The Nut Job

2014 "Let's Get Nuts!"
5.7| 1h25m| PG| en| More Info
Released: 17 January 2014 Released
Producted By: Open Road Films
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

Surly, a curmudgeon, independent squirrel is banished from his park and forced to survive in the city. Lucky for him, he stumbles on the one thing that may be able to save his life, and the rest of park community, as they gear up for winter - Maury's Nut Store.

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JaydoDre I was worried when I noticed that the bird on the shoulder of the animal leader is a Northern Cardinal, visually and internally styled to resemble the Cardinal from the game Angry Birds. My worries were confirmed when I heard the hit song Gangnam Style play almost out of nowhere, as the movie's main characters suddenly started to dance to the said tune. Technically, the story did give characters a reason to do the said short dance when they did it, though in a palpably heavy-handed way. Also technically, all rats animated using modern computer graphics are going to show similarities, but the rat character by the name of Buddy sure does look a lot like the main character of the animated movie Ratatouille. For that matter, all the animal characters resemble the various animals of Dreamworks and Disney films from recent times. This, ladies and gentlemen, sure does feel like a cash-in. Nut Job is a joint venture between South Korean, US and Canadian production companies that shows symptoms of trying hard to capitalise on the western animation market and the pop culture. This is all particularly unfortunate when you consider that actual work was put into this production. Although the movie certainly has other problems, to be discussed shortly, the film does have a plot, it has a number of highly acclaimed actors that do a relatively good job at portraying their characters (however poorly those characters may have been written), and the animation is not terrible, even if rather bland. There are a few funny moments to experience, even though some jokes fall flat. There are certainly worse things to watch out there, but ultimately this Nut Job is botched (Pa-dum tss?). In addition to its irritating exploitative nature, Nut Job suffers from poor writing. The general outlines of the story are simple and clear, but the individual scenes become less and less coherent as time goes by, less and less natural. There are many lines of dialogue that seem like were meant to be funny, or at least there is no other discernible purpose for them, like comments on smelly farts, but they aren't in fact funny. This is a movie that is mildly entertaining and would probably go over well with young kids alive in the year in which the movie was produced, the year in which the musician PSY was still relevant, but it is unfortunate that a movie with so many good actors and such a budget is so average. The cash-in was successful, however. The movie more than made back its investment. I will not however be watching Nut Job 2. I'd have to be nutty to do that....Eh? Eh? Shut this down.
Eddie Cantillo The Nut Job(2014) Starring: Will Arnnet, Katherine Heigel, Brendan Frasier, Sara Gadon, Maya Rudolph, Stephen Lang, Jeff Dunham and Liam Nesson Directed By: Peter Lepeniotis Review You know I am not a big fan of animated stuff, unless to me it's nostalgic, from Pixar or Ghibli. But you may have watched Over the hedge and found it amusing, but you have you to be nuts to watch this load of garbage, thankfully me and my whole family are certifiably nuts. The film revolves around a squirrel who's name I don't care to remember voiced by Will Arnett who is a master thief for getting nuts for him and his partner who doesn't speak. When he destroys the tree where the animals live in the park he is banished to our side and has a hard time getting until he sees a Nut shop that is owned by thieves trying to rob a bank next door. He intends to redeem himself by devising to steal all nuts for the park but when a plot unfolds to sabotage him, he must stop the raccoon voiced by Liam Nesson and get those nuts. Boy did what I write just sound stupid, If I could give an award for worst animated film of the year, I would give it to this film. Will Arnnet sounds like he really should be squirrel but only he'd be one smoking a joint. This film is one of the reasons I hate animation, not only is it a cartoon and not live action which I can take more seriously but it's borderline stupid. The CG animation looks like crap too it's the worst I've seen since Food Fight. This animated over the hedge rip-off is one of the worst films of the year. You must stay away at all costs cause trust me you'd probably rather watch The Legend of Hercules then this. I give The Nut Job half out of five.
tomdylan-18159 OK, before I start listing why the movie really doesn't work, I'll give it the only credit it really deserves: the animation is good and it's really the highlight of the movie.And now that we got that out of the way, let's start listing the cons, and what better way to start off with no one other than the main douchebag himself, Surly. Oh dear god, Surly. Whom I think might be one of the most hateful and most douchebag characters that we are supposed to find likable in the medium of animation since Buck from Chicken Little. I mean by god, he is the protagonist. THE PROTAGONIST. You would think some likability would be found in what is supposed to be our protagonist, but no. Surly blows up the tree where they had all the food, but it's OK because Racoon is the bad guy? Oh and what about the fact that he basically abuses his supportive and caring friend but it's OK because they turn friends at the end and go dance to Gangnam Style?The plot of the movie is literally "A Bug's Life + Over the Hedge". You've got your douchebag protagonist (Over the Hedge) that participates in a colony (A Bug's Life) ruled by this threatening villain who big shock turns out to be the bad guy (A Bug's Life)... I think I made my point clear. Also the tone of the movie is really mean-spirited. All of the characters are either idiots, comic reliefs, or jerks. You know except for that female squirrel whose name I have forgot like the rest of the characters.And if your story isn't written very well, it only figures the humor might suffer. And it suffers indeed, completed with all your favorite fart jokes, burp jokes, pee jokes and with comic reliefs of which you will forget about soon as you leave the theater! How wonderful, right? RIGHT?In conclusion, this movie is your poor man's Over the Hedge. And even Over the Hedge wasn't that great to begin with (sorry OtH fans) so you basically have this shitty, uninspired and most of all mean- spirited movie. If the sequel is any good (which I HIGHLY doubt) I might go see it online but for now, I'm done with the Nut Job franchise.
Laura Foxey Honestly this movie was disappointing, especially after all the good things I heard about it. The textures in this movie were so terrible that I couldn't stop getting annoyed watching them. Same jokes, same action. Feels like the whole plot was dull and made up within a lunch break. Characters don't stick and by the end you don't feel very connected to anything. You don't get that feeling of satisfaction or emptiness after a movie ends, no emotions whatsoever, and that to me is a failed movie.For children though, it's alright, but even kids had enough nut jokes in one hour...