The Smurfs "I Kissed a Smurf and I Liked It"

Director: Raja Gosnell
Starring: Neil Patrick Harris
                Jayma Mays
                Hank Azaria
                Sofia Vergara
                Tim Gunn
                Jonathan Winters
                Alan Cumming
                George Lopez
                Katy Perry
                Anton Yelchin
Rating:    **

Everything about this should have worked, right? Impressive cast, cute characters & it is a classic story being brought back to life, but unfortunately it is just wrong.

What we have here is your typical sweet couple, Patrick & Grace Winslow (Harris & Mays) living their life with the obvious hitches along the way. Whether it is Patrick getting a promotion but being treated badly by his boss (Vergara), or the impending birth of their baby which Patrick still isn't sure about, the Smurfs are there to make them see that not all is bad in the world.

Onto the Smurfs (Winters, Cumming, Lopez, Yelchin & Perry), they are cute, they sing incessantly and are three apples high (despite one scene where the smurfs are stood near an apple and that is not the case, good one.) They are supposedly the heart of the film, but I found myself irritated and bored of their mothersmurfing ways about 15 minutes into the film. Just when you get vague feelings for the Smurfs, they do something that will instantly put you off of them. Whether it's sing their smurfing song again or saying one thing and doing another, something they do all the time, you just get annoyed with them!!! Admittedly they are cute and children will lap them up like they are the best thing ever, but unfortunately they do not compare to the original series or characters.

I must say that the character of Gargamel (Azaria) is the only character that was mildly entertaining. But despite Azaria's constant trying and with no help from his annoying cat he also becomes boring and distracting and by the end of the film you are completely over his characters whole storyline.

Despite the best efforts of the human cast the film just couldn't be saved and felt dull and uninspired. Round each corner was another cliche that just made the film feel a bit cheap. Yes, you could say it's a children's film, so what does it matter, and undoubtedly kids will love it; but when you look at Shrek or nearly all of Pixar's films you can see what they could have done. Any good children's film can also entertain the adults in the audience, but with this film you have no such luck. Take your kids along to see it, but I would certainly recommend taking a pillow or some sort of "drink". The studio has announced a sequel, and with the upcoming 3rd Alvin & the Chipmunks film on the way we will have to put up with these types of films a little longer. But fingers crossed the studio will see the error of their ways and stop, at least I smurfing hope so.