Review of The Boss Baby (2017) by Ethan J — 30 May 2017

'THE BOSS BABY' was directed by Tom McGrath and stars Alec Baldwin, Tobey Maguire and Steve Buscemi. ?When his new baby brother comes into Tim(Tobey Maguire)'s life, wearing a sharp suit and tie, Tim feels there is something wrong with him and desperately tries to prove to his Mum(Lisa Kudrow) and Dad(Jimmy Kimmel) that there is something wrong. But as evens unfold, he sees that things are not as they seem.

My expectations for this movie were lower than low. From the trailers, I thought this movie would be one of the worst movies of this year. After seeing it, I was half right. It isn't a good movie but I don't see it as particularly bad. Kids will definitely enjoy it, there is no doubt about that so if you want a harmless thing to let your kids watch, they'll be occupied for 90 minutes but aside from that, I just don't recommend it. Movies like 'Toy Story', 'The Iron Giant' and even 'Aladdin' and 'The Lion King' have proved we can have stellar animated movies that appeal for both children and adults so I naturally assume that most competent animated movies will attempt to appease both. With the exception of some funny movie references, this movie provides very, very little for more mature audiences to enjoy. The moral is only for children and doesn't have much(if any) appeal to adults. If you're a parent who wants to relax for an hour, your kids will probably be entertained but if you don't fall into that category, I don't recommend it.

Not to say that animated movies need a stellar story, but this movie was pathetically predictable. Great movies can be predictable but they need to at least try to stand out from the pack. I'd argue the rough concept of this movie is similar to 'Storks' from last year and that the morals presented are nothing original either. On top of that, if you claim the ending of this movie is surprising or 'touching', you really need to watch more movies. I predicted that before the movie was even on.

Alec Baldwin was, to be fair to him, pretty great as 'The BOSS Baby' and made this movie watchable. Both Tobey Maguire and Steve Buscemi did fine in the supporting cast but that is this movie's primary flaw. Everything is just fine. Very little stands out and is great but by the same comparison, very little is outwardly bad or frustrating. It's just kind of average. None of the characters are particularly memorable and just exist to hurry the plot along.

As far as animation goes, this movie is pretty nice to look at. It's nothing special or anything, and I could have done without the annoying eyes, but it's perfectly passable and won't take you out of the movie too much. It tries to be more cartoony that realistic and takes plenty of liberties as such so it's perfectly enjoyable for children to look at but isn't anything too impressive because who actually puts effort into animated movies? They're just for kids, right?

I will say I laughed around about 5 times in this movie and all of those times were purely because of movie references. So if it's not THAT funny and doesn't have a great story/cast of characters, what does it have going for it? I'll say it has a good heart. While the story is pretty predictable and I cannot see many adults enjoying this, it's a perfectly disposable film that will entertain kids and perhaps even offer them a moral lesson. Aside from that, I can't say I recommend it. I'll rate it a 4 out of 10 bottles of milk.