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Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a movie about a young inventor who makes it possible for food to fall from the sky. That kind of sums it up, there’s not much else to really say about this kiddie flick. Bill Hader of Saturday Night Live provides the voice for the inventor. The movie is based on a popular children’s book. I guess it’s popular because… what kid wouldn’t want it to rain food? I’m an adult and I’d like for it to rain food one day. Unfortunately, there’s not much else that takes place in the movie though. Things go wrong when it rains too much food and overloads the city. So the inventor and some others try to stop it and save the town. I got pretty sleepy watching this movie. There’s a little message about the young guy trying to bond with his father, but that’s pretty much overshadowed by the vision of food constantly falling from the sky. It looked nice and the animation was pretty crisp, but that’s about it. I must say though… food always looks so perfect and delicious in cartoons. The movie made me kind of hungry.
The Muppets is the first movie to feature the once popular Jim Henson creations in 12 years. It’s quickly apparent that the movie’s main focus is to win back the popularity they had decades ago and try to re-establish their place in modern culture. Jason Segel has been a life-long devotee of the muppets and always aspired to make a movie for them. Well his dream has come to fruition. He wrote the movie and cast himself as the lead human character. He plays a guy named Gary who just happens to have a muppet as a brother. The brother’s name is Walter. Since Walter grows up around nothing but human beings, he’s absolutely mesmerized when he discovers The Muppet Show on television. Of course he identifies with them and becomes obsessed with everything muppet. Unfortunately, this buildup of a plot causes the viewer to go about 20 minutes before the well-known muppet characters are even on screen, and they’re the reason we’ve come to see this movie isn’t it? It’s like watching The Simpsons and not actually seeing any of the Simpson family until the end of the episode. We finally see the muppets when Gary plans a trip to Los Angeles with his girlfriend and invites Walter so he can see the Muppet Theater (which they discover is in ruins due to lack of interest in recent years). When they arrive, Walter overhears an oil tycoon who is buying the theatre and plans to tear down Muppet Studios altogether so he can drill for oil. So Gary and Walter find Kermit and the gang to warn them of the bad news. After getting them all together, the movie concludes with the typical “we gotta put on a big show to save ourselves from being out of business!” ending. Wait a minute, isn’t that kind of like the ending to The Muppets Take Manhattan? That was a much better movie by the way. What’s worse is that it feels like barely any screen time is given to the individual muppets. It feels like we barely hear from Fozzie, Gonzo, or even Miss Piggy through most of the movie. That’s because the film focuses more on Walter and the relationship between Gary and his girlfriend. There’s really nothing fun or interesting about Walter either. He has no unique or muppet-like qualities about him (I suppose since he was raised by regular people). And when he’s given the spotlight as the final act for the big show, what does he do… he whistles. The big finale is that he shows off his whistling skills. Pretty lame. There’s also a running joke about Animal being put in a mental institution due to his addiction to drumming. That’s kind of funny but when he gets his big chance to finally play drums at the end, he plays them to the very slow “Rainbow Connection” from the original muppet movie. That’s not exactly a song to rock out to. Again, pretty lame. In fact, that’s the biggest problem with the movie. It’s so concerned with revitalizing the muppets and making them relative again, but it does the exact opposite by having them do the same old song and dance they’ve done before. With the big show, they could have modernized things a little so that a new generation could learn to love them. Even when they decide to kidnap celebrities to appear in their show, you think they’re going to get all these cameos from cool actors. But they only find one actor who already appeared earlier in the film! And cameos by the likes of Alan Arkin and Judd Hirsch aren’t exactly going to win over today’s youth. Completely unnecessary scenes like seeing 60 year-old Chris Cooper rapping just seem plain weird as well. The film may please some older viewers who grew up with the characters, but it doesn’t accomplish its goal of invigorating the franchise or connecting with today’s youth. Luckily, the movie does have some smart, witty jokes throughout the film. A lot of them are kind of done with a subliminal wink to the audience. But once again, these are jokes that will resonate with adults and not children. People won’t be talking much about the muppets in a year from now. And that’s too bad, because they used to be pretty fun to watch.
