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Flushed Away

Hugh Jackman and Kate Winslet star in Flushed Away, the latest in a long line of animated anthropomorphic animal movies. There is such a pile of this genre that you can't keep up with them, and they become indistinguishable from one another. Flushed Away at least attempts to distinguish itself from the crowd by not going for the over-the-top, gross-out joke with the hint of adult innuendo. Instead, it's focused more on plot and story. There's humor here, but it fits in the context of the story with cleverness and not simply as an isolated joke.

Flushed Away opens with a pampered pet rat, put out by an intruding sewer rat who flushes him into London's rat society. There, Roddy (Jackman) encounters Rita (Winslet), a scrappy scavenger with a family bond unlike Roddy has ever experienced. The two are imperiled together in a madcap race to defeat The Toad (Ian McKellen) and his henchrats and henchfrogs--before they flood the sewers.

All of the voice actors give winning performances and the animation is in the Wallace and Gromit style because it's from the same production company, Aardman. It's fast-paced, interesting, and the minutae of the devices used by the rats--from paperclips to duty-free shopping bags--makes for an extra layer of fun. Grade: B

She's the Man

I never thought that a teen comedy about a girl who goes undercover as a guy--would entertain me so thoroughly.

There is often a gulf between my wife's choice in movies and my own. I rented She's the Man simply to please her. But in the end, we found something we both enjoyed.

She's the Man stars the irrepresible Amanda Bynes as Viola, an ace soccer star who's high school team is the victim of a budget cut-back. The boys' coach won't let a girl try-out, so Viola masquerades as her twin brother at a nearby private academy.

Bynes' character lives in a boy's dorm and endures the typical challenges of mixing in (she's an effette geek), avoiding uncomfortable situations (gang showers), and hiding her girlness (through breast-bundling and tampon subterfuge).

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

A good comedy is like a child of your own--you watch it grow from its promising introduction, through the joys of youth, to the satisifying fruition of adulthood. Along the way, you can't help but smile as you cheer the movie on, fully embracing the great, nodding approval at the good, and hanging with it despite the awkward misses. The fact is, you embrace and love it--even when it veers slightly off course.

Too bad this feeling didn't arise within me as I watched Talladega Nights. I wanted to smile, to laugh, and to cheer as Will Ferrell displayed his trademark goofiness through a persona that seemed ready-made for him, but the laughs were inconsistent at best.

Talladega Nights opens with a quick montage of race car driver Ricky Bobby's life--from his momma giving birth to him in a muscle car, to his fatherless childhood, to his fast rise to the top of NASCAR. During these scenes, Ferrell had his full-"Bubba" on, and things looked promising, but something turned soured when we met the family.

The Benchwarmers

The Benchwarmers is Rob Schneider's one opportunity to play a serious actor, and it's a little unnerving at first to see him not make a fool of himself. Here, he's a stud, and even somewhat of a lady-killer. 

The Benchwarmers is marketed as a flick about three losers who get their Little League revenge, as adults. But in reality, Schneider plays a decent and hard-working guy; he's athletic, and somehow managed to marry Molly Sims, for Pete's sake.

Click

 Did Adam Sandler just make a "message" movie?

In Click, Sandler portrays his typical bumbling, good-natured hot-head, although this time, he's a little more grown up. A little. Sandler plays Michael Newman, an ambitious architect with a beautiful wife, two great kids, and a modest lifestyle. He wants more, but he doesn't want to endure the family hassles that often slow him down on his way to the top.

One frustrated night he runs out to get a universal remote for his TV, and in a movie full of situations requiring the suspension of disbelief, this quest for a remote is probably the hardest to believe. How could a savvy, thirty-something guy confuse a garage door opener with his TV remote? Pathetic.

Lady in the Water

From the truly original mind of writer/director Manoj Night Shyamalan, comes the fifth film in his celebrated series of twist-cinema, Lady in the Water. For this film, Shyamalan creates an ancient myth and brings it to life in the most unlikely of places--a low-rent apartment complex.

Paul Giamatti, the truest everyman actor I think I've ever seen, plays Cleveland Heep--a sad sack of a man who superintends The Cove apartments. After observing some very strange clues about the tenant pool, he discovers a sea creature (Bryce Dallas Howard) who is supposedly part of eastern lore. Giamatti is drawn to her--and desires to protect her, to understand her mission, and to get her safely home.

Set around this mythos is a hundred or more people who are just like any one you might run into at Wal-Mart. The entire picture is told through Giamatti's eyes, and even without the fantastic sea-nymph scenario, there are great riches mined by Shyamalan in these authentic characters.

Last Holiday

The suspension of disbelief is one of the key ingredients in the movie-goer's recipe. Some films require more than a dash of this, Last Holiday being one of them.

If you can abide some far-fetched necessities, then you'll probably like the taste of this movie.

Last Holiday is the story of Georgia Byrd (Queen Latifah), a shy sales associate in the cookware department at a major department store, who discovers she has just three weeks to live.

You, Me & Dupree

You, Me and Dupree delivered laughs and overall satisfaction. Owen "I always play the same character" Wilson captured my interest from the start and again, had me rooting for him, even though he's the kind of guy none of us would probably like in real life.

Matt Dillon--convincingly playing a just-wed young professional (how old is he now?)--supplied just enough moxie to be a guy's-guy while playing the foil for most of Wilson's jokes, and Kate Hudson had all the right moves for her part. In a sense, we were to see Wilson through Hudson's eyes--skeptical at first, and enraptured at last.

