Lego Movie builds lots of laughs

Speciality Theatre

The Lego Movie

****

Stars: Will Arnett, Elizabeth Banks, Will Ferrell. 

Directors: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller.

Rated: PG

Showing: Fri 2:30pm, 6pm, 8:15pm; Sat 2pm, 4:30pm, 7pm, 8:30pm; Sun 1:30pm, 4pm, 6:30pm; Mon-Thurs  1pm, 3:30pm, 6pm, 8:30pm.

Runtime: 100 minutes

Animation, action, comedy.

Finally! A comedy that works. An animated film with a look — a kinetic aesthetic honouring its product line’s bright, bricklike origins — that isn’t like every other clinically rounded and bland digital 3-D effort. 

A movie that works for the Lego-indebted parent as well as the Lego-crazed offspring. A movie that, in its brilliantly-crammed first half especially, will work even if you don’t give a rip about Legos.

The Lego Movie proves that you can soar directly into and then straight past product placement into a realm of the sublime, if you’re clever enough. This isn’t just the funniest PG-rated animation in too long; it’s the funniest film, period.

The setup of The Lego Movie, also directed by Lord and Miller, recalls both Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and the recent Wreck-It Ralph in its mashup of familiar characters and imaginative worlds. It’s a bit much toward the end. A little more breathing room en route might’ve helped sell the heartfelt wrap-up. But most of the way “The Lego Movie” plays like the world’s greatest fan tribute, and I can’t wait to see it again. 

Ride Along

**

Stars: Ice Cube, Kevin Hart, Tika Sumpter

Directors: Tim Story. 

Rated: PG-13

Showing: Fri 2:15pm, 9:15pm, Sat 2:45pm, 9:30pm; Sun 2:45pm, 5:15pm, 7:35pm; Mon 2:30pm, 7pm; Tues  2:30pm, 6:15pm, 8:45pm; Wed 3pm, 6:15pm, 8:45pm; Thurs 2:30pm, 6:15pm, 8:45 pm.

Runtime: 100 minutes

Action, comedy.

A little Kevin Hart goes a long way in Ride Along, a dull buddy picture engineered as a vehicle for the mini-motor mouth Hart and the perma-sneering Ice Cube. Cube’s pursuit of a mysterious villain named Omar is interrupted by his sister’s fiance. 

That would be Ben (Hart), a video-game-addicted school security guard who longs to bring his wise-cracking / voice-cracking banter to the Atlanta P.D. James drags Ben on a ride-along just to convince the dude he isn’t cut out for police work and that he isn’t good enough for James’ supermodel sister, Angela. 

Liberty Theatre

The Nut Job

***

Stars: Will Arnett, Brendan Fraser, Liam Neeson  

Director: Peter Lepeniotis

Rated: PG

Showing: Fri 2:30pm, 6pm, 8pm; Sat-Sun 2pm, 4:30pm, 7pm; Mon-Thurs 2pm, 4:30pm, 7pm.

Runtime: 85 minutes

Animation, adventure, comedy.

The Nut Job is strictly fun for kids. They will go nuts for the tale.

But adults may just go nuts waiting for the rather redundant comic humour to end.

The film is filled with colourful woodland creatures that inhabit an idyllic park. Winter’s coming and they are dangerously low on food. 

A new supply is needed, especially when squirrel loner Surly (voiced by Will Arnett) puts an even bigger damper on the winter menus. After being expelled from Liberty Park for actions unbecoming a woodland creature, Surly and his silent sidekick, Buddy, stumble upon the Holy Grail of goobers — a local nut store just ripe for the taking. All they have to do is figure out how to steal the nuts while a group of human bank robbers use the nut house as a means to their local score. 

Neptune Theatre

The Wolf of Wall Street

****

Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie. Director: Martin Scorsese.

Rated: R

Showing: Fri-Sat 7:30pm; Sun 5:30pm; Mon-Thurs 7pm.

Runtime: 180 minutes

Biography, comedy, crime.

The Wolf of Wall Street comes shackled with impossibly high expectations.

It’s the latest film from Martin Scorsese (arguably America’s greatest living director), features two of the era’s most notable leading men (Leonardo DiCaprio and Matthew McConaughey) and runs three hours (Hollywood proof that this is “important”, people).

It also happens to be of the cultural moment, based on Jordan Belfort’s bestselling memoir about his days as a young, ruthless Wall Street warlord. 

As the country continues to struggle its way out of the 2008 financial collapse, there’s still interest in how it all might have gone down. So it’s a relief and a pleasant surprise that Wall Street, despite some missteps and the need for an editor, mostly manages to live up to the interest generated by its kinetic trailers and the heavy hand of hype. 

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