Fast and Furry-ous

 Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip is directed by Walt Becker (Wild Hogs, Old Dogs) and stars Jason Lee (My Name is Earl, The Incredibles), Justin Long (Live Free or Die Hard, Drag Me To Hell), Matthew Gray Gubler (Criminal Minds, 500 Days of Summer), Jesse McCartney (Keith, Horton Hears A Who!) and Bella Thorne (Blended, The DUFF). "Through a series of misunderstandings, Alvin, Simon and Theodore come to believe that Dave is going to propose to his new girlfriend in Miami...and dump them. They have three days to get to him and stop the proposal, saving themselves not only from losing Dave but possibly from gaining a terrible stepbrother". So we have been treated with a 4th Alvin and the Chipmunks movie - is it a pleasurable experience or is it just overkill? 

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip is a bad movie - nobody asked for it and I hope we don't get a fifth film. I actually like the first and second Alvin films, the third not so much and I have to say, The Road Chip is down there with the third film. The Road Chip just isn't substantial and there literally isn't anything to it other than the odd effective one-liner. I wouldn't recommend this film and if I had seen it in 2015, it would have been a contender for my Worst Of list. 

The Road Chip's story is just a generic plot from the get go - they wanted to know another way to roll out another one of these films for the money and decided on the cliche road trip style movie. I have to say, I don't think a road trip really occurred in this film - more screen time was in the air than on the road. If they do make a fifth film, it will likely be a love triangle orientated plot or send the chipmunks to space - it is getting that silly. The Road Chip's story is incredibly predictable and I guessed every twist and turn from the start - Maybe younger viewers won't see these coming but the adults who have to watch the film with them definitely will. Children's films that can have two layers so they appeal to both adults and younger audiences are the best types of childrens films so it is no surprise that The Road Chip doesn't do this. It really only would please children 7 or under - there were children who were running up and down the aisles in my showing as they got bored towards the end! 

The music element has definitely been toned down a lot for The Road Chip. I think the team must have spent a large amount of the budget getting the rights for Uptown Funk that they forget they could do with some more current well known songs. Uptown Funk was the only big musical performance and all of the other songs were either originals or short snippets of older, cliche, cheesy songs. 

The high pitched voices are quite annoying and they actually disguise whether the voice actors are doing a good job or not. However, I continue to dislike Jason Lee as Dave - I find his performance very forced and extremely annoying. I am pleased David Cross has left the franchise as he is another actor who has shredded their career due to terrible performances in these movies. Lee is just annoying and cringe-worthy. Bella Thorne continues to play the typical 'superior teen girl' style character - she didn't really have much to work with and she has yet to be given a role that can show whether she is diverse as an actress or not. I wouldn't say the acting in the film was so bad that it deserves Razzies but the performances definitely weren't memorable or substantial. 

The Road Chip was occasionally funny - usually with one liners that don't really have an impact on the plot or anything. The comedy is childish comedy and mostly falls flat so even the thing it does best, doesn't make it a movie to go and see. A lot of the time when weird/humourous scenes were occurring, I would think to myself 'what am I watching' - The Road Chip is just dumb. The animation of the chipmunks is still pretty good and I think that is one of the better things about the film.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip may hopefully be the final Alvin film we get until it is rebooted again in 10 years time. The characters are annoying and the live action characters are either acted poorly or don't really have much to do. The songs and the humour are lacking compared to previous entries and there isn't much here for anyone over the age of 7 to enjoy. The Road Chip is a very bad film that was just made for the money - the only thing going for it is that it does have some heart and can be quite likeable at times.  The best word to describe it is unsubstantial - you aren't going to remember this film long after watching it. Definitely overkill, or should I say, Roadkill.

1.5 STARS

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