I don’t usually buy into Dreamworks movies. I enjoyed Shrek, but after that, their movies seemed so much more blah than Pixar movies. It wasn’t until this year’s How to Train Your Dragon by DreamWorks (I never saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs until recently) that I realized someone besides Pixar could make a decent animated movie. Even with that, I still wasn’t expecting much when Despicable Me was being advertised. I was indifferent towards the movie going in, but I found myself really, really enjoying it.
Despicable Me creates this amazing world where villains live next door, have their own banks, and regularly steal major landmarks like the Great Pyramid. Gru is a villain who was probably very good at his job at some point, but he has lost his edge. He is very old school having a cascade of miniature twinkie-looking things as his minions working on new and brilliant gadgets and gizmos. He has developed the best idea to get him back on top…steal the moon. Unfortunately, he can’t get the loan for his idea from the bank (the loan goes to his nemesis, Vector), so Gru adopts three girls, Margo, Edith, and Agnes, to unknowingly help him. At first, Gru is initially annoyed with having these three new personalities in his home, but then they grow on him.
Gru initially uses the girls to get inside Vector’s house. Vector is like the Mac version of the villains, while Gru is the PC. Vetor’s home is clean, slick, and shiny. Gru’s home is worn, creaky, and has history. Vector has a remote control for everything, and Gru has to create a new gadget for everything. Gru wants to prove that he’s still the best villain, so he takes it upon himself to steal the moon to outdo Vector. However, his plans get foiled when his feelings change for his new “daughters”.
As the girls begin to find a place in Gru’s heart, he is faced with a problem: does he save his career as a villain or does he take his new found role as a dad? Or is there room in this world to be both? We’ve seen this situation before, work or family, but it’s nice to see a fun take on the classic situation.
The person who steals the movie is the youngest girl, Agnes. The actress, Elsie Fisher, does brilliant voice work. She walks the line of being annoying and endearing, which is a difficult line to walk, but she pulls it off. At first, you think she’s going to be this annoying little girl who’s obsessed with unicorns, but she’s so lovable, you want to adopt her by the end. The other girls are equally as adorable. They each have their very distinct personalities and quirks. I found myself more interested in their story than Gru’s plot.
Another fun aspect is the minions. These creatures are Gru’s workers, who live (I guess) in the bowls of his home. They’re like smart four year olds that look like mini twinkies. They work hard with the tasks they’re given, but they giggle and laugh at any instance of a fart joke. The minions are there for the crude humor that draws in the younger crowd, and even though I did find them kind of cute, the jokes got old.
Overall, Dreamworks is clearly taking a turn for the better. They must have found some new writers. Despicable Me is quirky and fun and is one of the better movies of the summer. There’s a new formula that Dreamworks must be drinking because their past few movies have been heads above their earlier ones (yes even Shrek). Whatever they’re drinking, they need to stay on it, then maybe they can actually begin to compete with Pixar.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Cyrus
Directed and Written by The Duplass Brothers
Starring: John C. Reily, Marisa Tomei, Jonah Hill
Synopsis: John meets Molly and begins a relationship much to the dislike of her son, Cyrus.
Cyrus- He said
Romantic comedies are ones those genres that make me groan continuously, and most of the time, they all hit the same beats at around the exact same time mark, and it gets rather tiresome. I honestly believe that one of the best ones from the last few years is (500) Days Of Summer and Ten Things I Hate About You; the former showed a different aspect and broke the mold, while the latter did the familiar formula in almost the best way it could. With Cyrus, the ever-hyped Duplass Brothers, directors of “mumblecore” hits like The Puffy Chair and Humpday, try to make their most mainstream effort of their career. Cyrus is the story of John, played by John C. Reilly, who has gone through a rough seven years since his divorce and is trying to get out in the game again. He meets the gorgeous Molly, played by Marissa Tomei, and the obligatory sparks fly. As the story progresses, John meets Molly’s son, Cyrus, played by Jonah Hill, as the epitome of a momma’s boy, who still lives at home and as we see, he feels threatened by John’s presence.
