Megamind (2010)

Megamind (Will Ferrell) and his life-long archenemy Metro Man (Brad Pitt) are aliens that were sent away from their respective home planets in time of crisis (much like Superman's origin story). Megamind, taking the role of super villain, tries to conquer Metro City in every imaginable way, each attempt a colossal failure thanks to Metro Man, who becomes the hero of Metro City. It seems that the pattern will never cease until Megamind seemingly defeats Metro Man during one of his many botched hostage plots involving news reporter Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey). Now freed from his rival's shadow, Megamind proceeds to take control of Metro City. Over time, Megamind comes to the realization that he no longer has any purpose in life without an enemy. To appease his depression, he turns Roxanne's lonely cameraman Hal (Jonah Hill) into Metro City's next big superhero, the fiery-headed Tighten. Unfortunately for Megamind, Tighten decides to utilize his new power against humanity as revenge for the lifetime of rejection he has endured for years. When Metro Man is discovered alive by Megamind and Roxanne, but uninterested in resuming his superhero duties, Megamind is forced to do the inevitable: become the hero of the crisis. Aided by his childhood sidekick Minion (David Cross), Megamind now sets out to stop Tighten's rampage of destruction, thus beginning a path to redemption.

Repo Men

A Universal release presented in association with Relativity Media of a Stuber Pictures production. Produced by Scott Stuber. Executive producers, Miguel Sapochnik, Jonathan Mone, Mike Drake, Valerie Dean, Andrew Z. Davis. Directed by Miguel Sapochnik. Screenplay, Eric Garcia, Garrett Lerner, based on the novel "The Repossession Mambo" by Garcia.

Remy - Jude Law
Jake - Forest Whitaker
Frank - Liev Schreiber
Beth - Alice Braga
Carol - Carice van Houten



A "Minority Report" for the organ-donor crowd, "Repo Men" rejects thought-provoking science fiction in favor of a giddy futuristic bloodbath. Set in a world where artificial body parts are all the rage and professional goons come knocking to repossess your spleen, this ultra-gory speculative noir is, at its infrequent best, certifiably nuts; the rest of the time, it's one numbingly brutal slog. Starring Jude Law as an organ collector who decides to turn the operating tables, the Universal release should carve out an appreciative audience among action fans, none of whom will require additional brain cells to enjoy it.

Entirely unrelated to the 1984 cult hit "Repo Man," though bearing some story similarities to 2008's "Repo! The Genetic Opera," the picture posits a not-so-distant future in which a corporation called the Union manufactures high-tech artificial organs, or "artiforgs." These are marketed and sold to gullible customers at top prices, then violently (and most of the time, fatally) reclaimed when they can't pay up.

Since Americans are clearly no better at managing their organ debts than their credit-card bills, business is booming for Union repo men Remy (Law) and Jake (Forest Whitaker), who are also lifelong pals. As seen in the pic's first setpiece -- a combat-heavy raid on a ship full of artiforg recipients long past their final notice -- Remy and Jake are very good at what they do.

But when Remy's gloomy wife (Carice van Houten, never cracking a smile) objects to his job and the example it sets for their young son, he decides to move into sales. As fate would have it, Remy sustains a serious injury during his last job, requiring a heart transplant and making him another Union slave. In a very literal reading of the phrase "change of heart," Remy finds he can't do the dirty work anymore -- and, since he works on commission, he's now racking up major debt.

Soon Remy's on the run, along the way picking up the obligatory sexy/battered love interest, Beth (Alice Braga, "I Am Legend"), a drifter who can scarcely call a single body part her own. (Sample pre-seduction dialogue: "What brand are your lips?" "They're all me.") Together, they conspire to bring down the system Remy used to serve, while Jake tries to hunt down his friend-turned-renegade.

As scripted by Eric Garcia and Garrett Lerner (who developed the screenplay alongside Garcia's 2009 novel "The Repossession Mambo"), "Repo Men" could have supported any number of topically resonant spins: a perversely comic portrait of capitalism run amok, or perhaps an extreme argument for health-care reform. Script does throw off the occasional flash of mordant humor, and the climax, with its dismayingly unhygienic mix of sex and scalpels, is in such jaw-dropping bad taste as to be almost admirable.

