I'm seeing a bunch of children's movies and they all seem to have the same ingredients. Hollywood has this template and it's OK for kids who haven't seen enough movies, for the grownups though…
Home is enjoyable and has its laughs, but ultimately you feel manipulated by the tried and true buttons Hollywood presses: A mother and child are reunited, not a dry eye in the house; the screw-up becomes the hero; everyone thinks the hero is dead … but he comes back. there's a big party at the end; we've seen these tropes a million time. Hollywood hedging its bets.
Jim Parsons plays an alien, but is pretty much playing his same character on "Big Bang," as human emotions and subtleties have to be constantly explained to him. He's on a road trip with Tip, a little girl (Rhianna) and I'm still trying to shake "Lilo and Stitch" from my head.
The alien is on the run from his fellow aliens and Tip is looking for her mother. Meanwhile an evil alien race is coming close to destroy the earth unless … well you can pretty much figure out pretty quickly what they're after.
Steve Martin does best as the cowardly leader of the aliens. Funny is funny.
Take your kids, there's some wonderful animation, and great music, and a couple laugh-out-loud funny lines, but the rest of it will bring a big sense of deja vu.