I had heard a ton of hype from both the Duplass Brothers and this movie from friends that had seen it, so my anticipation was very high. I admit I have not seen their former efforts, nor am I familiar to their style, so this might be a factor in me saying that while I enjoyed it, it was a bit over hyped and kind of disappointing. Let me say, there is nothing too terribly wrong with this movie, and it has a lot of really great points (mostly those relating to the actors). Out of the gate, Jonah Hill “wins” this movie; his acting here is so subtle and subdued that it solidifies his place as future dramatic actor. His Cyrus character says so much with just certain looks, the way he moves, and how he talks to people. The more and more I thought about, the more impressed I was. John C. Reilly was also quite fantastic although not nearly as impressive. Although, if he doesn’t stop playing sad dudes by the next movie he does, he’s going to start repeating himself Michael Cera-style. Since this was a fancy Dallas Film Society screening, we were able to see Mr. Jay Duplass, where he explained their loose style of shooting, and I feel this is a great asset of the film that lends a loose and organic feel to the movie. And the movie’s plot does take some unexpected turns from how I figured it would go if this were a bad rom-com.
Now, here’s the big problem with it, it can be a bit boring. I read up on the Duplass Brothers after seeing the movie, but have not had a chance to see their earlier work. I understand they like to straddle the line between uncomfortable and hilarious, and that’s never a problem in this movie, but instead there’s quite a few parts of this movie where it it’s truly slow. I kept on looking at Jonesy wondering if she thought the same. Since they use a few of the many beats that many rom-coms do, you can see what’s going to happen for a lot, but not all, of the movie, which adds to the boring parts. The other complaint, and I will not take credit this one to myself, from the amazing Gwen Reyes from NerdyPerv.com, she made the interesting point that Molly is a bit of a pushover, and she lets her fate being completely controlled by these two men, which she has what I believe are slightly messed up relationships with.
Overall, I didn’t find much to enjoy about this movie, as I feel that people seem to like the “idea” of the movie more than the movie itself. As an advocator of any and all talented people coming up through this rough Hollywood system, I want to like their efforts, but I think it’s just more hype than anything. The movie proved to be boring at way too many parts for me to recommend this to anyone, with the biggest highlight being Jonah Hill’s performance. As hype becomes a bigger and bigger factor in the movie world, I have to tell you don’t give in to it.
I had heard a ton of hype from both the Duplass Brothers and this movie from friends that had seen it, so my anticipation was very high. I admit I have not seen their former efforts, nor am I familiar to their style, so this might be a factor in me saying that while I enjoyed it, it was a bit over hyped and kind of disappointing. Let me say, there is nothing too terribly wrong with this movie, and it has a lot of really great points (mostly those relating to the actors). Out of the gate, Jonah Hill “wins” this movie; his acting here is so subtle and subdued that it solidifies his place as future dramatic actor. His Cyrus character says so much with just certain looks, the way he moves, and how he talks to people. The more and more I thought about, the more impressed I was. John C. Reilly was also quite fantastic although not nearly as impressive. Although, if he doesn’t stop playing sad dudes by the next movie he does, he’s going to start repeating himself Michael Cera-style. Since this was a fancy Dallas Film Society screening, we were able to see Mr. Jay Duplass, where he explained their loose style of shooting, and I feel this is a great asset of the film that lends a loose and organic feel to the movie. And the movie’s plot does take some unexpected turns from how I figured it would go if this were a bad rom-com.
Now, here’s the big problem with it, it can be a bit boring. I read up on the Duplass Brothers after seeing the movie, but have not had a chance to see their earlier work. I understand they like to straddle the line between uncomfortable and hilarious, and that’s never a problem in this movie, but instead there’s quite a few parts of this movie where it it’s truly slow. I kept on looking at Jonesy wondering if she thought the same. Since they use a few of the many beats that many rom-coms do, you can see what’s going to happen for a lot, but not all, of the movie, which adds to the boring parts. The other complaint, and I will not take credit this one to myself, from the amazing Gwen Reyes from NerdyPerv.com, she made the interesting point that Molly is a bit of a pushover, and she lets her fate being completely controlled by these two men, which she has what I believe are slightly messed up relationships with.
