"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" review - no puns this time, the film itself has enough

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is based on the 1978 children's book of the same name. In this film, we meet young Flint Lockwood (Max Neuwirth) who lives in the town of Swallow Falls. Ever since he was little, he always wanted to invent something useful that everyone could use, but every one of his inventions ended up having one fatal flaw to them. His father Tim (James Caan) didn't believe in him, but his mother Fran (Lauren Graham, "Gilmore Girls") always believed he could invent something. Many years later, when Flint grew up (now voiced by Bill Hader of Saturday Night Live, Superbad, Pineapple Express, Year One, etc.), his mother passed away, and the town is deprived of food - all anyone can afford to eat is sardines, and Tim wants Flint to work at his sardine shop. But the food shortage gives Flint an idea - create a machine that can convert water into food. However, when he tries to power it up, it overloads, causing the machine to blast off into the atmosphere, where it absorbs water vapor, and cheeseburgers start to rain from the sky! Mayor Shelbourne (Bruce Campbell) has an idea - he wants Flint to use his machine to make different kinds of food to turn Swallow Falls into the town of Chewandswallow, and turn it into a tourist attraction. Flint enjoys the attention, but his father is upset because it's not what he wanted. But one day, the mayor sneaks into Flint's lab and makes the food so large and uncontrollable it creates food storms (such as a spaghetti tornado)! In a matter of time, the entire world will be covered in food! In a subplot, Samantha "Sam" Sparks (Anna Farris, "The House Bunny", "Observe and Report", etc.), the new weather intern, is struggling with her job until the food storms hit. She tells Flint that everyone made fun of her as a kid because she used to be a "nerd" when she went to school, but Flint seems to be connecting with her as he was treated similiarly. Mr. T also stars as Earl Devereaux (the cop), and Bobb'e J. Thompson (Role Models, Land of the Lost, Imagine That, etc.) stars as his son Cal.

I actually had never heard of this book until the film came out, and when I saw it at Books-A-Million, I read it before the film came out. Of course, turning a 30-page kids book (that's mostly pictures) into a 90-minute movie is going to require some liberties, but I think the transition went well, and some of the references were kept (the town of Chewandswallow, food boats, the pancake destroying the school, etc.). All in all, a cute, fun film, and a pleasure to watch in 3-D... just beware of the food puns (e.g. when it rains burgers, Sam says, "It's not a meteor shower, but I've never seen a 'meatier' shower than this!").

The film scored a PG rating... it's basic kids movie violence. People are struck by falling giant food, and much of the large food destroys parts of the town. Some of the food comes to life, such as flying pizza and live roast chickens... one of which nearly eats Baby Brent (Andy Samberg), who then takes over the chicken's body and starts fighting the other chickens with it. Earl also tackles Flint and tries to beat him up in one scene. There is a scene where people drink what seems to be red wine in a roofless diner, before steaks fall into the diner (one steak destroys a wine glass, causing wine to splatter all over the woman's shirt). As for sexual content... well, Brent is the mascot for sardines, and his signature appearance is being in nothing but a diaper, which he does many times in the film. Flint also makes a naked Venus de Milo and Michaelangelo's David out of Jell-O. All else to look out for is Cal going into a "food coma" from eating too much junk food, then vomiting, and in the middle of an ice cream snowstorm, Steve the monkey (Neil Patrick Harris) throws what looks like "chocolate snowballs" but aren't. There's something else, but it's a spoiler - contact me privately to know what it is.

If you grew up with this book as a kid, or you like 3-D movies or films about food... definitely see it. If you want to see the 3-D version, make sure you've had a bite to eat first, or you'll be really hungry by the time the film ends. One more thing - if you want to catch the 3-D version, you better catch it soon - it will only be in 3-D for one more week (as of this writing) at most venues before the Toy Story/Toy Story 2 re-release takes over most of the 3-D venues! An advertisement states that the Toy Story re-release will only last two weeks, but if it's anything like the Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour from 2008, then that may not be the case!