Treasure Planet

I remember being disappointed in this movie when I first saw it way back in '03.  Being one of the few Disney movies my wife had not seen, however, we gave it another go round.  Sadly, my opinion only lessened.

Treasure Planet is - not surprisingly - a Disney retelling of Treasure Island but in space.  The film gets started with a young Jim Hawkins (Austin Majors, voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt for the rest of the movie) "reading" an ingenious holo-novel about the legendary Treasure Planet, narrated by the late, legendary, Tony Jay.  Fast forward to Jim's teen years and he's a precocious daredevil whose run-ins with the robocops distress his mother (Laurie Metcalf) who is trying to run a busy tavern by herself.  Their lives are sure to change, however, when Billy Bones (Patrick McGoohan) - here a giant snapping turtle creature - dies on their doorstep leaving a mysterious map.  Any more summary would be ridiculous as the movie follows the outline of Treasure Island nearly verbatim despite being set in another world.  A few changes were made that Disneyfied the story a bit like the fact that Jim is no longer an orphan and the ending was a bit happier.  Anyone who knows the story though will suffer from some unpleasant deja vu.

The artwork here is the best part of the movie.  At times it is inspired - a rich science fiction pallet with a steampunk influence.  At others it is absurd as goofy aliens fly aboard sailing ships in space.  It also can never make up it's mind as to what should be shown as 3D renderings and what shouldn't.  The characters all feel pretty recycled as nearly each one not only is a reflection of the Robert Louis Stevenson characters, but has the skeleton and voice of some other Disney character.  From the female feline captain of the "RLS Legacy" (Emma Thompson) and her first mate Arrow (Roscoe Lee Browne) to the cyborg cook John Silver ((Brian Murray) it all feels tired and done before.  Even David Hyde Pierce as Jim's excitable canine-esque companion (oh look everybody, a cat character and a dog character!) and Martin Short as B.E.N the android can't put an original spin on these characters that should be able to be so.

This adaptation had so much potential but fell about as flat as it could.  If you want a good retelling of this classic yarn, try Muppet Treasure Island instead.

** (2/5 stars)

The Blind Side

I'm not all that into sports movies but The Blind Side looked like it might be worth watching.  Based on the real life story of Baltimore Ravens player,  Michael Oher, The Blind Side garnered Sandra Bullock an Oscar for best actress.

The movie tells the story of Michael, Big Mike, Oher, played by Quinton Aaron whose own life story is one of rising from rags as well.  Oher was just one of twelve children that his cocaine addicted mother (Adriane Lenox) had by multiple men.  Living in the projects of Tennessee he had few people to turn to, nowhere he could call home, and just shy of nothing of an education.  His life took a major turn for the better when he was enrolled in a Christian school through a number of fortunate circumstances.  It was there that he became very involved in athletics and met the Tuohy family.  It was with  Leigh Anne (Bullock), Sean (Tim McGraw), Collins (Lily Collins), and SJ (Jae Head) that he found acceptance and encouragement.  Kathy Bates also appears as Michael's tutor.

I won't say much more about the plot since I don't want to confuse real life events with their theatrical representation.  From what I've heard, the movie does portray the characters and events with above average accuracy, but, as Hollywood is wont to do, things are still somewhat condensed, exaggerated, and romanticized.  This site gives an excellent rundown of real life vs. the movie, but be aware there are massive spoilers - as if the fact that this is a heartwarming sports movie based on true events isn't spoiler enough.

One of the things I hate is a movie that is heartwarming just because it can be.  This one works because you know that it is (mostly) true.  It's impossible not to care about a character who actually exists and who has real reasons for you to care about them.  Because of this and because of some great performances, I enjoyed this movie despite myself.  Sandra Bullock predictably gives a great performance and Tim Mcgraw proves that the line between singing and acting may be crossed successfully.  Jae Head's portrayal of Michael's younger white brother is - legendary isn't quite the right word for it, but let's just say that I'd like to see him do something in the future with Chloe Moretz.

It's enough of a sport's movie to appeal to that crowd, and enough of feel good drama to appeal to that group as well.  I don't really fall into either category, but liked it all the same.

**** (4/5 stars)

Inglourious Basterds

This film, despite what the trailers will have you believe, is not about Brad Pitt killing Nazis with a heavy southern drawl while Hitler (Martin Wuttke) comically screams out "Nein!" multiple times.  Instead, it is about the power of film and how the Third Reich could have met it's end in this revisionist history in which Pitt and his Nazi killing Basterds play a part.

The story opens with  Colonel Hans Landa (award winning Christoph Waltz) murdering a hidden Jewish family in German occupied France.  The teenaged member of the family, Shoshanna (Mélanie Laurent), manages to escape - probably allowed to do so in order to spread fear of the "Jew Hunter" - and the stage is set.