Overall, I didn’t find much to enjoy about this movie, as I feel that people seem to like the “idea” of the movie more than the movie itself. As an advocator of any and all talented people coming up through this rough Hollywood system, I want to like their efforts, but I think it’s just more hype than anything. The movie proved to be boring at way too many parts for me to recommend this to anyone, with the biggest highlight being Jonah Hill’s performance. As hype becomes a bigger and bigger factor in the movie world, I have to tell you don’t give in to it.
Cyrus- She said
Cyrus is a movie where the super awkward meets the super awkward. John C. Reily’s John is a mopey, still-not-over-his-ex-of-seven-years guy who has trouble getting a date (can’t imagine why). He meets Marisa Tomei’s Molly, who is a free-spirit, fun gal with a little secret-she has a college aged son, Cyrus (Jonah Hill), who lives with her, and they have an awkwardly close relationship. John doesn’t seem to initially mind that Molly has a kid because hey, we all have baggage. But slowly he begins to see that their relationship isn’t exactly normal, and Cyrus is a sneaky, conniving, jealous son.
Molly and John seem to fit each other well. They’re both flawed in different ways, but they dig each other and may even love each other. But Cyrus doesn’t like this. He doesn’t like John and thinks John isn’t right for his mother. So, Cyrus doesn’t pull the whiney kid mode or even talks to his mom about his feelings…he’s sneaky in a very conniving and almost scary way. He’s smart, and he knows how to manipulate his mother.
So there’s the plot. Boy meets girl; they fall in love; girl’s son doesn’t like boy and tries to break them up. We’ve seen it before, and we’ll see it again. However, the Duplass brothers take a different approach to this scenario. They put their characters in some of the most awkward situations and use personal camera angles to make you feel like you’re in the situation too. There’s some amazing character work that the Duplass brothers created. The subtleties of the acting between Cyrus and John are eerily perfect. There is so much said in glances, unspoken beats, and smirks that only actors with real talent could pull off.
The problem I had with the movie is that overall it seemed really boring and has an awkward pace. Maybe the pacing is suppose to be the point because there’s not much of a plot, just one awkward situation after another. I’ve been using the word awkward a lot, but I think that’s what the Duplass brothers get off on putting their characters in those situations.
Overall, the movie is good, I guess. I wasn’t blown away, and I liked the little moments between the characters rather than the overall picture. I believed all the relationships, as messed up as most of them were, and I felt uncomfortable in the places where I was suppose to. It’s a fresh look on an old story; I’m just indifferent to the whole thing.
Molly and John seem to fit each other well. They’re both flawed in different ways, but they dig each other and may even love each other. But Cyrus doesn’t like this. He doesn’t like John and thinks John isn’t right for his mother. So, Cyrus doesn’t pull the whiney kid mode or even talks to his mom about his feelings…he’s sneaky in a very conniving and almost scary way. He’s smart, and he knows how to manipulate his mother.
So there’s the plot. Boy meets girl; they fall in love; girl’s son doesn’t like boy and tries to break them up. We’ve seen it before, and we’ll see it again. However, the Duplass brothers take a different approach to this scenario. They put their characters in some of the most awkward situations and use personal camera angles to make you feel like you’re in the situation too. There’s some amazing character work that the Duplass brothers created. The subtleties of the acting between Cyrus and John are eerily perfect. There is so much said in glances, unspoken beats, and smirks that only actors with real talent could pull off.
The problem I had with the movie is that overall it seemed really boring and has an awkward pace. Maybe the pacing is suppose to be the point because there’s not much of a plot, just one awkward situation after another. I’ve been using the word awkward a lot, but I think that’s what the Duplass brothers get off on putting their characters in those situations.
Overall, the movie is good, I guess. I wasn’t blown away, and I liked the little moments between the characters rather than the overall picture. I believed all the relationships, as messed up as most of them were, and I felt uncomfortable in the places where I was suppose to. It’s a fresh look on an old story; I’m just indifferent to the whole thing.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
The Last Airbender
Directed By M. Night Shyamalan
Written By M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Noah Ringer, Dev Pate, Nicola Peltz, and Jackson Rathbone
Synopsis: In a magical world where a gifted few can control the elements of air, water, earth and fire, the Avatar helps keep it in balance. But he disappeared 100 years ago and the world has been thrown into a war by the Fire Nation, and now the Avatar is back to restore balance to the world.
