Reel Critics:

Sony Pictures wants a piece of the kid-movie biz dominated by Pixar and Disney.

In “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,” they stretch a silly story from a children’s book to feature-length animation with mixed results. This feat is accomplished by padding the plot with lots of extra food.

A boy scientist with a nerdy disposition lives on an island where the sardine business rules the life and diet of the populace.

He invents a strange machine that can create any food and make the finished product fall like rain from the sky.

Soon pizza, burgers and gummy bears are being showered on everyone.

Little ones in the film and the audience will be delighted at the endless supply of junk food.

Parents might not be so thrilled at the mindless excess.

The food showers result in tons of wasted pancakes, eggs and jelly beans that fall on sidewalks and lawns. The waste fills a new dump that threatens to overwhelm the town.

Meat products displayed for humor include a chorus line of dead roasted chickens dancing a jig that might offend some viewers.

It seems Sony has gone the way of other formula films in this category.

They offer goofy nonsense to entertain the kids and lots of empty calories to fill up their attention-span hunger.

Damon’s ‘Informant!’ role one of his best

Matt Damon is terrific in “The Informant!” — a bizarre but true tale of a corn-fed, mild-mannered biochemist and business executive who turns whistle-blower.

Mark Whitacre (Damon), gently prodded by his wife, Ginger (Melanie Lynskey), decides he’s seen enough of the global price-fixing practices at his firm and quietly tells FBI Agent Shepard (Scott Bakula) that he can provide enough information about the shady dealings to make it stop.

Shepard and Agent Herndon (Joel McHale) seize on Whitacre’s story and become his friend and champion, even carrying his family photo around with them to remind themselves that this is a stand-up guy.

Director Steven Soderbergh gives “The Informant!” a chirpy ’70s vibe. We are lulled by Damon’s stream-of- consciousness voiceovers and the loopy events into thinking this is zany comedy.

But that inner dialogue, which seems so irrelevant, suddenly makes sense later on. It’s a memorable, touching moment and one of Damon’s best.

The performances are straight-arrow and heartfelt. Cameos from Tom and Dick Smothers, those pioneers of TV comedy with a social conscience, are a nice touch.

At first, this film seems an odd choice for Soderbergh, whose films range from the “Ocean’s” movies to “Che.”

But as the secrets and lies are gently unraveled, the parallels between Whitacre’s jaw-dropping story and today’s greed-obsessed corporate scandals become clear.

We come looking for laughs, but the joke’s on us.

JOHN DEPKO is a Costa Mesa resident and a senior investigator for the Orange County public defender’s office. SUSANNE PEREZ lives in Costa Mesa and is an executive assistant for a financial services company.