Movie Reviews: The Grocer's Son, Kenny, Space Chimps

Space Chimps

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More About

• Stephen Dorff
• Harold Perrineau
• Donal MacIntyre
• Eddie Murphy
• Dominic Noonan

SPACE CHIMPS “Dad, which was your favorite part of Space Chimps?” asked the 4-year-old, the day after a media sneak peek. “Dunno, Harry, probably the part where Kilowatt lets the giant monster swallow her.” Kilowatt’s an alien with a giant, glowing head perched atop a teensy-tiny body; blows high-pitched raspberries when excited; voiced by Kristin Chenoweth, who thinks she’s still on Broadway; a very funny character — probably should have been the star, rather than Andy Samberg, Patrick Warburton and Cheryl Hines as monkeys shot into a wormhole to see if there’s life on the other side of the galaxy. Yawn. The wee one wasn’t impressed. “But, Dad, that scene was just a rip-off from Star Wars.” Pardon? “When Kilowatt says, ‘If you swallow me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine,’ that’s what Obi-Wan says to Darth Vader before he cuts him in half.” We agreed that the payoff following the big gulp was a giggle, but then it hit him: “Dad, the whole movie’s a rip-off.” Ah, they can’t even sneak one past the pre-K crowd, which already saw this when it was called Space Wiggles. The animation, incidentally, is half-assed, like they ran out of the $292.96 budget halfway through. Rip-off indeed. (Citywide) (Robert Wilonsky)

A VERY BRITISH GANGSTER I’m not sure what makes Dominic Noonan “very British” other than the fact that he hails from Manchester, but the hero of journalist Donal MacIntyre’s first foray into filmmaking is most definitely a gangster. The head of a locally famous crime family, Noonan spent 22 years in jail for various combinations of kidnapping, torture, extortion and murder. He is also charismatic and jovial, an openly gay man who lives in a ratty bungalow with a posse of pimply young gangsters-in-training, loves to sing karaoke, and officially changed his name to Lattlay Fottfoy (short for “look after those that look after you, fuck off those that fuck off you”). MacIntyre’s control over his material is assured at times, particularly when he focuses on Dom’s young son, Bugsy, and the other troubled boys who float around the periphery of the Noonan gang. But he is also apt to lapse into thumping, Entourage-esque segments that feature Noonan’s posse marching around Manchester to an Oasis-heavy pop soundtrack. For an experienced reporter — MacIntyre is well-known in his native Ireland for hard-hitting television exposés — he has an almost unseemly attraction to the gangland life, gushing over Dominic’s often benevolent role in Mancunian community affairs while glossing over the nasty means by which he acquired his power. It would have been nice to hear a small something about Noonan’s very British victims. (Culver Plaza) (Julia Wallace)