The movie isn't high art, and is basically a sequence of bits all playing to a grander and grander spectacle of absurdity, but for what it is--it's good. Hard-luck and undermotivated, Wilson moves in with the newlyweds and creates havoc. At first he is coddled by Dillon (they are buddies, afterall), then he wins Hudson's affections just as Dillon's patience has worn out.

There is a slightly humorous sub-plot involving Dillon's boss/Hudson's father--played by Michael Douglas--who is subversively trying to emasculate Dillon because his fatherly love for Hudson is apparently too big to absorb a son-in-law. This element of the movie is good, not great, mostly because it's missing the amusing Owen Wilson--although Douglas is right-on with his portrayal.

Owen Wilson is an interesting talent. He can be dizzyingly enjoyable to watch, or he can be annoying, cloying, and vapid. He walks a fine line with this schtick between one movie and the next, even though he's doing yeoman's work in each. He's great in movies like Dupree, Cars, or Meet the Parents, while he misses the mark in Shanghai Nights, Starsky and Hutch, and Around the World in 80 Days. It's puzzling. Grade: B+

Movies: 2nd Quarter Honor Roll

The best films I saw between April and June, 2006:

Thank You For Smoking – This witty satire--based on the 1994 novel by Christopher Buckley—was a real treat. Completely dependent upon verbal interplay, it more than lived up to the book I first read over a decade ago. Aaron Eckhart was perfect in the role of smoking apologist Nick Naylor, the amoral representative of big tobacco. Against all odds, he maneuvers and manipulates his death-stick client into the most favorable of situations—such is the power of a winning smile and a few well-chosen words. Grade: A

An Unfinished Life – This is one of those sleepy films, which you expect to be good, secretly hoping that it will be great. Jennifer Lopez was acceptable in the role of single mom, Jean Gilkyson, but her limitations as an actress are writ large next to talents like Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman, and even Camryn Manheim. Lopez and her daughter--an on-key Becca Gardner--leave behind an abusive boyfriend and strike out for Wyoming to stay with her estranged father-in-law. Along the way all of the predictable things happen—as each character learns a lot about themselves, about life, and about their relations. But each performance is richly delivered and it is a particular joy to watch Redford and Freeman. I also appreciated the way An Unfinished Life reminded me of the core values of family and the simple life. Grade: A-

Mission: Impossible 3 – I know this might not be a popular choice to rank so highly, but I went to this movie with a couple of buddies, and got what I expected. The plot had holes, sure, the major problem being that it wasn’t clear what Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character did, or what was so important about his scheme--but how important is that in an action flick? With this genre of film, you want to see the hero enter each scene with style, make some noise, and either rescue the peeps or kick the perpetrator’s butt--and Mission: Impossible 3 delivered. It was flash, splash, and bash all the way to the finish line—sure, it wasn't the best roller coaster ride I’ve been on, but very few roller coasters disappoint. Grade: A-

Honorable Mention: Failure to Launch (B+), Into the Blue (B+), Casanova (B+), and Firewall (B+).

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

I finally saw "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl." I know that this movie is 3 years old, but there are 3 reasons why I waited so long:

1--It was based on a ride at Disney World--so I didn't give it much credibility.

2--I tried to watch it on DVD a while ago, but couldn't stay awake (though my movie-sleeper-wife, Paula, loved it).

3--We bought the DVD from the Disney DVD club when it first came out (that's when Paula watched it), but watching a movie you've owned for awhile is never as exciting as watching a new one you just rented.

That's why I never got around to this one, until I began to see ads for the sequel, and I thought I better see the original.

So here's my review: Not bad. Great action sequences, a nice score (soaring at all the right moments), a wimpy-but-driven protagonist (Orlando Bloom), a terrific introduction (Keira Knightley), a great villanous actor (Geoffrey Rush), and one of the best actors alive (Johnny Depp).

The story was a little flat--but the un-pirate (played by Johnny Depp)clearly made this film the phenomenal success that it was. My only problem with Depp's performance, was that I had an unbelievably difficult time hearing his lines. As my wife watched it with me (round two for her), she laughed and laughed--but I missed half the jokes because the music was too loud (I know, I sound like an old fart).

In the end, it was fun, visually stunning--with gripping high-tech wonders such as skeletons come-to-life--it was well-paced, and finely acted--but because of the limited story and the low volume on the dialogue, I have to give it just a "B."

Author's Note: Let me take this opportunity to make comments on two of the film's actors: Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp.

First Bloom--this guy I just don't get. He stars in all of these action-historic-literary pieces and he's very flat and hollow to me (Pirates, The Lord of the Rings triology, Kingdom of Heaven, Troy), but watch him in the 2005 JohnVano Best Picture Winner, Elizabethtown--and he's brilliant. Career advice, Mr. Bloom: Be more like Johnny Depp. Live a little, discover art house cinema, play some people with problems for once (not foes, but phobias).

And Depp--I've been watching you since 21 Jump Street, and I recognized in Don Juan DeMarco, of all movies, that you were one of the greats. I love your quirky sensibility, the humor, and the depth that you bring to each role. But I'd love to see more movies like What's Eating Gilbert Grape? and Chocolat on your resume--and not so many Tim Burton projects. So in a sense, be more like Orlando Bloom, and go for the big paycheck every once in a while. Thank you.