Critic’s Corner Roundup Review -- Pt. 2

The Critic
Ty Hampton

Well, since I liked the way the last Critic’s Corner Roundup Review came out, I’ve decided to keep in the spirit of that format this time around. As a side note you can also look forward to two more upcoming submissions on the CCR: “Top Movies of the Decade (2000-2009)” and “2010 Oscars Preview & Picks.”

So just to recap, this is a couple months of my selective movie viewing broken down into three sections: Don’t Miss; See It (If You’re in the Mood); or Skip It. The films’ respective star rating applies to the genre in which they inhabit.

Don’t Miss:
Up in the Air, R (dramedy, 4/5 stars)
Charming, intelligent, true and insightful are a few select words I would choose to describe “Juno” and “Thank You for Smoking” filmmaker Jason Reitman’s third major motion picture effort – qualities that are now mainstays of his film catalog.This thing is nominated for 6 Oscars (including best picture) for a reason, and, in fact, for all the reasons opposite of its acclaimed nemesis “Avatar.”

No it didn’t set any box office records and it was made for not even a fraction of its Oscars best picture competitor, but “Up in the Air” has more heart, vulnerability and humanity than any film made in 2009

This movie is about a man who, once content in his lonely and pedestrian life, is now ready and struggling to make a connection with something real. Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) spent only 22 of 365 days at home last year, the most miserable days on the calendar. His real home is spent on the road and in the air traveling from one city to the next as a hired corporate hitman. His firm is contracted by employers faced with mass layoffs and cutbacks, in the currently terrible economy, who wish to let go their workers without any of the guilt. Bingham enters the lives of these sad, newly lost souls and gives them the news, follows his playbook and sets them adrift into their new reality of unemployment.

To Bingham life is about not letting the people and problems and obstacles weigh you down to slow the forward motion of his pursuits, because, as he says, “moving is living.” As 21st century changes begin to take place at the firm, making his traveling efforts futile and replaceable by technology Bingham finds himself at a crossroads where even he needs some more weight, people, and purpose to ground him in life.

Vera Farmiga (“The Departed”), Jason Bateman (“Arrested Development”) and standout newcomer Anna Kendrick add supporting roles that compliment Clooney’s finest big screen performance and take this one to the next level. Reitman’s shot selection and direction with the camera also nailed the themes of isolation in this film, putting the audience firmly into the shallow, lonely existence of the protagonist.

For all its dark moments of film noir, this film also succeeds triumphantly in its authentic clips of actors portraying real people whose lives have just been crushed by the news that they no longer have a job. Shot in a reality-TV/documentary style format for these scenes, you can feel their spirits crumble as many ask “what am I supposed to tell my wife? How am I going to support my family now?” The director later redeems those clips with shots of the same actors saying things like: “If it weren’t for my friends and family, I don’t know what I would’ve done”, “Waking up in the morning and seeing her there in the bed next to me, smelling her, feeling her by me – that’s enough”, and “Looking into my child’s eyes, I know I will be fine” – these real, sincere confessions of human connection hit home like a ton of bricks telling of the real weight, purpose, and meaning that other people contribute to our individual existence in life. Bravo!

Avatar, PG-13 (sci-fi/action, 4.5/5 stars)
James Cameron made a little film called “Titanic” over 12 years ago which went on to set the all-time box office record. That record was dethroned last week by Cameron’s first film since the monumental hit, “Avatar.”

And I know why. Avatar is the single most visually stunning film ever made – period! No debate, no question. The combination of green-screen special effects, animation over live action actors, IMAX definition film and the successful implementation of 3-D technology in theaters nationwide.

Jake (Sam Worthington) is a paraplegic war veteran who is hired on by an American company whose mission is to mine a valuable natural resource solely found on the distant planet Pandora. The wounded soldier is taken on as his newly deceased twin brother was part of the project and, due to his genetics, the advanced Avatar technology that allows humans to walk amongst the 10-foot-tall blue humanoid natives (Na’vi) will work with his body.

The humans and the natives clash over the planet’s environment as the Na’vi are connected to all living things on Pandora – plants, trees, the spirits of their elders, and winged creatures who inhabit the mountains who are suspended floating in the planet’s atmosphere. Jake is chosen to be the human ambassador to their culture and learn the way of the natives in an attempt to bring peace and understanding to a situation that is everyday merging closer and closer to inevitable war.

