Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation

Mavis (Selena Gomez) surprises Dracula (Adam Sandler) with a family vacation on a luxury monster cruise ship liner so he can finally get away from all the stress of running the hotel for once. Of course, the rest of Dracula’s monster crew can’t resist coming along, and they do. But once they all leave port, romance ensues when Dracula meets the mysterious ship Captain, Ericka (Kathryn Hahn), and it’s now Mavis’ turn to play the overprotective parent for a change, keeping her dad and Ericka apart. Little does anyone realize at first though that this maybe-too-good-to-be-true love interest is actually a descendant of Van Helsing (Jim Gaffigan), the ancient nemesis to Dracula (and all other monsters in the Hotel Transylvania series). This third installment could be looked at as one big, easy cash grab for Adam Sandler and his friends, sure. But maybe they’re just having fun and making some lighthearted material that their kids can actually enjoy? While not gut-busting hilarious by any means, by adult standards at least, HT3 is tremendously cute, and is the perfect kids movie that kids will lap up this summer. Not quite on par with the first movie in the series, but is certainly much better than Part Two.

[PG]