Sunday, July 15, 2018

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3: SUMMER VACATION (2018) ***


It’s not as consistently amusing or as clever as the second film in the franchise, but Hotel Transylvania 3:  Summer Vacation remains fun, lightweight entertainment.  My daughter, who is obsessed with monsters, said it was in her top five films of all time.  Because of that simple fact, it’s hard to be too critical of it.

Hotel Transylvania 3:  Summer Vacation is just like the other films in the series, except on a boat.  It plays like a flip-flop of the original.  This time out, Dracula (the voice of Adam Sandler) is the one hiding a potential relationship with a human from his family.  The object of his affection:  A chipper cruise director (the voice of Kathryn Hahn) who just so happens to be a descendent of Dracula’s arch-nemesis, Van Helsing.

Some of the gags fall flat, but there are a couple of sequences that will leave you laughing.  I loved all the stuff with Blobby and his newfound son (and eventual dog).  The scene with the gremlins is the comedic highpoint though.  Although these guys don’t get a whole lot of screen time, they up and steal the movie.  I sincerely hope they get their own spin-off in the near future.

The stuff with Dracula and his daughter (the voice of Selena Gomez) is basically recycled material from previous entries.  I also wish Drac’s buddies like Frankenstein (the voice of Kevin James), The Wolf Man (the voice of Steve Buscemi), The Invisible Man (the voice of David Spade), and The Mummy (the voice of Keegan-Michael Key) had more to do.  That said, there’s enough chuckles here to keep your interest.  If you’re a monster-obsessed kid, you’ll probably add an extra star to the *** rating.

No comments:

Post a Comment