The story (however thickly coated in a “green and anti-war” message – not that that’s such a bad thing) is good enough to propel the action and ongoing visual spectacle that make Avatar a great film. However, the writing and acting in the film are not its highpoints, just passable. This is evident of the absence of any Oscar writing or acting nods – about the only categories Avatar isn’t nominated in.

Still, there’s a reason why people are saying they haven’t seen a film with such a widespread monumental impact since Star Wars rocked the world in the 70’s. It does evoke that wondrous childlike feeling in any viewer who buys into the magic of Pandora.

So if you haven’t gone out to the theater to see this one yet, rush out DO IT NOW! Pay the extra $3-$4 for the 3-D glasses…it’s definitely worth it. If you have an IMAX theater near you, spare no expense. Because this is a true unadultered film experience designed to be taken in full form on the big screen. Once it’s on home release I feel Avatar will undoubtedly lose some of that luster.

Up, PG (animated, 5/5 stars)
If you haven’t noticed by now, the film animation company Pixar are the chieftains of what they do. You know that feeling you got when you watched “Wall-E” two years back, a sensation of this was an animated picture that I was both entertained by and took something away from emotionally?

“Up” treads that same territory of the unexpected animated film that creeps up on us and effects us on a human level.

The film begins with wonderfully pieced together 10-minute montage of meeting of Carl Fredrickson and his beloved wife as neighbor kids with a love for exploration of their imaginations, to their young puppy love that only grew ten-fold through their lives into aged beauty, and to finally the eventual death of Carl’s wife at age 78. The eleventh minute of the movie picks up with the heartbroken elderly man looking for answers to where he should turn next in life.

A construction company building high-rise condos next door is tirelessly attempting to convince him to sell the lot, pick up, and move from the house he lived his whole life with his beautiful partner and relocate to an old person’s home. Carl’s spirit of exploration in undying however, and he remembers a promise he made to his wife that they would one day move to South American and build a house upon mountainside near a mystical waterfall – and Carl promises to himself to see that he makes good on that shared dream for his wife.

Tying thousands of balloons to his home, Carl takes flight into the atmosphere in his very own home…steering towards their dream location. The only problem is a persistent neighbor kid boyscout attempting to gain community service hour credits from Carl, amongst repeated refusal, had stowed away on his porch in protest and now unwillingly joins Mr. Fredrickson on his adventurous journey into the unknown.

This animated adventure does not feature a cast packed with celebrity voices or any expensive special effects, but it succeeds with amazing writing, solid animation, and the biggest heart of any film of 2009. With the Oscars best picture field expanded from 5 to 10 films this year, Up deservingly snagged a spot in the lineup and is all but a shoe-in for best animated picture.

The Hurt Locker, R (drama, 4/5 stars)
Avatar is a war movie set in an imaginary world, with imaginary creatures and imaginary circumstances. “The Hurt Locker” on the other hand is not. The Oscar best picture nominee is set in modern times in Iraq under real circumstances that our troops face everyday staring into the eye of mortality.

The Locker is a specialized tactic bomb squad unit deployed in Iraq with an emphasis on disarming insurgent IEDS, roadside and suicide bombs that threaten human life on an hourly basis in the war-torn nation. This means that every member of the unit has a target on his head if not at the gun of an insurgent, at the diminishing destruction that each explosive they come into contact with potentially packs. To say the least, these brave American men have the most dangerous job in the world.

The film follows the soldiers through a year’s deployment in the country, picking up the day their unit’s leader (Guy Pearce) is blown to bits in the line of duty. The new unit lead (Jeremy Renner) comes in with the nerve of a superhuman and a rush-induced lust for the constant danger his job provides him.

The casted actors in this film are hardly recognizable. The director, Kathryn Bigelow, not exactly a household name. Special effects? Not really. The quality of acting, writing, and shot direction however you ask? Superbly impressive, without debate.

The film is eerily realistic and psychologically shocking. With the second highest amount of Oscar nods to Avatar, the best picture/director races, at the very least will most likely come down to the teams of Hurt Locker/Bigelow vs. Avatar/Cameron. Unlike Avatar though (which had an undeniably huge impact on film this year), the Locker is the quality of film the Academy have traditionally rewarded as it has the entire package – beginning with a serious screenplay writing and acting performance foundation while finishing with a dash of societal importance that raises questions respectfully, opens minds and invokes debate.


