Movie Review: Home

Home

So… are Steve Martin and Rihanna friends?  No, I’m pretty sure I heard something it being   Jim Parsons and Rihanna being friends.  One of them?  Right?  I honestly can’t tell the reason this movie was made if not!  In case the message I’m sending wasn’t clear, here’s what I’m saying:  this movie is POINTLESS.

Y’know, I walked into Mr. Peabody and Sherman expecting something stupid and you know what I got?  Something good.  I truly enjoyed that movie.  Even the opening short, a little animated piece called “HOME” starring Steve Martin, was charming in its own way.  Hell, from the short it seemed like they definitely could have made something with this.  THIS, however, is not what I had in mind.

Reasons to see this movie:

If you like Jim Parsons in Big Bang Theory then you’ll certainly… tolerate him here.  Seriously I mean tolerate.  The character is supposed to be obnoxious but Jim Parsons adds a certain… nothing to it.  Really he just comes off as obnoxious.  The character has depth of course, as most main characters do [really it’s kind of hard to screw up main character development however bad your movie is *cough* Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles *cough*].  The only problem is that every scene that promises character development is interrupted or drowned out by…

Reasons not to see this movie:

It’s a two hour music video.  Rihanna’s presence just overpowers the entire movie.  The thing is littered with her songs as well as others.  Now I’m not saying that popular songs in animated movies is a bad thing.  One of my favorite movies is the American release of the Digimon Movie and that’s loaded to bursting with ska.  My point is that the music is so prevalent that it deters from the story.  Plus Rihanna does not sound like a twelve year old girl, and yes I’m pretty sure that’s how old she’s supposed to be.

Here’s what I would do:

DROP RIHANNA.  I’m pretty sure it was mostly her influence behind this movie’s direction.  Despite Rihanna’s problems, her character’s backstory actually provides an interesting reflection or foil to the aliens.  The only problem is that we learn this backstory an hour into the film with no visuals.  Here’s what I’d do:  Make the opening in two parts, maybe at the same time flashing back and forth between Tip [Rihanna] and Oh [Jim Parsons].  Show Tip adjusting to a new city, country and school while Oh and the rest of the aliens try to acclimate to different worlds, ultimately not fitting in or fleeing.

Final Thoughts:

I said it before.  This movie is pointless.  But it could have not been.  If there was slightly better direction, a clear villain [preferably Steve Martin’s character], and above all strong scenes for character development, this could have been something great.  As it is right now I just feel jipped that it didn’t have a trailer for “Inside Out.”  That speaks leagues to its forgetfulness.  3/10