• 2012:  Meh.  Modern-day apocalypse with man fighting against man and nature to preserve the human species.  If you must see large, special effects blockbusters, I suppose you’ll see this.  But the dialog was distractingly bad, and the special effects weren’t at all convincing.  I wouldn’t even rent this.
• Avatar:  Must see.  I  saw the 3D version twice and would like to see the IMAX version.  Truly, the plot is familiar and predictable — Dances with Wolves in a futuristic setting.  But the plot is still epic and the special effects groundbreaking.  Everyone should see the highest grossing movie of all time.  Can Sigourney Weaver really be 51 years old?  And it’s fascinating to me how actors and actresses on the rise shot the films making them popular years in the past.  I’d never heard of  Zoe Saldana before Star Trek, and now she’s everywhere.
• Book of Eli: I Enjoyed.  Post-apocalyptic future, with a moralistic man on a mission, ending with a surprise.  Denzel Washington is almost always good for a solid performance.  And I think I’m in love with Mila Kunis.
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs:  Pass.  Animated.  Inventor creates a machine to create food from weather.  Saw this on a flight and might have been distracted.  Is this a children’s movie?  I think so.  It just didn’t hold my attention.
• District 9:  Meh.  I managed to avoid any knowledge of this other than that it was in the broader science fiction genre.  I was surprised, but not necessarily pleasantly so.  I watched the whole movie in a state of puzzlement.  I still don’t know what to think.  I’ll give it this:  It was memorable.
• Fantastic Mr. Fox:  Meh.  Didn’t know anything about this movie either, although my brother has been wanting to see it for months.  I didn’t know George Clooney was the lead voice actor and didn’t fully appreciate how immediately distinctive and recognizable his wry voice is.  Clever, witty film, requiring attention for appreciation.  I think I need to see this again and will appreciate it the next time.
• Gamer:  Meh.  Medicore action flick.
• G.I. Joe:  The Rise of Cobra:  Pass.  Bad action flick.
• Hurt Locker:  Must See.  I tend to eschew contemporary portrayals of events.  Hurt Locker was great and deserving of the critical acclaim.  Set in Iraq, all about a bomb squad finishing up a tour of duty.
• Invention of Lying:  I Enjoyed.  Diverting comedy, pretty much represented well by any preview you’ve seen.  I’m always grateful to Ricky Gervais for bringing us “The Office.”
• Sherlock Holmes:  Meh.  My brother loved this, but, for reasons I can’t quite explain, I found the pacing of the movie disjointed.  Robert Downey Jr. in a very typically clever role for him.  And Jude Law was a more capable, rugged Watson.
• Twilight Saga:  New Moon:  I Enjoyed.  Not great books, not great movies, yet candy for the mind.  I’ve read all the books and expect I will see all the films.  Taylor Lautner provides motivation to work out.  Ashley Greene as Alice is adorable.  Robert Pattinson, I just don’t get any attraction to him by women.
• Whip It:  Must See.  Ellen Page of Juno fame was again fantastic.  17-year-old girl whose mom wants her to be a beauty queen goes for the Austin roller derby instead.  I didn’t realize this was a  Drew Barrymore-directed movie and loved her over-the-top character as usual.  Similarly, Julette Lewis seems always to play surreal characters.  I seriously wonder what she’s like in real life — just as nutty?  This is a great feel-good movie, and I recommend it more than any other reviewed here.
• Whiteout:  Pass.  I’ll see any movie with Kate Beckinsale, but this was pretty bad.  I enjoyed seeing Tom Skerritt, only because his son attended my high school while I was there and I therefore feel some personal connection to him.

Q.E.D.

Wall-E

Caution: Spoilers below!

I had no knowledge of Wall-E before walking into the theatre. I vaguely recall seeing a remote-controlled Wall-E robot with a bunch of dancers on TV at an NBA playoffs game. I held the notion in my head that Wall-E must be some sort of E.T.-like film with Wall-E the protagonist among a number of mischievous and/or wide-eyed children, likely engaged in domestic comedy or a little light adventure together.

My presumption was wrong.

Wall-E is the latest animated adventure from Pixar, starring the endearing, whimsical Wall-E (which stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth Class). Wall-E, essentially, is an autonomous, intelligent, mobile trash compactor, persevering at his job on Earth 700 years after the accumulation of environmental waste has left the planet uninhabitable due to toxicity. He makes a surprising discovery with great promise to the human species, and this discovery, along with a robotic romantic interest, lead Wall-E on an action adventure.

As I’ve come to expect from Pixar, the animation was phenomenally good — many of the panoramas look like photographs. The animation was so good that I was extremely revolted by the animated cockroach that becomes Wall-E’s sidekick.

One surprise was that the first half of the movie, it seemed, involved almost no dialog; for a time, I thought the entire film might be devoid of dialog until Wall-E finally found someone with whom to converse.

I don’t recall whether Pixar has been preachy in the past, but I loved the environmental message. I’m not particularly environmentally conscious, although I recycle and, like everyone else, have been bemoaning gas prices these days. While I’ve been trying to catch a rerun of “The Human Footprint” on the National Geographic channel, I’ve become increasingly sensitive lately to the amount of waste I personally generate. I’m alarmed by the amount of food I waste, garbage I generate and even the amount of recyclables I recycle. With this personal anxiety, the environmental message resonated with me.