These potent moments aside, the film has neither the intellectual rigor nor the internal consistency needed to make its vision of the future seem even remotely plausible, and it short-circuits its more provocative implications in a muddle of conflicting moods. Remy (who, wouldn't you know, has literary aspirations) provides a running inner monologue, lending the picture a half-brooding, half-comic tone stranded somewhere between noir and Guy Ritchie; any nuances are ultimately drowned out not only by Marco Beltrami's hemorrhaging score, but by the bone-crunching intensity of the violence.

Earning its R rating and then some, "Repo Men" boasts more closeup stabbings, slashings, guttings, bludgeonings and scenes of unnecessary surgery than any studio actioner in recent memory. Characters get into knife fights so often, it's no wonder they all need new organs; one sequence in particular appears to have been repossessed from Park Chan-wook's notorious "Oldboy," albeit with blades in lieu of hammers.

Slickly choreographed, punchily edited, sexed up with slow-mo, these extended bouts of bloodletting bear out every stereotype of directors who, like first-timer Miguel Sapochnik, come to feature filmmaking from the world of musicvideos. Leaking stylized geysers of red from every orifice, "Repo Men" works hard to put the "art" in arterial splatter. That's hardly a compliment.

Miscast in an admittedly incoherent role (loving father/aspiring novelist/professional disemboweler), Law delivers a physically energetic turn but doesn't supply much of a rooting interest, and his eventual transformation into suspender-clad killing machine plays like a preview of an ill-advised action franchise. Whitaker rings another variation on his familiar persona of cuddly one minute, freakishly murderous the next; the ever-bewitching Braga gives the film some much-needed flickers of vulnerability; and Liev Schreiber is supremely oily as the soulless suit who runs the Union.

Alternating between glittering nighttime cityscapes (with a pronounced Chinese influence) and rundown housing projects, the Toronto-shot pic delivers a future reality that's persuasively low-key but not especially immersive. Juxtaposition of grotesque flesh-cutting sequences with retro tunes like "Sway" quickly grows repetitive.

Camera (Technicolor, Panavision widescreen), Enrique Chediak; editor, Richard Francis-Bruce; music, Marco Beltrami; production designer, David Sandefur; art director, Dan Yarhi; set designers, Russell Moore, James Oswald; set decorator, Clive Thomasson; costume designer, Caroline Harris; sound (DTS/SDDS/Dolby Digital), Glen Gauthier; sound designers, Yann Delpuech, Darren King; re-recording mixers, Jon Taylor, Christian P. Minkler; visual effects supervisor, Aaron Weintraub; digital visual effects, Mr. X; stunt coordinator/fight choreographer, Hiro Koda; assistant director, Joanna Kelly Moore; casting, Mindy Marin. Reviewed at Arclight Cinemas, Hollywood, March 15, 2010. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 111 MIN.

With: Liza Lapira, Yvette Nicole Brown, RZA, Chandler Canterbury.

Alice in Wonderland (2010)

Rated: PG [See Full Rating] for fantasy action/violence involving scary images and situations, and for a smoking caterpillar.

Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins

Genre: Childrens

Theatrical Release:Mar 5, 2010 Wide
m Burton, once a visionary, can't-miss filmmaker whose quirkiness was consistently matched by his originality and dark style, has in the last decade resorted time and again to adaptations and inferior remakes over innovative ideas. Did he run out of new stories to tell? For every grand success he has more recently had (2007's "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"), there seems to also be a cinematic miscalculation (2005's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory") or an outright failure (2001's "Planet of the Apes") in his repertoire. Burton's latest, a quasi-sequel revisionist take on Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Alice Through the Looking Glass," is a regretful dud, a fantasy without magic and very little heart and soul. Looking like an overblown cable movie without the money to do the visuals justice, the nonetheless big-budget "Alice in Wonderland" has no excuse for how uninspired and even tacky it looks, throttling live-action with cartoonish CGI effects that never suitably create a specific or believably fantastical world. On top of that, the 3-D added to the picture in post-production for theatrical distribution is useless, the lighting of each frame dimmed by the glasses viewers have to wear. Thus, this causes the technical specs to appear all the more unrefined. The screenplay by Linda Woolverton, full of half-imagined, underdeveloped characters and a dreary plot that drifts far away from what author Carroll must have had in mind, is of no help, either. Too often the proceedings appear to be running on autopilot, at odds with a wraparound story that, despite the torpid eighty minutes in between, is surprisingly emotional and affecting.

