Reviewer: Be a kid again, and enjoy ‘Secret Life of Pets’ | @ the Movies

The Secret Life of Pets ****

For nearly a year the trailers for The Secret Life of Pets promised something special, and upon delivery last week, this masterpiece of anamorphic animation from Illumination Pictures (Despicable Me, The Minions) did not disappoint. Smart, funny and perfectly cast, this adventure through New York City follows a group of pets; a variety of cats and dogs, a parakeet, a guinea pig, and red tail hawk, in their attempt to reunite Max, a Jack Russell Terrier voiced by Louis C.K., with his owner, Ellie. Along the way the ruffians of New York; misfit abandoned pets, along with over-zealous Animal Control officers meet in a series of chases, and narrow escapes throughout the city from the East River, to Brooklyn and the tallest buildings in the cleverly imagined skyline. As perfect as Louis C. K., Dana Carvey and Albert Brooks are in their roles, it’s Kevin Hart who steals the show as Snowball, a magician’s bunny gone mad. Anyone who owns a pet, or has ever owned a pet, or ever observed the way our pets act, will appreciate the nuanced performances and the way the animators captured the attitudes we all suspect are lurking somewhere in brains of these crazy animals with whom we share our lives.

The Legend of Tarzan **1/2

In 1912 author Edgar Rice Burroughs brought to life the feral child Tarzan, and tapped into the public’s fascination with the story of an infant Englishman, lost to the African jungle and raised by Great Apes. More than a century later, the story still resonates even after countless books, and some 200 films. Though this newest spinoff is only loosely based on the characters created by Burroughs, the trappings are all here: greedy Colonial Englishman, brutal Belgian King Leopold, the vast and mysterious jungles of Africa, and the hero in Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgard), and his lovely wife Jane, played by Margot Robbie. In a waste of his talent, Christof Waltz basically reprises his role from Inglorious Basterds as a Nazi-esq Belgian Leon Rom, who sells out Tarzan to gain political advantage (and diamonds) in the Free Congo State. Samuel L. Jackson, who hasn’t been great in anything since Pulp Fiction is miscast yet again, as George Washington Williams, a former U.S. Civil War soldier trying to ease the human suffering he sees in the Congo. While the premise and plot are decent enough, this epic adventure quickly becomes an epic mess, full of adapted scenes stolen from much better movies. Even though director David Yates thrilled audiences with the last four Harry Potter films, there’s nothing legendary about this latest king of the box-office bombs.

This story was originally published July 11, 2016 at 9:55 AM with the headline "Reviewer: Be a kid again, and enjoy ‘Secret Life of Pets’ | @ the Movies."