Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip | Film review

Those squeaky-voiced vermin the singing chipmunks create their usual slapstick mayhem when they take a road trip from Los Angeles to Miami in their fourth live-action/CGI animation movie, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip.

Aiming to stop their human ‘dad’ (a weary looking Jason Lee) from proposing to his new girlfriend (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), they end up bonding with her bratty teenage son (Josh Green) while trying to evade the clutches of a manic air marshal (Veep’s Tony Hale).

Although a brief cameo appearance by John Waters raises a smile (the fleeting Pink Flamingos gag is good), grown ups will find the chipmunks’ high-on helium vocals something of an ordeal, but the critters’ puerile antics will probably keep undemanding under-fives amused. Compared with the best of recent animated creature features, however, the Chipmunks are road kill.

Certificate U. Runtime 92 mins. Director Walt Becker

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip is showing on Sky Movies Cinema and is available on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital Download from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI_nj4NXpoQ

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.