I don’t know if anyone was exactly hungering for a film version of Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, but this one from directors Chris Miller (Shrek the Third) and Phil Lord is a well-rendered and fairly entertaining CGI effort that might literally make you hungry.

Based on the slim but beloved children’s book by Judi and Ron Barrett, it tells the story of an inventor named Flint (Bill Hader) who concocts a machine that can turn water into food, and who then must endure the chaotic and mouth-watering consequences of accidentally launching it into the atmosphere.

Visually, the film is a treat. Cheeseburgers and doughnuts fall from the sky, a spaghetti-and-meatball twister wreaks havoc, and characters bounce around in giant Jell-O molds. Kids will love it. There’s also a montage early on of Flint at different ages inventing things that go hilariously awry, and at one point characters give big-moment speeches while gigantic food rains down behind them.

There are plenty of smaller but equally humorous moments, too, most of them thanks to Flint’s pet monkey, an animal who’s fascinated by moustaches, utters one-word thoughts (voiced by Neil Patrick Harris) via an animal-to-English device á la Up, and takes on a pack of life-size Gummi Bears. The scene where Flint tries to look his dad in the eye also made me laugh.

Aside from a few SNL alums, including Hader and Andy Samberg, we get funny voice work from Anna Faris (Scary Movies 1-4) as a TV reporter, the always-welcome Bruce Campbell as the town’s slimy mayor, and the easy-to-spot Mr. T as a policeman. In voicing Flint’s bait shop-owning father, James Caan is surprisingly touching, belying his character’s amusingly gruff appearance.

The film unfortunately turns a little too frantic by the time the main characters take off to take down Flint’s food machine, which has morphed into a (rather disgusting) monstrosity reminiscent of V’Ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Also, Hader himself seems to be afflicted with ADD, and is given the annoying trait of dramatically saying what he’s doing.

As CGI ‘toons go, it’s better than Monsters vs. Aliens, I guess, but falls short of Meet the Robinsons, which also deals with kids and inventions but has more depth and is better at being peculiar. And yet nowhere else can you watch Mount Rushmore get smacked in the face(s) with a giant pie. – [DVD]

Animation/Family

Rated PG

DVD Release Date: 1/5/10

Rudd plays a newly engaged California realtor who gets along famously with the friends of his fiancee (Rashida Jones), and women in general, but has no male friends to speak of and so no prospective best man. That is, until he hits it off with Segel. They bond over fish tacos and rock out to Rush.

To me the film didn’t seem as vulgar as Marshall, especially in how it foregoes any full-frontal nudity by Segel, and so I didn’t mind all the swearing or constant discussions about certain adult activities as much. And it all has a nice, loose-but not too loose-improvisational feel thanks to director and co-writer John Hamburg (Safe Men), who nonetheless could have cut the scene where Rudd educates Jones on said prog-rock band.

Plus it’s reliably funny, from the man-dates Rudd goes on to find a male buddy to Segel’s play-by-play of a guy who won’t fart near his girlfriend, to Rudd’s failed attempts to say “see ya later” in a cool way, to the way Rudd and Segel’s inevitable break-up involves a discussion of Chocolat. There’s also the hilarious fight Segel picks with Ferrigno that ends with Segel in a sleeper hold.

Rudd just seems to get funnier with each film, and here he elicits laughs not only from his expressions, like when a gay man-date (Thomas Lennon) lays a French kiss on him, but also from his tendency to sound Irish when trying imitate Jamaicans or Brits. Not to mention how he slaps his slick jerk of a co-worker (Rob Huebel) in telling the guy to get lost.

Segel’s easy-going man-boy slob made me laugh, too, from little things like telling Rudd not to make Ferrigno (whose house Rudd is trying to sell) mad, to bigger ones, like his string of curses after getting a golf ball to the shin. His role is also the more interesting one, in that he’s essentially a male etiquette mentor for Rudd.

Then there’s the talented supporting cast, most of which has little to do. J.K. Simmons makes a funny impression as Rudd’s dad, whose best friends are Rudd’s gay brother (Andy Samberg) and a guy named “Hank Markdukas.” Jones is fine as the typically sweet and intelligent girlfriend who has typically supportive gal pals (Jaime Pressly and Sarah Burns). Lennon (17 Again) makes the hysterical most of his all-too-brief screen time.

I can certainly see how people might tire of Rudd’s ultimate-nice-guy act, or find Segel boorish and annoying, or even be put off by the seemingly incessant profanity (though Rudd hardly swears at all). I myself could have done without Jon Favreau as Pressly’s overly-aggressive, cigar-chomping husband who constantly belittles Rudd.

But I still liked the movie, and what’s more, I could relate all too easily to the social awkwardness Rudd experiences when trying to bond with other men, be it playing cards with Favreau’s friends or not being invited on a bachelor party/camping trip by some fellow fencing fellows. That alone raisesI Love You, Man a few notches above your average cuss-filled comedy. – [DVD]

Comedy/Romance

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 8/11/09