The Boss Baby

Voices of: Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow, Tobey Maguire, Miles Bakshi, James McGrath
Directed by: Tom McGrath
Rating: PG
Genre: Animation, Comedy
2017

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A baby (Alec Baldwin) reluctantly teams with his brother to stop a corrupt CEO.

Review:

Tim: The Boss Baby was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. I want to let that sink in for a moment. Let it linger. I honestly don't understand how that was possible, because this is easily one of the worst animated films I've ever seen. It was sheer torture to sit through an hour and a half of this film. It's godawful. And they nominated it for an Oscar. These are dark times we're living in.

The plot of the film is utter nonsense. I don't even know how to describe it. There's this magical place somewhere called BabyCorp. And these babies with adult brains work there to preserve love of babies. Or something. And then humanity's love of babies may be usurped by the love of puppies. And there's this big conspiracy. I mean, honestly, it's one of the worst plots I've ever heard. I honestly cannot fathom how people thought it was a good idea. It's confusing, makes no sense at all, and it's idiotic. I was quite frankly stunned how much I hated the story. It's so bad that it ruins everything else. How can we care about the characters, or admire the animation, or laugh at the jokes (none of which are very funny) when the story itself is cripplingly stupid? The whole film felt completely uninspired, just a lackluster effort in every single sense. The film's jokes were all cheap, none that really make you laugh.

I'm quite frankly still struggling to understand what Dreamworks was doing here. They've made some really solid animated films. Pixar continually raises the bar. So why in 2017 did we get a movie as bad as The Boss Baby? And why, instead of unanimous criticism, did the film win over about half the critics? And why did the Academy nominate this film? And why is the sequel already in development? I mean, these questions keep me up at night. I hated this film. It was so stupid, and yet it was a box office winner as well. Truly, what in the world is going on?

I'm trying to figure out something positive to say. I suppose Alec Baldwin did a good job voicing the baby. His character was awful, but Baldwin's voice work was solid. It was fun hearing Tobey Maguire. Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow did decent work as well. I guess the voice cast was the film's biggest strength, but man, it doesn't make up for the problems.

I can't be any clearer- The Boss Baby is a terrible film and deserves universal scorn. None of that happened. This is one of the biggest head-scratchers of 2017.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 3



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: I don't know, man