Based in Sydney, Australia, Foundry is a blog by Rebecca Thao. Her posts explore modern architecture through photos and quotes by influential architects, engineers, and artists.

Flick or Skip: Mr. Popper's Penguins (Opens 17 June 2011)

What? Like you can name one bigger film opening this weekend than Jim Carrey playing with penguins for 90 minutes? Oh, that thing? I'm not up to talking about Ryan Reynolds' disembodied head floating over an animated body tonight. For those who haven't played before, this is where we try to surmise whether we should flick (see) or skip (not see) a movie in theaters based only on the trailers. Let's get to it. First trailer:

This is the trailer that made me think this film was going to be stupid. Painfully stupid. It's a bunch of sight gags with penguins. Carey's in full face pulling mode, but at least it's not in a drama. That's a unforgivable offense.

The penguin animation is quite good in the dance sequence, which gives me hope. If the stupidest scene they're previewing with at least looks good, maybe the film will balance out with actual laughs, cuteness, and overall family fun.

And this is the trailer that convinced me I need to see this film. Carey's giving a much more believable performance than the initial trailer suggested. He has a great presence with the children and his wife in the film. He does good selfish business man and the new sight gags in this trailer are much stronger than the ones in the first.

Plus, this trailer shows the villain of the film. He's been doing great stuffy authority figure for years, most recently in Thor. He'll be a great straight man for Carey's/the penguins' antics.

What can I say? I think the film looks cute. Cute is enough sometimes in a family comedy. Plus, my family is big on penguins. That scores major bonus points for us.

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