Three years later we're introduced to Lt. Aldo Raine (Pitt) and his group of Nazi killing Basterds.  The Basterds are primarily composed of German Jews from America, returning in retaliation and include "The Bear Jew" (Eli Roth), who likes to dispatch his enemies with a baseball bat and the nefarious ex-Nazi, Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz (Til Schweiger).  Each member of the team has a goal of 100 enemy scalps and the few that they allow to escape, do so with a swastika etched into their head so that no one may forget who they really are.  Shoshanna has taken on a new name and new life operating a movie theatre in Paris where she meets heroic Nazi sniper, Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Brühl).  She determines to use a Nazi-filled film premier celebrating Zoller's exploits as an opportunity to exact revenge - something that the British and the Basterds are also planning to do with the help of German actress and double agent, Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger).

From the getgo it's obvious why this movie is over two and a half hours long.  Tarantino employs a mechanism that many directors seem to have forgotten in the interest of making them easier to sell overseas - dialogue.  He not only trusts his audience to follow along with more than pretty pictures, he trusts them to read, as the only non-foreign movie that comes to mind that uses more subtitles is The Passion of the Christ.

The plot is complex, but not complicated.  Despite the many characters and sub plots I did not find myself often trying to figure out who was who or what was what.  It's meticulously thought out and developed.  Brad Pitt may be the star of the trailers, and seeing him try to speak Italian while continuing with his over the top Southern accent is certainly fun, but the real star of show is Waltz.  The Austrian actor plays the cold hearted but keenly intelligent killer like no one else could (though Leonardo DiCaprio was originally considered for the role).  He flawlessly (as far as I can tell) switches from French to English, to German to Italian without missing a beat or stepping out of character for a moment.  That is impressive.

Artistically, this is obviously a Tarantino film, and one of his best.  It may be cliche to say, but here is one director not afraid to create what he wants, how he wants it, whether or not it follows with convention.  I especially liked his use of non-storyline expository elements when the audience is treated to some piece of information for our benefit alone, like pausing to label a new character in an almost Burn Notice style.

The ending is one of the best I have ever seen and may come as a shock to anyone who does not realize just how far from actual history this story strays.  Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, but sometimes fiction is so much more satisfying.

***** (5/5 stars)

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Roald Dahl.  The fact that one of the strangest genius children's authors in history wrote the book this movie is adapted from was enough to get me excited about this one.  A unique film style further whet my appetite and a fantastic cast featuring George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Michael Gambon, Jarvis Cocker, Owen Wilson, Willem Dafoe and Helen McCrory under the quirky direction of Wes Anderson sealed the deal on this film as a must-see.

The film opens with Mr. Fox (Clooney) and his wife Felicity (Streep) raiding a chicken house when Fox's over abundance of confidence gets them trapped in a cage.  It's that moment that Felicity reveals that she is with cub and makes him promise that if they get out of this situation that he would leave this crazy profession for something safer.  Fast forward two years and Fox is a writer, living a safe but boring life with Felicity and his *makes odd hand motion* different son Ash (Schwartzman) in a hole.  Fox is antzy, however, and moves his family to a much more auspicious tree surrounded by three of the most dangerous farms around.  The temptation of the challenge proves to much, however, and Fox is back at his old profession, soon bringing the wrath of farmers Boggis (Robin Hurlstone), Bunce (Hugo Guinness), and Bean (Gambon) down on the Fox family and the rest of the animals.

The story telling style is a bit odd, jumping forward abruptly as it skips from chapter to chapter, complete with titles, kind of like the way those awesome mice introduced each section of Babe, but even more so.  The animation is also not traditional as it is some incredible stop motion work that calls to mind Gumby, but so much more complex and intriguing.  It really is a work of genius.  The story certainly show's it's British roots as the humour is just a little different in the way that you know I'm talking about.  It may be a children's story, but it is just as much for adults as it is for children with some subtleties and situations that are more mature.  And the characters certainly "cuss" a lot.

It might not be for everyone, with it's less than straight narrative and plenty of odd moments that the film stops on momentarily just to hurry past again, but I loved it.  It was fresh, different, and intelligent.  Amazingly, the characters were not overpowered by highly recognizable voices of the various stars as often seems to be the case with some animated films, like Monsters Vs. Aliens.  All in all, this was a good solid movie suitable and enjoyable by all ages.

***** (5/5 stars)

Pandorum

A critical and box office failure, the concept and trailers were still enough to make me want to watch this movie.  When it became available on Netflix instant watch I didn't even have to potentially waste a DVD delivery on it which is always a good thing.

