Star rating out of 4*:
"Kung Fu Panda" - lightweight, better than expected CGI martial arts comedy; ***
"The Band's Visit" - beautfully quiet, gentle meditation on human interaction; *** 1/2
"Rescue Dawn" - very accessible Werner Herzog film based on true Vietnam escape story; ***
"Vantage Point" - moderately interesting action pic that plays with perspective; ** 1/2
"Taken" - Liam Neeson is a good, one-dimensional action hero in an indistinghuished film; **
"Get Smart" - better than expected spy spoof gets moderate laugh ratio; ** 1/2
"Horton Hears a Who" - mediocre animated adaptation of Dr Seuss, lacks a story; **
"Tropic Thunder" - comic blockbuster featuring top-notch Tom Cruise; ***
"Pineapple Express" - supremely entertaining hash-comedy with an award-worthy performance by James Franco; ***
2 comments:
Horton Hears a Who is not mediocre. Its animation is brilliant and quite true to Suess's own drawings. And the lesson - a person is a person, no matter how small - is obvious and relevant. Same goes for Kung Fu Panda. Neither are close to Tales of Despereuax or Monsters vs Aliens or Wall-E even, but they have merit and can never be seen as only average.
Concerning Twilight, you really made me laugh, though I don't think you're missing the real issue here, namely the dynamic relationship between vampire and man: the fact that the one often craves to be the other. The crappy make-up and the tree-climbing are side issues. It's the possibility of monsters being human and humans being immortal, reconciling two almost irreconcilable spheres. Besides Anne Rice and to some extent Laurell K Hamilton, this is the closest a younger generation will come to exploring the Vampire as Human. That is one of the reasons why this movie si so successful. And the dreamy Robert Pattison, of course...
Hi T
"Horton"'s themes are indeed "obvious" and "relevant", so much so that an audience of pre-teens are perfect for it. Other family films have been saying the same thing, only better (see "A Bug's Life"). Have not seen "Desperaux", though I'll certainly catch it on DVD at some stage.
On the matter of 'same theme/message, much better movie', see "Interview of the Vampire" (you mentioned Rice) for a far greater take on vampire-to-human-to-vampire. Even Tom Cruise was good in that. Hell, I can shake a stick at any episode of Whedon's "Angel" and it'll explore those same things better than "Twilight"s pubescent fanghuggers. Make-up and bad effects aren't side issues if it's glaringly obvious and essentially calling attention to itself.
I really hope that you're wrong in saying "this is the closest a younger generation will come to exploring the Vampire as Human". Let's hope that younger generations still aim for and engage with complexity and the allure of ambiguity and don't settle for third-rate storytelling.
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