Movie Review Ralph Breaks the Internet

Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) 

Directed by Rich Moore, Phil Johnston

Written by Phil Johnston, Pamela Ribon

Starring John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Gal Gadot, Jane Lynch, Jack McBrayer, Alfred Molina

Release Date November 21st, 2018 

Published November 20th, 2018

Ralph Breaks the Internet is the most surprising movie of 2018. I expected the sequel to 2012’s Wreck it Ralph to be entertaining, sweet and funny like the original. What I was not expecting was for Ralph Breaks the Internet to have such a complex and emotionally fertile story, one that would leave me in tears of thoughtful joy. I had no idea that the makers of Ralph Breaks the Internet would offer one of the smartest, warmest and most mature stories of 2018 to tell.

Ralph Breaks the Internet picks up 6 years after the events of the original story with Ralph (John C. Reilly) and his best pal Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) still tied at the hip and, in Ralph’s mind, living the dream. Each day is the same, go to work and have fun and then meet up at the Tapper game and drink root beer and laugh till the day starts all over again. Ralph could not be more content with things but Vanellope is beginning to get restless.

Tired of racing and winning on the same three candy tracks in her game Sugar Rush, Vanellope confesses to Ralph that she wishes her game would be a little different from time to time. Thinking he can fix his friend’s problem, Ralph uses his strength to tear apart the background of Sugar Rush to create a new, more challenging track. Vanellope is excited to try it but while she’s racing the new track the person playing her game breaks off the steering wheel.

Because the game is broken, Sugar Rush is turned off and Vanellope and her fellow Sugar Rush cast are now homeless. The only way to save the game from being recycled for parts is to find a new steering wheel. The only place to find a vintage, intact, Sugar Rush steering wheel is the internet where one awaits on EBay. With Vanellope in tow, Ralph enters the newly installed internet port at the arcade and the two are off to the races inside the internet.

The satire of internet culture was something I was concerned would become obvious or cheesy but I must say, it’s spot on. The gags here are inspired as the creators of Ralph Breaks the Internet find one winner of a gag after another. It’s not perfect, there are a couple groaners here and there, but what Ralph Breaks the Internet does well is be consistently inventive in how the movie presents everything from EBay to video streaming to search engines.

As the story builds momentum a theme begins to reveal itself as Vanellope begins to find her place on the internet, especially in a Grand Theft Auto inspired online game called Slaughter Race. Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot gives voice to Shank, the best racer in Slaughter Race who takes an immediate liking to Vanellope. The two have a lot in common, despite the obvious differences in their game and Ralph begins to worry that Vanellope might have a friend other than him.

Amid the gags about insidious internet ads, get rich quick schemes and viral videos, Ralph Wrecks the Internet cleverly tackles a story that all kids will face in their own lives about how you have to make room in life for the lives of others. Ralph will slowly learn that because he was content with the status quo it doesn’t mean his best friend was just as happy. He’s going on a journey to learn how to be mature and respect that friends can want different things and still be friends.

It’s a lesson that even adults can stand to learn. The idea of learning to respect other people instead of demanding only what you want is a lesson too many adults haven’t fully learned. The final act of Ralph Breaks the Internet deals with insecurity and fear in a manner that is absolutely perfect and highlights how we all can feel insecure sometimes but it’s how we maturely come to terms with our insecurity that defines us as a person.

That is a brilliant and fresh piece of storytelling that could not be more important for both children and adults. That the film is also wildly funny and artfully animated only underlines why Ralph Wrecks the Internet isn’t merely the best animated movie of 2018, it’s one of the best movies of 2018 full stop. I rank this number 2 on my favorite movies of 2018, right behind a completely different but brilliant work of horrific art, Hereditary.

I completely adore Ralph Wrecks the Internet. I laughed loudly and easily and by the end I was deeply moved and quite emotional. This is the feeling we hope to have when we go to any movie, this just happens to be an animated movie intended for children. It may be aimed at kids but Ralph Wrecks the Internet can reach any audience, the film is simply brilliant on all levels, of the best movies of this year and animated milestone for this decade.

Movie Review Post Grad

Post-Grad (2009) 

Directed by Vicky Jenson

Written by Kelly Fremon

Starring Alexis Bledel, Zach Gilford, Rodrigo Santoro, Jane Lynch, Carol Burnett, Michael Keaton

Release Date August 21st, 2009

Published August 20th, 2009

The late great Gene Siskel is quoted as having asked this question about a movie: "Is this movie as interesting as watching a documentary of this same group of actors having lunch?".  It was a pass/fail standard that Mr. Siskel established for good and bad movies and applied to the new comedy Post Grad, we have a definite failure.

With a cast that includes Carol Burnett, Michael Keaton, Jane Lynch and Alexis Bledel, I would have rather watched them read reviews of their other movies than watch them play out this brutal mess of a comedy.

Post Grad ostensibly stars Alexis Bledel as a disastrously put upon college grad. As Ryden Malby, Bledel is a bright. sweet and utterly clueless gal who fails to secure a job before she graduates college. Hanging her hopes on one interview at the only company she wants to work for, Ryden not surprisingly finds herself jobless when the company hires someone more qualified than she.

Her troubles send her back to mom and dad's house. Mom and dad are played by Michael Keaton and Jane Lynch as the wacky approximations of sitcom characters. Keaton is an endlessly tinkering oddball who, in classic sitcom fashion, loves a good get rich quick scheme. They have another child, much younger than Ryden, who is even weirder and more off-putting than his bizarre parents.

And then there is grandma played by Carol Burnett. Her main character trait is waiting to die. She has an oxygen tank and at one point calls her family, including her young grandson, to a funeral parlor where she is looking to purchase a high end casket. This idea plays out in such a broad and bizarre way that sympathetic gang members and a casket on the lawn are somehow the result.

Of course, a film this mindless and idiotic has romantic complications. Ryden has a best friend played by Friday Night Lights QB Zach Gilford. Of course they are meant to be, he's in love with her for reasons only he knows, she's written as a dummy who can't see he's in love with her. Meanwhile, Ryden has a dalliance with a doofy neighbor, ten years her senior, that only exists to delay the inevitable. The neighbor has a cat and.. well... the less said about the cat the better.

Really, the less said about this movie the better. A week after audiences so foolishly passed on the terrific teen comedy Bandslam we get Post Grad, a movie with more power behind it and thus more likely to be seen. What a shame. Bandslam will likely be out of theaters by the end of this weekend while Post Grad stinks up far too many screens.

Post Grad is an idiot movie, filled with idiot characters trapped in an idiot approximation of a plot. I am begging you, if you can find Bandslam, see that movie and forget you have ever heard of Post Grad. Bandslam doesn't have long before it leaves theaters all together.