The Thief Lord

Based on the novel by German author Cornelia Funke - who is probably best known for her Inkworld series, the first of which was more recently made into a film as well - The Thief Lord did not get an American theatrical release.  The cast is an ensemble of lesser knowns, at least for North America as I believe the entire cast is from the UK.  Being lesser known, however, does not necessarily mean that talent is lacking.

The story opens with orphaned Prosper (Aaron Johnson pre-Kick-Ass) stealing away his younger brother Bo (Jasper Harris) from his adoptive yet unkind aunt and uncle (Carole Boyd and Bob Goody) to prevent being separated from each other.  They flee to Venice where their mother told them that magical things happen where they unexpectedly fall in with the young Scipio (Rollo Weeks) who is the self professed Thief Lord of Venice.  They make friends with this apparent scoundrel and his group of orphans (Alice Connor,George MacKay, and Lathaniel Dyer) - it's very Peter Pan and the lost boys.  They soon rely on these new friends to help protect them from their scheming relatives who have sent a very British bumbling detective (Jim Carter) after them who reminds me somewhat of Thomson and Thompson from Tin Tin.  If it has not yet been said, let me be the first to make the observation that Carter is the poor man's Alfred Molina.  The film also stars Caroline Goodall and Alexei Sayle.

Other than some very forced allusions of things to come, this film initially gives no indication of being anything but a British drama about orphans finding their place in the world and the shenanigans they have along the way.  It isn't until near the end that it takes a bizarre swan dive into urban fantasy becoming more Harry Potter and less Oliver Twist.  Production wise, it has a very "made for tv BBC special event" feel to it in the same vein as the early adaptations of The Chronicles of Narnia, which does bring things down somewhat.  It really wasn't bad though and I found myself enjoying the likable characters.  Harris is especially adorable as the young Bo.  The characters really are the driving force behind this film as it is somewhat lacking in the area of plot.  It almost feels like they were shoehorned into what plot does eventually develop and I think I would have rather seen their characters played out further and developed more than what is allowed.  I have a feeling there is more of that in the book as movies seem to decide that character development is the best thing to cut from an adaptation such as this.

Overall, not a bad film, but it's not the greatest either.

*** (3/5 stars)

Being John Malkovich

Being John Malkovich has long been on my list of films to get around to seeing, and I finally did.  The bizarre plot is this:  Craig (John Cusack) is an unemployed puppeteer stuck in a marriage with Lotte (Cameron Diaz) who pays more attention to her animals than she does to him.  Sucking it up and taking a "real" job, Craig is hired by a filing company run by an impossibly old and rather inappropriate man (Orson Bean) on the 7½ floor of a high rise where everyone has to crouch to fit in this space between floors 7 and 8.  There he meets Maxine (Catherine Keener) who he becomes immediately and inexplicably attracted to.  Oh, and he discovers a door behind a filing cabinet that leads him directly into John Malkovich's (played by himself) mind for fifteen minutes before spitting him out on the side of the New Jersey turnpike.  Still with me?  Good, because it only gets stranger after that.

 Plot points range from selling tickets to John Malkovich's mind, to lesbian affairs that aren't really lesbian, to a monkey having flashbacks to his traumatic childhood.  If I were to compare this movie to anything, it would be to anime film of the serious but strange variety.  It does things that live action movies just don't do - at least not American ones.  The film, though, never once seems to really question the weirdness of what's going on, and that's what helps make it work

The cast works well together, though at times Cusack seems a little disjointed, but that may just be because it seemed to be such an odd roll for him.  The concept is certainly out there and provides fodder for completely unique situations and perspectives that we've never seen before and hopefully never will again.

Directed by Spike Jonze, most recently known for his off kilter adaptation of Where the Wild Things are, Being John Malkovich is a trip and a half.  I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, but the half was a little bit much at times.  The thing that really threw me was the seemingly fluid sexual orientation of everyone inhabiting this strange reality.  It makes sense, sort of, but was jarring enough to pull me out of the film at times.  Over all though I would highly recommend this film if you're like I was and just haven't gotten around to seeing it yet.

**** (4/5 stars)

My Name is Bruce

(A quick off topic note, I just entered this contest - if you are a writer you might want to check the site out, they run these types of contests regularly.)

