Bumbling inventor-wannabe Flint Lockwood has big dreams of improving
the quality of life for the citizens of his small hometown, which is a
forgotten island in the middle of nowhere that is literally surviving
on sardines. Gross. He invents spray-on shoes, but he can’t invent a
way to get them off. He invents spray-on hair, but his dad ends up
looking like a Sasquatch. Despite his best efforts, he just can’t get
anything right. Then his mom dies, he hits puberty, his dad considers
him a failure—his life basically goes to shit. Well isn’t that
wonderful.
But then, one of his typical mistakes ends up making him a star.
After another experiment goes monumentally awry, Lockwood’s latest
invention—a machine that turns water into food—ends up in
the sky high above the little island. Then it starts raining
cheeseburgers. Everyone in the town is ecstatic to finally get to eat
something that isn’t a small, greasy fish, and Lockwood becomes the
hometown hero.
But, just as you’d expect, the adoration doesn’t last long. In
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (based on the children’s book
of the same name), the moral of the story isn’t that fucking up can
make you famous (even though it can); the ultimate message is that
there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Not only does the
town’s greedy mayor end up morbidly obese (too big, even, for his
little motorized scooter), but the slowly mutating food gets bigger and
bigger and eventually threatens to destroy the island and everyone on
it. Of course, the greedy fucks deserve to die, but since this is a
kids’ movie, everyone lives and things work out in the end. Sigh. Those
kids’ movies—so cute, but so predictable. 
Lindy does a much better job reviewing kid movies. She is way less jaded.
Actually, I take that back…Lindy may be jaded too, but hides it better. Seriously Megan, it looks like you phoned this one in. A kids movie based on a kids book offers so many possibilities to explore in the review. That’s all I’m saying.
Let’s don’t stop at jaded, how about angry and cynical?
mmhhhmmm that’s bad shilling. Of course she has no stake in the movie’s success so…
The reviewer thinks its a bad thing that everyone doesn’t get killed in a family film?
Is the movie funny? Looks it in the trailers. Is it a movie children will enjoy? No idea from this review. Just a lot of snark and hate of the world.
Megan Selling: BLAH BLAH BLAH MENSTRUATION BLAH BLAH BLAH I HATE CHILDREN THIS MOVE SUCKS DICKS BLAH THOSE ISLANDERS ARE STUPID BECAUSE ALL THEY HAVE IS SARDINES I HATE THOSE STUPID ISLANDERS BLAH SINCE THEY’RE EATING THEY’RE GREEDY BLAHBITTY BLEH KILL THEM ALL.
Commentors: JESUS CHRIST SHUT YOUR FUCKING YAPPER OH MY GOD I HATE THE STRANGER AND ITS WRITERS SO MUCH I’M GOING TO BUST A NUT BURN THE WRITERS TO THE GROUND THIS REVIEW IS WORSE THAN THE HOLOCAUST AND YOU’RE TEN TIMES WORSE THAN THE BASTARD CHILD OF HITLER AND STALIN HOW DARE YOU EVEN CONSIDER GIVING THIS MOVIE A BAD REVIEW? IT’S A CHILDREN’S MOVIE SO THEREFORE IT’S OFF LIMITS ENTIRELY, END! OF! STORY!
Ignoring the obvious trolling that precedes me, this does seem like a pretty short review, Megan. But hey, if that means your portion of the back-to-school feature (always hilarious; I look forward to it every year) is that much better because that was your primary focus this week, fine by me.
I saw a screening last night and I feel that this review doesn’t really cut it. There is nothing about the charm, warmth, and humor represented here. This is purely distilled in to “I’m Megan and kid’s movies need more death.”
First of all, the humor isn’t a series of one-off jokes, even the quirky scenes are referenced again and interwoven in to a world. Unlike a Dreamworks movie where it feels like every joke started with “hey remember that scene from this movie? What if we did that, but with a Panda!” I think this really speaks to the clever writing of the writer/directors and the talented storyboard artists.
A blood bath tacked on to the end to make you happy really isn’t called for. I’m astonished you feel justified in requesting such a thing. That is more appropriate for a parody of the animated family feature genre, something targeted at cynical, “I review films” audiences. I wish you well with that pitch to Hollywood.
For you parents out there who saw the movie, what I want to know is SHOULD I TAKE MY KIDS (aged 4 and 5) OR NOT???
You should absolutely take your kids to see this film! Yes, the story is predictable, but it has a lot of original gags. I actually enjoyed it a lot (and I’d rather sit in a dentist’s chair than watch some of the other kids films out there).