The Rundown 8/11/12

In honor of one of the shows I've watched lately, I'm going to put together a catch-all post RIGHT NOW. Okay, it's not that big a deal, but anyway...

Mission Impossible 4 - I watched MI4 this week and had a reasonably good time. Lots of running, fake outs and high tech stuff going on to hold my interest. A little more humor this time out as well. The movie does get carried away with the CGI though, there are sequences (like the sandstorm chase in Dubai...I think that's where the chase was) where I felt like I was playing a video game more than watching a film. Seems like a good warm up for Jeremy Renner in getting down the whole spy moves thang for his Bourne films.

The Newsroom - The new HBO series is for the most part a winner. It kicks off with a fictional news anchor making one of the best public speeches I've heard (and can only exist in fiction) before portraying a news program attempting to adhere to strict journalistic standards. Shades of Broadcast News, one of my all time favorite films, runs through the whole bit with moralistic ethics being discussed among soap opera characters sweating out each others love lives. Jeff Daniels goes gunning for Emmy glory with a strong turn as a hyper intelligent, narcissistic, insecure news anchor. There are some weak points, Daniel's character Will McAvoy is the most left leaning Republican ever and as my wife has noted there is a blatant The Office style Jim and Pam relationship going on with two characters. Plus when it comes to ethics, they are sticklers on verification of information on specific news stories (and make a big deal about it), yet feel free to carry out their personal political agendas on air (such as doing a week long tear down of the Tea Party). The Newsroom does capture a feeling of an adrenalin rush in the pursuit of factual information as well as reveal some nice pocket sized bits of knowledge (the 1 minute modern economics lesson was cool). And hey, Sam Waterston sighting!



Skyfall - The James Bond trailer is out and I have the same reaction every time before I see the whole movie. This movie's gonna be dope yo! Even if they did bring back the "signature gun" gimmick like in Licence To Kill.


Already Gone - I haven't had a song follow me around in many a moon, but it happened today. Kelly Clarkson's "Already Gone" played twice in my presence at two different places. I think this was the song co-written by that guy from One Republic, that Clarkson said he recycled the beat he already had given to Beyonce for her hit "Halo". Meaning that the beat to her song was...you know what I'm going to say...already gone...


The Olympics - Just can't get excited about this thing. I saw the women's bronze volleyball match on tv though, that was a good match. Also saw some of the closing ceremonies. What a weird program that was. It was supposed to invoke the best of Britian, but after witnessing warmed over new wave hits, a creepy giant sized John Lennon face and too much Jessie J it all seemed like a big mistake. On the upside, USA won the medal count.

Checking In To The Marigold Hotel

Saw the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. It tells the story of a bunch of unhappy retiring British people who buy into staying at a hotel in India that promises the ideal care for the elderly. Once arriving in India, the retirees find that the hotel is run down to the point that there are missing doors and walls. The situation forces people who felt their productive lives were over in the Western world to reinvent or rediscover themselves in a different place.

This type of story has been done before, so it's a question of execution more than originality. Despite a slow start where they introduce a wide range of characters, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel gives a warm, winning take on this tale. And how could it not when they stack the deck with an esteemed cast that includes Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Tom Wilkinson among others. The actors are uniformly great, in particular Dev Patel (that guy from Slumdog Millionaire) shines as the young hotel manager with big dreams.

Director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) and crew do a nice job of giving the actors space, although with a cast this big (it's like ten or so featured characters) some people do get short shrift (Celia Imrie's man prowling Madge gets a lot less screen time than expected). The tonal shifts between personal drama and amusing comedy is handled nicely and with sensitivity.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel finds a group of talented people pleasantly performing a well worn story with good results. It's not the type of movie that sticks with you or reveals anything major, just a slight feel good film with a bad title ( I can't keep the title of this movie straight in my head no matter how many times I type it).

Cowboys And Aliens And The Crystal Skull

Yesterday I watched Hollywood's latest attempt at creating a big budget kitsch classic with Cowboys and Aliens. The movie definitely has a head turning title. Despite the nutty premise, the film has big stars (Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde and lots of other actors where you go "Oh yeah it's that guy!") and is directed by Iron Man Jon Favreau. My guess was to anticipate a fast paced plot, lots of running and shouting with explosions, you know the usual action stuff. I went in with the intention of not thinking about what I'm seeing and enjoying the ride.

To make a film like this work, it needs to have some kind of creative angle or sense of edgy humor to make the thing zip along. You can't buy into the story with any sense of realism, the central idea of the project is basically a Syfy channel movie on steroids. So it's too bad Favreau didn't get that memo, 'cause he directs this popcorn flick like it's Saving Private Ryan. The tone is mostly serious, nobody looks like they're having fun on screen (well, except maybe Harrison Ford but that's 'cause he's so awesome). Aliens don't get much screen time until the ending, most of what you get is the bickering of the townspeople who have gathered together to try to rescue their loved ones from the mysterious demons of the sky. Since the bulk of the film plays like a standard Western, the aliens aren't just intrusive they seem pasted on like the marketing tool that they are. It's like Favreau couldn't get the money to do a full on Western so he settled for making 4/5ths of one.

The Western part of the movie is solid, thanks in large part to that great cast. James Bond / Daniel Craig is no stranger to portraying the badass with no name bit and fits in fine. Harrison Ford is a blast as the hardened cattle rancher / ex war officer with a soft spot for little kids. Ford seems to relish playing this character and is the only character to generate a strong emotional reaction. Sam Rockwell's sensitive barkeep also registers strongly. Yep, all the actors pull their weight except for maybe Olivia Wilde. I couldn't tell if her acting was good or not since her character was so hokey I couldn't envision anyone doing it well.

Since the movie was more drama than fun, I had lots of time for my mind to spin its wheels. I began to wonder how Olivia Wilde's character managed to wear so much makeup in the old west, make up that doesn't run after getting soaked in water no less. Or how she got such a tight fitting frontier woman's dress, it was like the Tron outfit in a skirt. And why were the Aliens stuck with the generic outer space invaders playbook. Alien weapons that humans can only use in the presence of the aliens themselves (District 9). Creatures that capture people to "study for weaknesses" in the human race (every damn invasion movie but mostly thinking of War Of The Worlds). People kept in a zombie like state packed together in a room (The Matrix). A scurrying army of green armored creatures that can jut out attack appendages (Aliens, Starship Troopers).