My Name is Bruce is essentially Galaxy Quest, but in the horror genre.  King of camp, Bruce Campbell, stars as himself as a washed up actor, reduced to doing multiple sequels to his worst films.  In the real life small mining town of Gold Lick, OR, a group of teens unwittingly unleashes Guan-di (Jamie Peck), an ancient Chinese ghost who immediately begins killing off the town's inhabitants whose ancestors had allowed a group of Chinese workers to be killed in a mining accident.  Convinced that experienced monster killer Bruce is the answer to the problem, lifetime fan Jeff (Taylor Sharpe) kidnaps the actor in a bid to stop the terror he was partially responsible for bringing upon the town.

This movie is a B horror flick that parodies B horror flicks.  Bruce Campbell's whole career is the punch line in this film that he stars in as well as directs.  Featuring a cast of unknowns, former Campbell film actors, and Sam's brother Ted Raimi, the only face you may recognize is Campbell's.  The plot is deli style swiss cheese - thin and full of holes.  That doesn't matter though.  The acting is B level at best, C at worst, but that's ok.  The budget is just above nil and shows, but it works.  Really, all the things that make the genre horrible yet fun are present here, creating a true parody in a world of "Insert Genre Here Movie's."  The ending offers some genuine twists that I think will satisfy any viewer.

This movie, for obvious reason, increases it's viewing pleasure exponentially with your experience watching Bruce Campbell movies.  The thing is chock full of inside jokes and references that I got were references and jokes, but didn't understand.  While this doesn't rate too high for me personally, I realize that is mostly my own fault.  I can guarantee that anyone who has followed Bruce Campbell's career will be rotfloling and even the uninitiated should be able to appreciate it for the delightful parody that it is.

*** (3/5 stars)

Law Abiding Citizen

Though almost universally disliked by critics, Law Abiding Citizen surprised me as an enjoyable action film with some delightful intrigue.  Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is an upstanding family man who is forced to watch his wife (Brooke Stacy Mills) raped and killed, and his young daughter (Ksenia Hulayev) murdered during a brutal home invasion.  Due to some incompetent forensic work, though, the case against the two who were responsible lands on shaky ground.  In a bid to secure an easy victory, prosecutor Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) cuts a deal with the ring leader Darby (Christian Stolte) in order to bring the death penalty down on his accomplice Ames (Josh Stewart).  Clyde makes it abundantly clear that this is not the justice he had in mind, but he's helpless to do anything about it.  The cast also includes Viola Davis, Bruce McGill, and Leslie Bibb.

Fast-forward ten years.  Ames is finally serving his sentence, but instead of a quiet, humane passing, his death is quite horrific - apparently due to sabotage involving the lethal injection.  Darby is soon found brutally dismembered and quite dead.  Clyde denies nothing, but announces this is just the beginning in a campaign to bring down all aspects of a broken justice system.

At one point I was afraid that this was going to turn into some sort of Saw movie but thankfully that is not the case.  What is the case is the beginning of a brilliant set of escapades that straddle the border of believability.  Clyde takes out person after person with seemingly no effort at all, in ways that seem impossible.  He becomes a killer for justice that would make a worthy adversary for  Sherlock Holmes with his meticulous planning and smooth operation.  The only thing that kept me from truly rooting for him all the way was the fact that Nick really wasn't all that bad of a guy - he just wasn't perfect.

Despite all the impossible escapades that require a large dose of belief suspension, the part I found most jarring was the fact that Nick ends up outsmarting Clyde at one point.  Foxx's character just didn't seem intelligent enough to pull that off.  And do DA's really pull double duty as detective's?  That's what I want to know.  Aside from the fact that this film necessitates checking a bit of your logic at the door, the only other thing that really bothered me was Butler's accent.  He looked like he was in pain the whole time from restraining his Scottish brogue that occasionally slipped through anyway.  He really should stop trying to sound like an American - besides, aren't there American's with Scottish accents anyway?

Part of me says that I should come down hard on a film that relies so heavily on events happening that probably could never actually happen.  But this is a movie - movies are where midget aliens with magic fingers eat Reese's Pieces and phone home with contraptions made with a saw blade.  And the other part of me really had fun watching Gerard Butler do what he does best - kick some serious keister with some serious style.

