Tag: Dana Carvey

REVIEW: The Secret Life of Pets 2 [2019]

Jared Mobarak

Was the world always this dangerous? Illumination missed the boat on The Secret Life of Pets because the way they’ve told these stories thus far make them a lot more conducive to television than cinema. If that first film’s sprawling character list devolving into wild schemes and pratfalls barely adhering to the flimsy plot beneath wasn’t enough to prove it, composing The Secret Life of Pets 2 into three very disparate subplots forced together at the climax is. Moving to a long-form narrative format would supply breathing room to focus…

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REVIEW: The Secret Life of Pets [2016]

Jared Mobarak

“Liberated forever, domesticated never” Illumination Entertainment’s latest film The Secret Life of Pets has an amazing hook: what do our pets do while we’re gone? We could obviously pay Comcast Xfinity to supply cameras and discover the answer to that question—why use product placement when you can show a commercial before the film that uses its characters as shills—but it’s more fun to imagine the possibilities ourselves. If you’ve seen any of the trailers you’ll know this is precisely what Ken Daurio, Brian Lynch, and Cinco Paul have decided. Their…

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REVIEW: Joyful Noise [2012]

Jared Mobarak

“Tap it and die” For a film about a gospel choir and the push and pull of faith within its singers’ lives, Joyful Noise has a funny way of getting its message of love and hope across. I understand it’s 2012 and we must show a progressive slant on the church in order to reach audiences and not turn a majority away before the theatre lights dim, but some of the stuff happening in this film is borderline offensive as it panders to the lowest common denominator in its clumsy…

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