Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel

I know that I just said that I won’t do many of these just a few days ago, but here we are again with another movie review.  If there was going to be another one, surely it wouldn’t be this.  Shouldn’t it be something more manly?

Nonetheless, here it is the much anticipated sequel to Alvin and the Chipmunks.  I went to go see it with my nine year old daughter Lauren. It returns Earl from My Name as Earl as Dave and “What was that guy in?  Arrested Development? Yeah, that’s it.” as Ian.  It also stars Chuck from NBC’s Chuck and that retired model from Just Shoot Me.

Expectations:  I saw the first one and loved it.  I am not ashamed to enjoy kid movies.  It was cute and it made me laugh.  We ended up buying it for the girls and I watched it again.  I tell you that so you will know that I am not a hater or too cool or manly to say that I enjoyed a kid’s movie.  All that to say, my expectations were very low.  There’s no way it could be as bad in reality as it was in my head.

Reality: Really you have to add the Chipettes in the second movie?  Where can you go for the third one? Do you have to add the Budweiser frogs?  Was Jason Lee too good to really be in this?  Was he contractually obligated to be in, but only was willing to break his neck in the first 60 seconds and essentially be done? Anyway, Chuck did a good job in his place, but his role was minor, as this was mostly about developing the characters of the three brothers (that can’t be a serious statement) and introducing the Chipette’s.  All that to say, it was better than I thought it would be.  Again, it would have to be.  It was cute in parts and tedious in parts.  It has already, one week out, been successful enough for a third which is preliminarily titled: Alvin and the Chipmunks 3: The Battle for Christmas with Emmet Otter and His Jugband.

Appropriateness:  It’s rated PG, I suppose because Chipmunks giving wedgies is inappropriate for some children as well as swirlies and a Dutch oven reference.  Sorry, I may have given away some of the best parts.

Rating: (Here is the system)

See it in the theater and will definitely own

See it in the theater and might own

See it in the theater and will likely rent it

See it in the theater and be done

See it at the dollar theater

Rent it

Avoid it.

I rate it a take your kids to the dollar theater, if they will wait.  When they ask, say “Let’s go get ice cream instead.  We’ll see that later.”  You may get fat on the ice cream, but you will be glad you only paid $1/$1.50 per ticket instead of $6-$10.

(By the way, people keep googling Alvin and the Chimpmunks w/ misspelling.  Mine was misspelled and I changed it.  I am adding in the misspelling again.)