Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

Kubo and the Two Strings (PG)

Often there are complaints that nothing original is being made in Hollywood.  That animation is only used to cater to children in America and not adults, and that the craft and artistry must now be rendered in a computer to be relevant.

Kubo and the Two Strings proves all this wrong, and yet it's looming financial failure may prove them right.

Produced by stop-motion animation film studio Laika (Paranorman, The Box Trolls, Coraline) and first time director Travis Knight, Kubo tells a Japanese-like folk story of a young man who is being hunted by his own grandfather, and how only the spirits of his parents are able to protect him.  Filled with stunning stop motion photography, top tier character studies (their faces alone achieve a humanity and expression range rarely seen in animation), fluid motion and action scenes to compare with most of Hollywood.  This is not kids fare, in fact this show is aimed squarely at their parents, and some of the themes (death, memories of the departed, family in-fighting) might be a bit much for younger viewers.  One could compare it favorably to Studio Ghibli breakout Princess Mononoke, at least in audacity and not talking down to it's audience.  And yet unlike Mononoke, Kubo has to fit in that PG box (unlike it's brethren raunchy tube meet competition, Sausage Party (R) just a few weeks earlier) because that is what is assumed.

A talking monkey, a stag beetle samurai, a boat made out of leaves, a Giant skeleton with swords for hair, these are but a few of the inventive and wonderful adventures leading up to Kubo's confrontation with his grandfather.  Not since Lord of the Rings was adapted has magic been depicted as real and not just some science trick of the silver screen.  In Kubo the magic is story telling, folding ordinary paper into living origami, wearing your fathers armor and solving a puzzle.  It is a burst of something new among the same old reboots and retellings, and on top of that it is about something that has been missing in our lives, about memories of loved ones and courage and music and art.  It is pure fantasy without the science fiction.

However, there is a bit of a reservation surrounding the whole project.  If it wasn't drawn by the hand of Hokusai, it is an imitation Hokusai, no matter how good it looks.  Laika's last outing, The Boxtrolls, tried to be as British as possible for an American studio.  The same goes here, what with George Takei lending a "OH MY" and various other Japanese voices.  This appears to be a trend with them, and is a bit of a knock.  Instead of adapting an existing Japanese folk tale, they have written their own and crammed as much Nippon-ish as their writers knew how, and therefore comes across as a little fake.  Matthew McConaughey is great as the beetle warrior, his southern drawl has been repressed and represents alot of humor to the film.  However he is an American actor, likewise Charlize Theron who plays the mother is a great dramatic credit to the film but is also not Japanese, even as she plays one.  Perhaps an alternate fantasy setting would have been more appropriate, there are no cries about cultural appropriation from the elves.

These social shivers aside, just as entertainment Kubo is fantastic, filled to the brim with ideas, art, music and craftsmanship steeped in action fantasy, and deserves far greater than it will receive (a nomination at least!).  However, for Kubo and for us, the memories may prove stronger than it ills. One hopes it will reach an ever larger audience in it's life, as those of us who seek out the hidden treasures of the world discover and share it.

9 Bowls of Whale Soup out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)

Finding Dory (2016)

Finding Dory (PG)

"One Fish Two Fish Red Fish, who fish?"

A short while after finding Nemo, Dory sets out on another oceanic voyage to find her long lost parents in Pixar's follow up, Finding Dory.

Pixar, once the Art House 3D powerhouse, has apparently succumbed to it's masters and begun churning out sequel after sequel.  And while Monster's University was a small success but did have something new and interesting to say about it's Universe and characters, Finding Dory is a huge hit with almost nothing new to say.  The absent minded Dory (Ellen Degeneres) has been upgraded to main character but her winning sidekick charm has been downgraded in the process.  Saddled with grief and dementia, Dory is a panic stricken nervous case without time to crack as many jokes.  Her quest for her family is of course fraught with peril and fun new friends, and Nemo and Marlin tag along for the ride because, hey a sequel can't stray to far from it's roots right?!  The Pacific Coast setting is accurately rendered and yet so far removed from the delightful candy like reef that it is as much of a downer as remembering Dory's lost childhood is.  Things spice up once they reach an aquarium/habitat, but still strange plot questions weigh down what should easily float (like why on earth would a clutch of California sea lions have English accents?).

