WALLACE & GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL

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Director/co-writer Nick Park and his brilliant team of animators deliver the most delightful children's comedy you could ever imagine.

Aardman Animations has been a household name for decades. Their painstaking approach to stop-motion claymation kids' movies sits head-and-shoulders above, well, every other animation studio.

Ingenious.

Neither Studio Ghibli nor Disney has anything on Aardman Animations.

The love is on the screen.

Everything you see is an actual miniature model being filmed frame by frame.

Painstaking work.

Respect.

With a distinctly British sense of humor, this outing for inventor Wallace and his assistant dog Gro mit finds Wallace creating a gardening assistant gnome robot.

Gromit has good reason to be suspicious of the all-too-efficient robot that looks like a crazed elf.

Wallace gains a lot of public enemies when he rents out his elfin creation to do landscaping for his neighbors.

The action shifts into high gear when the robot gnome creates a troupe of clones under the command of a diamond thief penguin.

Gnome clones! Oh no!

Every frame of "Wallace & Gromit; Vengeance Most Fowl" is a thing of artistic perfection.

Normal filmmakers never have to the lengths that Nick Park and crew do in making a story that works at every millisecond of screentime.

The chase scenes are amazing, and every little joke and nudge hits your funny-bone just right.

At its heart is the friendship between Wallace and Gromit, our two classic comic characters from way back.

Here is a super fun kids' movie that has just as much entertainment punch for its adult audiences.

It could be a great Thanksgiving or Christmas movie tradition.

What joy springs from this delightful movie.

I'd watch it again right now!

Love it to pieces.

Rated PG. 82 glorious minutes!

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL — SHOCKTOBER!

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William Castle's 1959 B-Movie horror classic retains its goofy charm with a litany of gimmicky sight gags that, however tame by today's standards, keep their childish appeal.

The popular set-up trope for this tale of murder involves five specifically chosen people to attempt winning $10,000 for each one that can withstand an entire night in Vincent Price's "haunted" house.

Wealthy Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) in unhappily married to Carol Ohmart's Annabelle. The couple hate each other so much that either one could kill the other.

So it goes that Frederick supplies each "party" guest with a loaded gun, presented in cute little coffin cases.

Vincent Price does his all-knowing wink to the audience as he glides through the action with marvelous aplomb.

"House On Haunted Hill" is a kid-friendly horror movie that tickles as much as it surprises.

Of special importance to the film is it's use of the historic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Ennis House in Los Feliz California.

William Castle ("King of the Gimmicks") revels in the story's silliness. It's all an excuse to get the audience to scream along with the actors.

If you want silly fun for your Halloween popcorn-eating enjoyment, "House on Haunted Hill" is a safe bet.

Not Rated. 75 mins.

ASTEROID CITY

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How far the mediocre have fallen.

Wes Anderson has become more of an art instillation filmmaker than a storyteller.

"Asteroid City" is a fine thing to project on the wall of your next cocktail dinner soiree, but it isn't much of a movie, or a play, or whatever the feck Wes Anderson thinks it is.

Here is a movie you'll feel better about walking out on before it begins, than you will wasting the fifteen minutes it takes you to realize what a disastrous piece of inert garbage it truly is.

Still, walk out you will.

Other than inspiring a few chuckles, "Asteroid City" doesn't deliver enough humor, meaningful satire, or narrative structure to be entertaining.

If you like watching paint dry, then you should probably stick to watching paint dry.

I suppose Anderson's name actors (of which there are too many) were happy enough with the two-hundred to five-hundred grand that each were ostensibly paid for their participation in this huge waste of their individual talents.

Childish is as childish does.

Scarlett Johansson's gratuitous (body-double) nude scene takes the cake for just how embarrassingly low Anderson is willing to sink.

Disgusting. 

Rated PG-13. 105 mins.

ZERO STARS