As a child of six, Alice Kingsleigh (Mairi Ella Challen) spoke of a recurring dream she kept having, of a world called Wonderland, of talking dogs and dormouses. Thirteen years later, a now-grown Alice (Mia Wasikowska), living in turn-of-the-century England, is a young woman pushing twenty who discovers a party thrown with all of her family and friends present is but a ruse for weak-chinned Lord Hamish (Leo Bill) to propose to her. Alice, still with a lot of life to live before she settles down and resorts to the suffocating conventional social mores of her time and place, dodges the question to run after a waistcoat-wearing, pocketwatch-carrying white rabbit she spots on the property. Following him into a dark hole, Alice loses her grip and ends up in Underland, a foreboding place ruled over by the bulbous-headed Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter). Alice's old friends—Tweedledee and Tweedledum (Matt Lucas), the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), and the Cheshire Cat (voiced by Stephen Fry), among others—have intentionally called upon her as their savior to overthrow the monstrous Jabberwocky and, thus, the Red Queen's reign. Alice, however, cannot remember them from childhood, and there is the question of whether or not she is the same girl whose fate it has always been to fight evil in the name of their freedom. Slowly but surely, her destiny—not only in Underland, but in the real world—reveals itself.

The opening scenes of "Alice in Wonderland" set the film up as a British period piece, with the free-thinking Alice standing as the one wayward element with more contemporary ideals. The character, not taking things too seriously even as she realizes she is being pushed into a position she has no interest in, is a breath of fresh air, and her conflicts—both inward and outward—boil down to what those around her expect of a lady of nineteen. The appearance of the white rabbit, urging Alice to follow him as he taps his watch, urgently signifies how Alice's time as a child, unfortunate though it may be, is running out. That Alice stays true to herself at every turn thereafter and doesn't lose the dreamer—or the adventurer—inside her is a message for viewers to savor and take heed of. If director Tim Burton is able to find a certain amount of moralistic pathos in these bookending sequences—upon turning down Hamish's proposal, Alice reassures Lord Ascott (Tim Pigott-Smith) that she will "find something useful" to do with her life—then that is all the better for him. Alas, it also invites comparison to the central chunk of time set in Underland, which is as poorly written and conceived as the prologue and epilogue are poignant.

Alice's first proper glimpse of Underland comes with the opening of a door, recalling a similar scene in 1939's "The Wizard of Oz" when Dorothy steps out from the black-and-white confines of her farmhouse and into the Technicolor-fused Munchkinland. That moment is as enchanting as just about any in film history, and "Alice in Wonderland" should have at least approached that same sense of wonder. Instead, Alice opens the door on garish, fakey surroundings—computer effects lazily replacing a palpable setting that you can feel and touch. Other characters, like the Red Queen's short body and large head, or the Knave of Hearts' (Crispin Glover) elongated, lanky frame, are partially made up on a computer themselves, their jerky movements not once selling them as anything but. Aesthetically cheesy and spatially undefined, a subpar rendering of Middle Earth or Oz, the movie never transcends what it is: spare human beings hanging out in front of a green screen. In today's day and age of technological breakthroughs, there is no rationalization for the $200-million-plus "Alice in Wonderland" resembling Sy-Fy Channel's "Tin Man." Even the 1985 miniseries of "Alice in Wonderland" (featuring an all-star cast) had a superior production design, art direction, and costumes. As for the effects, they may have mostly been practical and low-tech, but they were also more crafty and ingenious.