The great Ed O'Neil (Wayne's World) has the best and newest character as Hank, a curmodgeony octopus trying his best to escape yet slowly but surely falling under Dory's chaotic spell.  Hank's story is obviously influenced (and probably sparked the creation of the sequel) by the nationwide headlines a real life escaping octopus made in the news awhile back, and in 3D form provides the best action, fun and lines in the entire picture.  The only other stand out is Becky, the speechless empty headed loon that helps the fish, which is in of itself telling of the mediocrity of the main story.

The other characters (a near sighted whale, a Beluga with a confidence problem, etc) are mostly just there to move Dory along and fill in her backstory from the first film.  It's a case of better left unsaid, Dory is at her best being surprising and funny in difficult situations, but this Finding has to tell you WHY she had so many surprises and why she is so sad.  It's not an emotion easily stapled to our memories of Dory from the first film, and all of it comes across as not much of a reason to make a second.  Finding Dory is a safe money maker, it takes no chances with it's beloved franchise, and is the artistic equivalent of a luke warm salt water bath.

6 At Least the Humans look less Freakish out of 10 (GOOD)

The Box Trolls (2014)

The Box Trolls (PG)

"A Box on ye!"

An orphaned boy finds himself and his adopted family of carton dwelling monsters imperiled by a cross-dressing villain who will stop at nothing in exterminating them and obtaining a white hat from the Flemish town's cheese swilling aristocracy in Laika Studio's newest (and most eccentric) stop-motion film entry yet, The Box Trolls.

Firstly it is shocking how underrated this film is.  It was truly deserving of it's Oscar nomination and in fact probably deserved to win.  The artistry and hard work is apparent in every frame (in fact probably every frame took three times more effort than people suppose).  There is some digital manipulation, some compositing and such, but on the whole the entirety of the film was made and moved by hand in the traditional manner.  The story is mostly nontraditional unmodern (probably leading to some of the general gripes surrounding the film).  There is a touch of Monty Python infused in it's comedic bones (Eric Idle even wrote the title song), with some funny sight gags and charming gross outs the likes of which haven't been seen since Shrek.  So what's not to love?

Ok, so the moral of the tale is certainly tried and true drivel, but the design of the characters certainly is not and should be applauded for its originality, darkness and uniqueness.  The story crawls from the sewers like a Dickensian treat, and how long has it been since a film rubbed elbows with old Charles?  The movie's redhatted exterminator Snatcher and his discontented helpers (played with enormous fun by Sir Ben Kingsley, Nick Frost, Richard Ayode and Tracy Morgan of all people) are nuanced and pithy.  The heroes suffer (if anything) from a case of the "dulls in comparison".  The orphan kid, the bratty kid, her ignorant father, his mad genius father; on paper they seem ho hum.  But in motion (and this motion being 1 frame at a time, arduously moved by hand over and over for days at a time) it all works wonderfully.  The voice cast (exceptional), the art (uniquely beautiful), the animation (smooth and obviously masterful), the sets (huge and varied);  this movie's charm doesn't rely on cute and snuggly critters with big eyes.  Here the world's dark and scary underbelly is wonderfully exposed and yet palatable to children and adults (much like the twisted fairy tales that Tim Burton once was interested in making).

Unique almost to a fault (at least to the mainstream), the Box Trolls and it's studio Laika is like one of those fancy, expensive and disgusting cheeses.  It may be an acquired taste, but the pleasure when you obtain the ability to savor it's unique bouquet is worth the effort (yours and theirs).

