Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013)

by Sara Michelle Fetters - September 27th, 2013 - Movie Reviews

**Inventive Cloudy 2 a Tasty Surprise**

When we last left inventor Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader), he, his dad Tim (James Caan), meteorologist girlfriend Sam Sparks (Anna Faris), overly masculine policeman Earl Devereaux (Terry Crews, taking over for an absent Mr. T), cameraman Manny (Benjamin Bratt), faux celebrity ‘Baby’ Brent McHale (Andy Samberg) and Gummy Bear loving monkey Steve (Neil Patrick Harris) saved Swallow Falls, along with the rest of the world, from the FLDSMDFR, a seemingly sentient machine with the ability to transform water into food. Almost a year later, the group is tasked to return to their island home by LIVE Corp scientist and founder Chester V (Will Forte), the FLDSMDFR apparently still up and running, producing a variety of “foodimals” that, if they escape Swallow Falls, could potentially overrun the world leading to unimaginable chaos.

PHOTO: Sony

I didn’t care for 2009’s Cloudy with a Chance for Meatballs. It didn’t do anything for me, the disconnected random nature of the majority of the gags leaving me cold. This is slightly ironic, because crazily enough I somehow got a gigantic kick out of its sequel, the unimaginatively titled Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, for many of the same reasons I disliked the original. The movie is just as random and as nonsensical as its predecessor, more interested in witty sight gags and food-inspired puns than it is in plot or character development. Yet, unlike the first film, this second chapter had me laughing for long stretches of the 95 minute running time, and for that reason alone I have to call this new venture out to Swallow Falls a pleasantly inspired success.

More than that, Cloudy 2 has heart, lots of it, the sequel brimming with a child-like authenticity that’s difficult to resist. The relationship between Flint and Tim is brought to life in the simplest of brushstrokes, while the poignant intimacy of what father and son are going through is undeniably pure. More than the scientist’s relationship with Sam, more than his realization that his friends are the engine that keeps his inventive mind working, it is this familial dynamic that stunned me most, and I think it is the reason I responded to this second adventure in Swallow Falls with as much positivity as I ultimately did.

Not that the silly stuff isn’t suitably hysterical in its own right. The little island town has been overrun by gigantic Cheeseburger Spiders, sentient Strawberries wander around aimlessly, Tacodile Supremes lurk beneath the waters, Hippotatomuses roam the shores and Shrimpanzees swing from tree-to-tree. The visual razzle-dazzle is ingenious, and while little taking place in this story has anything to do with author Judi Barrett and illustrator Ron Barrett’s classic source material, I can’t imagine they’d be too displeased with what the filmmakers, storywriters and animators have come up with here.

PHOTO: Sony

It’s still pretty random in nature, and it isn’t like the jokes or the gags build one upon the other in a manner that could lead to bigger, stronger laughs. The screenplay is all over the map, and while Chester V’s villainous intentions are hardly a surprise, the Soylent Green lengths he’ll go to in order to keep his scheme’s secrets are admittedly kind of startling and, for a children’s movie, creepily disturbing.

But unlike the first go-around my complaints feel minor, and I’m more than a little taken aback by just how great my affinity for this sequel has proven to be. Cloudy with a Chance for Meatballs 2 improves upon its predecessor in every conceivable way, and slap me in the face with a slice of a bologna but I’m actually kind of curious to see what adventures inventor Flint Lockwood, meteorologist Sam Sparks and the rest of their curious gaggle of stalwart friends might decide to cook up for themselves next.