Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014) Reviews

• Simple movie for the family on a Sunday!

  miguelcorreia932015-01-26

  The reason I give this a 5 out of 10 is that this movie is a good one for the kids. A movie with a simple lesson to accept the bad days and enjoy every good one. To be more positive. About the movie out of my point of view? Well, not that awesome, but you can't expect a lot of this kind of movies. Steve Carell didn't perform at his best, that is obvious, but that wasn't even necessary. After all, this whole movie was from the point of view of Alexander. Of course they did choose to make it a little childish. I believe the acting was also based on the viewer to be around 5 - 10 years old. Some simple jokes, not a lot of jokes where to use the brain, but more of the eyes.

• It's a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad movie

  RossRivero992014-10-26

  This movie is one of the absolute worst Disney movies that I have seen in recent days like Wreck It Ralph (2012), Frozen (2013), Snow White and the Hunstman (2012), all of which are not as good as Disney classics like The Little Mermaid (1989), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), The Incredibles (2004), the toy story trilogy, Monsters Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), Pirates of the Caribbean series, Cinderella (1950), Fantasia (1940), Pinocchio (1940), or even Sleeping Beauty (1959), and also this movie is one of the worst movies of the year. The movie tells the story of a boy named Alexander (played by Ed Oxenbould) who is about to go to school and before he does he has a piece of bubble gum stuck in his hair and this clumsy event ends up with more stupid events that we as viewers are supposed to call funny for example everyone is scrambling to get ready and take care of the baby, his mom (played by Jennifer Garner opens the bathroom door in which her son Anthony (played by Dylan Minnette) naked and lots of other hell breaks loose. Director Miguel Arteta uses the same directorial technique as Dennjis Dugan when he directs one of those goofy Adam Sandler, but instead this one is with Steve Carell as the bumbling father during the course of the film. Even though the movie was very baldy written it had good moral standards because the only thing that this movie tries so hard to tell us is that people don't have to have good days all of the time and that sometimes you got to have the unfortunate bad days. The acting in this movie is very cheesy throughout with a decent cast humiliating themselves in a so called "good movie for children", (in which I don't think that this movie is goo d for anyone at any age, and why this movie had to be made I don't know. Anyway back to the reason why I think that the acting is terrible because you got Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner acting as very stupid parents Dylan Minnette and Kerris Dorsey acting as very dumb older siblings, Bella Thorne as Anthony's girlfriend Celia who is truly a spoiled princess, and we got a young Ed Oxenbould who tries so hard to give a good performance but he really gives the only good performance in the entire movie. What a waste of money.

• Far better than you might expect

  rod777772014-10-09

  The poster, the trailer and the genre will leave many assuming the worst. Another movie with over-the-top sight gags that would never happen in reality and are unable to entertain adult viewers. But this Alexander is not terrible. Instead it takes the high road in the family movie category by not depicting a dysfunctional family but instead showing us how parents and kids can pull together and overcome difficult circumstances. I was impressed that all the "terrible" things that happen could pretty much actually occur. And with four kids myself, let me assure you that some days really do play out similar to the one shown here. Of course, they aren't quite this crazy, but they are realistic enough family-inclined that will be able to relate to the antics on screen, and that's what makes the humor in this movie work so well. I was also pleased to see two parents who are not "stupid". Both the father and mother are intelligent and hard working and are doing their best to make a bad day better for their kids. Call it sentimental if you wish, but for those of us with family experiences I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how entertaining and touching this film is. Within the scope of similar movies, this one is an 8 out of 10.

• Alexander and the Nonsensical, Unfunny Outing

  matthewssilverhammer2014-10-17

  Disney's trips into live-action comedy always have a consistent tone: bright, bubbly, bumbling, and inoffensive, with just the slightest hint of edge. Alexander… is no different. If only its humor would land...and when it did, it wasn't beat to death. Instead of spending any amount of time on a coherent story or a real purpose, it sways towards cheap, dumb humor. Alexander is the kind of nonsensical slapstick "family" comedy that kids will inevitably enjoy and forget, while parents will be forced to endure and forget. Alexander is a preteen that has a bad but NORMAL day (popularity, girls, small chemistry fire); that same day, his family is celebrating some truly great developments (new job, best-selling book, first prom). Alex decides, out of spite or loneliness or something, that his misery deserves company, so he wishes for them to have a horrible day. And they do. And by the end of the movie, they are…a better family?! What's the lesson in that?! If things aren't going your way, then hope the people you love have it even worse? The premise could've been solid: really push the over-the-top notion of this down-on-his-luck kid struggling to survive juxtaposed against a perfect and aloof family. They even hired some great performers that could've really gotten some genuine laughs. Unfortunately, most of these actors are completely wasted, and in the end, Alexander tries to have its cake and eat it too, half its toe in fantasy and the other half in sloppy reality. Maybe I'm asking too much from a kid's film, but Alexander is a pointless and mostly laughless outing.

