Rama’s SCREEN

Poor thing, many people would quickly assume that this movie is not worth seeing when in fact, it ain’t all that bad. Yes the graphics aren’t the best out there, and yes the storyline could get too childish but believe it or not, some of the jokes are actually funny. It’s not like… one of those days when I’d get so tired that even the stupidest pun would make me laugh, I mean SPACE CHIMPS actually has a good sense of humor. It’s a decent family movie that I’m afraid not many people would see.

When a $5 billion Space Agency probe disappears into an intergalactic wormhole, the agency recruits Ham III, grandson of the first chimpanzee in space, to help retrieve the wayward craft. But Ham is a free-spirited circus performer more interested in zero gravity high jinks than living up to his illustrious heritage. The simian slacker becomes a reluctant hero and learns the true meaning of courage as he and his crewmates, the fearless Lt. Luna and their uptight commander, Titan, risk everything in an effort to save the peaceful inhabitants of a distant planet from an evil dictator. A hilarious, out of this world adventure the whole family can enjoy, “Space Chimps” features cutting edge CGI animation and the voice talent of Andy Samberg (”Saturday Night Live”), Cheryl Hines (”Curb Your Enthusiasm”), Patrick Warburton (”Rules of Engagement”), Kristin Chenoweth (”The West Wing”) and Stanley Tucci (”Robots”).

Don’t expect WALL-E, the level of CG images in this movie will never come close to the greatness of any of Pixar movies. Let’s not kid ourselves by thinking that maybe this movie might have a chance in that category because it doesn’t.  But what it lacks in visual, it makes up for it in storyline, simple and if it doesn’t make you laugh, it will guarantee to make you chuckel or at the least you won’t feel that you’ve wasted your time.

I don’t recommend watching this in the theatre because waiting to watch it on DVD would probably give the same entertainment effect.
Will it be an instant family movie classic? That depends on how well this movie might do in time. It might become children’s favorites at day care centers everywhere.

I wasn’t kidding when I said this movie actually has a good sense of humor. It’s in the characters. The chimps say some of the darndest lines. Patrick Warburton who voiced Kronk in Emperor’s New Groove, he also does voices in many other cartoons, is the voice of Titan the Chimp and he voice sounds hilarious, as always. SNL’s Andy Samberg does well in playing the cocky chimp ala Top Gun’s Maverick, Ham III who has to live up to his grandpa’s reputation.  My favorite character is the Indian guy who’s in the nerd team that runs NASA.
The writers of the story don’t necessarily aim for the big gut busting laugh riot. They go for the small but effective lines like when those chimps landed on a planet, Ham thought they landed in Barstow.

Anyways, I’m not going to blame you if you’re never going to see this movie, I’m not going to force you to check it out either but if you do see it, I’m sure you can find it unnecessary to quickly judge it as one of the worst movies you’ve ever seen. Because frankly, it ain’t all that bad.

* Place the cursor on the image below to check my grade for this film