Hop

Year: 2011
Genre: Family Comedy
Directed: Tim Hill
Stars: James Marsden, Russell Brand, Kaley Cuoco, Hank Azaria, Gary Cole, Elizabeth Perkins, Hugh Laurie, Tiffany Espensen, David Hasselhoff, Chelsea Handler, Dustin Ybarra
Production: Universal Pictures/Illumination Entertainment

It seems as long as I can remember, live action kid flicks have always been churned out like their makers were on autopilot. Primarily consisting of fart jokes and slapstick, kids movies are presumably for kids and therefore somehow less than and not worth the effort. Why? With kids television and music growing more sophisticated and educational why do we continue to dumb-down their films?

Seriously, why?!

Hop is a perfect example of obtuse kids entertainment. James Marsden plays Fred O'Hare (yes there are more overly forced Easter jokes to come), a lethargic layabout with no ambition other than being a leech to his parents. Finally kicked out of the house, Fred's older, presumably more responsible sister (Kaley Cuoco) takes pity on him and sets him up not only with a job interview at a video game company but also a mansion in Beverly Hills guarded by two Belgian Malinois, entrusted to her by her boss. Fred's plans...whatever they might be, are scrambled with the arrival of E.B. (Russell Brand), heir of the Easter Bunny who shows up in front of his car. E.B. you see came to Hollywood because he rather be a drummer than a bunny-fied holiday icon.

Hop is brought to you by Illumination Entertainment, the same animation house that made Despicable Me (2010) a kids film that was intelligent, charming and dared to be a little risqué in its mean-spiritedness. Sadly Hop takes things two steps backwards with its cotton candy premise and its dull, uninspired execution. The film largely consists of Marsden hopping around the set trying to control a CGI rabbit which demonstrates we really haven't gotten that far since The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964). Marsden's energy is completely undermined and wasted by a lazy script, sloppy CGI/live action effects and a languid voice performance by Russell Brand who sounds like he just crawled out of bed. And when I mean lazy script I don't mean phoned in, I mean literally lazy. Once the two principle characters meet they do absolutely nothing of interest. At one point they sit at a diner asking each other what to do, onlookers paying no heed to the fact that a grown man is talking to a plaid wearing bunny who poops candy. I'd hate to know how licorice is made on Easter Island.

"I think what we should do now is make a sequel to Smurfs!"

Hugh Laurie and Hank Azaria also lends their voices for Hop as the Easter Bunny and Carlos, a slightly offensive Latino stereotype involved in a subplot too stupid to mention. One can't help but think if Azaria and Brand were given the chance to ad lib a little this film would have been a bit more tolerable.

At its worst this film an egg-ravating movie that has absolutely nothing to offer even the youngest of children. It is a poached commercialization of yet another holiday that doesn't need it and an egg-travagant waste of talent and resources. At its best this egg-cruciating film is an uninspired string of stale jokes. How stale you ask? My puns are fresh and bunny-er by comparison.

Final Grade: F