The movie Hugo has been marketed as some sort of fantasy film for the whole family. But I can’t see how any kid could be truly entertained by this film. Boring is the word that comes to mind when I think of it, and I’m an adult; imagine how bored a young child would be trying to get through such a long dragged out movie which takes place in a train station. It’s about a child whose father has passed away and now his drunk uncle who keeps the clocks running in a train station has taken custody of him. The uncle is always passed out and never there for him so the kid just runs around the station all day changing clocks and trying to steal food. He gets caught stealing by an old man who works at one of the stores in the station. That old man then takes something from him and eventually makes him work at the store in order to get it back. The boy becomes friends with the man’s goddaughter and eventually learns some secret things about him, all while trying to avoid the train station inspector who knows that he’s a thief. Sacha Baron Cohen, who’s known to most people for playing the characters Borat and Bruno, as the inspector is the only slightly interesting person in the movie. That still doesn’t make the movie any less dull though. I’m getting pretty bored just describing it. Anyway, the film then becomes this sermon on the wonders of filmmaking and how movies began in the first place. Most people have already seen early film footage and have a pretty basic idea of how they were made, so it’s no big revelation to see. Even to those who may not have any idea of what early filmmaking was like, it may still come off rather bland and unexciting to watch. It’s rather strange how a movie about a child trying to survive in a train station without his father morphs into a history of filmmaking. I imagine any kid who was looking forward to seeing a fantasy adventure (as the commercials seem to imply) is going to be pretty bummed out to watch film reels from the early 1900’s. As someone who loves movies and reviews them, I sure was. It didn’t help matters that it’s yet another movie shot in 3D, especially since there aren’t too many scenes where things are jumping out at you or that would need the technology anyway. There wasn’t much to be enhanced. It’s not like watching Avatar where you’re discovering a whole new world. You’re just watching the ongoings inside an old train station. Most critics seem to like this movie and I believe it’s only because it’s made by Martin Scorsese who is considered one of the greatest directors of all time. So I think they feel obliged to find reasons to appreciate the film or hail it as something original. But it’s really just a plain old boring movie like many others. Scorsese should stick to the gangster movies he’s best known for. Leave the kids alone.
RATING 7.5/10 Bottom Line Disney’s 50 th animated feature film is somewhat feistier and fun than sentimental, making it a fresh, enjoyable romp, despite the dramatic weakness of the villain and Rapunzel’s plight. The Good The traditional fairy tale of Rapunzel forms the basis of this new animated film from Disney. The usual story is there, but the overall execution is much more fun and modern, with a feistiness that makes the whole endeavour fresh and engaging to watch. Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) is more a tom-boy type heroine who, despite being afraid of disappointing her apparent mother Gothel (Donny Murphy), is not so afraid of the world and goes on an incredible adventure outside her tower when dashing Flynn Ryder (Zachary Levi) shows up in her life. Although the film is computer generated, the filmmakers in this instance modelled their work on traditional oil paintings which gives the film a unique look; a somewhat quasi-hybrid of CGI and old-style animation. The results are spectacular, and the film manages to successful combine these elements, offering the best facets of each in every image. Disney’s animated films are notable for their music, but the songs this time are not as in-your-face as in previous efforts, allowing the film to keep its more modern feel, an aspect which works very much in its favour. One of the reasons for this adjustment in tone may be that John Lasseter from Pixar was involved as a producer and may have imbued some of his sentiments in to the final product. “Tangled” is a lot of fun, is beautiful to look at, and quite thankfully does not dive in to overt sentimentality, even when the happy ending arrives, with Flynn finishing the film with a witty piece of narration. The Bad The weakness in the film largely stems from the villain, and by extension, Rapunzel’s obstacles that she has to overcome. Although Gothel is quite obviously not nice, she is not made particularly evil throughout the film, despite a few moments in the climax. As a villain therefore, she can be quite weak in terms of presence. Given Rapunzel’s free-spirited nature and lack of fear of the outside world, it does not seem to take much for her to defy her mother’s orders to stay in the tower. This is compounded by the fact that Gothel goes off for days at a time and all Rapunzel has to do is use her hair to escape to freedom. The film makes up for a lot of this by the adventure and banter between Flynn, Rapunzel and a number of other characters, but the lack of a strong villain is a weak point in this film.