The Invention of Lying, PG-13 (comedy, 4/5 stars)
Ricky Gervais, the portly British mastermind who created the hit show The Office, has done it again – and almost solely by himself. Gervais produced, co-directed and co-wrote this witty, dark, complex (yet still romantic) comedy in which he plays the film’s protagonist. Basically, Gervais is beginning to carve out his place as the limey English-version of Woody Allen.

A film noir plot wrapped in a romantic comedy’s sliming black dress that questions reality, spirituality, and the heart of sexuality. No doubt, this film will offend and piss off many who view it. That is a reaction to one of two things: Either the movie was falsely advertised and not what they wished to get from it, or it challenged things they deem unquestionable in life which angers their delicate sensibility – to which I say, too bad.

If you are of the faint of heart, do not pass go and do not collect $200. However, if you can approach the film objectively and expect more than a fart-joke out of your comedies then give this one a try.

Gervais’ lead character lives in a world where no one can ever say or think anything that is not the known truth. People spew brutally honest thoughts out of their mouths at each other on the street and the whole world spins miserably in its bastion of “truth.” Gervais is a “pig-nosed loser” as the ladies call him, making quite clear that they will “not sleep with a pig-nosed loser because they don’t want to have little pig-nosed loser babies.”

As a “poor” writer, we pick up the story on the day that Gervais is to be fired from his job where the most successful authors write complete historical non-fiction based on only chronological fact. Gervais is not one of the successful authors.

However, with his mother in her last seconds on her deathbed saying she doesn’t want to die and doesn’t want to go into “nothingness” yet, Gervais gets the spark in his brain to tell her that it doesn’t all end when you die. He says this, not because it’s a truth in his world, but because he desperately was grasping for anything to comfort his dying mother. Overheard by her doctors, their interest is piqued as no one had ever heard of anything like this before. Now that the door to lying (or enlightenment – in his world) is open, Gervais must explain to the rest of society what happens when a person dies and that there is more.

The first lie is invented yet Gervais remains the only man who can pull off such a feat, which obviously propels him to the forefront of the author world and helps him with his women struggles.

This is hands-down the smartest comedy of the year. Smarter (and bolder) than “Up in the Air” and “Whatever Works” (see next review down). Some will say ‘Ty, but what about The Hangover?’ No, not even close. I know, I know – The Hangover was hilarious but it was 2009’s “Old School” of “Wedding Crashers”, neither of which fall in the “smart comedy” category or challenge the conventions of the genre.

Although it’s not a complete one-man-show: Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K., Jeffrey Tambor, Rob Lowe and Tina Fey all contribute their fair share of laughs.
However, the most impressive thing about this film is that although it comes on more sour than sweet from the get-go, if you give it (and Gervais) a chance throughout the piece it has more heart than you could ever imagine and ends up on the sweeter side of the spectrum.


See It:
Whatever Works, PG-13 (comedy, 3.5/5 stars)
Woody Allen behind the camera wrote and directed this one as usual, but instead he picked the absolute perfect person to play the protagonist spot usually filled by himself – Larry David (the co-creator of “Seinfeld” and star of “Curb Your Enthusiasm”).
Neither man are the most easily likable person for the masses or easiest to understand, but man do they ever corner the market on stimulating humor driven by the eccentric misery of a genius.
David plays a lonely, germophobic widower who believes in the philosophy that, as long as you’re not hurting anybody, we should all squeeze the little bit of happiness we can out of things in life … in other words – “whatever works.”

This offbeat comedy is wackier than it is dark, fun and rebellious but still attains a classic film feel. If you like the work of Allen or David, see this one. If not, rent it if you’re in the mood for some different humor.

Men Who Stare At Goats, R (comedy, 3/5 stars)
For whatever reason, the Cloon-dog has stepped it up a notch in recent years. His roles in 2007’s “Michael Clayton”, 2008’s “Burn After Reading”, and “Up in the Air” have been unarguably some of, if not, the best work of his career. Top five territory at least. I didn’t like the Oceans series, found “O Brother Where Art Thou” to be irritating, and any of his earlier romantic comedies were vomit-inducing.

George Clooney was once a mystery to me. Women have always liked him, but did they really like his acting? Now, I’m afraid to say – I’m on board. His lead role in “Men Who Stare At Goats” is yet another reason why.