Mia Wasikowska (2009's "Amelia") is a joy as Alice, effortlessly expressive as she becomes an uncanny representation of what the classic Alice might be like as a late-teenager. She is particularly effervescent during the involving opening and closing segments, while for the rest of it her natural charms get lost in a tornado of weirdoes, scenery-chewers, and oddball creatures. No one Alice meets on her journey is as memorable or charming as director Tim Burton positions them to be. Johnny Depp (2009's "Public Enemies"), wearing a frizzy orange wig and switching accents as fast as a, well, mad hatter, gets too much screen time and hasn't a firm grasp on his wonky role. As the Red Queen, Helena Bonham Carter (2009's "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince") screams a lot and pouts like a toddler while looking like all she would need is Depp's wig to complete her clown costume. Anne Hathaway (2010's "Valentine's Day") literally glides her way through the part of the White Queen, taking her own etherealness to the brink while attaining a certain creepiness in her own right. Crispin Glover (2007's "Epic Movie") shows promise and potential intensity as the Knave of Hearts, the Red Queen's henchman, but not enough development to match the actor's serious approach to the role. Voicing such CG creations as the Cheshire Cat, the Blue Caterpillar, the March Hare, the Dormouse, etc. are a cast of veteran Brit actors who deserve better than they get. Every one of these well-established literary characters has been better used in past iterations of the story; here, they really don't do much or carve out their own individuality.

The third act of "Alice in Wonderland" improves, if only slightly, with the double confrontation between the Red and White Queens, as well as an armor-wearing Alice vs. the Jabberwocky. This is nothing like the Lewis Carroll novels and highly derivative of the "Harry Potter" and "The Chronicles of Narnia" series', but for a few fleeting minutes the fantasy portion of the movie energizes itself and all aspects of production come together as they should have all along. Go figure the one action set-piece works, since the story is paper-thin, the supporting ensemble are disposable, the pacing is slow and turgid, and where there should be whimsy is only indifference.

Empty spectacle that doesn't even work well as spectacle (especially in the low-rent 3-D theatrical version), "Alice in Wonderland" leaves one feeling disappointed at the pilfered opportunity of all involved. Since director Tim Burton is at the helm, he deserves the brunt of the blame. The passion he can be counted on to ignite his projects with—even the lesser ones—is simply not in evidence here, the effort coming off as a halfhearted work-for-hire gig. Furthermore, while it is okay to bring one's own sensibilities to an adaptation, why use such an iconic title as "Alice in Wonderland" if the plan is to twist and change the narrative to the point of almost disrespecting the source material? Beginning and ending with a tart bolt of coming-of-age existentialism the rest of the film is in desperate need of, the picture's bread-and-butter in Underland (why, again, change the name?) is, indeed, but a dream: hazy, rambling, undistinguished, and easily forgotten. Staying awake would be preferable.

Starring: Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham-Carter, Crispin Glover

Starring: Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham-Carter, Crispin Glover, Alan Rickman, Mia Wasilkowska, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall

Director: Tim Burton

Halo Legends Movie Review

Had a chance to checkout an early copy of Halo Legends and can sum it up in a very brief outline. If you are passionate for Halo you might like this. If you love Japanese anime you might like this. If you have no love for either which is my case you will likely find this cash in on the Halo franchise really really boring.

Halo legends is an 8 episode anthology with each episode running 8 to 10 minutes in length. Its entire focus is on Halo the game but in telling the stories we have not heard yet from playing the games. I see Halo Legend as one of those movies that will truly appeal to the die hard halo gamer or fans of anime. Since I never understood the fascination with Halo ( I am more a Fallout / Gears of War guy ) I was not drawn into Halolegends.

I found it long, tedious and frankly.. quite boring. Admittedly the visual look of each episode of Halo Legends was quite unique and at times the anthology was very creative and entertaining but at other times it bored me to the point where I almost wallpapered my bathroom.

Halo Legends was compared to the Animatrix and Batman Gotham Knight and as somebody who has seen both I unfortunately have to report that HaloLegends is neither as good or as entertaining. Buy it only if your a die hard Halo fan who appreciates the fine art of Japanese Anime otherwise your money is better spent elsewhere.

Avatar

Watching "Avatar," I felt sort of the same as when I saw "Star Wars" in 1977. That was another movie I walked into with uncertain expectations. James Cameron's film has been the subject of relentlessly dubious advance buzz, just as his "Titanic" was. Once again, he has silenced the doubters by simply delivering an extraordinary film. There is still at least one man in Hollywood who knows how to spend $250 million, or was it $300 million, wisely.