8.5 Barbershop Mustaches out of 10 (GREAT)

Muppets Most Wanted (2014)

Muppets Most Wanted (PG)

"Beat A Dead Felt Horse"

Coming off the highs of 2011 surprise hit Muppets (even winning an Oscar for best Song), Disney fumbles the dingy felt ball in this cash grab without a heart. Unable to get Jason Seagal to return as star or writer, Disney and Co. instead decide to recycle the plot from older Muppet films (even plot points from the previous film by replacing key Muppet members with imposters), adding a huge dash of anti-Russian stereotypes with terrible European accents, bigger and less tuneful dance numbers without the meaningful camaraderie and improv that improved so many mediocre Muppet films leaves Most Wanted in the Least Wanted Sequel pile.

Filled with modern stars (though mostly of the b or tv famous variety), the plot is a caper through Europe that does have quite a lot of nostalgia for the old Muppet TV show.  However most of those original performers have moved on and it hurts, and the entire production reeks of Suit interference and barrel scraping for the benefit of money.  MMW is an empty sockpuppet without a fuzzy heart beat to really bring it to life.  It's a soulless cashgrab of capitalism, a death-of-brand trap that Henson's workshop (with all it's success and failures) at least never stepped paw into.

4 Even Gonzo And Rizzo Were Cut Out out of 10 (BAD)

How To Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)

How To Train Your Dragon 2 (PG)

"Toothless Times Two"

Hiccup and his scaly friends return in Dreamwork's sequel to one of it's most successful films to date (both artistically and financially), but stumbles away from what was new and inventive in the first and falls prey to heavy sequelitis in HTTYD2.

First off, the art has been improved ever so much, so that the small annoying flaws from the first are now gone and so rendering the film gorgeous to behold.  The entire voice cast returns, but the entire film has a sense of arrested development.  Now that Hiccup has converted his village into a Pro-Dragon land (gee that was easy, but technology often makes such leaps), he is out to convert the world.  This return to innocence leads to Hiccups naivety being exploited by the wrong people, a warlord out to enslave all of Dragon-kind for his purposes.

The movie also tries to tie this into the unspoken fate of Hiccup's mother, and here is where the heart goes missing.  The mother's disappearance and reappearance does not ring emotionally close to true, even with the great (if overused) Cate Blanchett pouring eccentricity into the role.  The Warlord Drago is as one-dimensional as villains come, his lines are growled and shouted and he has absolutely no story beyond "He is evil because that's the way he is".  The stupid choices and arrogance displayed by our heroes frustrates, its like the first film never happened and no one learned.  And much like other sequels DW has done, anything that worked in the first will work even better in the first!  So bit characters that were kind of amusing are front and center now and do too much.  Instead of inventing new and interesting characters and scenarios the movie leans on what came before.

As pretty as it is, the movie's tedious retread is in defiance of the first's inventiveness.  A more tried and true sequel would have been difficult, but this film reeks of brand control, concession sales and without the care of good story telling and true emotion that so marked the first.  Sure the dragons are cute and everyone is 5 years older (and the kids are still not Scottish or lost their now-annoying teenage mannerisms), but when compared to the first HTTYD2 loses more than it's foot this time, and apparently lost due to shooting itself there.

5 Where's The Viking Helmet Bra Continuity out of 10 (MEDIOCRE)

The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013)

The Tale of Princess Kaguya (PG)

"Bam-BOO-Ya"

In an ancient Japanese folk tale, a simple childless Bamboo cutter is going about his business one day when he finds a tiny princess in a bamboo blossom.  He takes her home to his simple wife and adopts her as their child, who is growing at a supernatural rate.  She is soon crawling, then walking, then playing with the wild children, all the while her father wishing for her a royal life.  When boons are given to him from the bamboo themselves, it puts Kaguya-hime on a path towards lady training, high-borne suitors, and celestial parades in Studio Ghibli's best work since Princess Mononoke.

