No, no, no, no, no.
That’s all we can say about “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.” The first movie was cute, given that it was for kids. And in a way, as annoying as that already was, it had kind of train-wreck charm about it. You had to watch it, and the hollywood numbers did show that it was successful at the box office.
But they should have quit while they were ahead.
The sequel starts after the chipmunks’ manager/guardian, Dave Seville (Jason Lee), gets into some weird accident and ends up in the hospital — where he stays for the whole movie. His assistant Toby (Zachary Levi) takes over. Or tries to. He’s just not ready to handle the rigors of raising Alvin, Simon and Theodore as they go through high school. (Most parents aren’t.)
To complicate things are the all-female singing chipmunk trio, the Chipettes. So it’s the battle of the rock rats — oh, excuse us, rock bands.
So what don’t we like about this movie? Bad acting, lame plot, no lovable character to root for (the Chipmunks have lost their novelty by now). Plus, considering the possibilities of having two chipmunk groups who can dance and sing, the movie fails at delivering catchy songs or interesting choreography. We’ve seen better sequences on Barney videos.
Of course, the kids will want to see this, and parents will dutifully take them. The movie producers are lucky that their prime audience (namely five-year-olds) are ridiculously easy to please. But to the adults who are condemned to take them, we send our condolences. Well, at least it’s fun to Munk Yourself.