Grae's currently on vacation in an exotic land until the end of April. Subbing for her is fellow MDC writer Alonso Duralde. Follow him on Twitter at @ADuralde.
Who’s In It: Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro, George Lopez
The Basics: Plucked from the rainforest as a baby, blue macaw Blu (voiced by Eisenberg) is thoroughly domesticated in Minnesota by Linda (Mann), who spends most of her life raising and keeping him. It turns out that Blu is only one of two blue macaws left in the world, so ornithologist Tulio (Santoro) brings Blu and Linda to Brazil so the bird can mate with his counterpart Jewel (Hathaway). Can the wild Jewel and the tame Blu find love and propagate the species? And will Tulio and Linda be able to find them after they get stolen by exotic-bird smugglers?
What’s The Deal: The posters say “From the creators of Ice Age,” so don’t say you haven’t been warned. Like that inexplicably popular animated franchise, Rio is an innocuous enough way to keep kids entertained for an hour or so, but it’s a bloody bore for grown-ups. The plotting here is of the set-up-the-pins-and-knock-them-down variety, so you’ll pretty much predict every grinding of the script’s gears. Mismatched couple whose initial loathing blossoms into love? Check. Wacky ethnic second bananas who help the leads in their quest? Check. Bland, cookie-cutter characters about whose fate we neither care nor worry? Check.
More Jobim, Less will.i.am, Please: It was heartening to see bossa nova king Sergio Mendes’ name in the opening credits, and to their credit, the filmmakers do use the film’s Brazilian setting as an excuse to throw in classic samba tunes like “Mas Que Nada” (under a breathtaking flying sequence off of Sugarloaf Mountain) and “The Girl from Ipanema.” But since Astrud Gilberto doesn’t get much radio play anymore, the movie forces a will.i.am composition, “Hot Wings (I Wanna Party)” into our ears. Like most Black Eyed Peas songs, it’s an excruciating ditty that boils down to one basic theme. (In this case: “Party! Party! Party!”)
In Living Color: One thing Rio does right is to take advantage of its avian characters, giving us an explosion of colored feathers right from the movie’s Busby Berkeley–esque opening number. The film’s evocation of the famous Rio Carnival parade is pretty eye-popping as well.
Art Film Gateway Drug: If Rio gets your kids excited about Brazil and the spectacle of Carnival, try showing them Marcel Camus’ 1959 Black Orpheus when they’re a little older.