First, the animation is stunning.  Like a story book come to life, moving intricate watercolors on a white board which is reminiscent of Waterson's color work.  The characters themselves are solidly designed and move gorgeously; often using the weight or lack of line ala Hokosai all the while keeping on model until there are brief flashses of sketchy scratches that are wonderfully Plimpton-esque.  Secondly, the writing is light and unmodern.  Gone are the trappings of most of Ghibli's over-worn devices (this applies to the art too!), and while the script may be a bit long and could use some editing for brevity, it reads and looks like a storybook fairy tale that you simply don't want to end anyway.  Non-fantastical for the most part, the film makes beauty and wonder from humanity and life, not fairy tale creatures or violence.

A decade-later reply to Ghibli's fantastic Mononoke, Director Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies) proves there is life (and unrepentant beauty) possible after Miyazaki's retirement.

8 Black Teeth out of 10 (GREAT)

The Croods (2013)

The Croods (PG) - Review

"A Pre-Modern Family Film"

Cartoons.  They have been abundant since the turn of the century, evolving from the Sunday funnies into two distinct yet familiar art forms.  The Disney art fairytale vs the Warner Brothers Loony Tune vaudeville.  Personal taste aside, both genres are still relevant art forms today and directly impact our modern 3d animation world (Pixar vs Dreamworks being a prime example).  While Pixar pours their efforts into highbrow ideals and kid/family friendly messages while pushing the creativity to appeal to artier (and sometimes overly pretentious) audience, Dreamworks' pictures often go for mass appeal entertainment, the more street level slapstick fun that once was the domain of Bugs and Daffy.

The Croods is Dreamworks newest effort, a funny dusty flick with no pretensions of grandeur despite the obvious top shelf artistry and effort that went into its crafting everything but the script.  The Croods are a prehistoric family without the footpedal cars or the dinosaur bulldozers, they are squat, rough and tumble and in a dangerous world.  They cringe in fear within their cave for days, chancing the outside world only when their hunger becomes too great.  Their father is voiced by Nicholas Cage, and he is the glue that keeps this movie moving (comedically and emotionally).  His teenage daughter has just broken the rules and left the cave, discovering her inner courage and a cute (and more evolved) boy friend to fawn over.  This coincides with tectonic upheavals that require the Croods to leave their shelter and strike off in pursuit of safety and attempt to keep the family unit intact (with the boy in tow since he knows the secret of fire).

The film chugs to a slow start, and strives to be funny and very cartoony while also being much more realistic than the Flintstones about what our cave ancestors lives were really like.  The creature designs are pure fantasy, unabashedly cute yet bloodthirsty (much the same as their previous highwater effort How To Train Your Dragon).  The color palette and landscapes have a wonderful Suessian flair, the fire and water effects show how technically astute Dreamworks has become and how they are beholden to none in their visual ability, not even to the almighty Oscarbait of Pixar.  But in the end it is a funny silly little cartoon with an overwrought "nothing to fear but fear itself" message falsely tattooed on its forehead and a rather expensive looking one at that.  The 3D is again unnecessary, the animation fine, the art exemplary, and yet the script just drags along the characters (some of whom like the Mother who get zero characterization, leaving the movie to be an uncomplex triangle between Father > Daughter > Boyfriend) through a process intending to evolve them emotionally to a life free of fear and new beginnings.  Stuffed with action set pieces which mostly work, prehistoric humor that is ironically polished and uncrude, gorgeous backdrops and effects and interesting character designs.  Now if only they'd dial back the MESSAGE to standable levels, its almost drowning out all the fun.

The Croods isn't the thick browed simpleton many are expecting.  There is a powerful strong heart pumping here, of fatherhood and expanding your horizons, and Nick Cage is let loose just the right amount to give his cavefather the crazy, groovy hip insanity, and that infuses the rest of the movie with a wild sense of fun.  Its just unfortunate that it has to cost so much and take so many man hours and people to create a fun silly cartoon like this.  Once, all we needed was some paint on our hands and a cavewall as our canvas to entertain our families.  Who can fathom what the cost of a bag of popcorn and raisenettes would have been back then?