Starring: Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Anne Hathaway Fantasy, 2010 (Rated PG) Nineteen year old Alice has a huge imagination. So huge in fact that she is the only one who notices the rabbit in the waist coat running across the lawn. After running away from an unwanted marriage proposal she follows this rabbit and finds herself falling down a rabbit hole and into another land. Here she must figure out a way to help the characters in this world restore the white queen to power and oust the evil Red Queen who rules the land with decapitation for anyone who does not agree with her. I really wasn't all that interested in watching this but hubby wanted to so I went along with the program. I found that it was an OK movie. This is coming from someone not really so into animated fantasy type movies. The graphics are excellent and Depp does a great job as the quirky mad hatter. I am not all too familiar with the original story having never taken a huge interest in it so I can't say much regarding the adaptation of the original but the movie itself was entertaining for the most part. 4/5 STARS
Pixar’s ‘Toy Story 3′ stars no other than the original voices of Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz and Joan Cusack as Jesse. This movie had more of an emotional impact then most of the rides at Disneyland. On this 3rd chapter reality sets in as you realize that your beloved characters have now been out grown by the soon to be collage student, Andy. These slightly used toys find themselves feeling abandoned and fear they will end up being thrown away or just stored in the attic with the rest of the unused and forgotten items. With a week away Andy must pack his things for collage and has 3 choices of where his things will go. 1 being the box labeled collage stuff, 2 stuff for the attic and 3 the awful black bag that will be taken out to the curb as TRASH. Anxiously awaiting their destiny they secretly watch Andy as he starts to pack up his thing. And true to the other 2 stories lines things end up more complicating then they should have been, ending up in what most of Andy’s toys think to be the next best thing to Andy’s room is the ‘Day Care Center’. Meeting some friendly new toys they are welcomed to the day care with open arm, but friendly has it’s own definition in this day care.. Watching this movie unravel, so did my emotions. I can truly say that I was so glad to have been watching this in 3-D as the glasses helped hide the water works, the anger, the sadness that took over. I highly recommend this movie as the entire theater went quite at one point and you could hear a pin drop along all those little kids who filled the iMax seats. Tissue is recommended for those of you who grew up with these fun loving group of Toys.
Rating: 3/5 Okay first off, this really should be called The Kung Fu Kid, considering Karate is not featured at all and they do Kung Fu in this film. The only reason it kept the Karate Kid title was for marketing, apparently people are stupid and wouldn't notice there is no Karate in the film. That aside, it is not secret I was not happy to hear about a remake of one of my favourite films starring Jaden Smith. Again it is not secret I can't stand the spawn of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett, thanks in part to the horrible The Day The Earth Stood Still remake. I figured I would go into this with an open mind, it has gotten some positive reviews and surely Jackie Chan would be good? Well Jackie Chan is good, and the film isn't that bad. Of course they have changed a lot of things, instead of moving across the country, this one sees the mother and son move countries. So our setting has changed, but it is still a fish out of water story. They also changed the age of our main character, whereas the original he was 17, here he is 12 and this for me provided a few problems. Of course as I already mentioned, since the film is set in China, we get Kung Fu and not Karate. Mr Miyagi in the original was an old man, here Mr. Han is a lot younger obviously and that was just fine. Changing the age to someone younger as I just mentioned provided a few problems, especially in this day and age. Of course we know the relationship between student and teacher is innocent, but it seems a little odd that the mother in this film just lets her son run off with a middle aged man without investigating, I find that a bit off. Also in the original we have the classic scene where Daniel tries to get revenge on the bullies but ends up in a fight where he is out number, only to have Miyagi come to his rescue and beat up the bullies. Those bullies were 17, and while it seemed an old man probably couldn't have the strength ect to beat them up it didn't seem wrong. Here we have a similar scene and Mr Han comes to the rescue but it seems a bit wrong having a 50 year old man beating up a bunch of 12 year olds. Sure they deserved to be taught a lesson, but getting beat up by a middle aged man doesn't seem right to me. As mentioned the new film follows the formula of the first film, having similar scenes and scenario's and why wouldn't they? Despite the heavy cliche's they keep to something which was proven to work and I do applaud that. While they do have things that are the same they do make them different, and it does work for the new settings ect. As