Month: December 2009

As Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson are closing the case on the nefarious Lord Blackwood, they’re also looking at closing out their own relationship as Watson is about to get married. But seemingly, Lord Blackwood returns from the dead, to hatch his scheme again, and Watson finds himself still tethered to Holmes to deal with this situation…

That’s all I’m going to say about the plot to Sherlock Holmes, the latest attempt to revitalize Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic characters, it’s also the latest film from director Guy Ritchie and uber-producer Joel Silver as he attempts to start another franchise.

To tell the truth, I was a little hesitant to readily see this one. Here’s the deal- I’m actually a fan of Holmes and Watson and read some of Doyle’s stories back in the day. Hell, in high school for my English class, I even did a paper on Holmes complete with comic style illustrations that I did for it (got an A for that paper by the way and even got a little recognition from my teacher for going above and beyond with drawing illustrations for it). On paper, the idea of Guy Ritchie making this movie, with Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Watson sounds pretty good, but once I started to see some of the trailers for it, I thought it was being turned a little bit into a smart-ass snark-fest, and so wasn’t exactly sold on seeing it. But after reading a few things about it, I was opening up more to it and of course it helped that I got a free ticket to see it as well (thank you Microsoft and the special deal with Best Buy to buy an Xbox 360 Microsoft points card, which I needed anyway).

And even if I didn’t get to see it for for free, I’d still say this: it really is an overall good time at the movies and I’m really surprised at just how much they got right.

After he made RocknRolla, it was a least apparent to me that Guy Ritchie had his “legs” back after a long period of not making a good movie while he was Mr. Madonna, but how would his style translate to what a period piece this was obviously going to be? Well, he actually reins it in a little bit, in comparison to some of his other movies, though there are some cool hyper-kinetic moments in it, but those moments are used to good effect (primarily when Holmes’ mind is at work) and don’t get in the way at all, making for a cleanly told story.

I have to give the writing team a lot of credit here, because they do pay homage to the books a great deal, and I’ll even go so far as to say that if Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was alive in this day and age, and creating Holmes for the first time, this is probably closer to the way he’d be written (taking into account audiences tastes today). Also, huge kudos to Hans Zimmer for a very kinetic and violin-heavy music score that really works well in the film’s cool action sequences.

Downey and Law are really good as Holmes and Watson respectively, especially Law as Watson, who usually gets a little short-changed in the process. Downey plays Holmes as though he does have a bit of a disorder to him, but the trade-off is of course with his brilliant powers of deduction and his rapid-fire thought process. The only beef that I have is in some of the private moments with Holmes and Watson (and these are a couple of the moments where there are no other characters in the scene) and the relationship from the two comes off more as a little campy and gay in a small way. Now this isn’t a deal-breaker by any means, and you may not even see it at all, as I know the others that I was with to see this didn’t think that was even there- so your mileage may vary (and mine may change as well, as I see this again in the future). Other nice turns though come from Rachel McAdams and Eddie Marsan as familiar Holmes’ characters Irene Adler and Inspector Lestrade and Mark Strong, playing Lord Blackwood, who’s certainly good here, though not as powerful as he was in RocknRolla.

Really, Sherlock Holmes is a lot of fun and hopefully this will be the start of a new franchise- I have no doubt that Downey and Law will be back for a second, but the people I really hope are part of it are director Guy Ritchie, composer Hans Zimmer and the screenwriters who really made this more fun, even more so than it’s stars (and they do a damn fine job for the most part their own selves. Highly recommended…

It’s the year 2154, and former marine Jake Sully has been offered the chance of a lifetime. Jake has lost the use of his legs, and his twin brother was originally supposed to be a part of a scientific expedition on the planet Pandora, a planet whose atmosphere is lethal to humans, but after his brother’s untimely death, Jake, being as good a match as they can get for this expedition is offered the chance to take his brother’s place. Using genetically-bred bodies of the natives of Pandora, and a cybernetic process for controlling those bodies, Jake’s mind is implanted in the artificial body and with a few other humans taking part in this, he’s able to walk again and experience the wonders and dangers of Pandora firsthand. But the corporation in charge of this expedition, has ulterior motives to mine the planet for an ore of great wealth and the marines protecting this expedition want to use Jake to find out the ways of the native people, the Na’vi, and Jake, being a former marine readily agrees and gets way more out of the bargain than he would ever expect…

