Before Sherlock Holmes, I was treated to a preview of the latest Kevin Smith opus "Cop Out". A spoof of buddy cop films, that will no doubt end up instead of a film to mock the formula, show why we shouldn't follow the formula so closely. Almost immediately after, I see Holmes and Watson, together, stopping some sort of demonic ritual. Complete with a deduction that might as well be a one liner, I thought to myself "How about, instead of making spoofs, we go back to actual buddy cop films?"
That's what Holmes is. It's a buddy cop film. It's the story of a unconventional, aloof, brilliant man, and the straightlaced smart-yet-still-average partner. Like Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law have excellent chemistry.
Downey and Rachel McAdams, who plays love interest Irene Adler, not so much. Perhaps a better actress or a more well defined character might be a bit more interesting. She is a perky Femme Fatale who too easily becomes a sad, lovestruck tragic figure. Imagine that character, but played without any sort of real range of emotion. Luckily, her scenes are limited.
Holmes and Watson have just solved their last case together, and Watson is anxious to be free of Holmes and live an average to normal life. Holmes, anti social, arrogant, and overall unlikable to many spends much of the movie trying to find ways to bring his friend back. Meanwhile, Watson keeps finding himself excuses to join Holmes as a former Villain, Lord Blackwood, seems to have risen from the grave.
After a first act that sort of lingers on for way too long, our heroes fight and think their way through a series of brawls, secret passages, deductions, and deathtraps that could have only come out of republic serials. As much as an ode to the classic adventure film as "Indiana Jones" (but without the quality, unfortunately), it's a fun little film. With enough of that Classic Sherlock Holmes style to, if not please, satisfy the purists.
*** out of ****
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
The Princess and the Frog
Tiana seems to be the exact opposite of a Disney Princess. She was not born into royalty, she does not dream of some prince to make everything perfect for her, and she doesn't spend hours singing about how there must be something more. Instead, she works dilligently so that one day, she may open her very own restaurant. She has almost no social life, so it seems, as her only interest in Mardi Gras is serving Gumbo.
Meanwhile, we have the visiting prince. He's foolish, lazy, and has spent his last dollar. He has been cut off from his family fortune. Needing money, he makes a deal with a witch doctor known as the Shadow Man. Apparently, he didn't understand the subtext to such bold statements as 'I see green in your future" and the various hop puns.
It's only a matter of time before Tiana comes into contact with Prince Naveen, who convinces her to give him on kiss, so that he may turn human. But there is a catch- Tiana is no Princess. Only a Princess can change him back, after all. Seems that frog-kissing by non royalty has unexpected side effects. This is the extent of what you have seen in the previews for the last year and a half.
Tiana and Naveen search for a kinder, gentler Voodoo practicioner in hopes for a way to change them back. What else should be expected then them falling in love. Still, it's not the what, but the how. In a different movie, there would be one moment where the hearts and minds change. This film manages to show it gradually, between comical interludes by the necessary talking animal companions (a poetic cajun firefly, and an Alligator who wants to play Jazz).
This movie, while it suffers from being not a return to the classic Disney film but a return to formula, works. It's light, positive, and very well put together. Though I find I'm more interested in seeing the characters interact, and any time the story progresses I feel they were not done with the previous moment. Some bad jokes meant to appease the immature male audience take away from more tender moments.
I doubt this film is the beginning of a new Disney Renaissance. It's a very flawed, imperfect film. Perhaps it needed just a few more (or less) rewrites to reach the level of some of the classics I remember watching as a kid.
Well, at least we got a good little film out of it regardless.
*** out of ****
Meanwhile, we have the visiting prince. He's foolish, lazy, and has spent his last dollar. He has been cut off from his family fortune. Needing money, he makes a deal with a witch doctor known as the Shadow Man. Apparently, he didn't understand the subtext to such bold statements as 'I see green in your future" and the various hop puns.
It's only a matter of time before Tiana comes into contact with Prince Naveen, who convinces her to give him on kiss, so that he may turn human. But there is a catch- Tiana is no Princess. Only a Princess can change him back, after all. Seems that frog-kissing by non royalty has unexpected side effects. This is the extent of what you have seen in the previews for the last year and a half.
Tiana and Naveen search for a kinder, gentler Voodoo practicioner in hopes for a way to change them back. What else should be expected then them falling in love. Still, it's not the what, but the how. In a different movie, there would be one moment where the hearts and minds change. This film manages to show it gradually, between comical interludes by the necessary talking animal companions (a poetic cajun firefly, and an Alligator who wants to play Jazz).
This movie, while it suffers from being not a return to the classic Disney film but a return to formula, works. It's light, positive, and very well put together. Though I find I'm more interested in seeing the characters interact, and any time the story progresses I feel they were not done with the previous moment. Some bad jokes meant to appease the immature male audience take away from more tender moments.
I doubt this film is the beginning of a new Disney Renaissance. It's a very flawed, imperfect film. Perhaps it needed just a few more (or less) rewrites to reach the level of some of the classics I remember watching as a kid.
Well, at least we got a good little film out of it regardless.
*** out of ****
Avatar
Sam Worthington provides a monotonous narration at the beginning, where he essentially tells you everything you are seeing on screen. He also talks with a certain awareness of what is to come, and maybe this narration is actually part of his final video log. It didn't feel like that to me. Then again, you can move any sequence of the movie to any point and it would still be the same. There is actually one case where a monolog is cut within a thought, a scene stuck in the middle, then continues on as our hero is chased onward by a giant bird-like creature.