Cowboys And Aliens isn't an all out bad movie, it just misses the point of its own existence. One that makes promises of epic battle storytelling and then bores you with the tales of the long trip it took to get there. Sort of like telling a friend you went to Disneyland and then spend the next 90 minutes detailing your car trip with pee breaks as the high points. Thankfully, Indiana Ford is there to bring back fond memories of Raiders Of The Lost Ark...or at least Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull.

Rating:

The Other Guys Won't Be Around

Bad Vibrations - Mark Wahlberg and Will Farrell make a less than funky bunch in The Other Guys.

Rating:




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Wow, The Other Guys, it looked so promising from the advertisements. Will Farrell and Mark Wahlberg in a buddy cop movie sending up buddy cop movies. The commercials made me laugh with Farrell playing against type as a fuss budget to Mark Wahlberg's tough Boston dude gimmick. Plus, it was going to have The Rock and Samuel Jackson as hot shot cops who rule the streets while "the other guys" do the paperwork. As they say on Flight Of The Conchords, all systems were go everything was perfect...

Except Rock and Jackson die off quickly (and humorously) towards the start of the flick. And with them goes much of the energy this movie had, even an Ice T voice over narration can't keep things up for long. Farrell and Wahlberg go through the standard buddy cop motions we've seen before in tons of films before but their attempts at irony/satire fall flat. Leaving a generic police thriller flooded with bad jokes spiked with a couple of chuckles in their wake. Meaning we're watching a bad action movie that isn't even trying to be good.

Not to completely deride The Other Guys, in a supporting role Michael Keaton kicks ass as the stereotypical aggravated police chief with an obsession for an old hip hop group while moonlighting as a floor manager with Bed Bath and Beyond. And Farrell dodges some of his usual gross out humor to milk laughs out of intellectual prissiness instead (such as bragging about having 6 Cds of the Little River Band in his car). Which means he's not as funny as he can be, yet I respect him more as an artiste'. Though it's no accident that the few laugh out loud funny bits involve Farrell's character unleashing his trademark bull in a china shop approach to comedy. Such as delving into his past as a college pimp named Gator. And bad cop / bad cop? That's classic.

Surprisingly dull past the first ten minutes, The Other Guys does little more than prove why the people who stand in the background of action films are back there - it would be boring as hell to follow them around.

Oooh Ooooh...Growin Up...

Sandler and crew take a busman's holiday in Grown Ups.

Rating:

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Went to see the new Adam Sandler comedy Grown Ups which if I wanted to trash I guess I could have called Groan Ups or Thrown Ups except it wasn't that bad. Sandler made his name on playing young adults with a juvenile heart (and mental capacity) which won him a bit of success, yet it was playing up his soft mushy side that really got him over with The Wedding Singer. Over the years he's tried to be more dramatic (like every successful comic) developing a mildly disturbed moon face to anger persona. With Grown Ups, Sandler pools his talents with a slew of other ex-SNLers (Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, David Spade, Maya Rudolph, that Colin guy that used to do Weekend Update, Tim Meadows) and worthy stand alone talents (Salma Hayek, Kevin James, Steve Bucemi) to make a slightly bland family comedy.

As far as family comedies go, Grown Ups is pretty good. Sure, the film drowns in sappy sentimentality a third of the time and there are plenty of predictable jokes like the gassy Granny or the hot girls that came from an ugly Dad. At the same time there is a feeling of genuine comraderie (which probably is helped by the SNL alum status) and all performers comic timing is on point. Schneider even gets to play against type, channeling his obnoxiousness into a touchy feely character. And there are bits of laugh out loud humor amid the overbearing heart warming nature of the flick.

Midway through the story loses some cohesiveness trying to balance the multitude of characters and subplots. In some ways Grown Ups is reminscent of those Burt Reynolds movies he used to make back when he was a big star, when he'd get a bunch of his buddies together under the loose idea of "Lets make a movie together" and just have a thinly sketched beginning and end while throwing random pieces in the middle. Still, Grown Ups manages to pull things together at the end to have a satisfying finish.

Grown Ups is probably the most family friendly movie Sandler has made yet. Of course with this theme the normally off the wall or raunchy vistas these guys usually call home seem neglected. Which is why the most enjoyable parts are when the five guys (Sandler, Spade, Rock, Schneider and James) are alone together, they're allowed to unleash some of their harsher sided humor with it still considered to be "just joshin". Like when all four of the guys riff on Schneider for referring to corn as maize throughout the film is funny.

The sheer amount of talent involved manages to elevate Grown Ups to a cut above the standard family movie fare. Just a little bit. Timeliness helps too, the 4th of July time period of the movie fits perfectly with, well, today. Grown Ups won't rock your world, but it will make you comfortable and give some good laughs along the way. Or maybe it will rock your world if you dig the soundtrack, I haven't heard that much J.Geils Band in a movie since Fright Night!

The Shell Game

Love at first sting - Scarlett Johansson strikes a pose and little else in Iron Man 2

Rating:

and a half

Let's get down to brass tax: a lot of movie sequels suck. There are exceptions, but generally ideas start to run dry and more money gets thrown at the screen to compensate. Watching the trailers, that was the impression I had of Iron Man 2. More characters! More special effects! Probably a mind boggling story that results in predictablity! Still, I like the first movie and have always liked 'ol shell head from the comics so I hunkered down for more of the same.

So I have to say with surprise that I liked Iron Man 2. I liked it quite a bit. Returning director Jon Favreau does a good job of continuing the momentum carried from the first flick and staying true to the comic roots. Most of the cast from the original (Robert Downey Jr, Gwenyth Paltrow, and all those supporting folk) return in addition to Scarlett Johanssen and Samuel L Jackson. And a soundtrack heavy with Ac/Dc and The Clash? Pretty good stuff.

Most of what Iron Man 2 does is right. New baddies are added in with a fine Mickey Rourke chewing up scenery as a disgruntled Russian scientist turned evil (he has electric whips tied to him) and I think it was Jeff Fahey as the greedy sleazy corporate arms dude (may be wrong, don't feel like looking up who it really was). Favreau does well in balancing a multitude of characters running around at once. The action is as fast and fun as ever. And a nice sense of humor carries the middle of the flick as Downey Jr pulls us into the silly pathos of a seemingly doomed man (see Iron Man drunkenly dance and perform party tricks!).

