Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2

Super Cute and Punny!

Well, hello again!  Thanks for joining me.  Take a Seat, ya Geek.  The original plan was to go see something new this week, but that ended up not happening. I'm going to a movie later today on a date (with a girl!) and didn't want to overdo it.  You know, strain the movie watching muscles. Instead, I decided to watch and review a movie that is recently out on video, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2.

You won't be able to look away.

Spoiler Free:

If the "2" in the title didn't give it away, there was already a Cloudy movie that came out a couple of years ago.  This one was a very good sequel.  It was very original and if you like puns, you will love this movie.  I'll get into some of them in the Spoiler section.  This is also a good family movie.  There are some parts that may be a little scary for smaller kids, but it all works out in the end and they will soon be drawing them or trying to build the food animals.

The movie was super-cute and had some really funny moments.  It had overarching themes of trust and friendship.  It never really dragged at all and moved from plot point to plot point quickly.  This made it feel like it went by fast and was good at keeping me engaged, which means it will probably keep you (or your kids) occupied.  Before you see it you should probably watch the first one, although there is a quick recap at the beginning of the movie.  Or I can give a little preview of it here.

To catch you up, our main character is Flint Lockwood.  He's an aspiring scientist.  The first movie's story is pretty simple. (First movie Spoilers aren't real Spoilers at this point.) Flint invents machines that sort of work, and sometimes blow up in his face.  He invents a machine that turns water into food in an attempt to invent something that can make the world better by ending world hunger.

It both works AND blows up in his face.

The machine gets launched into the atmosphere where it has a steady supply of water.  At first, Flint can control the machine to have it produce specific types of food-weather but it eventually starts to do it's own thing which includes bad food sotrms.  This quickly escalates to very dangerous conditions like a tornado made of spaghetti.  By the end, when Flint and his friends are able to stop the machine, the machine started to even produce LIVING food!

"STEVE!!  Gummy Bears!!"

Flint is able to seal off the bottom of the machine with another invention, Spray-on socks, to stop it from being able to produce more food.  So everything ends up great and all of our characters live happily ever after.... or do they?  Read ahead to find out or jump to the bottom for for the Overview.

--Caution: Spoilers Ahead--

Cloudy 2 picks up right where the first one left off.  Flint and team deactivate the food machine and Flint gets the girl.  Picking right up with their characters is the original cast.  Names like Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Andy Samberg, James Caan, Terry Crews as Earl the policeman, and Neil Patrick Harris as Steve the Monkey return.

STEVE!!!

Flint and the crew all decide to start a lab together using their individual skills to make it great.  That plan lasts all of 2 minutes before Chester V, Flint's childhood inventor hero, shows up.  He explains that he is in charge of cleaning up the food from their island and everyone would be relocated for a time.  Flint would also be going to work for him as he has proven to be a great inventor.

Flint works long and hard trying to earn an orange vest and become a a Thinkonaut with Chester V.  After 6 month, he is sure he will get the promotion, but is not selected.  Distraught, Flint goes home but is summoned back to meet with Chester.  He wants Flint to go back to the island to find the machine which has started making more food-animals.  Search teams have been lost trying to locate the machine and it is up to Flint to plug in a "BS-USB" that will turn off the machine and everything the machine has created.

This is a trick and while we don't yet know what Chester's ultimate plan is, he doesn't expect Flint to return from his mission.  Flint gets the gang together and they go to the island to find the machine.  Once there, awesomeness ensues as we start seeing the food-animals in what felt the while time like a scene out of Jurassic Park.

All we need is a John Williams soundtrack.

The food-animals all get very punny names.  There are shrimp-monkeys and team calls them Shrimpanzees.  Other fun food animals that you can probably picture somewhat are the FlaMango, HiPotatomus, Fruit Cockatiel, and the Tacodile.

...Supreme!

The main foodimal that has Flint worried is the Cheesespider.  A giant burger with sesame seed eyes and french fry legs.  In a video it appears they are trying to learn how to swim which would allow them to leave the island and get to the mainland.  Jurassic Park much much?

Flint makes it to the machine and realizes that the the foodimals aren't mindless beasts, but family-oriented friendly creatures.  They just react terribly to Chester's people who are cruel towards the foodimals.  Chester shows up and steals the machine.  His plan all along was to reprogram the machine to make is new series of Food Bars using live foodimals as the ingrediants.

Nooooooo!!!!

Flint, the gang, and the foodimals come together to stop Chester and put the machine back where it can continue to make nice foodimals.  It's a great showdown and is really fun to watch.  There is a sweet battle between Chester's security forces and a living Strawberry named Berry who took over a mechanical suit.  In the end, Chester V is eaten by a Cheesespider.  With the forces of Evil destroyed, the humans and the foodimals get along great.

The movie ends a little abruptly, but gives a great slideshow at the beginning of the credits to show how they all live together.  I highly recommend watching this part as it is still very funny.

General Overview

This was a really fun movie.  Good for all ages.  As I mentioned, you will especially like it if you like puns as they are all over the place in this movie.  You should be laughing through just about the while thing.

I kind of hope they don't make another one.  Another parallel to Jurassic Park could be to quit while you are ahead.  I'm not saying it's impossible, but I just don't think they will be able to top this one.  The foodimals were perfect as were the names they came up with.  I'm just not sure what direction another movie would take.  Jurassic Park you are on the island and Jurassic Park 2 you go back.  Quit there.

Bottom line, definitely check out this movie and watch the first one if you haven't already.  Unless you aren't paying attention, I can't think of a reason you shouldn't like this movie.  I'll leave you with this and tell me something doesn't move in your gut:

Anyone else hungry?