And that’s where I’ll leave off with the premise to Avatar the first dramatic movie from writer/director James Cameron since he made Titanic. Cameron’s had this idea for a movie since he was a kid, and has waited for the technology to catch up for him, and it’s been well worth the wait. He’s always been right on the cutting edge of technology with his previous movies, but this one raises the bar considerably with it’s motion capture work and the idea of creating computer-rendered characters that you do actually give a damn about. But it’s just not that, he’s created an entire world here with many wonders and pitfalls, and it still doesn’t stop there, as even the man-made elements of the story are also at the peak of what you can do in today’s movies.

It’s a technical achievement to be sure, but of course, it’s story is what matters the most, and fortunately the technology is used well enough to make the story really convincing. I’ve seen a lot of comments in places that bag on the film for not being original enough, and it certainly does borrow from a lot of other sources, but really, for me that didn’t matter. If the story is well-told, then I could care less if it does borrow from other things… and this is pretty well-told (though I do have one little beef with it, but we’ll get to that soon).

It really is something that deserves to be seen on a big screen, and of course in some theatres this is being seen in 3D as well. I saw it in a 3D theatre, and if you have the chance to see it that way, that’s what I’d recommend- but… the 3D isn’t overwhelming and not the point of the film. It’s really well done here, but not for jolting effects but more for actualizing this world. it’s not necessary to see this in 3D to enjoy this experience, but it’s fun nonetheless.

Cameron’s cast is terrific for the most part, and this is where my one beef is, but that’s not necessarily due to the actor but more to Cameron’s story, but I digress… Sam Worthington really impressed me in Terminator: Salvation and he’s here as Jake Sully and even more impressive, serving a double duty with both his human performance as Sully and his motion capture performance in the avatar body, and he’s really good, demonstrating a natural growth of character as this unfolds Sigourney Weaver reunites with Cameron in this film and also serves the same double duty that Worthington does, and again pulls it off real nicely. The pure motion capture parts though- wow, Zoe Saldana (seen earlier this year in Star Trek) really impresses as Neytiri, the Na’vi who is given the task of teaching Jake the ways of the Na’vi. Other members of the Na’vi are performed by veterans like CCH Pounder and Wes Studi, and again they make you believe what they’re doing. The rest of the human cast is filled out by Joel David Moore (who also does some double duty here- not to the same extent as Worthington and Weaver though), Michelle Rodriguez, the always rock solid Stephen Lang and Giovanni Ribisi. Ribisi plays the corporate head of this expedition and he’s where my one real problem with the movie is (though in the big picture, it’s a moot problem). Basically, he’s just a little too cartooned here for what the rest of the movie does- this isn’t really Ribisi’s fault, it’s what he’s been given to do by Cameron, but still compared to everyone else being a little more three dimensional, this character is purely stuck in one dimension, and again considering the scope of this movie, I’d like to think that even a character that’s performing actions as vile as he does here, might still have a little more depth to him.

But still, this is very much worth seeing- it’s big spectacle filmmaking from a master of big spectacle filmmaking who also always manages to go for some heart in his films as well. Cameron hasn’t missed a beat in his long absence from dramatic films and Avatar is the proof. Do not miss this if you have the chance- for me, even with my one beef, it’s right up there with the best of the year…

Ty Hackett has returned from his tour of duty in Iraq and has his own set of problems to deal with once he’s back, his parents have passed away, his younger brother Jimmy is always getting into trouble, and he’s about to lose the family home. To make ends meet, Ty has been training with the Eagle Shield security company to be an armored car guard where he’s being mentored by an old family friend, Mike. Right as things are looking darkest for Ty, Mike reveals to him a plan that he and a few other guards have to heist 42 million dollars from one of their deliveries. Ty reluctantly goes along, and then things begin to go south…

That’s the premise to Armored a fun little B-movie heist film from director Nimrod Antal, who previously directed a fun little terror movie named Vacancy and will next be working on Predators. What I like about this film is that it’s not too over-the-top in what it does, and the guys performing the heist are your basic working stiffs, who really aren’t as equipped to deal with this situation as they’d like to think they are.

