North Texas Daily

Preston Barta // Film Critic

“The LEGO Movie”
Rated PG for mild action and rude humor.
Runtime: 100 min.

Rating: 4/5

For more than 60 years, LEGOs has entertained children all over the world with its famous colorful, interlocking plastic bricks. Now, thanks to directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (“21 Jump Street,” 2012), our childhood comes back to pay us a visit in the nostalgic and artful cinematic experience known as “The LEGO Movie.”

In a story that tells of an ordinary LEGO Minifigure (a charming Chris Pratt) who is mistakenly thought to be the extraordinary “Master Builder” out to stop a vicious tyrant (a well-cast Will Ferrell), the animated feature melds together an impressive cast – including Elizabeth Banks, Morgan Freeman and Liam Neeson – that portray various memorable characters and a smart script super charged with laughs.

“The LEGO Movie” opens today.

“The Monuments Men”
Rated PG-13 for some images of war violence and historical smoking.
Runtime: 118 min.

Rating: 2.5/5

George Clooney’s latest homage to the Golden Age of war films brushes ever so closely at times to the classical screwball comedies of the 40s and 50s, but falls short in both the carefree laughs and the building of its characters.

Despite its winning cast (Matt Damon, Bill Murray and John Goodman) and fascinating story of an unlikely World War II platoon tasked with recovering stolen art pieces from Nazi thieves, “The Monuments Men” is a bloated, boring and unfortunately disappointing film.

“The Monuments Men” opens today.