The Boss Baby – Film Review

Director: Tom McGrath
Writers: Marla Frazee (book), Michael McCullers (screenplay)
Stars: Miles Christopher Bakshi, Alec Baldwin, Eric Bell Jr.

The title of the film will give you a fair idea of what it is about, but actually it’s a little more complicated! Tim has the perfect family life, that is until a new arrival is announced. He arrived in the back of a taxi, and danced his way up the garden path. He’s a new baby, but not the most conventional one in town! You see, Tim’s parents work for a company selling the cutest puppies on the planet, and with a limited amount of love in the world, the people that make babies are concerned they will lose their place as the most loved! This young upstart has been sent to infiltrate the puppy business and steal the secret of their latest puppy. At least, that’s what Tim think, it could all be part of his over-active imagination.

Alec Baldwin is fast approaching national treasure status in the states, amongst the 50+% percent of the population that voted for Hillary. Tina Fey’s wonderful 30 Rock certainly helped to increase his fame with the younger generation and his imitations of Trump on Saturday Night Live in recent months have sealed the deal. He has also starred in a number of other recent films such as Blue Jasmine and Still Alice. The other stars of this vehicle are Jimmy Kimmel (Father), Lisa Kudrow (Mother) and bad guy Francis Francis (Steve Buscemi).

You’d swear there’s a school holiday fast approaching! This is the second animated release of the week. This is the latest film from Dreamworks animation, who produced Shrek, Kung Fu Panda and Trolls among others. Director Tom McGrath is responsible for the Madagascar series, one through three, which received relatively consistent box office figures and this will no doubt continue in a similar fashion.

The film does bear a similarity to Storks, which was released last year and again puts a cartoon structure on ‘where babies come from’. Alec Baldwin carries the film and is enjoyable as the pint sized business man, using bits of his 30 rock character Jack Donaghy with the odd touch of Trump! This is definitely not a classic, at the level of Shrek or even Madagascar but is perfectly functional. The jokes work well for adults also, but it isn’t as jam packed with them as you would expect. It feels like the story line came first, so you’re bogged down in the caper for most of the film. It is relatively forgettable, but does feature a large number of cute babies and puppies, and really, that’s probably enough! This is out in good time for Easter and will fill a wet afternoon in the cinemas of Ireland.