Monday, September 21, 2009

Review: Up



Pixar's newest feature tells the story of an old, lonely widower, Carl Frederickson, trying to fulfill a promise to his late wife. He wants to bring their dream home to a special jungle dubbed "The Island that Time Forgot" that is the home to a number of undiscovered plants and animals. Along the way he picks up a stowaway, a young boyscout named Russell trying to get his last badge by helping the elderly. The 2 take an adventure in a dream house hanging from uncountable balloons to the amazing jungle where they meet an interesting bird, a number of talking dogs, and Carl's boyhood hero, Charles Muntz, a Doc Savage/Indiana Jones style adventurer.

The premise itself inspired thoughts of great adventure, rolling landscapes, and high energy action, but the movie itself focuses more on Carl's person, his relationship with people and this debt he had to pay. It is the movies greatest strength and greatest weakness. As an emotional center, it works perfectly. It is a great catalyst for an amazing jounrney, and a justifiable motivation for the main character. It is something that makes Carl, who is known to us almost exclusively as the grump rather than the wide-eyed young man we get a glimpse of in the beginning, an empathetic and relatable character. He becomes exponentially more likeable.

As a weakness, it weighs down Pixar's consistency. Pixar has made a great reputation on making fantastic all-ages movies, not to be confused with kids-movies, but in order to continue to do so you must not alienate either side. I think that the emotional heft would bore the children, but even if it does not, the film never lives up to the premise, which promises great adventure. I might be too hard on this movie, but WALL-E was able to what Up couldn't, balance an incredibly fun adventure movie and still bring some kind of mature elements to the plot.

The movie still boasts some great charcters. Russell as the overzealous and super-friendly boyscout is instantly likeabkle and stays that way throughout the film. He mirrors a combination of Carl's early wide-eyed innocence mixed with Carl's wife's go-getting sense for adventure. Not to mention Kevin, the bird, who shows more personality than most people could try to create just by clucking, and Dug, the talking dog, who is written so perfectly and the comedic timing is so on point that you think the filmmakers have actually been able to read the mind of a dog.

In the wake of WALL-E, Up dissapoints. Up is still very ambitious and very well-made film, it just breaks the chain of Pixar's ability to constantly one-up itself.

6/10

Review: Superman/Batman Public Enemies


While Batman and Superman investigate an on-coming meteorite big enough to destroy the world made completely of Kryptonite, Lex Luthor, now President of the United States, devises a plan to frame Superman for murder and puts a 1 billion dollar bounty on his head. As the 2 heroes continue their attempts at stopping the meteorite, they are forced to fight a number or heroes and villains all looking to stop the now criminal duo.

Another in what will be a long line of DC animated movies, Bruce Timm and company continue their fantastic portrayal of the DC Universe in animation form. In tow is the original voices of Lex Luthor, Superman, and Batman from Timm's first television series, Clancy Brown, Tim Daly, and Kevin Conroy respecitvelly. Kevin Conroy especially. He is easily the most recognizable Batman performer, but hearing Tim Daly, who was unavailable to play Superman in the Justice League spin-off of his show. His replacement, George Newbern, went over smoothly, but it was not until this video I realized how great Daly is as Superman. He brings a certain gentle strength needed for the ultimate boyscout with super strength. The cast is surrounded with various other slightly familiar voice actors like John C. McGinley, Levar Burton, and Allison Mack all of which were ultimately underused leaving most of the dialog to the 3 stars. Corey Burton, a long time Timm collaborator, provides the voice for Captain Marvel, but seems very out of place. It is hard to put your finger on it.

The animation was much different than what Timm fans would be used to. The muscle is much more defined, and other little details were also much more apparent as opposed to the tv series. The design overall were mild improvements, but some things dropped the ball. Captain Marvel was given comedically squinty eyes and Amanda Waller was drawn more like Violet from willy Wonka than your everday overweight lady. And even though everyone had ridiculously inflated muscles, Captain Atom's looked the most strange.

The story itself does what Superman/Batman comic series does best. It spotlights the relationship between Superman and Batman. Two heroes from incredibly different backgrounds and powersets getting along like some of the best partners in fictional history a la Butch and Sundance or Han and Chewy, never more so than in the scene where both are injured and helping each other back to the Bat-cave. The two call each other by their real names, and volley quips back and forth with eachother like two co-workers carpooling. But it also balanced the side-story of the obsessive Lex Luthor and his attempts at being both President and super-villain (some would say that is very familiar). The ultimate flaw of this movie is that the large cast, the dual storylines of Superman/Batman and Lex Luthor are crammed into little over an hour. A cynical bunch have claimed foul on 2+ hour movies that have become popular, but usually the time is needed for proper character development and good plot pacing. So many interesting characters are just glossed over.

