Ralph's Movie Reviews: MADAGASCAR

Monday, May 30, 2005

MADAGASCAR

Animated cartoon

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Chris Rock: voice of Marty, a zebra at the Central Park Zoo
Ben Stiller: Marty's best friend, Alex the lion, who is the zoo’s top draw
David Schwimmer: Melman, a hypochondriac giraffe
Jada Pinkett Smith: Gloria the hippo, the zoo’s most sensible character
Sacha Baron Cohen: King Julien
Cedric the Entertainer: Maurice's right-hand man
Andy Richter: Mort, the smallest member of the lemur tribe

REVIEW
This is a fun movie with more than a few chuckles. It is bright and colourful. So are the four main characters (well maybe some of them aren’t all that bright) who share an adventure started easily enough with a “what if?” question.

After a slow start, things get going once they leave Grand Central Station. Although the target audience is certainly kids, there are some things only the adults will get. Several recreated scenes are from movies such as Chariots of Fire and Saturday Night Live that were playing in theatres 25 - 30 years ago. As a refreshing change, the movie is completely devoid of any crude humour or bad words. The only swear word comes about when a couple pieces of the big bamboo sign fall off.

CLASSIFICATION

P.S.
Madagascar is the world's fourth largest island, about 1,000 miles long and 360 miles wide. It is located 250 miles off the south-east coast of Africa.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.