roypwebber

I thought that GOLDMEMBER was by far the weakest entry in the AUSTIN POWERS thus far. Sure, it IS extremely funny ( if you consider a steady steam of penis jokes-I guess the title is the warning-to be hilarious ), but "funny" in the vein of going to a raucous party and then waking up the next morning hung-over and saying "Why did I do that?" There really isn't any story to speak of, as the movie segues from vignette to vignette without any sense of authority. GOLDMEMBER throws out the witticisms of the first two ( esp. first ) films for club-you-over-the-head gross-out humor and heavy sexual innuendo; examples of these are Fat Bastard and the Japanese twins. I know many, many people will love it ( I like it but not that much ), but what does it say about the American moviegoing public? Actually, I hope there won't be a fourth movie if this trend continues but I'm certain that the financial success of it will dictate otherwise. My guess is that the title of the next AUSTIN POWERS project will be a play on OCTOPUSSY.

ICE AGE is a very good computer animation film even if somewhat derivative of other recent titles ( SHREK, DINOSAUR etc. ) in this particular genre. The main characters are quite good, all the way from the aloof Manny the Mammoth to the flippant Sid the Sloth. There is certainly a feeling a "deja vu" in the proceedings ( ala DINOSAUR and MONSTERS, INC. ), yet the situations are settings are unique enough to keep the story fresh and entertaining. Some of the strong points are Diego's character development from an antagonist to hero, and the lovable Scrat whose presence charms even if adding nothing to the storyline ( seemingly inspired by toon-master Tex Avery ).

Of course, the human characters in ICE AGE are as minimal as to be expected; even the baby ( though cute ) is a minor presence though constantly seen throughout. One has to wonder why these prehistoric mammals are going through all this bother to bring this infant back to its clan. Another weakness is with Manny himself; there are practically no insights into the basic nature of this massive elephant except for a brief incident where he remembers his family being killed by hunters ( giving more reason to wonder about his involvement here ). Sid is better defined but extremely similar to the goofy lemur in DINOSAUR ( with a "hot tub" scene where he is also trying to wow the ladies much like the Disney pic ).

Some other notable elements are the other saber-toothed cats of Diego's pride, either wholly evil or comical like THE LION KING, and the hilarious suicidal Dodos which didn't die out until comparatively recent times. In spite of the aforementioned familiarity of the material, there is enough originality and cleverness to more than compensate for this recycling of story elements to make it a winner. Pleasing to the eyes, ICE AGE doesn't redefine the genre but is just as worthy as any of the others ( and in some regards even better ).

On a 1-10 scale, a solid 8