7 Disturbingly Cute Cavegirls out of 10 (GOOD)

Wreck-it Ralph (2012)

Wreck-it Ralph (PG)

"ACT I They Meet"

Pixar’s latest foray into digital entertainment had all the makings of a classic. Starring John C. Riley in the title role as a major villain of a 1980’s era arcade game whose repetitive job day after

day, quarter after quarter causes him a midlife crisis. He tries to sort his feelings out in a villain support group meeting but eventually on the 20th anniversary of his games release he ends up leaving his game for others, looking for the recognition and praise he feels he deserves for all his hard work over the years. Ralph wrecks everything he comes in contact with, its how he was programmed, so eventually he smashes and klutzes his way through various games to end up in Sugar Rush, finding little orphan Sarah Silverman in a typical arcade style racer with a well imagined saccharine candyland theme.
And here the rest of the movie spins it’s wheels with various secondary characters trying to bring Ralph home (notably Jack McBayer and Jane Lynch of current network TV fame) or kick him out. Therein lies the problem with Wreck it Ralph, very little of the film is actually about Video Games or has video game references (perhaps as little as a third). Most of the film is mired in the sticky bubblegum pink world of Sugar Rush, with its candy fueled characters and their pipsqueak voices. The Sugar game itself is very well imagined, so much so it feels like two different movies gummed into one with Ralph’s game getting the short end. The candy jokes outweigh the game jokes 2-1 but are quite funny (the local police are indifferent Chicago-land mustachioed donuts, dangers include diet cola volcanoes mixing with Mentos). Throw in a throw away love story a dire threat and a haywire maniac and you’ve got your typical CG movie for kids right?

Well this was supposed to be a Pixar not a Dreamworks flick. Their films are typically known as more arty and something both kids and adults can adore equally. However the cartoony art here is “same-as-always”, why couldn’t the visuals be pushed more towards the retro 8bit look (like the poster did)? The music is quite simply the worst in any Pixar with no-brainer hip-hop pop tracks straight from Disney Teen Radio (the trailer used Talking Heads to great effect, another bait and switch). John C. Riley does wonders with the material; Ralph himself is funny and endearing and has a great look. Most of the other characters just feel forced or stiff with voice acting that whimpers along (the Candy King being an exception). Instead of the “Toy Story of video Games” we get just another Shrek clone – “outsider can’t fit in, breaks a character’s heart, saves the kingdom and gains respect, roll credits over last year’s music”.
Rich Moore (of Futurama fame) directed Ralph and the minute attention to wise-cracking details and the lack of focus on what the actual story is (a man’s long suffering job and the lack of respect he feels in his rut) is definitely Rich’s style but is better suited for the small screen than the silver. Ralph and his pixelated ilk deserve a better representation from Hollywood, who still hasn’t crafted a “good” video game movie let alone a great one.
Wreck-it Ralph is strictly a humorous kids movie without much for adults (hello, untapped nostalgia demographic calling). Most kids these days have never spent $10 in tokens at the local Chuck E Cheese playing Ghosts n Goblins or Ms Pac Man. They would get more bang for their parent’s bucks if they did.

5.5 Bits out of 10 (MEDIOCRE)

The Three Stooges (2012)

The Three Stooges (PG) - Review

"Hey Moe!"

The Farrelly brothers long hinted at and long overdue Stooges relaunch is more Shemp than Curly, but even the lesser known Stooge had his moments.  The Farrelly's play up the vaudevillian plots that they love and adore from the old shorts, orphanages in need of saving, cartoonish slapstick violence and simpleton fish out of water stories, and hastily thrown them into our century.  The mashup of Larry Moe and Curly and the dolts from Jersey Shore never attains greatness, but as any Stooge fan knows, who needs great when you have funny?  The cloud of the long rumored superstar cast (Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro?) that had once been attached lay over this film like a dark shadow.  Only Curly, played by Will Sasso (MadTV), has any obvious funny bones to break, this was the role he was born to play, outshining his fellow Stooges who can just imitate voices and pull faces instead of rely on comic timing.  Curly Howard was always the lynch pin to the act, when he died in 1952 they never could get all of the magic back.  Here he is, as close as there's ever been to a reincarnation, and it feels good to laugh again.

