Director: Tom McGrath
Starring: Alec Baldwin, Miles Christopher Bakshi, Steve Buscemi, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow, Tobey Maguire, James McGrath, Conrad Vernon, ViviAnn Yee, Eric Bell Jr.
Score: Steve Mazzaro, Hans Zimmer.
Tom McGrath, best known for co-directing the Madagascar trilogy and providing voice to Skipper in the Penguin spin-offs, give us his second solo directorial after Megamind. This one being about a baby, that's secretly a boss, as the title aptly suggests.
The trailer does well to not give away too much detail, as intrigue is set to how or why is this baby so grown-up and whilst being a crazy idea it provides a hilarious premise for some comical sibling rivalry. Or is it all just a figment of Tim's, the older brother's overactive imagination.
Baldwin voices Boss Baby superbly and gives the impression he had a lot of fun making this film, it actually comes across in his acting. With thanks to excellent and witty script writing, he delivers a brilliant parody of his own past power-plays, especially semi quoting one of his lines from Glengarry Glen Ross. However, most of these will be wasted on the younger audiences, but I'm glad they had the more mature viewers in mind when writing this. There's plenty of other movie references like Lord of the Rings, Raiders of the Lost Ark, I couldn't stop seeing Toy Story and I'm sure I spied a Skeletor among Tim's toys. (Masters of The Universe appears to be getting a lot of commercial exposure, maybe to prime people for McG's incoming film that is currently in development)
Bakshi does an amazing job voicing the young Tim, and is more impressive finding out that this is his feature debut. Going up against someone like Baldwin may have been intimidating but at the same time so exciting for the young actor; either way he performs brilliantly bringing Tim to life as the brother eager to get rid of the new family addition.
There's a small supporting cast, and I say small only because Boss Baby and Tim fight for attention on screen pretty much throughout the entire movie, but Kimmel, Kudrow, Buscemi and Vernon play their parts perfectly, especially Vernon as the butch Poppins, didn't recognise Buscemi's voice at all.
There's a good soundtrack with a great use of Holst's Mars and Lennon and McCartney's Blackbird. But with the score, it appears Mazzaro works with Zimmer to compose and I wonder how much of it is Mazzaro's music over Zimmer's. It's a good but forgettable score nonetheless.
The animation is crisp, fast and highly entertaining, especially when we're taken into Tim's alternative universe of his stunning imagination. The clever ninja and pirate scenes are stunning to watch with the mixture of animation styles working so well in adding another dimension to the film that keeps the movie going at an incredible fast pace.
There's also a meaningful message that's surprisingly touching, making the film a little more than just a laughing fest. It brings home brotherly love and I would like to hope it'll rekindles some affection between siblings after watching this film.
It's a hilarious movie for the whole family, that both children and adults should find very entertaining and enjoyable. The highlights being the talc, Timmy the oversize "heavy" baby and Vernon's butch Poppins, among many other funny moments.
Running Time: 10
The Cast: 9
Performance: 9
Direction: 9
Story: 7
Script: 8
Creativity: 9
Soundtrack: 7
Job Description: 10
The Extra Bonus Point: 0
Would I buy the Blu-ray?: Yus!
78% 8/10
