The Smurfs (2011)

The Smurfs make their first 3D trip to the big screen, and it's a journey I'm not sure they should have taken. It's not that it's a bad film necessarily, but it's extremely vanilla. There's not much you can say that you like, and not much you can say that you don't. In fact, there's not much interesting to anyone under 10 years of age. It's worth noting that those in the 10 and under group will probably love the movie. It was mostly the youngsters that enjoyed the other movies directed by Raja Gosnell such as "Scobby-Doo" and "Beverly Hills Chihuaha," so it's not a big suprise.

The plot is as straightforward as you would expect. Gargamel (Frank Azaria), the evil wizard finally locates the Smurf's village and attacks the Smurfs inside of their protective walls. While making their escapes, a few of the Smurfs (Smurfette, Papa Smurf, Grumpy, Clumsy, and Gutsy) are transported to New York City through a portal created via a magic spell and a blue moon. Gargamel, of course, follows them as does his evil cat. The Smurfs are taken in by a a young couple played by Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays. There they work on coming up with a way to make it back to their own world.

Trailer:

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The cast of "The Smurfs" is filled with big names like Katy Perry, George Lopez, Hank Azaria and Sophia Vergara to name a few. We'd hope that the star-studded cast would help up the overall effectiveness of the movie, but they really don't make much of a difference in the film. There are some very annoying use of the word "smurf" for everything (smurf this or smurf that, blah, blah, smurf) and some humor that was really misdirected, such as the scene where Gargamel's cat vomits. It's just gross. The 3D is mostly MIA too and doesn't really offer anything extra to a viewer.

We watched "The Smurfs" nearly a week ago, but the review has been sitting around since. We've started and stopped so many times. Why? Well, it's the one movie we've seen recently that is really difficult to come up with anything interesting to write about in a review. Actually, maybe that should be the review. The film is extremely Vanilla.

PG, 1 hr. 42 min.

Action & Adventure, Animation, Kids & Family, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Comedy

Directed By: Raja Gosnell

Written By: J. David Stem, David N. Weiss, Jay Scherick, David Ronn