6 Porcupines out of 10 (GOOD)

Hugo (2011)

Hugo (PG)

"Mustache twirling is so out of style"

A PG Martin Scorsese film? Yes, and one of his most beautiful productions he has made. The sets and lighting are incredible (you have my permission to skip the 3d though, Marty uses it to great effect, but I really don't feel it adds anything, it really still feels like a fad). The film touches on alot of things, literature, Paris, nostalgia, magic, wwI, etc. A boy and girl orphans run around a train station in postwar Paris, getting into adventures about the mysteries of a clockwork automaton. At it's core, it's a film about the love of film though. This is where the movie really shines, a swan song to those films that most people never bothered to watch, the heroes from the silent era, the earnest and innovative pioneers who developed the techniques and amusements we enjoy daily. Hugo is not perfect, its a little meandering and a tad long, there's some subplots that seem to go nowhere, the child actors are a bit child-actory (but not enough to bother), and in all honestly nothing much actually happens. Sacha Baron Cohen plays a great sinister slapstick inspector from a bygone era, Kingsley is of course filled with delightful gravitas. I've never seen a film that looks like it, the colors and movements are incredible. I've never read the book it's based on, but the inner film student in me was geeking out, and the irony of Scorsese's most SFX laden film which is itself a film about the magic of film and SFX wasn't lost on me. 

8.5 bushy eyebrows out of 10 (for a kids film, that's pretty damn good) (GREAT)

Rango (2011)

Rango (PG)

"Drain the Lizard"

Despite my severe case of Johnny Depp burnout, I have to admit  Rango is actually really good.  Visually it's achievements far outweigh its oddities.  Character designs and environmental effects surpass many of the big studio's efforts, with a heavy emphasis on lighting and voice acting.  Creativity is the main draw, this feels like a movie made not by a corporate committee but a good brainstorming session by some talented folks.  Yes, it has mandatory burp and fart jokes for the kids, and some of the characters just don't look quite right, but there is a vein of deliciously dark perverse reality here, and the film's anti-big business/pro-artist message is fine by me.

7.5 fidgety Chameleons out of 10 (GOOD)

Tangled (2010)

Tangled (PG) - Review

"..web they weave"

Disney attempts to recapture the old Princess magic with Tangled, a retro-modern retelling of Rapunzel and her magical hair.  Strutting handsome rogues, damsels not quite in distress, intelligent horses and just a bit over the line evil stepmothers pack the candy colored scenery and mug for laughs, but the good 'ol Walt Disney touch is simply absent.  The music falls flat to these ears and has no panache (or reason to exist). The story is cobbled together and true to form deviates from the Grimm fairy tale for the sake of sales The art & animation tries to mimic Disney's acquisition Pixar in technique but achieves only a pale copy.  Disney simply proceeds to do what it excels at, making programming for the young and easily entertained, but they have done much much worse in the past.

5 What Can We Personify This Film? out of 10 (MEDIOCRE)

The Secret World of Arrietty (2010)

The Secret World of Arrietty (PG)

"Small and in the walls"

A sick young man travels to his Aunt's country home to prepare for a surgery and finds a family of small thimble-sized people living under the floors in Studio Ghibli's adaptation of the beloved children's book The Borrowers that falls quite short of everyone's mark.

The animation is slow and robotic (often the case in non-Miyazaki films that try to repeat his art style), the plot is frustratingly uneventful.  The characters are monotone and bland, in many cases bewilderingly annoying.  The backgrounds and mattes are beautifully painted but sadly the movie and art style they are serving has almost nothing going for it, its all been done before yet better.  There was not a single piece of showpiece animation, no terrific action piece, no heartfelt moments of characterization.  Trope after trope with little humor and little action with a cute cat thrown in just to please the Ghibli-cult followers, Arrietty falls way short of the studio's best and instead simply cruises along on the weight of it's pedigree. And with a heroine as small and ineffectual as Arrietty, it doesn't add up to much.

