THE NUT JOB (3 out of 10) Directed by Peter Lepeniotis, Written by Peter Lepeniotis, Lorne Cameron and Daniel Woo; starring the voices of Will Arnett, Katherine Heigl, Brendan Fraser, Liam Neeson, Maya Rudolph, and Jeff Dunham; rated PG (mild action and rude humor); in general release; running time: 86 minutes.
I’ll forgo any obligatory nut-related puns and just tell you “The Nut Job” is pretty terrible. Aside from a few disconnected moments that shine, most of the film is somewhere between boring and cliché. I’m not sure even kids will really like it, although my two did.
Ok, let me qualify that. My kids’ favorite part of the movie was the closing credits. The Closing Credits. Where all of the animals dance with 3D rendered Psy singing “Gangnam Style.” I also enjoyed the closing credits because it meant that the much-longer-feeling 86 minute running time was finally over.
The story is pretty straightforward. All of the animals in the park band together to collect food for the winter, except for one misfit loner, Surly Squirrel (Will Arnett). When his attempts to rob a nut cart go awry it destroys the park’s food storage, for which he is banished into the big, bad city. He stumbles upon an entire nut store and decides to rob it, except the store happens to actually be a front for a gang of criminals planning their own heist on the bank across the street.
This might’ve been a fun movie if it had stuck with more elements of the heist or con-job genre, but instead spends far too much time on tired children’s movie tropes – yes, not one, but three, fart jokes.
Even Arnett’s gruff charm can’t do much for this material. And the rest of the actors are basically boring, especially Katherine Heigl and Brendan Fraser. Liam Neeson also is just picking up a paycheck as the raccoon patriarch of the park named, unimaginatively, Raccoon.
The one nice element in this movie is Maya Rudolph, who plays a pug named Princess, for whom I believe the movie makers may owe likeness rights to Sithbot for his little pooch. She’s really adorable, and minor plot point revolves around the dog whistle the gangsters use to train her, which Surly later steals in order to gain control over her.
Unfortunately, an “Up All Night” reunion by Arnett and Rudolph is not enough to make this really enjoyable. If you have kids and you’re looking to take in a movie, you’d be much better off going to see “Frozen” again.
Rating: 3 out of 10