Family Guy Presents: It's a Trap! (2010)

Overrated and overhyped

Instant Favorite.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

In the opening credits of this third Star Wars spoof, the writers joke about FOX "making them do it" and how they are "running out of gas". Upon viewing, it is clear that perhaps it wasn't a joke after all.This time, Seth McFarland and crew take on the heavy-spoofing of "Return of the Jedi". It's typical Family Guy through and through, with cut-away gags and jokes that go on just a bit too long. Underlying the whole joke-set this time around, though, seems to be a sort of disdain for "Jedi". Whereas "Blue Harvest" was made out of reverence and "Dark Side" was made out of necessity, this one seems to be just a labor to finish the trilogy and nothing more. A few jokes are hilarious, while the others are all over the place and considerably less than funny.Thus, while this installment needed to be made to complete the trilogy, it suffers from a severe lack of punch in terms of writing. Any talk of the Family Guy crew tackling the "new trilogy" should be put to rest right now after this middling effort.

With the regularity of a third world country, another power cut hits the Griffin house and it is with a weary sigh that everyone knows that the telling of Jedi is on its way.This film has not been particularly well received but for me I found it funny enough to like if not love. The Family Guy Star Wars parodies are structured on the movies themselves so the fact that Jedi is not particularly good sort of makes it harder to do as a comedy everyone will like. In combination with this is that the spoof "franchise" is perhaps not as fresh as it was when they did Blue Harvest. This leads to some bits that are amusing but drag on far too long (the nodding bit for example, or that country singer) as well as material that is funny but is a bit obvious and seen-before. I still laughed though and there is enough here to draw regular laughs from those that like Family Guy – although I will caveat that by saying I do not watch the TV show so perhaps It's a Trap feels fresher for me whereas for regular viewers it may just be more of the same.The in-joking is overdone even if it is funny. I liked them sticking it to Seth Green even if it did lack teeth in terms of what was said, but they did do it for too long. The rest of the material is reasonably good but, like I said, there didn't seem to be much enthusiasm or imaginative wit in the writing, like the obvious jokes were enough and if everything could be made to last a few more seconds it would only help the writers fill it up. The voice cast are typically good and the animation cannot be faulted (I do love how they look just like the original films), but the material just needed more spark.I'm not sure if the "we were forced to make this by Fox" line is a joke or true but there is certainly a sense that it is an expectation rather than a good idea. I still found it funny and it provided me some good laughs throughout, but they were mostly silly gags and most of them ran on for a few seconds after my laugh had finished. Worth seeing and certainly not the dire spectacle that others here have said, but not as good as they first managed and it certainly had room to be sharper.

Oh dear. In Peter's own words, "For crying out loud, somebody throw a pie!"This third entry is joke-lite. The recipe seems to have been: copy-and-paste some clips directly from the Star Wars movie, manipulate them to look cartoonish, and then look for places to put jokes. Then look harder because Fox is pressuring you, then give up.In the "scrolling-up text" at the start, it even says this is a poor show. They're basically saying "sorry this one's not funny. But you've just parted with $30 and that's the important thing". If I'd paid for this I would be seriously upset.There's a 'head-nodding' skit which is the least funny thing I've ever seen on a Family Guy episode. It feels like it lasts 10 minutes. It doesn't work at all, and it feels like filler.Don't bother buying this DVD. Wait a month or two until this is on some comedy channel. Or find it in a bargain bin. Or just find it in someone's bin.

Let me preface this bad review with the following statement: I'm a HUGE Family Guy fan. I loved the Star Wars parody. I chuckled a few times during the Empire parody. But this latest installation? Not ONE laugh. Not even close. At least McFarland makes a "sorry about this one" statement during the initial "scroll". He covered his butt on it.It's painfully obvious that this one was rushed through. It's cliché and tired, and it never seems to get off and running. I can rank it as worse than the season-ending "stuck in the bank" episode that recently aired. The extended "nod" joke in the Tatooine desert was just...I dunno, PAINFUL to watch.Don't go into this one expecting good entertainment. It's just not there. As a matter of fact, I didn't even make it to the ending. I woke up as the end credits were rolling, pulled the DVD out of the player and put it back in the case. That's likely where it's gonna stay for a long, long time.If I could ship this one off to a galaxy far, far away...I'd do it. Watch it once if you're a fan..and then let it go.