• Darkhorse Knight Review: Alexander and the Needlessly Long Title

  Darkhorse_Knight2015-02-05

  DISCLAIMER: Review may contain Spoilers 2ND DISCLAIMER: However, since this film is cinematic trash, such a spoiler seems to give the illusion that people want to see this. I assure you, you do not. Oh yeah, spoiler alert! This movie is cinematic trash. When I first saw the trailer to this film, I rolled my eyes and shrugged it off. I knew from the get-go I wasn't gonna enjoy this film, probably because I'm not the biggest fan of Family Pictures. Finally, I was dragged into this film with my father(I'm a teenager, 17 as of the writing of my review) and he seemed open minded enough to watch such a film. I had decided to go in, since we were about to go to Honeywell and we wished to kill time. I bring this up because I hopefully wished this film would be just a waste of time, nothing taken and nothing given. But it surely took something of mine, and I'm not just talking about 9 Dollars and a couple of my brain cells. How bad is it? Well, the movie begins with Kerris Dorsey throwing up in a bush and ending with male strippers dressed like Outback hunters. And this is by Disney? Odd, since I never remembered Disney trying this hard to make an Adam Sandler movie! At least Sandler goes in guns blazing with his blights on cinema, and one can admit that with each future attempt, he slowly is grasping the reigns. But here, in Alexander, almost every bit of Sandler's movies feel like Oscars when compared to Disney's attempt to clone trash into treasure. Even Academy Award winning, Oscar-Nominated actor Steve Carell seems oddly drained of his usual charisma and comedic presence here. In fact, I believe his role in Hope Springs brought in more laughs. Even sadder, newcomer actor Edward Oxenbould tries his hardest to keep this train wreck on track, even giving a surprisingly good effort as one of the only characters that manage to have a lot going for him. Giving a solid performance with a talent all his own, which is something that's hard to come by in young actors. It's too bad he had to sabotage his filmography early by leading the charge of a film that's only funny joke comes in the absurdity of a Dick Van Dyke book reading. The premise of Alexander and the Needlessly Long Title is that Alexander(Oxenbould) is the second youngest of his perfect family, yet he always seems to get the bulk of the bad days. The dad(Carell) is signing up for a Video-Games development team, the mother is selling a soon to be best-seller book for tykes, the older brother and sister both have gained respected positions of their school's extra-curricular activities, and even the baby seems to be near perfect as for babies concerns(unlike any of my nieces and nephew, to tell you the truth). All while poor Alexander seems to have the worst lot the days.(despite the worst thing happening being the burning of his crush's notebook.) One night before his birthday(which is weird, since wishes usually come AT your birthday, like in Liar Liar), Little Alex makes a wish that invokes the wrath of God upon his Brady Bunch family and those who have wronged him before-hand. The family all over sleeps, the sister ends up sick, the car is out of juice, and soon the family endures one hell of a bad day. Even the baby's favorite Binky is destroyed in the garbage disposal. Oh the humanity! The film starts to nosedive from this point, where most of the jokes are based on either bodily functions, references to other Disney films like Wreck-it Ralph, and quite possibly the most times I've heard the word for "Male Reproductive Organ" in such a family film. Seriously, they say it like 9 times, and it just feels awkward as hell. Some characters are bland, ranging from the surprisingly only funny, aforementioned Dick Van Dyke and the bland, spoiled rich girl Cella(Bella Thorne), both of which are only there to pull the story in motion, despite most of the funnier moments happening with them. Near the end, Carell tries to right the wrong by ordering "Outback Cowboys" for Alexander's Australian-themed birthday party(there was a part of the original book where he wished to move to Australia, and Oxenfourd himself is from there as well, because here, Alexander is OBSESSED with Australia.). I secretly knew which direction this movie would take, and I begged the film not to go there. But, as with the worst of the worst, it went to said direction, giving us the male strippers I mentioned earlier. This, now, was the only film I walked out of before the end credits I hated this film. And I can't believe how these critics not managed to put this in the same lines as North, Richie Rich, and Milk Money. Probably because being mentioned with those travesties would give Alexander some kind of appeal. Trust me, it is not. It's really not. All in all, Alexander and the Needlessly Long Title ends up being one of the worst films, I've personally had the displeasure to see in 2014. Stay away from this awful film if you can. Don't see this even if you think you'll like it. I certainly tried, and look what happened then! Final Result- E Ranking (0.5 stars out of five)