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Date: 8/3/2021
On Blu-ray and streaming: “The Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run”
Okay, I’m a 67 year-old man who has kept animated movies close to his heart his entire life and I truly enjoyed this third feature film based on the very successful television series.
The late Steve Hillenburg created not only a very different series from the usual Saturday morning fare – when there were Saturday animated cartoons for kids – but also a very touching series about friendship, positive attitudes and a hero who is plucky and resourceful.
This outing is no exception. Spongebob’s pet snail Gary has been kidnapped by the vain King Poseidon who has discovered that rubbing a snail on his face prevents wrinkles. Spongebob must find Gary and bring him back to their hometown of Bikini Bottom.
Naturally this road trip is all due to the ongoing villain of the series, the greedy and jealous Plankton.
Filmed in a three-dimensional CGI rather than more traditional 2-D animation, “Sponge on the Run”: features a group of live action actors playing characters our heroes meet along the way, including Danny Trejo, Snoop Dog and Keanu Reeves. Reeves is seen in the most footage as Sage, a talking tumble weed encountered along the way who guides Spongebob on his quest. The character is so what we would expect from the actor.
I’m not even going to try to explain it. Just roll with it – no pun intended.
This is a fun, well-made summer diversion that – at least in my opinion – can be watched and enjoyed by kids and adults.
I’m glad to see the original voice cast is back with the addition of Matt Berry as the conceited sea king and Tiffany Haddish as an emcee.
Paramount+ has it on its service, but naturally as an advocate of physical media, I’m glad a Blu-ray has been released.
On Netflix: “Gunpowder Milkshake”
There is a subgenre of action films in which the only characters in the story are the protagonist and the people pursuing him or her. The world with people in the background and police patrolling the street simply doesn’t exist. Examples of this approach are the “John Wick” movies in which the world outside of the story is not much of a factor.
“Gunpowder Milkshake” is like that. We have our central character of Sam (Karen Gillan) who is a second generation assassin working for the same organization as did her mother (Lena Headey) who disappeared 15 years previous. We have her associates (Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh, and Carla Gugino), a young girl (Chloe Coleman) and the bad guys, the people for whom she used to work and a very upset gangster.
This other-worldliness adds an almost science fiction level to the story and action. The plot is Sam wanting to protect the girl – whose father she was assigned to kill – and to avoid death at the hands of her former bosses.
This is not a film for the squeamish as there is blood galore, but it is does have humorous moments. In particular is a sequence in which Sam has sent three of her attackers to a doctor. She turns up at the same doctor not knowing they are there.
The bad guys are on crutches and can barely move after their initial encounter with her and are all on laughing gas as a sedative. I loved their second fight scene with the trio of hit men hobbling around as best as they could as Sam managed to dispatch them.
This is a clever summer movie with an impeccable cast. Back in the day it might have wound up on screens at drive-in across the country. From me that is high praise.