**** (4/5 stars)

Iron Man 2

The Summer movie season officially got under way with a bang this past weekend with Iron Man 2 as the superhero sequel flew into theatres.  Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow reprise their roles as millionaire playboy Tony Stark AKA Iron Man, and his fiery assistant, Pepper Pots.  Samuel L. Jackson also appears again as Nick Fury.  Stan Lee makes his usual cameo - watch for it!  Not returning is Terrence Howard as Tony's friend in the Marines, James Rhodes.  He is replaced by Don Cheadle for this sequel that features his character much more prominently.

Not much has happened since the end of the first film.  Tony Stark is still the center of, well, everything.  He's "privatized world peace," and the military wants their hands on his technology as does everyone else.  Hammer Industries, led by Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) wants to turn the suit into a very lucrative weapon, but have failed miserably.  Tony's body has turned against him, being slowly killed by the device that's keeping him alive.  Oh the irony.  The official villain of the film, though, is Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), who becomes the revenge-seeking Whiplash, but don't forget the mysterious and seductive Natalie Rushman AKA Natasha Romanoff AKA Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson).

If it sounds like there's a little too much going on, that's because there is.  Thankfully it is mostly important things that are going on and hopefully things are not going to drift into Spiderman 3 territory in the next movie.  Given some certain scenes, however, it seems like Favreau may be setting things up for a Demon in the Bottle adaptation, which would be a good thing.

The pacing is a little wobbly here and there.  Sometimes it is a bit rushed, while other times it's a little sluggish.  It's not really that bad, but the first one came off so smoothly that I must be extra critical here.  It is painfully obvious that they are setting the stage for the Avengers movie, which may have hampered the creativity a bit.  The thing that really drags this movie down below a five star endeavor, though, is the final battle.  Favreau just doesn't seem to get boss battles.  The final fight in the first movie is a bit anticlimactic, and this one is even more so.  Scarlett Johansson's action sequence is miles more entertaining to watch and she isn't even in a flying battle suit.

To sum up - Iron Man 2 is a little bloated and lacks the sense of adventure of the first one.  Robert Downey Jr. is still fantastic, bringing Tony Stark to immortal life, and the rest of the cast does a great job as well.  Nobody is a sore thumb here.  Ultimately it is still a cool film that is a lot of fun to watch, but it just doesn't quite reach the bar set by its predecessor.

P.S. Stay after the credits for a quick teaser of things to come.

**** (4/5 stars)

My Neighbor Totoro

Of all of Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli productions, this one feels made with the youngest audience in mind.  That's not to imply that on another level, it isn't perfectly suited for adults.  My neighbor Totoro is a very realistic (though fantastic) portrayal of 1950's country life in Japan and is the story of sisters Satsuki and Mei voiced by real life sisters Dakota and Elle Fanning.  As a side note, this recent re-dubbing seems to be the only real complaint people have against this film, calling it all sorts of horrible.  If you have seen the original, it may bother you, but I think this is mostly a case of people having an attachment to what they heard first since I didn't find anything wrong with their performance.

Satsuki and Mei have just moved into a new house with their father (Timothy Daly) in the country in order to closer to their long hospital bound mother (Lea Salonga).  They find themselves in a fixer-upper that caretaker Granny (Pat Carroll) reveals to be haunted.  The girls soon find themselves meeting the wood spirits that haunt the house, including the giant troll creature, Totoro, who they befriend in an odd way.

Unlike most of Miyazaki's films, My Neighbor Totoro does not have much of a straight forward plot or even any underlying theme.  It is a peek into the life of these children and it is pure magic.  When I say pure, I use it to mean both complete as well as innocent.  Not even Where the Wild Things Are captures a child's mind quite this well.  The thing that most struck me about this movie was the ambiguity.  Miyazaki is known for this fantastic magical elements in a strange world, but they are always real.  I saw nothing in this film that could not be interpreted as being in the girls' imagination.  Some scenes were a bit more of a stretch than others, but still all have that flavor of young imagination.  It's this feeling that really brings out the magic, as ironic as that sounds.

Miyazaki's talent for treating animated characters as real actors shines here.  His attention to detail really brings the whole thing to life in a way that is not often duplicated.  This is a dazzling film that is one of the best family films I have ever seen, despite it's simplicity, or perhaps because of it.  All I know is that I really want to ride on a Catbus.

