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Monsters vs. Aliens ( )

Away We Go

THIRTY-SOMETHING, pregnant, and living in a ramshackle house with a cardboard window, Verona (Maya Rudolph) asks a question of her lover Burt (John Krasinski) that many a 30-something couple ask of themselves: "Are we f***-ups?"

In a noble attempt to avoid that designation, the two take to the road to find the ideal place to raise their young SSRqun, reasoning that for every closed cardboard window, there is an open door.

Sam Mendes directs this whimsical tour of North America -- and its widely varied parenting styles. Representing the side of parental neglect is Verona's old pal Lily (Allison Janney), a good-time gal turned neurotic harridan, ragging on her unloved kids one minute and coming on to Burt the next, while her angry, passive-aggressive husband (Jim Gaffigan) slow-burns in the background.

Burt's childhood friend Ellen (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a condescending New Age matriarch, is a clingy polar opposite to Lily who believes strollers are evil. ("Why would I want to push my child away from me?")

As with many an episodic movie, some episodes are better than others. Thanks to Janney's bravura performance, the Lily segment has undeniable train-wreck appeal, while the Ellen segment is broad and off-putting. It feels like a right-winger's dark fantasy of what liberals do behind closed doors.

That aside, this is a worthy meditation on parenting and the myriad options open to those bringing a new life into the world. 3 stars

Monsters vs. Aliens

KIDS and adults can watch this 3-D animated feature and have two wholly different experiences.

The kids will be impressed and amused by the cast of weird creatures. At the same time, their older escorts may be able to mentally inventory the old B-movies that inspired each character, starting with Susan (voiced by Reese Witherspoon), who encounters a mysterious meteor that causes her to glow (and not in that newlywed way) and grow to a whopping 49 feet, 11 inches.

Yep, Susan is suffering the same fate as Allison Hayes in the 1958 thriller Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.

The army quickly spirits Susan to a secret government facility, where she meets other imprisoned creatures that have been sequestered, explains General W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland), from the panicky public. They include:

The gelatinous B.O.B. (Seth Rogen) a chatty but brainless variant of the silent, squishy extraterrestrial The Blob (1958).

The Missing Link (Will Arnett), a half-man, half-fish shout-out to The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).

Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), a mad scientist who merged his genes with that of an insect in homage to the The Fly (1958).

Dwarfing even Susan is Insectosaurus, a 100-metre grub inspired by the Japanese giant Mothra (1961).

Before Susan can even adjust to her life of incarceration, a huge robot crashes to Earth, spurns the overtures of friendship by the U.S. president (Stephen Colbert) and commences trashing the California countryside. General Monger suggests, well, see the title.

The movie's 3-D format dovetails nicely with the movie's shlocky B-movie inspirations. Unfortunately, the shlock tends to permeate the film itself, and a script that never quite lives up to the sublime quality of the animation and the voicework. 3-1/2 stars

Top 10 DVD Rentals

1. Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past

2. X Men Origins: Wolverine

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4. State Of Play

5. Crank 2: High Voltage

6. Duplicity

7. I Love You, Man

8. Sunshine Cleaning

9. The Informers

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-- Rogers Video, week ending Sept. 27

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 1, 2009 E7