far as the situation with the bullies go, I didn't feel this film explored that enough like it did in the original. It would have helped if we got more of an idea how much of a hard time they gave Dre (Jaden Smith), and whether or not it was just them that made him miserable there. In a scene where he 'breaks down' and tells his mother he hates it there, it didn't feel like we got enough of why he did. The scene I felt was not very well down, Jaden struggled with the emotions and the mother (Taraji P. Henson) was just not a likable character and it didn't help the actress was terrible in the role. At least they showed the bond between Dre and the girl Mei (Wenwen Han), it was a cute little friendship and a strong part of the story. I felt again we didn't get enough of the bullies, I just thought we needed more a threat there. We hardly see their teacher, and he didn't seem like the real bad ass that was Martin Kove as Kreese was in the original. The scenes of the training were alright, the whole jacket thing felt like it went on way too long, the scenes on the great wall just seemed to be a little bit too much. The lessons presented were good, like picking yourself up, not being afraid, all similar lessons and themes to the original and of course always relevant. Jackie Chan really owned the role of Mr. Han, he is a sad man with a sad past, and Chan shows that he can actually act when you give him the chance (that is in an English speaking role). Mostly we are used to him being in comedies or comedic roles (again I am talking the English speaking films), and to see his break down scene was something very different and it had a great impact. Not only is he teaching Dre, in this scene we see Dre is teaching him. I felt this was one of the strongest scenes for both Chan and Smith. Amazing Jaden Smith actually turned out to be alright here, he's given some decent material to work with. His character is of course a bit cocky (Daniel was too in the original) but it isn't an overly annoying cocky. He's alright for most of the film, I did warm up to him as it went on, but like I said it help he had decent material to work with. He's certainly a very flexible kid, and he must have done a lot of training. He's certainly a lot more flexible then Ralph Macchio was in the original, but this film does feature a lot better martial arts. The bullies weren't terribly good, aside from making mean faces but I get the feeling they were hired more for their Scott Adkins like abilities rather then their acting chops. Over all this turned out to be an alright film, entertaining enough, and keeping with the spirit of the original. It has a really nice score, props go to the awesome James Horner (Titanic, Avatar), it has similarities to the original film's score in the sense that it'll stick with you. He did a really good job, and I had no idea he did the score for this until I saw it in the credits. Of course I am always going to love the original because it is a favourite of mine, but they did a decent job of remaking it and you got to give credit where it is due. First published at SuperMarcey.com
/</gidiv style="clear: both; text-align: left;"/>/giToday's cinematography (as well as society as whole) thoroughly lacks manliness and manly movies. That's why I had to dig up some old movie to make up for it, and I'm satisfied with what I have found. Over the Top was made back in 1987, the Golden Days, and tells the tale of Lincoln Hawk (Sylvester Stallone) a broke truck driver, whose ex-wife is on deathbed and her last wish is that Linc picks up their son Michael from some junior military academy graduation and drives him to her in the hospital. Actually, she knows that she is dying and wants them to bond because Mike hasn't even met his dad, due to the efforts of his grandfather. At first Mike doesn't want to do anything with Linc, but slowly their relationship grows as Mike realizes that he is better off with his real manly father than with his granddad. But that's not all! Since Linc is without money he decides to earn some in Las Vegas by winning International Arm Wresting Championship! Arrghghgh!!! The first prize is 100 000$ and bigass Volvo truck, just enough for him to start his own small company. And so the two plots intertwine and bring the expected but still awesome conclusion. You can expect good performance by Sly (as always) in which he reminded me of Rocky (same underdog story). While Over the Top isn't Rocky, it's still a good runner-up. Michael is played by David Mendenhall, but good „performances“ also come from other arm wrestlers, mostly Rick Zumwalt as Bob Hurley and Bruce Way as John Grizzly (the man starred only in one movie in his life, and it was this). It's interesting to mention the names of the main competitors in arm wrestling – Hawk, Bull, Grizzly, Smasher, Mad Dog etc. What a merry bunch of badasses. The soundtrack is also pretty good, filled with that cheesy rock music which was made to be played in movies like this. One of the authors is Frank Stallone, Sly's brother, which is also cool. Listen to this or this and say that it's not awesome. To conclude this (short*) review I highly recommend this movie to anyone who would like to buy his own truck/car/bike and ride across the US while blasting rock, if you know what I mean. *If you're wondering why this review is so short, it's not because of my laziness (well, not entirely because of it, at least) but because the movie is so goddamn manly that I don't have any more words to describe it. Just watch it. RATED PURE GENIUS Rating: 9/10 - review by Magnum