Clooney plays one of an elite group of U.S. soldiers who were trained as part of the New Earth Army – a squad of psychic spies who tapped into the essence in the world around them with zen-like ability to gain the upper hand in the realm of top secret military intelligence. Hilarious supporting performances from Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey, a decent effort from Ewan McGregor, made this an even more enjoyable ride.

Inglourious Basterds, R (drama, 3/5 stars)
Quentin Tarantino’s adaptation of the 1978 film “Inglorious Bastards” is a wide break from the original plot, and as you can imagine – quite Quentin-ized. Although it is a remake, Tarantino certainly made it his own providing his trademark legendary dialogue sequences, memorable character performances played by virtual unknowns, and a whoppingly good time with blood, violence and debauchery.

However amongst the backdrop of the Basterds, this sort of behavior is not only acceptable but anything less would be pussy-footing it. The film, nearly completely fictional, is centered around a squad of Jewish-American soldiers led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) deep into Nazi territories with one mission and one mission only – to bring their leader as many Nazi soldier’s scalps as they can before they drop dead in the line of duty.

So as you can see, if Tarantino was going to pick any somewhat historically based group of people to plot to brutally massacre and scalp on film and have everybody be okay with it – I’d say the Nazis are a perfect pick. No one will have sympathy for them and they shouldn’t. For once, Tarantino’s love of gore, blood and excessive violence – is justified.

As is accustom with all Tarantino films, the movie has split plotlines that jump around and intermingle in the end, introduced to us by separate chapters. The opening chapter gives us our first glimpse of the “Jew Hunter”, aka Col. Hans Landa, of whose job it is to round up all the hidden Jews in France with his detective like esteem and have them exterminated with brute force. Roshanah, another primary character, escapes the Hunter as the entirety of her family is brutally murdered by his squadron hiding in the basement of a Jewish sympathizing neighbor.

Characters such as Landa, Roshanah, Bridget VonHammersmark, and Basterds members Donny “The Bear Jew” Donowitz and Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz are the stuff of genius that fruitfully sprout from the borderline insane mind of the writer/director film auteur. Additionally, each actor/actress who played these stunning characters and gave them their film essence is unknown to American audiences either from being an unknown or a star from other countries (here France, Germany, Austria).

My only complaints with this film (why it doesn’t make my don’t miss list) are that Brad Pitt’s performance was hokey and really just kind of bad. I mean the guy can act, I know, I’ve seen it. But, I sort of despised his role in this one. Really, to me, the only casting mistake.
Then you have the fact that this was the type of movie with great performances, great cinematography and style, but Tarantino’s rapid-fire wit and dialogue was difficult to follow with about 50 percent of it or more being in subtitles.

This is crucial, because with Tarantino films it’s all about the little eccentricities and details as the true action only comes and goes in bursts.
Basically, if you’re not in the mood and right mindset for this movie – it’s going to bore you. I had to watch it in three separate attempts, and when I finished I was happy I had stuck it through, but man it was kind of brutal at times because I wasn’t prepared for that kind of movie experience.

Invictus, PG-13 (drama 2.5/5 stars)
The story of Nelson Mandela is a moving one, without a doubt. Add the acting talents of Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon with the directoral genius of Clint Eastwood and you have an best picture front-runner right? Nope, actually not even close. This one missed, I’m not sure how … but it did.

Was the story inspiring? Yes. Was it riveting? No. Well acted? Not really, with consideration. The cinematography was beautifully done, but seemed a bit overdone. Simplicity is better sometimes. Ask the makers of “The Hurt Locker.”

Sure Freeman looked a lot like Mandela, but I didn’t take much away from the film about the history of this iconic character. Damon beefed up to play a rugby team captain but his acting talents were nowhere near their best. And Clint is going to want to hide this one behind his other directing triumphs “Mystic River”, “Million Dollar Baby”, “Gran Torino” and “The Changeling.”
The hardest thing about this film for me, was that a good 80 percent of it was concentrated on the sport of rugby, instead of South Africa’s race relations, Mandela’s plight in prison, etc. Keep in mind that rugby, for all intensive purposes, is quite a “foreign” game to the masses of the American audience. It definitely missed with me.

I say rent this movie at best. A better sports-related drama this year was definitely “The Blind Side”, but that’s another debate.