In order to keep drama running, Tony Stark battles I guess battery poisoning from his arc powered chest and his anticipated mortality that comes with it. He also is in a dogged fight with congress about the proprietary rights to the Iron Man armor (which allows for entertaining trade offs between Downey Jr and Garry Shandling as a super conservative senator). Don Cheadle is one of my favorite working actors and he does not disappoint taking over the role of Rhody from that guy who won an Oscar playing a rapping pimp. The first two thirds of the film focus more on characters than action, a rarity in the short attention span world of summer movies. Maybe a little too long, I started itching for some action a good 20 minutes before it actually happened.

There are some wrong notes hit here or there, mainly Scarlett Johanssen as a foxy but stilted Black Widow. She looks really hot, so it's too bad she delivers lines with such empty intent that it sucks the life out of her scenes. When she starts talking about how she's a SHIELD agent and has secured the perimeter, it's done with lazy conviction like she's expecting one of the other actors to call "bullshit" on her. And the movie never delves into an obvious subject with Stark publicly revealing he's Iron Man. Why doesn't someone take Stark out with a sniper rifle when he's not dressed in armor? Stark saunters out in one public arena after another stripping off his armor in broad day light. Instead of investing all his damn time and resources into building electric whips with limited range, Whiplash (Mickey Rourke) should have just bought a gun and shot Stark while he was showboating. I mean, Stark doesn't know Whiplash exists or is coming after him and apparently Whiplash can buy off people to get into secure locations with his heavy duty metal coils on his body. So just take a gun with you and shoot Stark while he dances for the crowd. Not too hard, kind of a no brainer. Oh well...

Iron Man 2 is a good film that fits in with the first film nicely. Not as good as the first of course and like many sequels grittiness has been replaced with humor to ensure a wider audience. At the end of the flick I felt very entertained, even if not much happens that's terribly original. Better than average for a superhero movie, Iron Man 2 blows up stuff with aplomb.

Big Blue Versus Big Blue

National Geographic presents blue cat people from outer space

Avatar rating:

Yesterday I joined the millions (and millions!) of people who have seen the movie Avatar (but not in 3D). The latest in a chain of James Cameron epics. And you know what? It wasn't bad.

That's not to say it was great or legendary, other than being fine entertainment it escapes me how this flick has made as much money as it has. Technically it's a cut above, the visual effects are striking. Cameron creates a planet called Pandora that looks like a blue Roger Dean painting - lush fauna, arched granite, flying dragons and floating islands galore. On this planet are some tall blue people who live in harmony with nature. The digital effects are brilliant and engrosing, backgrounds are complex and lively while the blue alien creatures are rendered well enough to evoke human emotions without appearing entirely affected. It's not the jump of say The Matrix in digital effects but it is an impressive technical feat nonetheless.

Storywise Avatar follows the pattern of past Cameron classics. On Pandora the blue alien creatures are threatened by humans working for a corporation that wants to strip mine a precious ore from the surface. They want to relocate or kill the blue people to make a profit. Familiar patterns emerge i.e. a scrappy hero against a dogmatic enemy, a love story tested by the heat of battle, Police / Militairy personel portrayed as lunk headed gung ho killers and a lead character going through the stranger-in-a-strange-land syndrome. With Sigourney Weaver present it's easy to think of this as a sort of Aliens with the sides flipped to make the humans evil. Being a fan of James Cameron movies, it was easy for me to see where the story was going and I began sorting out which characters would die and which would live within the first 40 minutes of the 2 and a half hour epic.

To be fair, Cameron continues to add new elements to his storytelling. With Titantic, Cameron learned how to be mushy (and long winded) which carries over to Avatar. In Avatar, Cameron adds more social commentary into his style. Plenty of heavy handed allusions to modern wars for profit, destruction of the ecology for the sake of industrialization, the unfair expensiveness of medical help and the inhuman detachment of the technological world get play.

All in all, Avatar is a good movie. It wasn't mind blowing or a religious event as I've seen it described by some online, but it was good stuff. Is it ironic that this anti-corporate movie cost a bundle to make and is making even larger bundles for a major corporation? Looks like Cameron still has some dragons left to slay.

Go Fish

Rating:

Hayao Miyazaki, the name generates a huge buzz among fans of Japanese animation and his latest movie Ponyo is getting a big marketing push here in the States. Redubbed with big name Western actors (Liam Neeson, Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon and Tina Fey to name a few) Disney is distributing this as a must see kids film. Is it must see? Well, here's one opinion.

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Going in I had seen only one Miyazaki movie, Howl's Moving Castle. I liked that movie, it was fanciful and interesting with some emotional pull and drama. My family likes Miyazaki's work a lot so I went with them to see it.

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The story is about a young boy who finds a fish on the shore. The fish is a magical being born from a mystical mother and father that work to keep the Oceans "in balance". For most of the movie you only see the father, who used to be human and now hates human beings for polluting the waters. He plans some kind of magical means of destroying humanity, but his daughter (the fish the young boy finds) gets lost and is found by the boy. The little daughter fish is named Ponyo by the boy Sosuke and is cared for. Ponyo falls in love with Sosuke and wants to become human. After this, other things ensue but the crux is that Ponyo uses her magic to be like a human girl so she can hang around Sosuke. A major flood of town Sosuke lives at occurs and they go in search of the kid's mother who was last seen going to work. Meanwhile, the father of Ponyo plots to get the daughter back. The magical balance of nature is thrown off and only a specific outcome of Ponyo and Sosuke's relationship can bring balance back.

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That's just the first third of Ponyo, this sucker is packed with enough storyline to fill a couple of blogs. But about the movie, remember there were four things I liked about the other Miyazaki movie: Fanciful, interesting, emotional pull and drama. For me, Ponyo only registered on one of these qualifications - fanciful.

