Wreck-It Ralph

Wreck-It Ralph: There’s a lot of potential in this arcade throwback about the title character (John C. Reilly), a giant video game entity that yearns for a better life as a “good guy” and abandons his game post. There are some cool retro-game sight gags—not nearly enough!—and clever twists, but this one falls substantially short of greatness. I did enjoy Sarah Silverman voicing a little girl character who wants to be a racecar driver, and Reilly voices his character with charm. I just found it a little tiresome as it wore on, and I grew tired of it in the repetitive second half. Major laughs in the group therapy sessions—love the zombie!—and some cute stuff between Reilly and Silverman but, overall, it’s surprisingly boring. Like too many animated films these days, it tries to get by on frantic action rather than story.