Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip

Chipmunks Alvin, Theodore and Simon get wind that their boss Dave (Jason Lee) is about to propose to his new girlfriend (Kimberly Williams-Paisley). Enlisting Williams-Paisley’s sullen teenage son (Josh Green), who doesn’t like the idea any more than they do, to help them torpedo the romance, they set off for Miami, but a vindictive air marshal (Tony Hale) places them on the no-fly list and pursues them cross-country like a hammy Javert in some childish parody of Les Misérables. So much contrivance to so little point. Like its predecessors, this who-needs-it movie plays less as entertainment than as a make-work project for unemployed CGI animators, several dozen of whom rise admirably to the challenge of making chipmunks sing and dance. It’s harmless enough, but harmless garbage is still garbage. J.L.