THE SCOOP Director: Pete Docter Plot: Monsters generate their city's power by scaring children, but they are terribly afraid themselves of being contaminated by children, so when one enters Monstropolis, top scarer Sulley finds his world disrupted. Genre: Animation/Adventure/Comedy/Family/Fantasy Awards: Won 1 Oscar - original song. Nom. for 3 Oscars - animated feature, sound editing, score. Runtime: 92min Rating: G IN RETROSPECT Not the best Pixar feature ever, but it remains my favorite. Monsters, Inc. is the fourth film to be made after the critical and box-office successes of Toy Story (1995), A Bug’s Life (1998), and Toy Story 2 (1999). Directed by Pete Docter who later helmed the lovable film about an old man with his flying house, Up (2009), Monsters, Inc. signaled the intent of Pixar to break new ground in creative animation storytelling by a director other than the pioneering John Lasseter (who made the first three pictures). Monsters, Inc. is an important film because it established the direction of Pixar’s future exploits. That not all eggs are placed in the basket as carried by Lasseter. Andrew Stanton and Brad Bird would follow suit with films such as Finding Nemo (2003), and The Incredibles (2004) respectively. They could only have done so because the success of Monsters, Inc . provided Pixar with the confidence that they had the team (and blueprint) to sustain itself for the next few decades as the world’s major player in animation filmmaking. The story of Monsters, Inc . is deceptively simple to grasp, even though the concept is intriguing to the mind. It tells the tale of monsters who work in a factory that generates energy for “Monstropolis” by capturing screams from children terrified of the monsters that come out of their closet at night. A crisis of immense magnitude happens when a small girl enters “Monstropolis” unknowingly through her closet door, one of millions of portals that link the human world to “Monstropolis”. Mike, who is light green, shaped like a ball, and has one eye, and Sulley, a big, blue bear-like creature, find her and attempt to bring her back to her home amid a large-scale manhunt for “the highly toxic contaminant” while trying to avoid their sneaky and evil colleague, Randall, a purple gator who can blend into his surroundings. The relationship between Sulley and Boo (as the former affectionately calls the girl) becomes the heart of Monsters, Inc . It not only forms the emotional centerpiece of the film, it is also used to stretch Sulley’s close relationship with Mike. As a quite hilarious study on emotional attachment, friendship, and loyalty, Docter’s film is an excellent work to savor and enjoy. Intimate moments of bonding between Sulley and Boo are touching. Like when Boo draws a picture of them holding hands, or when Sulley lulls Boo to sleep through candy. In a scene late in the film, both of them hug each other in a warm embrace like close friends do when they part. Many other animated films have “these kinds of scenes”, but none renders them better than Pixar who focus on creating the most genuine of facial expressions, hand movements, and especially, of the characters’ eyes, which almost always transforms the characters (in particular non-human ones) into “identifiable humans” whom we can relate to. The film is paced like a roller-coaster ride, with one circumstance leading to another. In between there are tender moments that strengthen the relationships among the protagonists, but they are never too long. An excellent example is the sequence in which Mike and Sullivan are banished into an icy wasteland. Despite the sudden change in visual environment (and direction of the plot), Docter steers the film back to “Monstropolis” quickly, keeping the film tight to its main narrative while taking the opportunity to further explore character relations. Monsters, Inc . is one of Pixar’s best efforts, and represents arguably their most conceptually imaginative picture to date. SCORE: 9/10 [www.filmnomenon.blogspot.com] All rights reserved!
THE SCOOP Director: Wes Anderson Plot: Angry farmers, tired of sharing their chickens with a sly fox, look to get rid of their opponent and his family. Genre: Animation/Adventure/Comedy/Family Awards: Nom. for 2 Oscars - best animated feature, original score. Runtime: 87min Rating: PG for action, smoking and slang humor. IN RETROSPECT Fantastic Mr. Fox is easily the best animated feature of 2009. It should be rewarded with an Oscar nomination (and is every bit deserving of a win) even though Pixar’s Up (2009) could land the coveted statuette based on popular votes. Adapted from the beloved Roald Dahl children’s book of the same name, the film tells the story of Mr. Fox and his sneaky scheme to steal poultry, especially chicken, from three nearby farms run by three nasty, detestable humans with a collective mission: to kill Mr. Fox and his family. Director Wes Anderson who is well-known for films such as Bottle Rocket (1996), Rushmore (1998), and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) is one of the key American filmmakers of the 90s to revive the low-budget