Ice Age: Collision Course

We’re five movies in, and the ‘Ice Age’ series has jumped the sloth: ‘Collision Course’ feels like it was scripted on the back of a beer mat and animated by the folks behind those straight-to-DVD Barbie movies. It’s hard to shake the suspicion that the producers looked at the dwindling quality and soaring box office of the first four films and concluded that, actually, they didn’t need to put much effort at all.

The setup remains unchanged, focusing on the midlife struggles of three prehistoric mammals: Mannie the mammoth (voiced by Ray Romano), Sid the sloth (John Leguizamo) and Diego the sabre-tooth tiger (Denis Leary, whose drastically reduced role may reflect his drastically reduced star power). In classic lazy-sitcom fashion, Mannie’s daughter (Keke Palmer) wants to get married, but dad doesn’t approve. Will he swallow his pride and come around? What do you think?

Meanwhile, madcap weasal Buck (Simon Pegg, grating beyond belief) is convinced the world’s about to end, leading to a perfunctory road-movie plot, a series of half-hearted action scenes and Jessie J as a Cockney hippy sloth. With even the Looney Tunes-style Scrat-the-slapstick-squirrel scenes feeling tired, it’s time to put this franchise on ice for good.