Third 'Ice Age' movie is a way to get out of the heat

By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Scrat (Chris Wedge) confronts the jaws of death in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

ADVERSTISMENT

LITTLE ROCK — Things happen in "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," which opened in movie theaters this week, but they don't really make sense, writes reviewer Philip Martin in Friday's MovieStyle section. And this second sequel is not really very funny either. If something very much like wit is occasionally half-heartedly attempted, it's almost immediately abandoned in favor of stale sitcom observations and platitudes.

Movie

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

80

Rating: PG

Length: 1 hour, 34 minutes

More information

Scrat - the saber-toothed squirrel-rat who has a Wile E. Coyote-like obsession with oversize acorns - still has the power to amuse. But most of the audience that doesn't fall within the film's single-digit age demographic will be bored with the movie's mildly scatological humor, derivative adventure plot and tacked-on life lessons.

As to how the kids will receive it, they'll quite possibly be thrilled with the 3-D effects. They're also likely to take to the swashbuckling, dino-hunting Buck (Simon Pegg), a one-eyed weasel who is equal parts Captains Ahab and Jack Sparrow.

While the "Ice Age" franchise suffers in comparison to more ambitious computer-animated features such as Pixar's "Up" and "Wall-E," it's honestly not a bad way to get the kids out of the summer heat for an hour and a half or so. And this third installment is arguably the best of the series.

Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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