The Smurfs 3D
Review by Anthony Morris
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The Smurfs 3D
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If you were a Hollywood movie mogul and you wanted to wring some
cash out of The Smurfs – cute little blue creatures best known for a
forgettable television series and a bunch of figurines you could
collect from service stations – you could hardly do better than The Smurfs.
Everything
it does, it does with a shrug; after a brief opening set in the Smurf
village, a small group of smurfs find themselves magically transported
to New York, where they spend most of their time trying to get back.
Actually,
that’s a lie; they spend most of their time saying hilarious lines
where swearwords are replaced with the word "smurf" ("smurf happens"
"up smurf creek without a smurfing paddle") hanging around a toilet,
and pretty much doing whatever it takes to make you wish you'd bought a
ticket to something else.
There's also the usual tedious
moralising, as Neil Patrick Harris' workaholic character is taught the
meaning of something or other by his new blue friends, but at least
Hank Azaria as the evil wizard Gargamel seems to be having fun - watch
out for his cat Azrael though, who is only CGI about half the time, and
so comes across as a lot creepier than the film-makers intended.
But
that’s the story across the board here, as nothing seems quite right,
as this manages to be both completely generic and kind of unsettling in
its shoddiness.
But who cares?
You're only going to
this to keep the kids quiet for an hour or so, and if this is the best
idea of how to do that you totally deserve having them use the word
"smurf" as a swear word for the next six months. 2 out
of 5
The Smurfs 3D
Australian release: 15th September,
2011
Official
Site: The Smurfs 3D
Cast: Hank Azaria, Katy Perry and Jonathan Winters
Director: Raja Gosnell
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