Paranormal Activity (horror, 2.5/5 stars)
This independent horror film, shot in the spirit of “The Blair Witch Project”, was made for $11,000 and brought in over $22 million at the box office in its first nationwide release weekend. There is something to be said for horror movies that effectively market themselves to the teen market and provide a few moments that make people’s butts leave their seats in the theater. “Paranormal Activity” accomplished both of those feats.

However, I rented this one and watched it with all the lights turned out. It’s a creepy enough concept for the first hour, but the last 20 minutes or so of the movie really took it up a notch for me. By the end, I nodded my head and said “okay, not bad” – which mind you is very hard to do with most of the middle-of-the-run horror crap that is shoveled out these days.

The films centers around a young couple who have just moved in together and, apparently, are being haunted by someone or something. Turns out the girl has been haunted in spurts from a very young age and didn’t tell her guy. He, however, thinks this is a great opportunity to document the paranormal happenings, having an air of “oh well this is no big deal, ha-ha, snarf-snarf, I’m a cliché’ guy who doesn’t take anything seriously.” Problem is, the demon pursuing his girlfriend, is playing for keeps.

They set up a night-vision camera in the corner of their room to run at night and capture any evidence of the nocturnal visits and a few blips a creaking door are all that happens at first. Then footprints and smashed picture frames and old family photos that were lost forever and somehow magically reappeared start showing up. Then the demon turns violent and I won’t spoil the rest. But I will tell you the film is done in a real enough fashion that the ending is genuinely thrilling and mildly terrifying.

Worth a Redbox rental – check it out if you’re in the mood.


Skip It:
Moon, R (sci-fi/drama, 2.5/5 stars)
I love Sam Rockwell as an actor, I really do. And he was fine in this. But overall I felt the plot moved far too slowly and only gimmicked “2001: A Space Odyssey” about a ridiculous 12-13 times throughout. If you’re going to rip off a movie’s plot, try and not pick a classic, and much less, a Kubrick film – because let me tell you something, you will NEVER beat Stanley. You can’t, you won’t, so don’t even try.

The plot revolves around Rockwell who is the sole miner of a valuable resource harvested from the dark side of moon and shipped back to Earth in decade shifts. Rockwell however rudely finds out when his shift reliever comes that the man is a spitting image of himself and that he, is going nowhere. In fact they are both human clones of the man who invented the moon-mine procedure and technology. Of course there is a vindictive talking ship with a monotone voice who knows of Rockwell’s fateful predicament the entire time and what must happen as he can not return to Earth alive.

You know this one wasn’t half bad, and if I’m being to harsh on it let me know (shoot me a message to tyjhampton@gmail.com), but when I watched this one I just wasn’t digging it.

It Might Get Loud, PG-13 (documentary, 1.5/5 stars)
What happens you ask when legendary rock-n-roll guitar greats from groups like Led Zepellin, U2 and the White Stripes meet up and collaborate? They recap old hazy meaningless stories and get together to sing a country song in the finale? What the hell happened here? Awkward.

The intro to the documentary and the individual bits on the musicians’ techniques and place in rock history was somewhat interesting to a fan (like myself), but over half the movie was spent watching the three-headed monster sit around a coffee table with their guitars and attempt to hold real discussions and then fail to jam together.

Unless you are an uber fan here, skip this one.

Pandorum, R (sci-fi/horror, 2/5stars)
A giant lost ship in outer space where space sickness has turned some of the tenants into cannibalistic sub-human creatures. The sci-fi horror thriller is thrilling, it is entertaining for a majority of the ride but it’s plot ends at the sentence above.

Dennis Quaid is not great as the lead (as usual, in my opinion) and none of the other actors in the film are worthy of mention. A plot twist is haphazardly thrown in at the end, adding some dignity and depth in its final moments – but for me it was not enough. If you want a quazi-scary action-packed movie without a real story and sci-fi channel quality special effects (that is NOT a compliment) this is the movie for you. Personally, I don’t regret watching it but probably wouldn’t do so again.

Echelon Conspiracy, PG-13 (drama, .5/5 stars)
Wow, did the makers of this film even see the blockbuster movie “Eagle Eye” over a year before this clunker was produced? And say they did, did they then say ‘hey, lets gather up some decent actors in an attempt to sink their careers and make a watered down, techie-er, hokier remake that misses really on all cylinders.