independent offbeat comedy. Even though much of his works remain underappreciated, Anderson has a loyal following claiming that he is one of the great filmmakers of our time. While that might be exaggerating it a fair bit, Fantastic Mr. Fox shows us why he is on course to being judged as such. Fantastic Mr. Fox follows the stop-motion tradition of the Wallace And Gromit films, and refutes the argument that brilliant animated films can only be made by Pixar. Anderson’s obsession with detail and his mastery of mise-en-scene also means that the film is far from ‘kiddish’; on the contrary, it can be seen as quality art. While children may enjoy the visuals and the odd dose of behavioral humor (e.g. how the foxes consume their meal or how they dig themselves out of trouble), parents who are forced to tag along are far more likely to appreciate the authenticity of the character and set models used, and the themes of ‘family’, ‘responsibility’, and ‘collectivism’ which reverberate with quiet resonance throughout the film. There is some superb voice work on show here with George Clooney as Mr. Fox and Meryl Streep as Mrs. Fox. Supporting voice talents include stars Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Michael Gambon, William Dafoe, and Owen Wilson. An ‘ethnic’ influence is evident in one of the characters here whose obsession with yoga and its meditative properties recalls a certain ‘spiritual’ Schwartzman in The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Anderson’s previous film about three brothers on a bonding trip to India. Fantastic Mr. Fox also explores the important theme of domesticity versus the wild. Mr. Fox has a lovely family and he dotes on them. In short, he lives a comfortable life in his big house under a tree. But more often than not, he succumbs to his animalistic instinct by ‘hunting’ for food from the farms. He enjoys the temporal satisfaction of being a wild animal, or in this case, a sly, scheming fox. In a key scene, Mr. Fox has a fleeting encounter with a black wolf. Even though suppressed by a psychological fear of wolves, he admires from distance the dark beauty of the creature, its freedom to roam the lands, to hunt, and its fortune to avoid the tepidity that is domesticity. An Anderson masterpiece of craftsmanship and direction, Fantastic Mr. Fox very much assures itself of a spot in my top ten films of 2009. SCORE: 9/10 [www.filmnomenon.blogspot.com] All rights reserved!
“MirrorMask” is a British fairy tale. It’s not well known, but the fact that it was written by Neil Gaiman should be more than enough for anyone to see it. It was directed by Dave McKean, in his directorial debut. Helena Campbell is a teenage girl who works as a juggler in the family circus, owned by her dad. But, the truth is, she doesn’t want to do it anymore. She wants to go out and see the world. One day she goes to sleep and wakes up in a strange land. There she meets her aide, Valentine. But not everything is great. This fantastic new world is on the verge of destruction, and apparently the only thing that can save it is a charm, the MirrorMask. It’s up to Helena and Valentine to find it. That is just the basic plot outline, as I don’t want to spoil anything. Expect some mystery and plot twists (sort of). Well, as I said before, Gaiman came up with the story and wrote the screenplay so “MirrorMask” couldn’t turn out bad. For those of you who are not familiar with his work, and need something to compare it to – I’d say Tim Burton’s work would be the closest thing, both story-wise and visually (regarding "MirrorMask", of course). Speaking of the visuals, there are all sorts of strange creatures and buildings, events and things that do not make much sense. The usual fairy tale stuff, no? In the role of Helena is Stephanie Leonidas. She is quite awesome, which isn’t much of a surprise when you have a cool surname like that. This… is… Sparta!!!! … … … … Sorry… I’ll also add she is quite a good actress… and very hot. Yeah. Jason Barry is Valentine, Rob Byrdon is Helena’s dad Morris, and Gina McKee her mom Joanne. All of them did a very good job. The music is also pretty OK, again, kinda tim-burtonish. It was composed and arranged by Iain Bellamy. If you like fairy tales, it’s the film for you. I am not a fan of fairy tales, myself. Usually, these kinds of films get all mushy-mushy and stuff, which I really, really do not like. “MirrorMask” was different. It wasn’t mushy at all, largely due to the really good cast where no actor annoyed you. And, of course, if you’re a fan of Neil Gaiman, don’t miss it… but you probably watched it already in that case. Rating: 8/10 - review by Ventilation Shaft
