Fantasy: Fairy Tales, 3rd string, original
You might think that "Shorts" refers to the size of the heroes in thisfilm, but in fact it's an allusion to the movie's structure, purportingto be a collection of short films recorded over a 2-day period butshown out of sequence, thus: 0: The Blinkers 2: Alien8ed 1: WishingRock 4: Big Bad Booger 3: The Miscommunicators 5: The End
The narrator is Toby "Toe" Thompson (Jimmy Bennett), a geeky kid withbraces who's the butt of the bullying inflicted by his school's 2 richkids, Helvetica and Cole Black, dotter and son of leading citizenCarbon Black (James Spader), whose company, Black Box Worldwide Inc.,essentially owns the town of Black Falls.
One day Toe discovers a rainbow-colored rock that keeps whispering"make a wish" to him. Turns out the rock has the power to make thosewishes come true. Toe starts out wishing for friends just asinteresting and unique as he is and is rewarded by a double brace oftiny flying saucers crewed by LGMs who can use advanced tech to makemany of his fondest dreams a reality.
The stone keeps getting misplaced, stolen, thrown away, picked up byaccident, or launched at random, however, which means that almost everyother character gets a chance to use it at one time or another,invariably with unforeseen consequences. This includes Toe's nabors,the Short boys (Laser, Lug, and notably Loogie), even geekier recluseNose Noseworthy and his germophobic scientist dad, Toe's parents, andof course the Blacks.
This is all played very, very broadly for yuks. We are tipped off earlythat none of the cartoonish violence will have permanent effect whenLoogie dives straight into the mouth of a huge crocodile to try toretrieve the wishing rock and gets koffed up moments later, slatheredwith half-digested croc lunch but otherwise unharmed.
There are more than just booger jokes, there's a giant animated booger.(Mercifully, there are no pee or fart jokes and only 1 fast visual gaginvolving pterodactyl poop. Thank you, Robert Rodriguez.)
The kids aren't very good actors, the jokes are corny, the specialeffects aren't particularly special, and the make-up is obviously fake(probably intentionally). None of this matters much, since it isn'tintended to be taken seriously anyway.
Do all these shortcomings add up to a total loser? Not really. It'sgood-hearted as well as light-hearted, and the moral (be careful whatyou wish for) is something worth learning at about the age of thetarget audience. Plus which, not only does it not repeat itself, mostof the ideas and gimmicks are original, and the dialog is occasionallywitty.