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This is a sort of fairy tale type of story filled with huge leaps of logic and jarring left turns. While it made this movie difficult to swallow, there was a nice unpredictability and imagination to the film as a whole. At a time when animation is becoming increasingly computer rendered with credence given to a sense of realism and semi-natural physics it was refreshing to see a movie say "I'm gonna throw reality entirely out the window and if I want to show people tidal waves transforming into giant fish that magical fish girls can run on top of to catch up with a speeding car them dammit I'm gonna do it." The animation itself was also well done, a deliberately loose, scribbly and at times water color like style is used lending a sense of childlike innocence.

Too bad the story itself with it's equally child like innocence can't keep up the interest. This movie is made not just from the point of view of a youngling as characters but even the story itself has the rambling, made up off the cuff delivery of an elementary school tale. Every kid has done this,where a trip to say the supermarket becomes epic in size as the white lies get bigger to make the story sound more interesting. "I went to the store, and I met a giraffe! The giraffe said he wants to be my friend but only if I stuff Bubble Yum in Bobby's ear only his ear became a cobra that wanted to eat me and that's why I hit Bobby with a brick only it became a brick house made of strawberries and we all sat down and had strawberry steaks which were great." The storytelling in this movie is like that. The unpredictability becomes a double edged sword, you can't figure out what will happen next because virtually anything could occur just because it suits the whims of the storyteller.

With the focus on wild events and children who actually act a lot like children, I found little to hold on to beyond the impressive visual aesthetic. The lone character to generate any emotion from me was Sosuke's mother Lisa, voiced by Tina Fey. Lisa is possibly the least responsible mother depicted in modern cinema. She drives recklessly through narrow windy mountain roads, doesn't bother to buckle up her kid while doing this at all. While caring for her child she becomes upset that the father works instead of coming home so she pops open a brewski to mellow out. After being told to drive to a safe place while the mountain their house is perched on is flooding, she opts to drive to her home anyway desperately outracing the flood waters close behind her. When Ponyo the fish becomes Ponyo the human girl, Lisa invites Ponyo into her home with a "stranger things have happened" attitude. And, best of all, Lisa decides to abandon her child and Ponyo at their home alone because her workplace "needs her" despite the massive flooding to the town and very mountain they reside. So Lisa is a memorable character for me because everytime she made a horrible decision and was depicted as a well liked responsible person for it I thought "WTF, does Japan not have child services or something!"

There are a lot of rave reviews for this movie online and to be honest, my mother, aunt and cousin all adored this movie so there's something I guess I'm missing. Nonetheless, my personal review of Ponyo is this - it's like being stuck for a few hours viewing the drawings taped to the wall by 4th graders on parent / teacher night in a school your kids don't even attend. Sure you'll see some things that took talent to make and can appreciate that, but it's not your kid so would you want to stare at it for hours? I don't have kids but I feel confident my answer would be no and that's why I found Ponyo to be a pretty but dull exercise.

Children Of The Corn

Welcome to the machine - Pink Floyd's Animals comes to life at the local supermarket.

Rating:

When it comes to farms and agriculture, I know close to zip about the subject. I am a product of a suburban and urban environment and have no affinity for growing things. There are millions of other people better at it than me and I can accept that. Today's movie that we went to see, the documentary Food Inc., was a revelation due to my ignorance on the subject (outside of what my wife tells me, she is well versed in this subject).

Food Inc. is a muckraking documentary by Robert Kenner that's done in the style of the famous Michael Moore docs that interview and follow people around whose story illustrates the points being made. From a cinematic viewpoint, Food Inc is well made. There are chapter headings to each segment to let you know where you're at in the story, a good mix of interview footage, stock footage and computer animations to make its presentation palpable. Editing keeps things moving at a nice clip to avoid dwelling on one item too long. And nicely scouted interview subjects such as the guy who wrote the book Fast Food Nation and a small level conscientious farmer who eloquently explains his place in the farming paradigm.

And like any good muckraker, Food Inc names as many names as possible in showing how a handful of major corporations have taken over the food supply for the entire country. Corporations own the patents on the very seeds that are used to grow crops, control the market place to keep farmers in debt and employ a militia of lawyers to quiet any public detractors. Despite signs that the current system is causing sickened consumers and unsafe workplaces, Food Inc. illustrates how the system is protected by money and Government power to prevent change. And that the system has been streamlined to treat both animals, workers and consumers alike as purely product or statistics. A system that is based heavily on corn of all things. A system that the movie asserts does not want to give Americans the information needed to make informed decisions regarding food supply and consumption.

Smartly the movie tries to be a little evenhanded while still pushing its change-the-world-one-meal-at-a-time agenda. Just a little though, as the main thrust of the story is a conspiracy between suits and people in power making as much money as they can with no concern for the consequences on others. My favorite part was when it followed the food choices of a lower middle class family whose main provider is a truck driver. They can't afford organic food because it is priced higher than government subsidized foods that are less healthy. For the price of a small bit of organic food you can feed your entire family on fast food.

Director Kenner's style isn't as confrontational or hyperbolic as say Michael Moore's, which makes his film a bit more persuasive.

Regardless of if Food Inc's point of view on the subject is accepted whole or not, the film nonetheless presents a compelling argument and effectively draws attention to a story that is either ignored or repressed from public discussion. The film's self comparison to my all time favorite book Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is dead on, I was thinking about the book for much of the film. It's sad to see the lessons learned from that classic book completely erased by time and greed. At it's best Food Inc. will have you cringing in disbelief at what you're seeing. At the very least, the movie gives, ahem, food for thought.

Up, Up and Away

This afternoon we went to see the new Pixar movie Up, the latest computer animated feature from a production company that can do very little wrong. Last year's Wall - E was a very strong movie which showed a continued increase in artistry and maturity in their fable like story telling style. The first part of Wall - E dealt with loneliness and isolation using almost no dialogue. After the success of Wall - E, it looks like Pixar felt bold enough to continue down that path. Which leads us to Up, the fanciful tale of an elderly widower who escapes the dreary prospects of old age by attaching enough helium balloons to his house to fly it towards his idyllic paradise. A boy scout type of kid named Russell unwittingly tags along for the ride as they head to Paradise Falls in South America - a place that time forgot. The place where an adventurer named Charles Muntz went to capture the equivalent of the Dodo bird and never came back. Muntz "Spirit of Adventure" is what bonded the elderly Carl Friedrickson to his wife while they were children. After arriving in Paradise Falls, Carl and Russell encounter adventure, mishaps and talking dogs non stop.