The Last Airbender- She said
The Last Airbender is a big, fat mess of a movie. M. Night Shyamalan took a world that seemed rich with story and fantasy and somehow made it almost incomprehensible to people who have never seen the series.
The story starts with telling the background of the world. There are four types of tribes of benders that all live and keep balance within the world: Air, Fire, Earth and Water. (I was seriously getting a Captain Planet vibe a few times during the movie). Then, the Fire tribe decided they were so hot that they could take over, so they killed all the airbenders, except for one…Aang, who is the “Avatar“, the one who can bend all the elements. The Avatar is the one that is going to bring balance to the world again, but Aang ran away before he finished his training, so he needs to learn the rest of the elements, and this movie is the first book which focuses on him learning water.
Oh, there’s also, a water bender and her brother that follow/help him, a jaded Prince who was banished, his loyal uncle, an evil fire king, and a dragon that appears in Aang’s dreams. You follow me? Yea, me either. The story itself isn’t too difficult to follow, but it seems that Shyamalan was doing a lot of set up for the next two movies. When all the movies are out, then we’ll be able to look back at movie one and realize how certain characters/incidents fit together. However, that’s not conducive for people who don’t know this world. Many of the names of characters are lost and hard to follow.
I will say the visual style of the movie is quite entertaining. The movement of the elements are pretty believable and fun to watch. Thankfully none of the style was lost when the movie was up-converted to 3D. Now, the 3D didn’t really add anything to the movie, but it didn’t make the action sequences messy or incomprehensible.
The biggest problem I had with the movie was pacing. I had no sense of time during the characters travels unless someone mentioned it in passing. The scenes seemed very episodic and rushed. In the beginning, the brother and sister find Aang, and Aang comes back to their village. Then, the evil fire people come, within hours it seems, terrorizes the village, and Aang decides to go with the fire people. Then the brother and sister up and go and rescue because they need to? Like him? I wasn’t sure why they even went after to rescue Aang. I was told later that in the cartoon Aang was in their village for a few weeks, so they got to know each other. Again, a very rushed relationship I was suppose to buy into and believe.
This movie had the potential. I’m not sure what happened, but it doesn’t make me want to watch the cartoon at all. The movie’s a mess; don’t waste your time.
The story starts with telling the background of the world. There are four types of tribes of benders that all live and keep balance within the world: Air, Fire, Earth and Water. (I was seriously getting a Captain Planet vibe a few times during the movie). Then, the Fire tribe decided they were so hot that they could take over, so they killed all the airbenders, except for one…Aang, who is the “Avatar“, the one who can bend all the elements. The Avatar is the one that is going to bring balance to the world again, but Aang ran away before he finished his training, so he needs to learn the rest of the elements, and this movie is the first book which focuses on him learning water.
Oh, there’s also, a water bender and her brother that follow/help him, a jaded Prince who was banished, his loyal uncle, an evil fire king, and a dragon that appears in Aang’s dreams. You follow me? Yea, me either. The story itself isn’t too difficult to follow, but it seems that Shyamalan was doing a lot of set up for the next two movies. When all the movies are out, then we’ll be able to look back at movie one and realize how certain characters/incidents fit together. However, that’s not conducive for people who don’t know this world. Many of the names of characters are lost and hard to follow.
I will say the visual style of the movie is quite entertaining. The movement of the elements are pretty believable and fun to watch. Thankfully none of the style was lost when the movie was up-converted to 3D. Now, the 3D didn’t really add anything to the movie, but it didn’t make the action sequences messy or incomprehensible.
The biggest problem I had with the movie was pacing. I had no sense of time during the characters travels unless someone mentioned it in passing. The scenes seemed very episodic and rushed. In the beginning, the brother and sister find Aang, and Aang comes back to their village. Then, the evil fire people come, within hours it seems, terrorizes the village, and Aang decides to go with the fire people. Then the brother and sister up and go and rescue because they need to? Like him? I wasn’t sure why they even went after to rescue Aang. I was told later that in the cartoon Aang was in their village for a few weeks, so they got to know each other. Again, a very rushed relationship I was suppose to buy into and believe.
