This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
"Alvin & the Chipmunks: The Road Chip," the fourth movie featuring those high-pitched musical rodents, is so intolerably bad that even hate-watching it is unsatisfying.
Alvin, Simon and Theodore are living as normal kids with their quasi-dad, Dave Seville (Jason Lee) — but when Dave is spending all his time with his new girlfriend, Samantha (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), whose teen son Miles (Josh Green) bullies them mercilessly, the 'munks decide enough is enough. When Dave takes Samantha along to Miami, where he's shepherding a teen pop singer (Bella Thorne), Miles and the chipmunks fear he's going to propose — so they hit the road across the South to stop the engagement, with an obsessed air marshal ("Veep's" Tony Hale) on their trail.
Wackiness fails to ensue, as hack director Walt Becker ("Wild Hogs") shuffles through sputtering jokes, lame pratfalls and the usual Chipmunk-altered pop songs. ("Uptown Funk," anyone? Anyone?) Children will be bored to tears by it all and curse their parents for not buying tickets to "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" in advance.
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'Alvin & the Chipmunks: The Road Chip'
Opens Friday, Dec. 18, in theaters everywhere; rated PG for some mild rude humor; 92 minutes.