I also loved the health message. When Wall-E encounters Earth’s survivors on holiday in space, he finds that they’re atrophied, lazy, obese and sustained by liquid diets. I think this condition just might be to be avoided, and I’m going to do some sit-ups after I write this post.

Overall, another fine work from Pixar. I’m not sure it’s as good as the 96% fresh tomatoes reflected on Rotten Tomatoes, but I was pleasantly surprised and thoroughly entertained. I recommend Wall-E.

Wanted

Angelina Jolie, guns and the promise of action? Sign me up!

I didn’t know much about this flick either but expected from the trailers that it would be suitably entertaining. It continues the trend of movies adapted from comic books and graphic novels. Surprisingly, Angelina’s is not the main character, although she’s clearly the second most important character. Instead, Wanted stars relative unknown James McEvoy as Wesley Gibson, a cube-dwelling, down-trodden drone — surely a familiar archetype to those of us in the Valley. (The only other film in which I’ve seen McEvoy is The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, in which he plays Mr. Tumnus the faun).

The plot is the basic formulaic one that I’ve always been drawn to in both books and movies: The relatively unassuming discovers latent talents transforming his or her life into one of heroism. I don’t think I’ll ever give up on these childhood fancies, and why should I? I think of Harry Potter, Jack Ryan, Belgarion, Lessa. Yes, I lead a rich interior life at times . . . . In Wanted, Wesley Gibson discovers his genetic and familial heritage as a “good” assassin. This discovery leads him through action, intrigue and a few plot twists.

As with most action-adventure films, you’ll have to disregard a relatively thin plot and suspend disbelief at most of the physical feats. If you can do that, you will, like I did, be entertained for a couple of hours. Rotten Tomatoes, by the way, reflects 72% fresh tomatoes.

Over the course of a few days in which his personal family and financial problems converge with a crisis for his firm, Clayton gets to the bottom of an enigma while wrestling with his conscience over moral dilemmas.

I had no knowledge of the movie nor expectations going into it and was captivated from the outset. It gets 90% fresh tomatoes on Rotten Tomatoes. Go see it!

• 300: I’d seen this Gerard Butler film and saw it again. What guy doesn’t like epic battle stories with a hint of sex?
• Blades of Glory: Not my favorite Will Ferrell movie but an amusing diversion nonetheless. One of the funnier comedies I’ve seen this year. C’mon, two guys pairs figure-skating? That funny sh*t sells itself.
• Breach: The critics seemed to like this based-on-reality cold-war flick about a spy for the Soviet Union in the FBI, and I thought it was engaging but not memorable.
• Bridge to Terabithia: The previews of this movie were misleading. I expected a Science Fiction or Fantasy tale involving real events. This movie is sweeter and involves imaginary events concocted by the two child protagonists. This felt like two movies, not quite tied together, and I was surprised by the ending. Somehow, the movie didn’t feel cohesive to me. But of all the movies I’m reviewing right now, it was the most memorable due to the dissonance.
• Eragon: This adaptation of precocious Christopher Pioline’s fantasy novel was as bad as critics thought. Derivative, poor special effects, bad pacing, bad acting. I am enjoying the books — I’m a sucker for fantasy tales involving the discovery of latent power — and will read the final installment of the trilogy, but I’d say skip the movies altogether. (I can’t imagine a sequel will be made).
• Ghost Rider: Wow. Worse than Eragon. Avoid.
• Shooter: I’ll readily admit I like Marky Mark on the big screen. I enjoyed The Italian Job, among others, and I liked Shooter, in which Marky Mark’s character is framed for an assasination. I’m a sucker for action films in which the hero has unrealistic, nearly super-human powers.
• Stranger Than Fiction: I just realized I saw two Will Ferrell movies that week. Not as slapstick funny as Blades of Glory but interesting in its own right. I recommend seeing this at home.

I want!!!

In advance of the start of shooting next week, a few sources, including The Sun and Crave are reporting on the Wachowski brothers‘ Speed Racer movie, scheduled for release on 8 May 2008.

I can’t imagine a movie with Cristina Ricci as Trixie can be any good, but the gadgetry is sure to dazzle.

“Speed Racer” unequivocally is my all-time favorite childhood cartoon show.

I’d heard that critics had panned 300, so my expectations for it were low. It turns out that 300 gets 61% fresh tomatoes — not so bad — on Rotten Tomatoes, and that I found the movie perfectly entertaining.

Sometimes dork that I am, I’ve read a number of Frank Miller comic books, including the Dark Knight (Batman) series and his Daredevil runs, and I enjoyed Sin City. 300 was consistent with this lineage — a dark, violent tale centered around a larger-than-life hero, this time Spartan King Leonidas, played by Gerard Butler. In other words, this was a guy’s movie, featuring battle scenes with hand-to-hand combat and brief nudity. What guy needs more?

Butler had a wee bit of a tough time concealing his Scotish accent, and I kept imagining him as the villain he was in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. Still, suspension of disbelief set in over the course of the movie, enough for two hours of diversion.

As of this writing, it’s still in theatres and deserving of a couple hours after work or a lazy afternoon on the weekend.