Up is almost a misnomer of a title, because the mood that Pixar works here is a melancholy sadness. The opening minutes show the relationship of Carl and his sprightly wife Elle, from childhood through their picturesque marriage save an inability to have children and then eventually Elle's death. It was surprising to see the mature subject matter of infertility and death handled in what could be considered a children's movie, yet it is handled sensitively and maturely. This segment was extremely moving and it powers the rest of the film as the memory of Elle and their dreams becomes the touchstone for Carl's adventure.

Again Pixar comes up with great characters like Russell, the innocent Asian boy scout who wants to earn his badge for assisting the elderly. Doug, the loveable talking dog who befriends Carl and Russell. And Kevin, the dodo bird with Roadrunner type qualities. The villains of the piece have the usual sort of personality characteristics (anger, pride, ruthlessness, indifference to others lives), yet steps are taken to lighten them up a little bit since this is intended as a kids movie.

The technical abilities of Pixar are never in question, the animation continues to be refined with enough detail and clarity that I actually forgot it was animated at times. At the start of the film is a computer animated short called Partly Cloudy that was very impressive visually as it relayed the tale of clouds making babies for the stork to carry. As for Up, from the concrete jungle to the, uh, jungle jungle the visuals are teaming with life.

What makes Up brilliant is its artistic ability, it's able to transition different moods easily and comfortably. Beauty, sadness, humor, adventure, and warmth come across vividly. Up's knack for tying together some dark feelings and fanciful whimsy without being forced is impressive for any film. Although advertised as a children's movie, Up takes another step towards breaking from that genre while still holding the core audience - the kids in the theater were noticeably quieter than normal while watching this. Not saying they were silent, the kid behind me was restless and kept saying something loudly and the mother had to promise ice cream after the movie to keep 'em in line.

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Best of all, the ultimate message of the movie which could have seemed predictable or ironic felt sincere - Appreciate the adventure of life and the people you spend your time with. It's a sentimental message that's been used in other movies to lesser effect, in Up that message feels like a revelation.

Up isn't just great general entertainment, it's great filmmaking. My dog Dixie just came over to lick my face and tell me something. She says Up smells like a-squirrel!...winner, on a scale of one bark to ten barks ten being the highest, Dixie says:

Logan's Run

Put another shrimp on my adamantium barbies spears!

Back in my comic reading days, Wolverine was considered the coolest of the cool. He was the opposite of what was a super hero was supposed to be: short, feral and out for blood. Superman he was not. His main power were retractable metal claws that protruded from the top of his hands. These were weapons primed to kill, not subdue. Add a general cigar chomping rebel-without-a-cause attitude and you had one of the greatest comic book heroes of all time.

When the character made the jump to cartoons the guy was expectedly neutered. Wolverine cared more about others and used his claws on inanimate objects only. After the movies started rolling, Wolfie was given a little more latitude - he could use his claws on people just no kill shots for the most part. It's understandable why Wolverine can't hack and slash people like he does in the comics, it would mean at least an R rating resulting in less box office or accusations of drawing kids with unnecessary violence. For the character, it results in a retaining just enough of what's considered cool about the character while making him someone who talks a slightly better game than he delivers.

So going in to X-Men Origins: Wolverine I wasn't expecting a lot. In addition to the mainstreaming of the snarling wonder, a friend at work said it was all action no story and my wife said Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 38% rating. And the advertisements kept stressing a battle with a helicopter. But I'm a fan, so I was going to check it out anyway.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It wasn't fantastic or brilliant, just a well executed comic book story. The story and emotions of the characters is what drives the film. You see Wolverine as a boy discovering his powers for the first time and then going on the run with his mutant brother, Sabretooth. Born in the 19th Century, the brothers make a pledge to stick together and fight in every major war in Western culture up to about Vietnam or so. They are recruited by Stryker (I didn't catch his rank) to join a government mutant squad to carry out missions. The squad includes fan favorite mutants like Deadpool and Blob. Eventually Stryker leads the team to kill indiscriminately which offends Logan (Wolverine) and turns on Sabretooth (Victor). Logan quits to live the quiet life as a lumberjack in Canada. Until a turn of events causes Logan to seek revenge against Victor. See, already there's more story than X3. All of this happens early on in the movie so I'll try to leave out the rest of what happens storyline-wise.

Hugh Jackman owns the celluloid version of Wolverine and now in his fourth film he settles in comfortably. As the title character now, Jackman easily carries the weight of the movie. The different feelings of moral outrage, white hot anger, and the inner fight for civility comes through. Intellect versus instinct, a classic comic book theme (like the Hulk movie I recently saw) is the name of the game. Jackman is surrounded by strong supporting performances. There isn't a weak performance in the bunch and Liev Shreiber makes for a good foil as Wolverine's brother Sabretooth / Victor. He plays Sabretooth with slightly sophisticated menace.

Director Gavin Hood has an eye for comic book action, the fight sequences capture the power moves, acrobatic choreography and heavy duty impact of the form. Some of the special effects came off fake looking and probably won't age well. I don't know if Hood is a fan, but he directs with a sure handed understanding of what folks want to see. Comic fans want to see the badass, while female fans just want to see the ass (Jackman's that is). Hood makes sure you get both, the latter as much as possible (Jackman has almost as many shirtless scenes as William Shatner in Star Trek). The action is motivated by the story which was also nice, it wasn't plotless random explosions or anything like that. Bits of humor are thrown in to keep it from being a pure revenge story. Disappointingly, not much is done that's special with the dialogue scenes, it's done competently which is why there is a negative about the movie.

My only negative point is that X-Men Origins: Wolverine never surpasses its mandate. I felt like I learned more about the Wolverine character (I stopped reading comics by the time his origin was revealed) and was slightly moved by his saga. But it never goes past that, the film doesn't have a mythic feeling of earth shattering events for Wolverine. Maybe it's because seeing Wolverine battle a helicopter from a motorcycle is just plain silly (Even the physics was mind boggling. Wolverine claws armored vehicles speeding in an opposite direction from his motorcycle and somehow doesn't get yanked off his bike by the drag?) . Maybe it's because the basis of his story isn't very original, where the walking killing machine doesn't want to live that life until circumstances force them to (isn't that every Steven Seagal movie?). Like The Incredible Hulk movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine plays it a little too safe, self conscious of what people want to see.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine gives exactly what people think other people would want from a Wolverine movie. That's not bad. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, I give XMO: Wolverine a 6. Something you can sink your claws into though you don't get a lot of meat. It is fun and much better than I was led to expect. A well executed movie with a slightly generic story at it's heart. And yes I did Mark Out when he says his classic tag line, "I'm the best there is at what I do." Ever since I read Wolverine issue #1, I've always liked when his character grumbles that out.