This movie had the potential. I’m not sure what happened, but it doesn’t make me want to watch the cartoon at all. The movie’s a mess; don’t waste your time.
The Last Airbender- He said
Adaptations are one of the greatest balancing acts in all forms of art. In music, you want to make a cover song recognizable but with something different. With TV and movies, you need to stay as true to the source material, make sure the material is recognizable but is shown properly for the TV/media format. Unfortunately in M. Night Shyamalan’s latest, The Last Airbender, (adapted from the Nickelodeon cartoon of the same name) manages to equally adapt and completely and utterly mess up a great cartoon. As you will see in the million and one instances of exposition, we learn that the world is full of people that control the four elements earth, water, fire, and air. They are called benders and from these elements stem 4 different tribes that lived in balance. Unfortunately, the Fire Nation started a war that has lasted for 100 years. The main character is named Aang, an Airbender, who was chosen to be the Avatar, who can control all of the elements and bring balance to the world. After running away from the responsibility 100 years ago, Aang is found by a brother and sister, Sokka and Katara, in an iceberg. After the Fire Nation and its banished Prince Zuko hunt him, they decide to travel North so Aang can learn waterbending from a master. For those that know the show, this is old news, but to those that are uninitiated, it might seem overwhelming. (To put it in context, I have seen the entire series, which has become one of my favorite animated shows this side of Transformers Animated and Beast Wars.)
Where do I begin to describe how cheated I felt? Anyone remember The Phantom Menace? Yea, it’s that kind of cheated; maybe not on the same scale but still. I came in expecting something fantastic. I know Shyamalan has messed up big time lately, but he has a very visual style which gave me great hope and coupled with the fact that the creator, Michael Dante DiMartino, is an Executive Producer, I figured it’d stay true to the show. The movie is supposed to represent the first season called the "Book of Water", and that’s one of the worst faults of the movie. It literally tries to recreate almost 12 hours of cartoon and character development into freaking 90 minutes. There is no excuse for the movie to be so short. This is a great world that can and should be explored. (Mind you it’s no LOTR but still!) And in trying to do all of this cramming, the movie suffers greatly from pacing. Once again, I understood that they had to set up things that lead on to others, but since it felt they didn’t know what to cut, it just felt as weird as Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen (oh yes I went there). The motivations and characteristics of the protagonists and antagonists are vaguely described in numerous expositions that get cumbersome after the first third of the movie. You can see glimpses of episodes here and there in the movie, but it’s like you’re watching a string of poorly acted summaries in succession.
The casting was another issue altogether with Shyamalan’s decision to cast many of the clearly Asian protagonists into white roles while casting the whiter toned villains from the Fire Nation by darker skinned actors. Now, while I can see this being a problem, it feels wrong that I was fine with the casting when I see how well Dev Patel played Zuko and Shaun Toub plays Uncle Iroh. They both channel and play their respective characters so well, it makes me not care about the race issue. My issue is completely miscasting key roles. Fire Lord Ozia played by Clif Curtis and Commander Zhao played by Aasif Mandiv are so freaking wrong for their roles. In the cartoon, both of these men are towering and downright intimidating. Ozai is not even shown completely until the last season, and he is just as fearsome as he is rumored to be. But these actors that play them are just pudgy, slow, and I can’t picture them striking fear into the hearts of anyone but a small child. And ditto for a certain character revealed later in the movie, the girl playing her didn’t capture the essence of this character, which will be an issue especially if a sequel gets made. The charm of the series has a lot to do with the characters and their relationships, as well as the humor. This movie had none of that, unfortunately. I had high hopes of the charm of the movie being there due to the inclusion of the Air Nomad animals: Appa, the flying bison, and Momo, the flying lemur. They are essential to the greatness of the show, and it’s a shame they are never used to any extent, except to let us know someone did a cool CGI render.
In the sake of fairness, I will give great credit to the visuals. The benders of all the nations looked great and moved exactly like they do in the show. Probably one of the greatest parts of the movie is the introduction where the benders show off their powers off, which is a fanwank. It feels like they could’ve inserted more of these sorts of things to make it at least more enjoyable for die-hard fans. Once again, the visuals look great with the world of the cartoon being recreated faithfully from costume work to the architecture and to the effects the benders.