4.5 The Littles Had a Better Song out of 10 (BAD)

How To Train Your Dragon (2010)

How To Train Your Dragon (PG)

"A boy and his Cat-dragon"

Dreamworks Animated features finally drop the amusing cartoonish antics and go for the heart (as so often their competitor Pixar is lauded for) in a loose adaptation of the children's series How to Train Your Dragon.

Hindered by typically inept marketing, HTTYD still finally boosted Dreamworks into being taken seriously and making wads of cash with an almost unknown property, an extremely rare occurrence in this cynical box office environment of "sequels and remakes."  The story of misunderstood Viking son Hiccup and his cat-like dragon "Toothless" resonated with audiences with its cuteness and variety.  There are goofy jokes and snide remarks, and low hanging narritive fruit such as "parents just don't understand" that today's youths might latch onto but this reviewer is tired of listening to.

But the art is beautiful, the emotions true, the animation top notch.  The art style has some hidden hiccups and the story some strange eccentricities (why do the Vikings adults all voiced by Scottish actors, yet their kids are all Americans?), but the vast majority of the film exceeds expectations of a DW animated flick.  Expanding the fun yet sparse source material into a giant world (much like they did with Shrek) works well; imparting pathos and a real sense of danger and humanity was genius.

HTTYDragon is a fantasy movie like they used to make pre-90s, with invention and risk taking (mixed with the ultracute just to take the curse off it).  It shows how a license, properly cultivated by caring artists and story tellers, can diverge and prosper artistaclly and not just pander to the kiddies,

8.5 Scots with Horns out of 10 (GREAT)

The Illusionist (2010)

The Illusionist (PG) - Review

"Mime not?"

 Animation Sylvain Chomet's followup to "The Triplets of Belleville" may lose him a few fans but should gain him even more credit with the artistic crowd.  Seen as just a movie, it tells the tale of a magician who's vaudevillian act is slowly drying up like the same styled circuit.  The magician takes into his care a little girl, and together they attempt to survive in the big city.  Beautifully animated by hand, with gorgeous color work and with delicate audio work, The Illusionist is a marvel.  It is also quietly depressing and desperate, and those coming from "Triplets" may be in for a shock.  I found myself wondering why and what this project really was, and so doing some research I found out the film was in fact a lost manuscript by the great silent film clown Jacques Tati (think the French Charlie Chaplin).  It was to be Tati's last movie, and Chomet due to his love of the art, brought it to life one frame at a time.  Animation as an art form is the perfect medium to bring Tati's last story back to life, the dying art form of animation the perfect backdrop for the loss of a tradition like vaudeville.  A sad sweet tale told and made with a breaking heart, like Tati its time has come and gone.

7.5 Red Balloons out of 10 (GOOD)

The Bee Movie (2007)

The Bee Movie (PG) - Review

"What is the deal with entomology?"

There are some that just despise Jerry Seinfeld's style of humor, so when he wrote this animated picture about a Bee who has a midlife crisis the results were bound to be divisive (and since it is PG rated very watered down).  The total results are lukewarm with some clever hit or miss jokes and some very iffy science about bee life.  In the end the Bees sue the humans for their theft of their honey and we the audience either chuckle or roll our eyes at all the kvetching.  Good cast, good marketing but humdrum animation/visuals and spirit just makes this one a drone instead of a queen.

5 Windshield Splats out of 10 (MEDIOCRE)

X-Men (2000)

X-Men (PG) - Review

“Do you know what happens when you write the worst line of dialogue?”

Ah, the halcyon days, before the comic book based blockbuster was arriving every month, where vast veins of graphic novels and spandex jokes were virtually untapped.  Into this void stepped Director Bryan Singer, hot off the success of The Usual Suspects and the tepid mediocrity of Apt Pupil.  Fox took the chance to launch a huge, big budget franchise on the backs of mutated uncampy super-peeps (back when that kind of thing had fallen way out of style).  The result is a totteringly shoddy story encompassing the immensely loveable faculty of Professor Charles Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters.  Their intros and character interplay elevate the dumbed down story and paved the way for actual Super Hero films to be realized.  The Spider-Mans, Dark Knights (and yes, Daredevils), even the Marvel Cinematic Universe all owe a bid of thanks to a goofy, scruffy little movie wrapped in restrictive over-designed leather suits fighting on top of the fake looking Statue of Liberty with absolutely unrealistic justifications.  Excelsior!

