Film review: Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs | Fired Up | The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

Published on Friday 3 July 2009 16:24

ICE AGE 3: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS (U) ***

Science takes another kick in the teeth in this third animated adventure for the prehistoric pets who set out to save Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo) from dinosaur peril after he "discovers" and adopts a trio of ominously oversized eggs. Of course dinosaurs did not roam the earth by the time the Ice Age was in full swing. On the other hand this is a film where sloths talk about parenting issues, woolly mammoths argue over baby names and sabre-toothed tigers anguish when they are disrespected by fleet-hooved antelopes.

The tiger, Diego, is once again voiced by Denis Leary, although yet again he's underused. In the pantheon of TV and movie characters with nothing to do, he just cuts in ahead of Chekov in Star Trek or Choo Choo in Top Cat, and just behind the black Ghostbuster played by Ernie Hudson.

Still, parents can nod along with the series' message that all sorts of critters can make up a modern family, while kids will enjoy the moderate peril from an overprotective T Rexess, and the moderate spectacle of things going up noses that shouldn't, in 3D.

On general release

FIRED UP (12A)

**

Tired and creepy teen flick about two high school football stars (Nicholas D'Agosto and Eric Christian Olsen, both a decade older than they are supposed to be) who are more interested in girls than two weeks of summer training. Upon discovering that hundreds of beautiful young women will also be going to summer training at cheerleading camp, they decide to skip the football and talk their way on to the cheer squad to swim in a sea of little ladies in tiny tops and microskirts. There's nothing here that you haven't seen before: the stock jazz hands campy male, the duplicitous meathead boyfriend of the love interest and the clueless head counsellor and his gorgeous 31-year-old wife, who attracts the lusty attention of one of our latter day Brandon Lees. A less appetising slice of American Pie, the material is as flimsy as a cheerleader's skirt.

On release 12 July

THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE (15)

**

Robin Wright Penn stars as a woman facing 50 and struggling to find an identity outside her relationship with a much older husband (Alan Arkin) in Rebecca Miller's tedious drama. Keanu Reeves plays the troubled son of her neighbours and when he furrows his brow over Pippa's existential crises, it's like Joey Tribiani's tip on acting thoughtful by dividing a really big number in your head.

On release 12 July