Dorothy Gale from Hicksville, Kansas gets hit in the head with a window during a twister. The resulting concussion (mixed with an inhalation of ergot spores that were kicked up into the atmosphere by the storm) led to a hallucination in which she meets a gay talking scarecrow, a gay robot, and a gay lion in a magical fairy land. So, I love The Wizard of Oz , and I sat down and watched the Blu Ray disc with the Boy last night. He really liked the gay lion. The BD is gooooorgeous, the colors are so vibrant, and the B&W part is sepia-toned, which really helps the fantastic nature of the whole thing. Unfortunately, I think they digitally edited out the suicide munchkin, because I didn't see him. They go on a magical journey and it's one of those dealies where they find out that they always had what they were looking for and stuff. You know how it goes. Witches, wizards, little people, and flying monkeys. Oh my. I have a large place in the bowels of my cockles for The Wizard of Oz. FRC Ruben was once 10 year-old Ruben, and 10 year-old Ruben played a munchkin, emerald city gentry, and the Gatekeeper in Sunnyvale Community Theater 's production of The Wizard of Oz in 1989. There was singing. There was dancing. There was spirit gum. Growing up, I seem to remember that WOZ was shown like once a year in the Spring or something on CBS and it was this whole event. My mom and I would get some Jiffy Pop and there'd be ice cream sundaes. They don't do TV movie events anymore. Remember when Spielberg chumped some network into showing Saving Private Ryan uncut with no commercials because it was important? I think that was the last one. Three hours with no advertising revenue and a shitload of FCC fines when people can just click "Watch It Now" and stream to their networked flat screen have pretty much put an end to the whole thing. WOZ is still as freaky and fantastic today as when I was a youngling. For different reasons, like, when I was a kid I was all freaked out that there was this witch who lived in a big scary castle and had a bunch of green dudes in her army and a bunch of weird ass flying monkeys in her Air Force. Now, as an adult.......well, I guess the same things still are freaky to me.........only now I see social statements. Here's a question: in a kid's movie, the heroine has to kill the bad guy (or bad gal, as it were)? Not only that, but little old Dorothy Gale from Hicksville , Kansas actually goes through with the murder plot? Wow, that's really harsh. Even Bowie didn't get killed in Labyrinth , and he had those weird balls and henchmen trolls that were 10 times more evil than the flying monkeys. And speaking of flying monkey attacks: when the Simeon minions swarm and attack our heroes in the haunted forest, they totally get after it. They're all pouncy and rippy and flyey and kidnappy -- they take out some of the scarecrow and throw him over there and take out some more and throw it over there. Just very violent and graphic -- if you're made out of straw, but still. And then there's the blatant drug reference of the poppy fields that make everyone sleepy. Still trying to decided if the poppies are meant to be a racist statement against the Chinese laborers in Northern California. My initial suspicion is yes, but I like the movie too much to think too deeply on it. WOZ will always be a classic. Judy Garland is a wonderful murderous bumpkin, and the characters are whimsical to this day, if a bit far-fetched. But children will get hooked and the love of this will remain with them. There's a sense of loss in that these classic movies are no longer going to be the national viewing events that they once were because of DVR and Blu Ray and on-demand and the like (Plus, TBS gets its fingers in something and runs it in perpetuity -- who would've ever thought that we'd see Independence Day and Deep Impact as much as we have over the last 5 years). Nevertheless, the greatest movies of all time are the ones that can withstand the march of time, and the search for the Wizard is the eternal faustian search for contentment. The story is a classic that will be studied in generations to come, and the film will always be a hallmark in cinema and fantasy. Big ups. ---------------------------------
Some time after the animated short “LEGO Atlantis: The Movie” comes the first full-feature LEGO film called “The Adventures of Clutch Powers” bringing the world of LEGO we all loved as kids (and maybe still do) alive once again. Clutch Powers is the best adventurer not just in the world, but in the galaxy, following the steps of his father Rock Powers, who went missing on one of his assignments involving the mysterious villain Omega. Clutch is well renowned and adored by all of LEGO City citizens and even a simple drive to work turns out an adventure with him. Although he always works alone, for his next mission he’s given a team to lead: Peg Mooring - a British biologist, Brick Masterson – a badass macho firefighter, demolitions expert and weapons specialist and Bernie Von Beam - genius German engineer. Together they’re off to Planet X-4, a penitentiary colony that holds three of the most vicious criminals in the galaxy. All three have escaped, one of them being the dreaded Omega. But, the search for him must stop for now, as the wizard Mallock the Malign of planet Ashlar is wreaking havoc on Prince Varen and his kingdom so our heroes jump to their aid in an attempt to stop the wizard's evildoing. It’s rather obvious this is a most basic and generic good vs. evil story, which is of course expected considering the target audience. The script, like “LEGO Atlantis”, contains a good amount of good LEGO humor (like “You’re so pretty! We could get married and build a house and some kids!”) but the rest of the dialogues will become somewhat tedious in their genericness if you’re older than 10. The story's a bit of a mess too, like they didn't know which way to go. It starts as an Indiana Jones adventure (which I expected it to be in the first place, given the DVD cover and the title), then