***** (5/5 stars)

Up in the Air

Up in the Air is a film with very little plot.  I would be tempted to label it mainstream mumblecore for the masses, but it is a bit too coherent for that.  Adapted from the 2001 novel by the same name, this heavily awarded film stars perpetually old George Clooney as Ryan, a man who spends most of his life flying from place to place firing people for a living.  I'm not positive if this type of job actually exists, but it seems like a stressful career.  Ryan seems to enjoy his lifestyle though, regaling in the fact that he doesn't need to actually have a home, hopping from one plane to another, city to city, hotel to hotel, living out of his suitcase and leaving all other baggage - physical and metaphorical - behind.  He meets Alex (Vera Farmiga) who seems to be a female version of himself and they kick off a lusty casual relationship determined by when their travel plans cross paths.  Life is great until he is partnered with Natalie Keener (relative newcomer, Anna Kendrick), a representative of a younger generation who is "keen" on revamping, updating, and altogether upsetting the system Ryan is so happy with.

Throughout the film, the themes of life, love, companionship, and family are all obviously explored as the three open up to each other and experience various experiences.  There are tears, laughter, and frustration aplenty with some insight thrown in for good measure.  One of the more touching parts of the movie is Ryan's sister's (Melanie Lynskey) wedding where Rose Julie and her fiance seem to teach him some valuable lessons that later apparently were worthless.

I'm not sure why George Clooney got a best actor nod for this role since really he's just playing himself once again, insanely comfortable in his gracefully aged skin.  Lynskey is a name being thrown around a bit as a talented up-and-coming and it's easy to see why.  She's enjoyable to watch and brings something real to the table.

Like most offbeat films, this one is not really what the trailers seemed to portray it as, but that's ok this time because I actually liked what it ended up being.  What it ends up being is a film that is a slice of unusual life that's mostly enjoyable to watch.  It's quirky, kind of sweet and kind of depressing.  Watch it.

**** (4/5 stars)

Primer

Primer is brilliant and you won't understand it.  Primer is written, directed, and produced by Shane Carruth, a mathematician and engineer - and it shows.  A tale of time travel, Primer explains away the impossible not with the pseudo science mumbo jumbo that makes sense to the viewer but not in real life, but real science mumbo jumbo that probably makes a whole lot of sense, but only if you have a PhD in quantum mechanics.

Aaron (Shane Carruth) and Abe (David Sullivan) are two garage start-up engineers trying to make it big.  While trying to create some sort of anti-gravity device they accidentally find themselves in the possession of a device that allows time travel in such a complicated way that wikipedia has a detailed diagram to try to explain it.

Like anyone should expect, using the device proves to have all sorts of implications.  In the name of realism, these implications are so complex that I'm not sure I understand half of them.  Realism is the name of the game here, despite the unrealistic subject of the film.  I could completely believe that Aaron and Abe were actually two geeks trying to be the next Woz and that they knew exactly what they were talking about every time they opened their mouths to say something I didn't understand.  The small budget ($7,000) incidentally did not cause the film to suffer.  The low quality film style lent itself quite well to the realism as if there was a hidden person filming a documentary.

On one hand I applaud Carruth for crafting such an insanely complicated piece of work that I'm sure makes sense if you are capable of understanding it.  He refused to water down anything for the sake of the uneducated, and that's something I wish we saw at least a little more of in some mainstream movies.  On the other hand, however, it is very hard to enjoy a movie you can't understand and follow, even if you know you should appreciate it for the Einstein caliber masterpiece it surely is.  I know there are those who will point out that this is a smart film that moves far beyond the schlock that is most mainstream films.  I can't however, in good conscience, recommend this to anyone who does not list visiting the Large Hadron Collider among their life long goals.

** (2/5 stars)

Julie and Julia

Julie and Julia is a geek movie.  Yes on the surface it looks like an odd chick flick about cooking with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams, but it's really about a couple of women getting their geek on.  Julie Powell (Adams) is a young aspiring writer who, to add a spark to her somewhat drab life, starts a blog before many people even knew what a blog was.  It wasn't just a ramble blog though, it was a blog documenting the progress of an outrageous goal, giving her readers ever succulent detail.  And that blog became a book and then became the movie I am now reviewing.  Is this the first blog to become a movie? I think so.  Just because the topic was cooking doesn't make it any less geeky.  The other half of the movie is Julia Child (Streep).  You don't get more of a food geek than that.