Amok Time

A new Kirk and crew fight the future in Star Trek.

Tonight I got to catch the brand new movie Star Trek, JJ Abrams reboot of the long running sci fi series. Having been a Star Trek fan since childhood and being particularly partial to the classic show with Kirk, Spock and McCoy I was looking forward to this movie. For much of my life, Star Trek was among the premier franchises in science fiction. A brilliant blend of intellectual navel gazing, operatic morality plays and Flash Gordon space adventure, Star Trek became a dominant force in pop culture for decades. But a good idea can only go so far and after generation on top of generation of Star Trek shows and films they eventually hit a place where there was nothing left to do. Star Trek had become mundane and so the franchise took a nap.

For years I've heard and read talk about a Star Trek reboot following Kirk and Spock from their Academy days. It sounded like a real cheesy idea. So I was surprised when that is more or less what plays out in this movie and it comes off pretty good.

This is a serious reboot of Star Trek, so much so that it doesn't accomplish much to heavily compare it to the original series. There are a lot of nods to the classic tv show yet Abrams smartly uses these moments to go in a different direction. Which is really the point of the whole movie, a movie where a Romulan from presumably The Next Generation era comes back in time with an inexplicably large starship with the destruction of the Federation in mind. Nero, played with appropriate cool menace by Eric Bana, has a weapon that can destroy planets. It's up to a class of cadet graduates on the brand new USS Enterprise to stop him.

The plot sounds like classic Star Trek, there's time travel, a bad guy and an ultimate weapon. It's been done before and on that front the movie offers nothing new. What Star Trek does offer is an entirely different tact.

In the tv series led by show creator Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek used sci fi to weigh the days issues of confusing wars and the human condition. His vision of Trek was one where mankind had matured to the point that all races got along and consistently acted with a firm set of high minded moral values. It was only due to pressure from NBC that Star Trek had a lot of action and eventually cheeseball silliness.

And it's the latter version of Trek which survives, a version that will certainly make the corporate suits proud. Although dedicated to the memory of Gene and Majel Roddenberry, Star Trek takes much of what the existing franchise had and flushes it away. There is very little pondering or taking the high road going on in this version. Star Trek is at heart a pure popcorn movie. Very little deep thought happens and there are some plot holes as big as the black holes shown on screen. What it does have is an adrenalized focus on endless action and grandstand acting. In other words it's like a lot of other movies made these days.

Yet it's that lack of depth that re-energizes Star Trek. With no struggles of conscience to deal with, Trek becomes an ass kicking machine. Hand to hand, phaser to phaser and ship to ship battles are depicted at regular intervals. The cast valiantly tries to approximate the performances of the original cast with a variety of results. Karl Urban's Dr. McCoy is dead on in demeanor to DeForest Kelley. The other characters bear only some resemblance to their famed counterparts (Uhura was never depicted as strong as she is here), still it's enough that you can feel like it's a continuation of the original series. Except for Simon Pegg as Mr. Scott, very little similarity there. Add on an emotional Spock and a frat boy Kirk and you've got room for a series to continue to bloom.

As a simple minded flashy movie Star Trek succeeds, it can even be considered really good. A third of the way in the movie goes out it's way to emphasize that this Star Trek is an alternate reality and not part of the other shows canon. The special effects by ILM are first rate. And what should be a handicap turns out to be a plus for Star Trek. By ignoring much of the shows and movies that came before, Star Trek recaptures a sense of fresh energy and fun. There are missteps (a young Kirk joyriding an antique car while blasting the Beastie Boys took me right out of the movie) yet most are forgivable. But by not just ignoring the platitude based format of previous works but thumbing it's nose at Roddenberry's ideals, Star Trek becomes a slightly hollow experience.

Though there is too much going on in the movie to feel that way while watching. Star Trek is a thrill a minute Summer Blockbuster and taken on those terms it's quite good. Like Mr Spock in the throes of Pon Farr (spelling? I doubt my spell check covers Vulcan), Star Trek's reason is overcome by emotion. My wife asked me for a number grade between 1 and 10 so I'll tell you what I told her. Star Trek is an 8. Oh yeah, Leonard Nimoy's cameo as Spock was good and plays an important part of the story. Live long and prosper folks!

This Island Earth

My favorite Elton John song is "Circle of Life", which I thought of often during this movie.

Today is Earth Day and to honor this annual eco friendly awareness we went out to see the new Disney film Earth. Intentionally released on Earth Day, each ticket sale for the first week goes to planting a new tree. I didn't know too much about this film before going to see it, my wife was very interested in Earth and the trees that are planted so we decided to go on opening day.

It's been a long time since I've seen a nature documentary on the silver screen and all I can say is WOW, what a difference. The images have a size and clarity to them that let the viewer become immersed in the settings. This film was clearly shot over a long period of time as seasons change and time lapse montages are employed regularly. The filming is done beautifully and with the amount of scope needed to do the planet justice. Visually, the only negative I can really say wasn't the film's fault but the movie theater, the print was scratchy and the first reel kept jittering up and down.

The movie takes us on a tour of wildlife up and down our big blue orb, the polar bears of the North Pole, the rainforests, the Elephants in Africa, the whales in the Ocean and the birds in the sky all get featured. Stunning vistas and crowded scenes of mass migrations across land, sea and air all impress. Close ups on the animals reveal a detail you can't see on a tv screen, even a HDTV screen. My personal favorite was a shot following melting glacial water flowing off a mountainside into a vast pit of mist.