It’s a short movie, running about 88 minutes, and it doesn’t really waste it’s time on anything- it does just what it needs to do to set up it’s main character (Ty) and puts everything else in it’s proper place for this situation to play out.

The really good thing about the movie though is it’s cast- Columbus Short plays Ty and while I’m not that familiar with him (just found out that he’ll be in the movie version of DC Comics’ The Losers), I think he does solid work here and makes Ty a good character. But the real gold is in the other members of the cast- Matt Dillon as Mike, along with Laurence Fishburne, Jean Reno, Amaury Nolasco and Skeet Ulrich make up the rest of the guards. Fred Ward plays their captain, and Milo Ventimiglia plays a young cop who stumbles onto the plan. Everyone does a nice job here and keeps this moving right along.

It’s a fun diversion film, nothing that will win any awards or anything like that, just some solid entertainment- probably for most, more fun to catch on home video or cable down the road.

Mr. Fox, out on a romp with his wife Mrs. Fox, decides to have some fun and go after some squab, only to find himself trapped and his wife pleading to him that if they survive this, they need to change their life, and by the way, she’s pregnant. Well, they do survive and two years later, they’ve changed their life, with Mr. Fox now being a columnist for the newspaper for the other wild animals and now a father with a young son named Ash. Mr. Fox though, isn’t happy with his situation, and thinks at this stage in his life he and his family shouldn’t be living in a hole, and so Mr. Fox decides to purchase a new home inside a tree that overlooks the collective farms of Boggis, Bunce and Bean… and from there, he feels the need to resume his old ways… and of course hi-jinks ensue…

Fantastic Mr. Fox is the latest movie from the very talented Wes Anderson, using Roald Dahl’s original book as a springboard (I’m not familiar with the book, but there’s just too much stuff here that’s pure Wes Anderson to even begin for me to think that it was ever in the book). It’s an animated feature that’s pretty much unlike anything else that’s out there today and for two reasons: 1. It’s stop-motion animated, no CGI in sight and 2. It’s really way more for adults than it is for kids. If you’re familiar with Anderson’s other movies (he’s made Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Darjeeling Limited) then you already know that his movies have a pretty unique voice and look to them, and Fantastic Mr. Fox fits right in with the rest of his filmography (and for me having much in common with both The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic).

The animation here is actually some pretty sophisticated stuff, particularly with the character subtleties, though there’s also a little something that’s just a touch creepy about it as well (though I’m having a hard time putting my finger on just what is a little creepy about it- it just struck me that way). And though this is about anthropomorphized animals, they don’t let you forget that they are wild animals, with Mr. Fox coming off as urbane and witty one moment and the next moment viciously attacking his food.

But it is very entertaining, at least to me, and one of those movies that I expect for me might end up being like Being John Malkovich was for me- mildly amusing at the first viewing, but increasingly funnier the more I see it.

Lots of Anderson’s go-to guys are here in the voice cast, including Jason Schwartzmann, Bill Murray and even Owen Wilson in a walk-on role. George Clooney plays the part of Mr. Fox and he’s just as uber-confident as he should be, and Meryl Streep voices his wife, with a lot of quiet confidence.

I tend to think that your liking for this will probably hinge on whether you like Wes Anderson’s previous movies. I know some just won’t get it, and there’s nothing wrong with that, he’s just not your cup of tea. But those that are real fans of his work will probably just love this, and if not immediately be head over heels with it, then for sure having it grow further with them in later viewings. If you’re a parent looking to see if they should take their kids to see this though- well honestly, I don’t know what to tell you. I mean this isn’t a Pixar film by any means (and that’s not being derogatory to Pixar at all) and while not being a parent my own self, I found something just a little creepy to this (but still entertaining) and thus just don’t know how it would go over with a kid. But still, this is pretty unique stuff and if you’ve had any passing interest at all, I’d surely recommend seeing it at some point, if not in a theatre, then surely when it hits home video later…