Superman/Batman is one of the better DC animated movies, but they have yet to make a lot of them so who knows.

8/10

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

First Impressions

Solomon Kane

One might say Solomon Kane looks like a rip-off of Van Helsing, but Helsing is in fact a rip-off of Kane's original material. Kane looks to have better action and better special effects. I am in!

A Single Man

A Single Man trailer reminds me of the trailer for A Serious Man from The Coen Brothers. Both show very little of story, but depict a chain of events. This one creates some serious tone and I cannot wait to see more.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Review: World's Greatest Dad


In World's Greatest Dad, Robin Williams plays Lance Clayton, an unpublished writer who teaches poetry during they day. He is also a single parent to the worst child ever, Kyle (Daryl Sabara), who is rude, a liar, obsessed with pornography, and hates everything. He makes his father's homelife, relationship, and job way harder than it should be. I cannot really say much else since it would give away the direction of the movie, but it should be said it takes a disturbing path.

Even witht the cult success of Shakes the Clown, the phrase "written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait" still does not inspire the notion of quality. This could not be any less true. World's Greatest Dad is in fact a well thought-out, well-paced dramedy. It's strongest aspect being the acting ability of Robin Williams. Williams is able to bring so much heart and sadness to a fairly witty character, a big change from his usual energized rambling that describes his stand-up and interviews. Despite the conflicts with his son, you never believe for a second that he does not love him unconditionally, nor do you ever think that when deciding his later actions that he is not hesitant or guilt-ridden while doing them. The disturbing content yet still humorous tone is entirely justified by Williams' well-balanced performance.

The supporting cast, built mostly of unknown and unfamiliar actors, performs fine. They did not ruin the movie, but I do not think they brought anything particularly to the final product. Daryl Sabara sticks out as the acid-tongue son of Robin Williams' character. Unlike most performances, this role in particular really gains in advantage from a "forced" performance. The character itself is a liar and unintelligent and comes off that much more horribly.

The pacing for the most part is pretty good, yet it suffers from one major flaw: too many music montages. Music montages are certainly an effective tool, especially in this movie where it is used to show how numerous characters react individually to the events of the movie. But these same characters perfectly depict their viewpoints during the course of the movie, especially with conversations with Robin Williams. The montages thus become redudant, and considering there are noticably numerous, they do become annoying.

World's Greatest Dad is not a laugh riot, but it is a surprising gem of a movie. Williams performs fantastically, and the writing and directing of Goldthwait is very effective.

7/10

First Impressions

Here's a new thing I am going to try. Basically what I think about a particular trailer

Zombieland

Zombieland is definitely the next movie that I am most excited to see. As seen in Shaun of the Dead and Fido, zombies have great untapped comedic potential. Jesse Eisnberg is basically Michael Cera but better. Woody Harrelson is in his wheelhouse. Emma Stone is kinda hot and pretty badass.

Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day

Looks like much of the same of the original, and I dig it. Except for the obviously absent Willem Dafoe and the visually puffy eyed, getting too old for Hollywood look of Sean Patrick Flannery. This movie looks pretty good. I mean, holy shit is that Judd Nelson? Is that Peter Fonda? Is that Rocco!? (1:30) Plus Billy Connely is back, as are the Boston cops, and an addition of the very hot Julie Benz.

The Men Who Stare At Goats

Considering George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, and Kevin Spacey are individually hilarious actors for being non-stand-ups, putting them together in such a ridiculous premise seems like it would be absolutely incredible.

The Daybreakers

I am always down for a vampire flick, especially when they have cool vamps with cooler slayers as opposed to the "hot" emo vampires that Twilight is creating. And this one happens to star Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, and Sam Neill. This is one of the better paced trailers in a long while. The use of Placebo's version of "Running up That Hill" creates a fantastic tone. The vampiric monsters also displayed look pretty interesting.

Up in the Air

The trailer rests on Clooney's ability to effectively deliver a thoughtful speech, so while it is one-note, it's a pretty damn good note. Plus it also seems to have Zack Galinfinakis, Jason Bateman, and J.K. Simmons among other great performers.

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

As a fan of "The Office," I am interested to see what John Krasinski can do with this first directorial effort. The movie itself looks kind of slow with a lot of emphasis on love and romance. But it's also an indie flick so the direction of those elements might be way less sappy and corny than it might be in a chick flick. Wait and see flick for sure.

Plan 9

This is a remake of Ed Wood's cult classic, but I think the filmmaker forgot why it is so loved. It is because it is so bad. And I cannot tell whether this movie is trying to improve the quality or continue the so-bad-it's-good mentality.