7 “Same Thing That Happens to Everything Else” out of 10 (GOOD)

New York Stories (1989)

New York Stories (PG)

"Big Apple Stories"

It's a movie about NY in 3 parts by 3 different directors, so deserve to be reviewed seperately:

Life Lessons - Martin Scorsese directs one of his finest films as Nick Nolte growls and roars as Lionel Dolbey, a larger than life modern artist driving himself and his assistant crazy with his desires and need to express himself on large canvases and piles of oil paint. Look for early cameo work by Buscemi, but the camera is the real star here, zooming, irising, slowing down and isolating to the LOUD rock and roll soundtrack, its the best photography in any of Scorsese's work, and that's saying something. 5/5.

 Life with Zoe - Get the fast forward button ready... Francis Coppola's piece is an indulgent look into a spoiled lifestyle seen through the eyes of an upperclass childhood (written unsurprisingly enough by his daughter, Sofia). Tries to be dream/fairytale like, instead comes across as bratty and privileged. Probably didn't mean to come across as snotty as it does, but its an unfortunate sour note and the main reason the film as a whole isn't as acclaimed as it could have been. 0/5

 Oedipus Wrecks - Woody Allen at his best is a comedy scriptwriter, and the ideas here are very funny. He plays himself, a man under the constant scrutiny and humiliation of his overbearing Jewish mother who disapproves of his every decision. There are several humorous to laugh out loud moments, culminating in a great visual gag that is so absurd that it works, Woody was always a big idea man, and the paranoid fantasy of how far this mother will go to maternally bend him to her intended lifestyle really has a delightful Kafka-esque torture to it, cartoony as it is. 4/5

As a whole film?  7 Leave Zoe at home Francis' out of 10 (GOOD)

Empire of the Sun (1987)

Empire of the Sun (PG) - Review

"Cadillac of the Skies!"

A spoiled young British lad, grown up in 1940s Shanghai, soon experiences the loss of affluence and innocence as the Japanese enter the city limits at the start of World War Two.

Jamie, the role nailed by a preteen Christian Bale (Batman Begins), must cope with the loss of his home and family, living on the mean streets with fellow waifs and mercenaries (one by John Malkovich at his slimiest).  They are soon all rounded up and sent to Japanese POW camps, where Jim is adopted by disparate families: the starving yet stiff-upper-lipped British are his mother while the wiley and stubborn American GIs are the father he idolizes.  Striving and scheming against their severe Jap captors, Jim must take the brunt of human compassion and treachery of wartime China.

Steven Spielberg's (Indiana Jones) best and most overlooked film, Empire of the Sun is a fantastic period piece, War record and historical work (based on the semi-autobiographical work by its author).  Combining his love of WW2 societies and technology (particularly fighter planes), Empire doesn't get bogged down in politics or finger pointing yet remains honest and true to the circumstances, all shown with an effortlessly gorgeous scope that sees the snotty angelic Jim transform to a world weary young man older than his years.  Empire is a complete picture of the world before, during and after the Second Great War, especially its effect on the young generation of all nationalities that lived through it.

10 Flashes in the Sky out of 10 (OUTSTANDING)

True Stories (1986)

True Stories (PG)

"Fighting Fire with fire"

A quasi-musical by David Byrne (frontman of the epitome 80s band The Talking Heads), is a strange lyrical tour through a small Texas town celebrating it's uniqueness and sesquicentennial. Bryne's distinctive music and attitude abound in this quirky portrait of the Texan lifestyle. Available on Streaming. 

7.5 Ten gallon Hats out of 10 (GOOD)