Ten Stars or Less

Adam Sandler has had an amazing career making millions of people laugh all over the globe. Whether he has been successful in all those attempts, is a different debate for a different time. He’s had many highs and plenty of lows, but Hotel Transylvania was definitely a rebound after many failed projects. Sandler plays Dracula, the owner of a monster only hotel in Transylvania. His best friends include a werewolf, an invisible man, the mummy, and Frankenstein. Drac’s daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) is about turn 118 and wants to see the world. Dracula’s attempts to block his daughter from the real world is comic, heart warming, and really over bearing. Dad’s are always protective of their daughters, but no one can imagine the stress associated with rising a vampire in a modern world. When Jonathan (Andy Samberg) stumbles across the exclusive resort, everything gets turned upside down. A lot of people criticize Sandler for only casting his close friends to all his projects, but these people are hilarious on their own merits. Hollywood is truly a place of inner circles and Sandler just happen to create his own and used them whenever he wants. Sure these guys, Kevin James, David Spade, and Steve Buscemi, may not make Oscar worthy films together, but they do bring the laughs, given the right subject material. No one would have guessed Hotel Transylvania would eventually have its own franchise, but let’s be honest here, there are far worse animated franchises. Sandler’s chemistry with Gomez makes for a great father daughter combination. Whether or not you actually like Sandler, you got to admire his performance as an over protective dad. His creative mind brought the “scary” monsters from old folk tales back to life and into your child’s hearts, without blood or gore. No one is going to get scared or have nightmares over these guys because this is a family movie, meant to be enjoyed by everyone. I think that using all of our favourite monster characters takes this story to a much funnier place than any of us could have hoped for. 7/10