"Fantastic Mr. Fox"
Richard's Review: 4 stars
It's quite a year to be a talking fox in Hollywood. After a long absence these carnivorous mammals are coming back strong with a surreal cameo in "Antichrist" ("Chaos Reigns!") and now a starring role in a charming new stop-motion animation from director Wes Anderson, "Fantastic Mr. Fox."
Loosely based on a Roald "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" Dahl story of the same name, the story involves Mr. Fox (George Clooney) a smooth talking chicken thief who is part Danny Ocean, part John Robie (look it up!). When a chicken run goes wrong and he and Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep) get busted he tries to go straight, but after buying a tree house he can't afford he decides to return to a life of crime for one last big job. He sets his sights on the area's three biggest and baddest farmers: Boggis (Robin Hurlstone), Bunce (Hugo Guinness) and Bean (Michael Gambon).
This has been an extraordinary year for kid's filmed entertainment. "Up," "Where the Wild Things Are" and "Coraline" are about as good as it gets when it comes to family films. They are movies that don't talk down to their young audience; treat them with respect and give them a rollicking good time. You can add "Fantastic Mr. Fox" to that list.
Wes Anderson's mix of deliberately old-school stop motion animation--you can see the fur moving where the animators have touched the puppet characters--gentle humor and action is unlike any other movie this year. In its pacing and style it is decidedly old fashioned, a throw back to the colorful Rankin and Bass animated Christmas specials, but without the schmaltz. I doubt you'd find an existential line like, "Now he's just another dead rat in a dumpster behind a Chinese restaurant" in any other vintage stop motion film for kids and it is that edge that sets "Fantastic Mr. Fox" apart from the pap, like the recent "Astro Boy," that passes for kid flicks.
You can tell it's a Wes Anderson film because it's loaded with his trademark subjects--sibling rivalry and unusual parental figures abound--and it has his quirky sensibility stamped all over it--there's a transcendentally meditating fox!--but it is the vocal performances that really bring it to life.
George Clooney brings charm, wit and warmth to Mr. Fox. He's an unpredictable character, smooth one minute, a wild animal the next, and Clooney gives him a nice sense of mischievousness. Meryl Streep doesn't have as much to do, but it's worth the price of admission to hear this celebrated actress (15 Oscar nominations and 2 wins) say, "Am I being flirted with by a psychotic rat?" The deliberate, naturalistic dialogue also comes easily to supporting cast members Bill Murray, Michael Gambon and Eric Anderson (brother of Wes) who makes his debut as Kristofferson, the athletic cousin.
Its stylish looks, engaging story and over-all wonky feel made me very happy. There are few kid's films as fantastic as "Mr. Fox."
"The Road"
Richard's Review: 2 stars
Imagine a world where "each day is greyer than the day before" and cannibalism is a person's worst fear. Nope, it's not the latest George A. Romero film--there isn't a zombie in sight--it's "The Road," the new film from the writer Cormac McCarthy. It's so bleak, so unrelentingly dour it makes the last film adapted from his work, the Coen Brothers's "No Country for Old Men," seem positively lighthearted by comparison.
The story is simple. A man and his son (Viggo Mortenson and Kodi Smit-McPhee) are trying to survive in a dystopian world. Everything they knew is gone. In flashbacks we see a wife (Charlize Theron) who cracked under the pressure to survive; killing herself after setting father and son on their journey to "the coast" in an attempt to escape the harsh post apocalyptic weather. Armed with only a gun and two bullets they must scavenge for food amid the ruins and protect themselves from cannibals who roam the desolate land. There's no Hope (or Crosby) on this road. Their raison d'etre is to maintain their humanity and survive in a world no longer able to support life.
"The Road" doesn't mimic the dystopian world we've seen in bigger budget action movies. For better and for worse this is a movie based on small moments set against a big backdrop. No parent will be able to forget the stark image of a father teaching his son how to commit suicide or seeing a young boy who doesn't know what a can of Coke is. Equally memorable is the Man visiting his now dilapidated childhood home. There, the simple act of turning over a filthy seat cushion to reveal the clean flipside is a reminder of a life that is gone forever. These are effective moments; the kind of filmmaking that will never occur to Michael Bay.
But having said that, "The Road" could use a little Michael Bay. Bleak is one thing. I can do bleak, but I'd like a bit more entertainment value thrown in. In the 112 minute running time there is too much down time when nothing happens, or when opportunities are blown.
Take the Coke can sequence. The man offers his son a Coke he has found in an abandoned vending machine. For all he knows it could be the last can of soda in the world; a simple pleasure that means much in a world where simply staying alive is a luxury. The boy takes a sip, enjoys the foreign sensation of the bubbles against his tongue before insisting his dad have some. The Man takes a swig. We see a smile begin to form, a sign of the reverie of a familiar sensation in a harsh world. At least I think that's what it is, but I'll never know for sure because just as Mortenson begins to turn the scene into something special with the transformative look on his face the camera cuts away to the blank faced boy. In a movie where small things mean a lot, the look on Viggo's visage could have been a showstopper, but instead is a non-moment.
"The Road" despite offering an unexpectedly touching final sequence is probably too bleak to appeal to a mainstream audience. It's the feel bad movie of the year.
