Alvin et les Chipmunks 2

Let's face it: "The Chipmunks" is a pretty thin premise. Once you get past the novelty of squeaky voiced animated rodents, there's really not much there. So this movie's straight-line, A to B to C story is a serious drawback.

Director Betty Thomas doesn't get a whole lot out of the cast (although, to be honest, I don't expect much in the way of high-caliber acting in movies like this), and the whole thing has a bit of a TV-movie feel, but the animation is rather good, and the film moves moves along at a pretty good clip, so even adults won't get too bored.

Certainly, for some reviewers, a film like this, in the final analysis, is perfectly acceptable, since it's "for kids," and thus the only thing that counts is whether it's "entertaining" on some basic level, regardless of its actual quality. That's a pretty common attitude toward kids' films, and one that really sells children short, as if they have no interest in character or story. They do, just like anyone else, albeit on a less sophisticated level than (most) adults. For example, I know that a lot of reviewers hated "Hotel for Dogs" but that film had an engaging story, well-drawn characters and a story that, while ultimately predictable, still held a few twists and turns. It wasn't particularly good, but it was better than this film.

After all the negative reviews I read, I went in with pretty low expectations. Perhaps that's why I ended up giving up a 7.

Look, this is not Hamlet, Citizen Kane or Duck Soup. This is a PG film that as close to being family friendly than I have seen. I can only imagine the PG rating was due to the fact that the chipettes were darn right sexy - I didn't hear any vulgarity, see any nudity, violence or adult situations.

It is really getting hard to find a film where I can take my 9 year old daughter to. With battling giant robots, vampires, and giant smurfs lurking in 3D, this movie was a relief to see.

The plot is paper thin - though in its defense it did have an ethical base of family, friendship, and responsibility.

The effects were top notch, and there were a few times I even laughed (which was a few more times than I expected).

In one word it was - 'Cute' - which is exactly what I think it sought out to be. Nothing more.. Nothing less. Harmless fluff.

My 9 year old enjoyed it. And at the end of the day, that's all that mattered to me.

This is a film for children. Taken on it's level, I give it a 7. if you want to rate it as art or entertainment for adults? Yeah, mebbe a 2 or 3. But you know what? Some kids were clapping at parts in the theater. To me, that was pretty cool knowing that a film can get kids in a theater clapping for the characters on the screen.

So relax. chill.. bring your little ones... and enjoy...

I asked my 11 year old and 7 year old daughters what they thought of this film. They both loved it.

The 3 on IMDb is a bit misleading. This is a film for children, not a campaign to win an Academy Award! Obviously there are people out there who take things a little toooooo seriously when rating kid's movies.

My 11 year old daughter writes the following: the movie was great. i love the sounds of those little voices. why are kids films usually getting a 2,3,4? the film the music, adventure,scenes were all entertaining for me.

Remember folks, this is a film for children, the chipmunks have been around for more than 30 years so they must be doing something right. If you want to over analyze a film then do a search on the French new age section and go your hardest, on the other hand if you are looking for pure entertainment for your under 12's then go no further.

You know this still works for the little ones, but will appall a lot older viewers, than say the first one did. It's basically more of the same, even with the addition of some Chipmunks "rivals" (another group of talking ...). The little ones won't mind (I watched it with my nephew and he enjoyed it), but what about the parents? There are other movies that can please both.

Still not really that bad, you can watch this in its own right or at least put the kids there and let them enjoy it. It's like the Chipmunks won't grow up (literally and physically that is), but again it's only us grown-ups that will think about things like that.

Today I had to sit through this movie several times. :-(

As an adult, it wasn't funny or entertaining. But what amused me was the reaction from the kids in the audiences. Almost none of the kids laughed out loud during the matinée viewing (the showing with the most kids in attendance).

Some take away comments from the mouth of babes: "Is it over YET?" "I'm bored" and my personal favorite "That wasn't so funny at all." (poor kid said it over and over again with the "big" jokes.) Plus, I had never seen so many kids ready to leave after the first 15 minutes.

It didn't get better over the course of the evening.