In terms of story, it's all about the circle of life and the change of the seasons. Families and herds of animals, driven to migration by changes in the weather, face starvation and other predators for a shot at survival. Life and death figure greatly here. There are moments of humor mixed in though Earth keeps its eye firmly fixed on the big picture: Global warming combined with nature's already harsh conditions makes getting to the next day harder and harder. Solemnly narrated by James Earl Jones, Darth Vader lays out the situation with a nice mix of facts (1/3rd of the planet is desert!) compassion and occasional wry humor.

As a film, Earth does a good job of meeting and sometimes exceeding the expectations that come with this type of film. Like a grand encyclopedia, as James Earl Jones says at one point this brings to life a part of the world that many are disconnected from in urban life. He's right. And while the movie does fall short of amazement and can be slow in spots, it consistently entertains and fascinates. In addition, the more I watched it the more I saw how little differentiates us from other animals. The segment with the Elephants and Lions was both scary and impressive in the amount of intellect that goes into their interactions. In the end the message is clear: Earth is a beautiful place for everyone and it's up to the viewer to keep it that way.

If you watch this movie, I recommend sticking around for the ending credits which show funny bits from the filming of Earth.

Grappling With Life

Ooooh yeah Brother! The Wrestler jumps into the squared circle of reality.

Last Sunday we went to see The Wrestler, the movie about a washed up pro wrestler named Randy the Ram. The movie has had a strong buzz due to the comeback of Mickey what-happened-to-your-face Rourke. Directed with almost documentary style realism by Darron Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream), The Wrestler literally follows The Ram as he plays the low level indie circuit of ball rooms and school gyms for measly pay days in between gym runs, steroid shots and his part time job at a supermarket. In the 80's, The Ram headlined major matches in big Arenas. Now he gets by just barely, living in squalor while trying to hold on to his remaining shreds of former glory.

Of course the question on every one's mind is Mickey Rourke: is he really good this time? Well the answer is yes, Rourke delivers the goods. He gives Randy The Ram a lived in feel of a guy who's been to the top and felt every kick on the way back down. His Wrestler lives for the business, for the smattering of remaining fans and brotherhood of wrestlers who still respect him. The Ram has a quiet pride when he's in his element and a sense of stifled desperation when he's out of it. Early in the film Randy gets bad news from the doctor - he can't wrestle anymore. Rourke captures the feel perfectly of The Ram's awkward attempts to adjust to a normal life with a regular job, making amends with his estranged daughter and trying to capture the attention of his favorite stripper.

Marisa Tomei also makes a comeback as the stripper Cassidy. Her character parallels The Ram, a little too old for headline status of her profession. But where The Ram holds on desperately, Cassidy shrewdly looks for opportunities to get out to a different life. She has a good connection with Randy and seeing them together will make you listen to Ratt in a whole different way. Finally Tomei delivers a performance that will quiet all the naysayers who said her Best Actress Oscar was undeserved.

Aronofsky's direction is real fly-on-the-wall stuff, the camera follows The Ram to the point that you see Rourke from behind almost as much as his front. When Rourke walks somewhere, the camera trails shortly framing the back of his shoulders and head just like you see on reality television. All the while he places the characters in a gritty, overcast and cold setting to enhance the mood.

Being a wrestling fan it was hard not to be happy with the fun of watching staged fighting and all the blood and pain that goes with it. Even in the ring the camera sits up close, giving new appreciation for the bumps and body slams these guys take on a weekly basis. The wrestling characters were well constructed, Rourke does some decent moves and is given a fantastically over the top finishing move with the top rope dive called a Ram Jam. His chief opponent, The Ayatollah, is clearly based on the famous Iron Sheik right down to the Camel Clutch.

It all adds up to a strong movie, The Wrestler puts you in a choke hold and doesn't let go. It's the life of a pro wrestler just as you imagined it, the film is very reminiscent of the documentary Beyond the Mat (1999) in its approach and themes. The main character is a composite of grapplers past and present, sort of like if Shawn Michaels lived Jake The Snake's life in a watered down way. How many more cliche's can I squeeze in? The Wrestler is a good flick, and that's the bottom line 'cause Mr Mike said so!

Liam Neeson Hit's 'Em Back With A Two Fisted Ring Tone

Your minutes are up! Liam Neeson adds an optional extra to his cell phone's Family Plan, killing and torturing to find his daughter.

Is there anything cooler than hearing a guy with a refined European accent calmly talk a bunch of smack to an opponent? Decades of James Bond movies have proven there isn't, so the marketers of the new movie Taken used a clever attention grabbing gimmick for their TV advertisements: put up uncut almost 2 minutes of the movie where Liam Neeson's daughter is kidnapped followed by Neeson threatening the kidnapper over a cell phone. It's a great stunt, the ad comes on TV in a way that you think maybe the station is playing the wrong show and the scene totally hooks you. "I don't know what you want, if it's ransom you want I don't have any money. But what I do have is a particular set of skills, skills from a long career of being a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go, that will be the end of it. I will not pursue you. But if you don't let my daughter go, I will pursue you, I will find you and I will kill you." That's not a word for word transcription, what I just typed is entirely based on memory from the ads and seeing the movie yesterday. That's how kick ass hearing Liam Neeson in his Irish accent is when he's talking sh*t to an evil opponent. The scene was so good that during the movie you could feel the audience excitement swell when it happened and some people cheered after Neeson reeled off his fancy trash talk.

This hook explains why the movie theater was crowded when my wife and I saw Taken. While the rest of the movie doesn't hit the high that the trailer scene does, it is a fun if implausible action romp. The set up is simple, ex-spy Liam Neeson is trying to build a relationship with his estranged daughter. The seventeen year old daughter asks for permission to visit Paris with a friend. Reluctantly, Neeson agrees and the daughter gets kidnapped the first day she's in the city of lights. The ex-spy uses his old contacts and "particular set of skills" to try to rescue his daughter knowing that after 96 hours the trail will be too cold to ever find her.

Like the trailer, the movie Taken does not have much to offer in way of substance. This type of story has been done many times before, Schwartzenneger, Seagal, Norris, Ford and a multitude of other action heroes have rescued their loved ones from harms way. There are plenty of holes in the story along with a cluster of only-in-the-movies coincidences that favor the hero. And while the movie does go into the seamy underworld of sex slave trading and prostitution, it exists as a backdrop more than social commentary. Hand to hand combat, vehicle chases and automatic weapons fire have been done on screen for ages. So what does Taken have to offer?