transforms into an "Alien" like spooky horror on the space prison and ultimately evolving into a medieval fantasy film. I'd wish they'd stuck with one setting instead of mixing it all up. I was also disappointed with the titular character. In reality, Clutch could almost be considered a supporting character, rather than the main hero. He provides the least jokes, and he’s just not built upon enough. They present him at the beginning, and that’s it. Peg and Bernie are a typical pair – the hottie and the geek. The best of all is Brick Masterson who saved the film for me. He’s also totally generic, but I like macho clichés. The world of LEGO is shown in greater details compared to “LEGO Atlantis” which took place underwater where there wasn't much to show in the first place. The opening scene taking us on a tour of LEGO City was neat! The animation is once again simplistic, keeping in line with LEGO realism. But overall, I expected more from this film. If only the script weren’t that childish. On the other hand, it’s just great to see the LEGO world come alive and “The Adventures of Clutch Powers” is, at the end of the day, worth your while. Even if you're not a kid anymore, the kid in you will love it (at least a little). Rating: 7/10 - review by Ventilation Shaft
I don't care, Sandra Oh doesn't look good in a granny sweater. Genre: Comedy Family Drama Romance (Canada) Starring: Sandra Oh (Last Night; Sideways ), Valerie Tian Directed By: Mina Shum Overview: A young girl uses Taoist magic to help her mother improve her life. Performance: Sandra Oh does a great job. She was great in Last Night, and she's great in this. Rick Young, as Bing Lai, unfortunately suffers. He overacts in nearly every scene. Made me roll my eyes, it was so hammy. Where was the director then? Rating: 6 Cinematography: The film is well shot, with enough art and originality mixed in with the standard. Decent, but there's really nothing much else to say. Rating: 7 Script: Written by the director, the script had some good moral lessons and seemed realistic enough. Again, this category does not excel, but the scenes, especially the hard-hitting ones, get their point across. Rating: 7 Plot: The story itself revolves around three couples, all belonging to the same community, hence all somehow interconnected. The child is constantly casting spells to make things better, but things seem to go wrong over and over. In the meantime, a man is facing a crisis of faith, while another is having a crisis of family. All three stories end really well, mostly predictable, but pretty poignant. Rating: 8 Mood: The mood wasn't really the director's forte. If I was making a movie about ancient Chinese Magic, I would have more symbology, I'd have the girl surround herself a little more with it, I'd make it a touch more prevalent in the imagery, in the score. Don't get me wrong, Mina did well enough in getting the themes across, but it didn't jump out at me like I'd hoped. Rating: 7 Uh, seriously, it's just rain, relax. Overall Rating: 70% (Well, Maybe Not ALL That, But SOME Of That) Aftertaste: The plot is really what made this movie. It's not a great film, but it was enjoyable. It hasn't left much of an impact, but they all can't now can they?
There's really nothing masculine about having your arms ass deep behind a man's balls Genre: Silent Family Comedy Sport Romance Starring: Harold Lloyd ( Girl Shy ; Safety Last! ), Jobyna Ralston (Wings; The Kid Brother ) Directed By: Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor ( Slapstick Symposium ) Overview: A naive young man goes off to college in hopes of becoming the most popular boy in school. He soon finds that being on the football team is a necessary step. Here's another one of the absolute mediocre films I feel I need mention , yet don't feel the need to waste too much of my time with, priorities being what they are in life. Rather than give a long-winded explanation of why this is passably acted in the style of the time, and shot in such a way that the camera serves to do nothing but frame the tale, I'll just tell you this: of all the Harold Lloyd films I was told I had to see 'Before I Died' by a big fat tome , this was the most unimpressive one to date. I don't know if it's because in today's day and age this warm and snugly cliché is about as lively as a necrophiliac's horse, or if it's just that of all the predictable slapsticky gag moments imaginable, this used pretty much every single one. All in all this was probably so important a film in its time because since then I've seen this movie rehashed about fifty times. "Really? He actually comes through and wins the big game?! NO! What a twist!" Yeah, not so much. When a woman does it on the other hand...HOT Overall Rating: 62% (Kinda Smelly If You Ask Me) Aftertaste: While looking into this, I read the words 'Harold Lloyd's most loved film,' which makes it obvious to me that the person who wrote it hasn't seen a single other film of his. What's awesome about Lloyd is his stunts. This one really has none of that; it's a cute little story about a dude with a bucket of insecurities trying so hard to be famous that he looks like a gullible goof. What's the lesson here, don't be a dweeb? Thanks I learned that back in the days where I was measuring my wink in junior high.
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