Overall, The Last Airbender is a disappointing movie more than anything. The show in a pathetic sort of way means a lot and I would’ve loved for the show to translate properly to film. Unfortunately this shows that Shyamalan has no sense of balance, since a movie adaptation is a balancing act that most can’t do. The Last Airbender doesn’t have enough great things for fans of the show, and it’s too confusing for newcomers to make sense. It basically fails in too many ways, and it bums me out to say this. I hope that the future of the franchise is handed off to someone else a la Harry Potter. If for some reason the movie makes its money back, it could be a possibility, and the potential is there, but it needs a great director to make it happen. And M. Night Shyamalan is not that person.
Where do I begin to describe how cheated I felt? Anyone remember The Phantom Menace? Yea, it’s that kind of cheated; maybe not on the same scale but still. I came in expecting something fantastic. I know Shyamalan has messed up big time lately, but he has a very visual style which gave me great hope and coupled with the fact that the creator, Michael Dante DiMartino, is an Executive Producer, I figured it’d stay true to the show. The movie is supposed to represent the first season called the "Book of Water", and that’s one of the worst faults of the movie. It literally tries to recreate almost 12 hours of cartoon and character development into freaking 90 minutes. There is no excuse for the movie to be so short. This is a great world that can and should be explored. (Mind you it’s no LOTR but still!) And in trying to do all of this cramming, the movie suffers greatly from pacing. Once again, I understood that they had to set up things that lead on to others, but since it felt they didn’t know what to cut, it just felt as weird as Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen (oh yes I went there). The motivations and characteristics of the protagonists and antagonists are vaguely described in numerous expositions that get cumbersome after the first third of the movie. You can see glimpses of episodes here and there in the movie, but it’s like you’re watching a string of poorly acted summaries in succession.
The casting was another issue altogether with Shyamalan’s decision to cast many of the clearly Asian protagonists into white roles while casting the whiter toned villains from the Fire Nation by darker skinned actors. Now, while I can see this being a problem, it feels wrong that I was fine with the casting when I see how well Dev Patel played Zuko and Shaun Toub plays Uncle Iroh. They both channel and play their respective characters so well, it makes me not care about the race issue. My issue is completely miscasting key roles. Fire Lord Ozia played by Clif Curtis and Commander Zhao played by Aasif Mandiv are so freaking wrong for their roles. In the cartoon, both of these men are towering and downright intimidating. Ozai is not even shown completely until the last season, and he is just as fearsome as he is rumored to be. But these actors that play them are just pudgy, slow, and I can’t picture them striking fear into the hearts of anyone but a small child. And ditto for a certain character revealed later in the movie, the girl playing her didn’t capture the essence of this character, which will be an issue especially if a sequel gets made. The charm of the series has a lot to do with the characters and their relationships, as well as the humor. This movie had none of that, unfortunately. I had high hopes of the charm of the movie being there due to the inclusion of the Air Nomad animals: Appa, the flying bison, and Momo, the flying lemur. They are essential to the greatness of the show, and it’s a shame they are never used to any extent, except to let us know someone did a cool CGI render.
In the sake of fairness, I will give great credit to the visuals. The benders of all the nations looked great and moved exactly like they do in the show. Probably one of the greatest parts of the movie is the introduction where the benders show off their powers off, which is a fanwank. It feels like they could’ve inserted more of these sorts of things to make it at least more enjoyable for die-hard fans. Once again, the visuals look great with the world of the cartoon being recreated faithfully from costume work to the architecture and to the effects the benders.
Overall, The Last Airbender is a disappointing movie more than anything. The show in a pathetic sort of way means a lot and I would’ve loved for the show to translate properly to film. Unfortunately this shows that Shyamalan has no sense of balance, since a movie adaptation is a balancing act that most can’t do. The Last Airbender doesn’t have enough great things for fans of the show, and it’s too confusing for newcomers to make sense. It basically fails in too many ways, and it bums me out to say this. I hope that the future of the franchise is handed off to someone else a la Harry Potter. If for some reason the movie makes its money back, it could be a possibility, and the potential is there, but it needs a great director to make it happen. And M. Night Shyamalan is not that person.
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