Review of Hotel Transylvania (2012) by Trenton R — 28 Nov 2013

Ugh. Another marketing "triumph" of Big Budget and Star Names conquering over storytelling, consistently funny jokes, character and charm.

After the first half-hour I was ready to turn this off. Tedious cliches, poor jokes, throwing a whole load of sh*t at the wall and almost none of it sticking. If my daughters hadn't been enjoying it, I would have given up, especially as we'd only recently seen the infinitely better Paranorman. But I persevered, and it did improve.

Adam Sandler is excruciatingly bad, and the recurring conceits to use Cee-Lo Green as a monster popstar just got more annoying with every tired scene. The best parts of the film are between Mavis and Jonathon, the kids in the story, and I also liked the sequences near the end outside the castle. But generally, this is really, really ordinary. Written by committee? Performances dialled in? Just not good enough? Oh yes.