This is a "Woo" moment for Worthington, as he only has two settings in this movie- apathetic and woo. No matter how much emotion is in the words, he seems to be reading the script from a teleprompter. Sam Worthington is a much better actor than this movie leads you to believe. Sigourney Weaver manages to steal scene after scene, hopefully earning her an Academy Award Nomination. Zoe Saldana, who recently got the in with the nerd crowd (the same target audience in this film) by playing Uhura in Star Trek, also proves she is more than a pretty face by giving a performance that transcends the many layers of animation.
Worthington's Jake Sully is a disabled officer of the U.S. Marines who is put into this "special project" on a distant planet. He is to put himself into the physical body of a Navi, a member of the native race, and try to win their trust. Though he is working with a group of scientists with good intentions, his loyalties remain to the Marines, who want him to force the Navi out of their homes so the Marines can plunder a rare mineral. That mineral is called "Unobtainium." The mineral doesn't matter, which is why they gave it the only possible name more honest and to the point as "McGuffinium". Perhaps the could have called it "Plotdeviciton".
When he gets in, we have ritual after ritual, while he wanders through a mystical glow in the dark forest. There were times when I wondered if I was actually watching a cartoon. Cameron's CG landscapes are convincing by day, cheesey by night. Not once, however, did the Navi seem even one third as real as District 9's "Prawns".
They say this movie is all about it's graphics. While I will say that they fail to deliver, they are great to look at nonetheless. James Cameron would have you believe that the only way to see this movie is in IMAX, in 3D. Save yourself the up charge and appreciate the beauty without distorting it.
After a while, Jake has a change of heart. Or so he says. Truth is, there is nothing in his character that shows he ever had any allegience to the Marines at all, which robs us of a decent, albeit cliched, character arch. The Marines are vague bad guys. So void of personality, with a lack of a clearly defined motive this might as well be about zombies. We have the Corporate interests telling the Marines to get the Unobtainium. The Marines, however, are simpletons who only want to kill. And if the fact that that's essentially all they do isn't enough, they pretty much say it flat out. Because apparently America can't understand things any other way.
Why does the Colonel hate the Navi so much? If you give him a real motive, it doesn't diffuse your satire. It actually helps bring it to a whole new level. I had the same problem with District 9, but at least you saw the slums, you saw the crime, you can actually imagine how somebody can think of them as subhuman at some stretch. Not even General Custer would treat the Native American's with such disdain.
The evil, cliched Colonel, when given scientific evidence that the ecosystem is actually an intelligence, says "It looks like a bunch of trees to me." That dialog should set the tone of something like "Ferngully: The Last Rain Forest". Not a 300 million dollar action epic. Not a film that has been called an Oscar contender even in pre-production.
The movie isn't without it's high points. There were some sequences that were so fantastic they gave me that sense of awe and wonder that I look for in any great epic. But they were too far, too few. It's a real shame when you can't get into a movie until the Third act.
** out of ****
This is a "Woo" moment for Worthington, as he only has two settings in this movie- apathetic and woo. No matter how much emotion is in the words, he seems to be reading the script from a teleprompter. Sam Worthington is a much better actor than this movie leads you to believe. Sigourney Weaver manages to steal scene after scene, hopefully earning her an Academy Award Nomination. Zoe Saldana, who recently got the in with the nerd crowd (the same target audience in this film) by playing Uhura in Star Trek, also proves she is more than a pretty face by giving a performance that transcends the many layers of animation.
Worthington's Jake Sully is a disabled officer of the U.S. Marines who is put into this "special project" on a distant planet. He is to put himself into the physical body of a Navi, a member of the native race, and try to win their trust. Though he is working with a group of scientists with good intentions, his loyalties remain to the Marines, who want him to force the Navi out of their homes so the Marines can plunder a rare mineral. That mineral is called "Unobtainium." The mineral doesn't matter, which is why they gave it the only possible name more honest and to the point as "McGuffinium". Perhaps the could have called it "Plotdeviciton".
When he gets in, we have ritual after ritual, while he wanders through a mystical glow in the dark forest. There were times when I wondered if I was actually watching a cartoon. Cameron's CG landscapes are convincing by day, cheesey by night. Not once, however, did the Navi seem even one third as real as District 9's "Prawns".
They say this movie is all about it's graphics. While I will say that they fail to deliver, they are great to look at nonetheless. James Cameron would have you believe that the only way to see this movie is in IMAX, in 3D. Save yourself the up charge and appreciate the beauty without distorting it.
After a while, Jake has a change of heart. Or so he says. Truth is, there is nothing in his character that shows he ever had any allegience to the Marines at all, which robs us of a decent, albeit cliched, character arch. The Marines are vague bad guys. So void of personality, with a lack of a clearly defined motive this might as well be about zombies. We have the Corporate interests telling the Marines to get the Unobtainium. The Marines, however, are simpletons who only want to kill. And if the fact that that's essentially all they do isn't enough, they pretty much say it flat out. Because apparently America can't understand things any other way.
Why does the Colonel hate the Navi so much? If you give him a real motive, it doesn't diffuse your satire. It actually helps bring it to a whole new level. I had the same problem with District 9, but at least you saw the slums, you saw the crime, you can actually imagine how somebody can think of them as subhuman at some stretch. Not even General Custer would treat the Native American's with such disdain.
The evil, cliched Colonel, when given scientific evidence that the ecosystem is actually an intelligence, says "It looks like a bunch of trees to me." That dialog should set the tone of something like "Ferngully: The Last Rain Forest". Not a 300 million dollar action epic. Not a film that has been called an Oscar contender even in pre-production.
The movie isn't without it's high points. There were some sequences that were so fantastic they gave me that sense of awe and wonder that I look for in any great epic. But they were too far, too few. It's a real shame when you can't get into a movie until the Third act.
** out of ****
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