"Old Dogs"
Richard's Review: 2 1/2 stars
"Old Dogs," the new comedy starring John Travolta and Robin Willliams as two middle aged men who discover the importance of family, clearly knows what its demographic is. With a boomer soundtrack heavy on hits from the 60s and 70s and a gaggle of incontinence jokes and prostate jokes it's aimed directly at the crowd who can remember what they were doing when Kennedy was shot.
Williams and Travolta play Dan and Charlie, lifelong friends and business partners on the verge of their biggest deal ever. Dan is a business minded divorcee, who is "allergic to anything under four feet." In other words no kids--doesn't have them, doesn't want them. Just as well, he doesn't really need children when Charlie is around. He's still a big kid with an ultramodern apartment full of toys and a habit of flirting with every woman he meets. Their carefully manicured lives are turned upside down when Vicki (Kelly Preston) re-enters Dan's life. With her are her two kids, the result of a one night stand Dan had with Vicki in Miami seven years before. When Daddy Dan and Uncle Charlie take the kids for two weeks while Vicki serves a jail sentence for environmental activism (how au currant!) they learn that business doesn't always come first.
"Old Dogs" is the broadest played comedy since "The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze." It's filled-to-bursting with funny faces, slapstick humor and not one, but two crotch shots. It's mostly by-the-numbers--except for a strange "body puppet" sequence featuring the late Bernie Mac--that relies on Williams and Travolta to bring a little something extra to a script that may have been a laugh-free-zone in lesser hands. Williams wrings whatever laughs there are to be found in a spray tan catastrophe scene and Travolta finds the funny as an over medicated man at a bereavement pot luck. Also packing a few laughs are Luis Guzm�n as the hungry childproofing expert and Matt Dillon as the hard line camp leader.
"Old Dogs" works best when it is going for laughs, unfortunately the slapstick is interspersed with mushy moments that seem to come out of nowhere. One moment Dan has lost all depth perception and is playing the wildest game of golf since Adam Sandler and Bob Barker threw it down on the links in "Happy Gilmour," the next Williams is using his earnest "Patch Adams" eyes, staring at the camera, fretting that he's not cutting it as a dad. The sudden shifts are a bit jarring, but for every sentimental scene there are four sciatica jokes, or a grand-pa gag.
"Old Dogs" is a sequel in spirit to Travolta's "Wild Hogs." Call it boomer porn if you like--it showcases older successful men, their beautiful younger wives and interesting lives--but at its heart it's just an old fashioned family comedy.
"Ninja Assassin"
Richard's Review:
- For the action: 4 stars
- For the acting and everythign else: 2 stars
If you are the type of person who would go see a movie called "Ninja Assassin" then you'll probably enjoy "Ninja Assassin," and judging by the audience I saw it with, ditto if you own a UFC jacket.
Like all great ninja movies "Ninja Assassin" (maybe the best movie title this year) is about revenge. Raised by the Ozunu Clan on a ninja farm run by the evil master (Sh� Kosugi) Raizo (Korean pop star Rain) breaks free from his clan after the brutal murder of one of his fellow ninja disciples. He spends his days training and plotting revenge. Meanwhile in Berlin, Europol agent Mika Coretti (Naomie Harris) is tracking a series of ninja murders that seem to be linked to the Ozunu Clan. Together they may be able to take down the evil ninjas, exacting justice and revenge!
"Ninja Assassin" is an amplified version of the cheapo ninja films of the 1980s. It has all the earmarks of the classics of the genre like "Enter the Ninja" and "Pray for Death," that is: stiff acting, loads of mysticism, slow motion fight scenes, a simplistic good vs. evil plot and buckets of blood. In fact the blood budget on "Ninja Assassin" could finance well, dozens of other, more worthwhile endeavors. The special effects are better than in the earlier films, but for all intents and purposes this could be a relic from the heyday of ninjitsu flicks. It even co-stars Sh� Kosugi, the godfather of the modern ninja film.
The term slice-and-dice hardly does the carnage on display in "Ninja Assassin" justice. There are more blades flying here than in that Slap Chop infomercial with the Shamwow guy. The first unbelievably bloody killing happens about three minutes in and is followed by a body count that would make Rambo envious.
Go for the action, which is pretty much state-of-the-ninja-art. There's nothing here that rivals Quentin Tarantino's House of the Blue Leaves sequence in "Kill Bill" for sheer manic fun, but when the throwing stars are flying and the blood is squirting, "Ninja Assassin" is a lot a hoot, it's only when the characters start talking that things get dull. Partly it's the wooden acting, but mostly it's because the screenwriters feel they have to over-explain everything. When Raizo helps Mika escape from the marauding ninjas heading her way, he explains they can follow her scent. He tells her to undress, shower without soap and change into new clothes. It's pretty clear what's happening, but in the world of "Ninja Assassin" his obvious instructions lead her to ask, "This is for our scent, right?" Yes genius, it is. Everyone in the theatre knew and so should you.
It's a dark movie--both in tone and visually--but there is the odd laugh here and there. There are visual ninja jokes--a car parked at a no-tell motel parking lot, riddled with dozens of throwing stars, is hilarious--and when a government official says of Raizo, "He doesn't look like a killing machine to me, he looks like he belongs in a boy band," it raises a laugh given star Rain's background as a pop star.
Despite some silly dialogue and low light action--ninjas exist in the shadows, we're told, so all the fight scenes are shot in the dark and it is sometimes hard to tell what is going on--"Ninja Assassin" is bloody good fun, emphasis on the bloody.