"Avatar" is not simply a sensational entertainment, although it is that. It's a technical breakthrough. It has a flat-out Green and anti-war message. It is predestined to launch a cult. It contains such visual detailing that it would reward repeating viewings. It invents a new language, Na'vi, as "Lord of the Rings" did, although mercifully I doubt this one can be spoken by humans, even teenage humans. It creates new movie stars. It is an Event, one of those films you feel you must see to keep up with the conversation.

The story, set in the year 2154, involves a mission by U. S. Armed Forces to an earth-sized moon in orbit around a massive star. This new world, Pandora, is a rich source of a mineral Earth desperately needs. Pandora represents not even a remote threat to Earth, but we nevertheless send in ex-military mercenaries to attack and conquer them. Gung-ho warriors employ machine guns and pilot armored hover ships on bombing runs. You are free to find this an allegory about contemporary politics. Cameron obviously does.

Pandora harbors a planetary forest inhabited peacefully by the Na'vi, a blue-skinned, golden-eyed race of slender giants, each one perhaps 12 feet tall. The atmosphere is not breathable by humans, and the landscape makes us pygmies. To venture out of our landing craft, we use avatars--Na'vi lookalikes grown organically and mind-controlled by humans who remain wired up in a trance-like state on the ship. While acting as avatars, they see, fear, taste and feel like Na'vi, and have all the same physical adeptness.

This last quality is liberating for the hero, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), who is a paraplegic. He's been recruited because he's a genetic match for a dead identical twin, who an expensive avatar was created for. In avatar state he can walk again, and as his payment for this duty he will be given a very expensive operation to restore movement to his legs. In theory he's in no danger, because if his avatar is destroyed, his human form remains untouched. In theory.

On Pandora, Jake begins as a good soldier and then goes native after his life is saved by the lithe and brave Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). He finds it is indeed true, as the aggressive Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) briefed them, that nearly every species of life here wants him for lunch. (Avatars are not be made of Na'vi flesh, but try explaining that to a charging 30-ton rhino with a snout like a hammerhead shark).

The Na'vi survive on this planet by knowing it well, living in harmony with nature, and being wise about the creatures they share with. In this and countless other ways they resemble Native Americans. Like them, they tame another species to carry them around--not horses, but graceful flying dragon-like creatures. The scene involving Jake capturing and taming one of these great beasts is one of the film's greats sequences.

Like "Star Wars" and "LOTR," "Avatar" employs a new generation of special effects. Cameron said it would, and many doubted him. It does. Pandora is very largely CGI. The Na'vi are embodied through motion capture techniques, convincingly. They look like specific, persuasive individuals, yet sidestep the eerie Uncanny Valley effect. And Cameron and his artists succeed at the difficult challenge of making Neytiri a blue-skinned giantess with golden eyes and a long, supple tail, and yet--I'll be damned. Sexy.

At 163 minutes, the film doesn't feel too long. It contains so much. The human stories. The Na'vi stories, for the Na'vi are also developed as individuals. The complexity of the planet, which harbors a global secret. The ultimate warfare, with Jake joining the resistance against his former comrades. Small graceful details like a floating creature that looks like a cross between a blowing dandelion seed and a drifting jellyfish, and embodies goodness. Or astonishing floating cloud-islands.

I've complained that many recent films abandon story telling in their third acts and go for wall-to-wall action. Cameron essentially does that here, but has invested well in establishing his characters so that it matters what they do in battle and how they do it. There are issues at stake greater than simply which side wins.

Cameron promised he'd unveil the next generation of 3-D in "Avatar." I'm a notorious skeptic about this process, a needless distraction from the perfect realism of movies in 2-D. Cameron's iteration is the best I've seen -- and more importantly, one of the most carefully-employed. The film never uses 3-D simply because it has it, and doesn't promiscuously violate the fourth wall. He also seems quite aware of 3-D's weakness for dimming the picture, and even with a film set largely in interiors and a rain forest, there's sufficient light. I saw the film in 3-D on a good screen at the AMC River East and was impressed. I might be awesome in True IMAX. Good luck in getting a ticket before February.

It takes a hell of a lot of nerve for a man to stand up at the Oscarcast and proclaim himself King of the World. James Cameron just got re-elected.