I am going to actually watch the Smurfs 2011. I sometimes like things that are “bad”, so I figure I would give this a chance. I wrote a pre-review after seeing the horrible commercials for this movie. Let me tell you the reason *WHY* I am going to watch this…
I made the mistake of sitting through Hairspray the movie musical, and if it hadn’t had John Travolta messing up his role, it would have been a good movie. What made the movie worthwhile to me, though, was reading the extremely funny, scathing reviews of JT’s performance. I ran across a review of the Smurfs that someone wrote that was titled, “I was smurfed out of my money”. THAT line made me want to see the movie.
After I watch it, I will update this post with my thoughts on it, and I will try to get past my pre-conceived notions and view it with an open mind.
Maybe if I watch it with the lowest expectations I will be pleasantly surprised!
The movie opens up with Afro smurf and another riding birds into their village. So far, so good. When we get to the village, it’s great to see a 3D realistic version of the smurfs and the mushroom houses! I actually enjoyed this part. Then I hear Mexican smurf. Sigh… I wonder if the translation in other countries has American smurf?
Queer smurf comes up and I am giddy with anticipation that he will be over the top. He looks in the mirror and screams, “A worry line!” LOL
We go to Gargamel’s castle where he is obsessing over the smurfs and we see a marionette show he’s putting on-funny! It pans up to Gargamel for the first time, and as much as I love Hank, the live action shouldn’t be in this movie. It has already ruined what started out as an ok thing. The cat’s interaction with the marionettes saves this scene.
Gargamel finally discovers the village, and other than him, this is actually a good scene as well. He smashes the mushroom homes and the smurfs run into the forest. Should I stop watching this now-before they go to live-action new york?
Yes. I SHOULD HAVE stopped watching it. Now they’re in NYC, and as with every other NYC based movie, they have to show all the ads for everything. It’s supposed to be a cute tongue-in-cheek reference, with the smurfs on a taxi right in front of a sign for the Blue Man Group. ha.
At this point, I found Papa Smurf to be too elderly sounding. Yes, Jonathan Winters was a very funny guy, and someone probably chose him based on performances from 20 years ago. He’s barely able to conjure up emotions. Very flat performance.
Once we get to the live action characters I was so disinterested that I stopped watching. Oh well.