The Emoji Movie

Director: Tony Leondis
Year Released: 2017
Rating: 0.0

Widely mocked (and rightfully so) one-'joke' animated project - based on the little characters called 'emojis' people can send to each other - has Gene (T.J. Miller), who is only supposed to have one single facial expression ("Meh!" ... meaning ennui), coming to the realization he's actually capable of multiple expressions (good heavens!), which, in this 'digital universe,' is a crime punishable by deletion. It makes a rudimentary point early on about emojis being 'modern hieroglyphics' but then goes the Wreck-It Ralph route of playing out like a series of video game levels with gratuitous advertising for Facebook, Instagram, Spotify and Dropbox - it tries too hard to look 'fun' but it cannot escape its own inherent pointlessness (the target demographic is Generation Z ... and even they think it's laughable). If you must torture yourself by watching it, get ready for lines like "throw some sauce on that dance burrito" and Patrick Stewart "earning" a cheque for lending his voice to smiling feces.