Well, a "particular set of skills". Mainly, Liam Neeson. After years of playing the Voice of Conscience and getting his butt whupped by Darth Maul on Naboo its a thrill to see Neeson finally get to kick ass. Taken is all about identifying with Neeson and he makes the movie work. Neeson's seething rage and inconsolable worry hidden under a mask of mental focus and spy trained strategies takes the audience along for a good ride. As the audience we want Neeson, the unapologetic American hero with an Irish accent, kill and torture as many bad guys as possible to find his daughter because he makes us feel the pain.

Director Pierre Morel wisely keeps Neeson in every scene so you see things strictly from his character's point of view. Morel keeps the story moving at warp speed to glaze over the script's deficiencies and does Neeson a huge solid by using quick cuts in the action segments to put his character over as a middle aged Jason Bourne type (every time Neeson goes into hand to hand the editing goes cut cut cut in rapid succession to make it seem fast). The clockwork timing on fake outs and lightning fast martial arts moves are all there. Good money gets spent creating realistic looking sets allowing Morel to delve into the grit.

Taken is a B action movie dressed up with a decent budget. But it works, works pretty well in fact. All that trash Neeson talks in the trailer gets backed up to satisfaction and I found it more effective than the recent James Bond movie to boot. As far as action films go, Taken is good stuff that will pump you up with adrenalin. Creatively, this is Neeson setting up retirement plan options- he can continue doing this type of character for years on made for basic cable movies if he wants to now. Talk that fancy smack Liam!

Taken Trailer

Top Five Favorite TV Shows and Movies

The end of 2008 creeps even closer, time to close the year out. Here's my five favorite TV shows and Movies of the past twelve months.

TV Shows

5. The Big Bang Theory

In it's second season, I found the Geekamania even more appealing as more focus fell upon supernerd Sheldon. Sheldon's anal retentive ways, cold logic and lack of understanding about human beings is like Mr. Spock in Star Trek IV minus the innocence. While Big Bang Theory won't be confused with great television, it's a fun time passer.

4. WWE Raw

How could I not pick the grappler's premier program? Wrestling still lacks the excitement of the 90's Attitude era though it has levelled off into a consistent spree of choke holds and jumps. And it's interesting to see people who were mid carders when I started to follow wrestling now get the Top Belts (the high flying mic fearing Hardy Boyz are both Champions now). Best of all, Chris Jericho dominated with his egotistical gimmick and rightfully was named Superstar of the Year.

3. The Clone Wars

The idea of a CGI cartoon Star Wars didn't appeal to me initially and poor reviews of the movie didn't help. But I gave the Cartoon Network series a chance and was rewarded with something better than 90% of the junk in those prequel movies. Better acting and tighter stories makes The Clone Wars light years ahead of any Phantom Menace. It's not amazing or at the level of the Original Trilogy, but at least you can watch The Clone Wars without shaking your head at how much what you're seeing sucks.

2. Family Guy

Lots of Animation Domination here, The Griffin clan is still my favorite comedy on TV. However, for the second straight season new episodes were hard to come by after the first four episodes. And with all those spin offs it seems like the jokes are getting spread thin. I really can't stand that I can see two new episodes of American Dad for every one Family Guy. The proposed Cleveland spin off means even fewer jokes to go around, I'm still a fan but a little disappointed. Disappointed didn't mean I stopped loving the crude and insane antics of Peter Griffin and gang, so they'll still rate high with me.

1. Chuck

The human dork computer rolled into the second season and caught fire. This year saw deeper characterizations while maintaining its tone of lovable farce. While too many episodes took place at the main set (the Best Buy knockoff Buy More), Chuck's canny use of spy head game madness, sexual tension (between Chuck and protector spy Sarah) and all out doofiness (an entire episode revolved around a secret code if you defeated Missile Command) made for a weekly hour of entertainment fun.

Movies

5. There Will Be Blood

"I...drink...your...milkshake!" With that phrase, Daniel Day Lewis put the crown jewel on yet another dazzling performance. This time as a paranoid oil Barron, Lewis amazes in this epic meditation on greed and corruption. The story of a thoroughly unlikeable but completely relatable person writ large, There Will Be Blood is a textbook on how to make a good movie.

4. Quantum of Solace

Daniel Craig's second outing as 007 had good and bad points, action excitement and more insight on the soul of James Bond versus well intentioned yet overly stylized direction. Sort of reminiscent of Licence To Kill and The Man With The Golden Gun in tone, Craig expanded on his gritty Bond. I'm sure once it's on DVD I'll watch it 50 more times and get even more out of it. For now, Quantum of Solace is an interesting, deeper yet intermittently exciting addition to the 007 canon.

3. Iron Man

Shellhead locked and loaded with a stand out popcorn flick. Robert Downey Jr brought in an offhand sense of humor while maintaining enough gravitas to sell the drama. Backed by a cast of Academy Award winners and nominees, director Jon Favreau delivers the goods. Like Iron Man himself, the film is part man part machine and designed for maximum impact. Though it didn't answer the one question I've had about Iron Man through the years: how smart is it to place weaponry built into your palm? You go to scratch your head and boom! No more head.

2. Wall - E

Pixar continues to create groundbreaking CGI, though this time out it was less about the actual graphics than the content. The first half hour was almost silent which is asking a lot of a kids audience. But it worked, it worked because Wall-E is well made by creating lovable characters that appealed to both children and adults. Sly social commentary about pollution and sloth also gets worked in nicely. A kids movie that has an artistic edge is tough to pull off. Wall-E makes it work.

1. The Dark Knight

The greatest Superhero movie ever made, The Dark Knight hits all its marks. Adrenalin pumping action, characters that stand out yet are true to the comic roots, brilliant direction and art direction, first class acting performances...the list goes on and on. While there certainly will be a Batman 3, The Dark Knight is so good it's actually worth stopping the series now. You just can't beat perfection. Plus, we all get to do that low gravelly "Batman" voice for fun. Talk like you're taking a big dump that's stuck and say "I'm Batman". Guaranteed hours of entertainment! Okay, maybe I need to find higher forms of entertainment.

And that wraps up the high points of 2008 for me. All right 2009, bring it on!