Pandorum is I am Legend meets Cube meets Titan AE. Corporal Bower (Ben Foster) violently awakens from hyper sleep on a large space cruiser as his sleep chamber malfunctions.  He manages to exit, but with no memory of what he is doing there - an apparent side effect of suspended animation.  This wouldn't be a problem except that there is no one else around to fill in the blanks for him.  The ship seems to be dead or dying and there is no evidence of anyone else awake.  He manages to revive the only other person in the room,  Lieutenant Payton (Dennis Quaid) but two people who can't remember a thing aren't much better than one.  Payton is able to get a control console working on backup power and Payton struggles through the claustrophobic ductwork in an attempt to reach the bridge and figure out what went wrong.  Once out he realizes that they are not completely alone but might have preferred  it that way.  It seems that there are a few rogue crew members surviving on their own, but the higher population appears to be that of alien zombie type creatures who are deadly fast and strong with an appetite for flesh.

Part of the appeal this movie has to me is something which may bother others and that is how the viewers are left nearly as much in the dark as Bower and Payton.  The only thing we know which they do not is that their ship's mission was to take them, a large population, and a catalog of Earth life to a new planet in order to escape the destruction of our own.  What went wrong, where they are, what the creatures are and how they got there, etc. is still as much of a mystery to us as it is to them with the answers only coming as discoveries are made and memories slowly return.  It creates a much more tense environment completely suited to the situation.  The movie is not without faults.  If you are at all familiar with the genre some of the surprises are predictable and some plot points feel like they were added out of necessity and lack of a better idea than actually thought out and developed.  The representation of Pandorum - a space sickness that causes paranoia and insanity - is appropriately stressful most of the time but dips into cheesiness occasionally.

I don't care if other people say this was a bad movie, I enjoyed it all the way through, appreciating it for the science fiction thriller it is.  It thrilled me at parts and fascinated me at others.  I left the couch for a couple of hours and became trapped in a maze of cables, corridors, and hatches lost half the time and running for my life at others.  Good job, Pandorum.

**** 4/5 stars

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus by British legend Terry Gilliam is Heath Ledger's final film.  Despite the common belief that his role as the Joker was his last, his unfortunate death occurred a third of the way through filming Imaginarium.  In order to complete the movie, his starring character Tony was recast with Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell portraying the role in different scenes.  The footage with Ledger remained as the "real" Tony while the other actors become the character in each of the different worlds of imagination he enters during the course of this trippy film.  I believe this sets a record for the most actors portraying the same character in one film, the honor previously going to the character of Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi (his voice, in costume, and the face behind the mask in the end).

The story centers around the titular Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) and his band of sideshow performers including vertically challenged Percy (Verne Troyer), sleight of hand master Anton (Andrew Garfield), and his daughter Valentina (Lily Cole).  Through their traveling wagon of mysterium they offer audience members a chance to take a trip through their very imaginations in a literal sense.  There is a catch, however, as while they are on the trip they are presented with a choice in which Parnassus and the Devil Mr. Nick (Tom Waits) vie for their soul as a result of a deal Parnassus made many years before that had something to do with story telling and everlasting life (he's thousands of years old by the way).  While traveling over a bridge they spot Tony (Ledger) hanging, apparently executed by someone who did not like him.  Amazingly he is found to be alive and so joins the rag tag team.  Things get weirder even faster once Tony starts going through the magic mirror of the Imaginarium, as Mr. Nick pulls a few more devious cards from his sleeve.

This film was not given a wide release in the US, and after seeing it I can understand their trepidation. Not only is it stranger than what most American's are used to, it would probably go over their heads as well.  It doesn't help that many of the characters could have almost used subtitles.  Plummer's oft mumbled lines in a thick sauce of an accent are especially hard to understand at times and Ledger's usual smooth voice feels awkwardly clothed in a British accent.  It's not only the plot and lines that are hard to understand, but most everything about this movie including Tony's motivation.  The character may simply be a victim of unfortunate circumstances, but he feels very underdeveloped like chunks of scenes that would have explained him to us and what was going on to him are simply missing.  This makes for an even more jarring experience in already jarring movie.

It's not all bad, however, as Gilliam provides a truly magical world of imagination and mysterious circumstances.  It's different enough to make up for it's short comings and all of the replacement actors are fun to watch.  Waits is fantastic as Mr. Nick though I am sure it is no coincidence that the one character with an American accent was the Devil.  It seems that this movie is a reflection in the Imaginarium mirror instead of the full thing that exists behind the glass.  A lot of potential but it just didn't quite get to where it needed to go.  This is worth a watch if you a fan of Gilliam, the fantastically odd or Ledger's final performance, otherwise I would say you might want to skip this one.

*** 3/5 stars