Review of Shorts (2009) by Rachel H — 02 Nov 2010

I'm going to begin this review with a little bit of a personal anecdote regarding this movie. I have three brothers and normally I like going to movies with them. Namely my two elder brothers because they have great taste in movies. It's because of my elder brother (who will be known as D) that I saw the A-Team movie. However, my younger brother (who will be known as J) has the normal kids taste in movies, and he begged me to take him to this one. He's a kid, so I agreed. Big mistake.

Shorts is a very weird movie. It's fine for kids but anybody over the age of 10 in the theatre would be bored to death with all the kiddie jokes and all the big Robert Rodriguez style sensory overload. All that was missing in this movie was 3-D and Smell-o-Vision. Two minutes into the movie I was already bored. Like I said, this is a weird movie, but not for lack of trying. If you're between the ages of five and maybe ten, you'll probably like this movie. But anyone over that age I would advise to avoid this movie.

Shorts is a movie presented in four acts (or "shorts" if you will) that all tie together in the end. The main character is a boy named Toby (Jimmy Bennett) who is bullied endlessly by Helvetica Black and her brother Cole. He finds a wishing rock, wacky adventures ensue, and all the stories tie together at the end.

In terms of the story connection, it wasn't really good, and I have no idea why Robert Rodriguez cast his kids in this movie, because they suck. The only character I enjoyed in this movie was Helvetica (played by the actually rather funny Jolie Vanier) only because she was mean and kinda looked like Wednesday Addams. All the other characters, including Jon Cryer and Leslie Mann, are either jerky or boring.

If you have a kid and they beg to see this movie, then don't beg them not to. If you are single and childless, then don't, because you'd be at a huge disadvantage being an adult watching a movie that's clearly not made for adults. All in all, pretty forgettable.