The movie introduces us to both Julie and Julia in different times as one begins to document her endeavor to cook all 524 recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, during the course of one year and the other begins the equally daunting task of writing the aforementioned volume that made her famous.

Sometime in the 1950's, while living in Paris with her husband (Stanley Tucci) who works for the US government, Julia decides to take advantage of the situation and really learn how to cook the food she loves so much.  What starts as an interest becomes her passion, leading her to become the woman everyone remembers.

In 2002, living in New York, Julie works answering calls from 9/11 victims' families.  Wanting to add something more pleasant to her life, she decides to cook through Julia Child's book.  Her reasoning being that the one thing that is certain is cooking.  What begins as a hobby and writing exercise grows into an obsession - one that sometimes stresses out her husband (Chris Messina) and leads to her writing perhaps the most read blog of the time.

Do we see any parallels here? Yes we do.

I'm personally am not that familiar with Julia Child, but I hear Meryl Streep portrays her to a T and I believe it.  She's fantastic as the towering, exuberant woman.  Her voice is a bit distracting, but what can you do about that since it's spot on with Child's?

I don't know what Julie Powell is like, but reading a bit of her original blog, I can imagine the words being spoken by Adams perfectly, so that's a good thing.  (Her current blog can be found here).

It may be a somewhat odd topic for a movie, but it works.  My only complaint would be the ending.  It just seems a bit too abrupt.  I would have love to see just a bit more beyond what happened when the book was published/the blog was finished.  Other than that, though, I thought it was mostly enjoyable, if it did make me a bit hungry watching it.

**** (4/5 stars)

2012

Disaster porn aficionado, Roland Emmerich, is back again with yet another scenario in which the world gets blown up.  Like his 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow, Earth is destroying itself and everyone on it.

Inspired by the supposed Mayan prediction that the planet's expiration date is December 21, 2012, the film offers up the normal pseudo-science explanation of what's about to occur and then launches into what the film does best - have ordinary people survive incredible situations in incredibly unlikely ways as the Earth is rent asunder.

John Cusack is Atlantian novel writer Jackson Curtis who just happens to find out about the right things at the right time in order to try to save his family from impending doom.  He, with his ex-wife Kate (Amanda Peet), her new man Gordon (the ever annoying Thomas McCarthy), and his two children Lily (Morgan Lily) and Shawn Noah (Liam James) jump from one impossible scenario to another, somehow making it out alive each time.  It is here that I must say, Atlantis and Noah?  They went there, really?  Guided by a map provided by a highly entertaining Woody Harrelson, they hitch a ride with some stereotypical Russians and head to China where they hope to find safety.  Ironic, no?

In the meantime, we're also treated to the drama of a political side plot with the President (Danny Glover), his daughter (Thandie Newton), and the seemingly only scientist capable of knowing what's going on (Chiwetel Ejiofor).

For a movie so reliant on the world exploding dramatically I was surprised by two things.  The first was that there was actually some thought put into what was going on besides volcanoes, floods, and earthquakes.  The second was that those three arguable stars of the show where, on occasion, a decade behind in realism.  It's hard to be concerned about those flying lava rocks behind John Cusack when there is obviously nothing but a bright green wall behind him.  That, and do you really think they're going to kill off John Cusack like that?

One thing refreshing about this story was the fact that little to no time was spent on the brilliant scientist that no one would listen to until it was too late.  It's about what happened in the three years leading up to the cataclysmic event that all the important people knew was going to happen thanks to the brilliant scientist.  I would argue that the best part of the movie was Woody Harrelson's character with pickels and Pabst and I was disappointed we didn't get to see more of him.  The rest of the characters all hit their cues where they needed to, but there were no award worthy performances here.

Emmerich has an obvious message in pretty much all of his films and this one is "Don't take the planet for granted, it can **** you up."  One has to wonder if he puts stake in the 2012 prediction - why else wouldn't he have waited a couple more years to release this?

It was an entertaining flick with a few interesting points and I would recommend it for the next time you're looking for a long movie that's mostly exciting and easy to digest.  Good couch potato material.

*** (3/5 stars)