Inglorious Basterds I have a love-hate relationship with Quentin Tarantino. I’ve had it ever since I saw Reservoir Dogs, thought it was brilliant, and wished I hadn’t. I haven’t seen all his movies, the previews of a few of them were enough for me. And I wasn’t going to see this one either, but my daughter and her boyfriend (he’s a movie-maker) said it was awesome. And it is. Awesome, I mean. Terrible and awesome.
(In order to assuage my guilt at having to say anything positive about Tarantino’s work, I will add a negative qualifier to each positive adjective. Thus, this movie was perversely brilliant. See how that works?)
Hopefully, by now, no one goes to a Tarantino movie innocently. Either we know to stay away or we have seen Pulp Fiction and know, more or less, what to expect. This kind of movie finds its own audience and everyone else leaves them alone. You know who you are.
Inglorious Basterds is a WWII fantasy. It has nothing, as far as I know, to do with reality other than to borrow the time period and locations of the war. It stars Brad Pitt as an easy-going hick from Tennessee who is tasked to put together a commando group of American Jews, jump behind enemy lines and kill, torture, disfigure, disembowel, dismember, and whatever other dis they can think of, Nazis. Their job is to strike fear into the hearts of the rank-and-file German soldier, a task they succeed at with obsessive glee. There are a few other threads, stories, being woven flawlessly into the weave of the Basterds story, having to do with a punctilious and flamboyant—but ruthlessly efficient SS Colonel, a young Jewess he allows to escape her families massacre for sport, and an American double-agent who is a famous German actress plotting to destroy half the high-command at the Parisian premier of the Third Reich’s propaganda minister’s latest epic movie. (Nice sentence, right?)
Tarantino works the camera like the demented genius he is. He gets brilliant work from each of his actors. Pitt as the laconic “Apache” , Aldo Raine, and a wonderful Diane Kruger (National Treasure) as the German actress, Brigit Von Hammersmark, but the best performance is Christoph Waltz as the insidiously pleasant and urbane Colonel Landa, the amoral, vainglorious, and brilliantly efficient SS “Jew Hunter.” Watching Waltz create and imbue this character is worth the price of admission. Pitt does this bizarre and creepy-charming Brando-as-Don-Corleone-thing with his face in a few scenes that is fun to watch as well. Even the guy who plays Hitler is perfect. Everything is done to perfect detail, down to the use of German, French, and Italian, with subtitles where needed. Tarantino throws in those Chapter Headings (Kill Bill) he’s so fond of, and a few asides to introduce certain characters and let us know why they are important or just that Quentin apparently really likes this one or that one. He chooses music from his favorite era, the “Spaghetti Western”, a sub-genre the rest of us like to call “terrible movies.” (Don’t get me wrong . . . I love those movies too. It’s just that Quentin seems to worship them and wants to bring them to the level of masterpiece.) This one has lots of hi-reverb harmonica and guitar—music to kill by.
I doubt I would like Tarantino if I ever met him. I can only go by what I’ve seen in interviews on television and a few of his acting parts, but he seems to be on meth all the time. He is frenetic, nervous, hyper, talks to fast, and knows way to much about the movie industry and its history. And he knows how smart he is and seems to revel in it. I don’t think he uses the violence and gore for which he is infamous in a gratuitous fashion though. I think he really, truly, loves it. It’s what he grew up with and he wants to let everyone know how he feels about it. I think he’s one of those “if you’re going to shy away from the ugly stuff you don’t deserve the pretty stuff” kind of guys, but of course, that’s a lot of BS.
Okay, down to brass tacks. This movie is, as I said, absolutely, disturbingly, brilliant. If you do not want to see violence and gore (lots of Germans are scalped for example), and are not interested in a good deal of profane language, stay away from this, or any, Tarantino movie. If you know what you’re getting into, this is a good as Pulp Fiction, maybe better. As I said, it is sheer make-believe. I won’t give then ending away; suffice it to say it does not agree with history as we know it. As usual, it is Tarantino living out another adolescent fantasy. It is rated R and deserves every bit of that rating. Oddly, there is no sex and no skin. Nita would still have to be hospitalized after seeing it.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
District 9
District 9 Didn’t know much about this one, other than having seen the trailer a few dozen times. It looked good, had a feel about, and I wasn’t disappointed. There are no big-name actors in this—in fact the principle has never acted before in his life. I’ve never heard of the director. Apparently he made his name doing special effects.
Here’s the back story, which is told as scenes from several documentaries. 20 years ago, a huge starship arrives in our atmosphere and settled over Johannesburg, South Africa. It doesn’t move or make a sound for months as humanity watches. Finally, someone decides to cut their way into the ship (Which is as big as a city) and they find a million starving aliens who look vaguely insectoid. They shuttle the dying creatures to the surface, set up a settlement, feed them and care for them. The settlement slowly devolves into a slum as reality hits—the aliens are stranded, can never leave again. Something broke.
So essentially, what we have is a new round of Apartheid with big bugs instead of indigenous Africans. A mid-level bureaucrat gets caught up in a resettlement scam and accidentally discovers the secret of why the aliens are stuck here while he is “infected” with alien DNA. As you can imagine, he begins to become an alien. This causes problems at home. Plus, when the government finds out, he becomes the most valuable commodity on the planet. The aliens have very advanced weaponry—which has mostly been confiscated—but it is linked to their DNA which means humans can’t use it. We can’t even figure out what each weapon does. But our hero—anti-hero really—can fire the weapons.
The movie is shot with that frenetic, rough, edgy documentary look that has become popular recently, even though it often doesn’t work well. In this case it does. If you’ve seen Quarantine, it’s sort of like that, although the middle part of this movie loses the POV camera and settles into more mainstream styles while managing to keep the suspense and tension highish.
It’s a good movie. Better than I’d hoped. It is inventive and clever and shot so well one forgets one is in a movie theater. It didn’t occur to me until I was walking out that ¾ of the movie is CGI. It was seamless. We would expect no less from Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) who produced this one.
This one is rated R, and rightfully so. They love to use the F word in South Africa. It is gory, but not in a gratuitous way. One of the alien weapons blows people up—literally. But the camera never lingers on the gore. Each sequence only lasts about half-a-second. Lots of blood spatter.
The script is good. It takes our main characters, the bureaucrat and an alien named Christopher Johnson, through interesting changes. The audience follows each as they slowly and painfully find common ground through dire necessity. The ending is bittersweet. No one gets what they want, or even need. And the movie slips back into documentary mode at the end, which is very effective. We get to see the worst and best of both species.
As I said, it is a good movie. Better than most these days, but not a mainstream affair. It is genre at its best . . . not mainstream at all, and will not appeal to many people. I liked it.
Sneak preview! I saw a trailer for a new Zombie movie! It’s called Zombieland, and stars Woody Harrelson. Woo-hoo!
Here’s the back story, which is told as scenes from several documentaries. 20 years ago, a huge starship arrives in our atmosphere and settled over Johannesburg, South Africa. It doesn’t move or make a sound for months as humanity watches. Finally, someone decides to cut their way into the ship (Which is as big as a city) and they find a million starving aliens who look vaguely insectoid. They shuttle the dying creatures to the surface, set up a settlement, feed them and care for them. The settlement slowly devolves into a slum as reality hits—the aliens are stranded, can never leave again. Something broke.
So essentially, what we have is a new round of Apartheid with big bugs instead of indigenous Africans. A mid-level bureaucrat gets caught up in a resettlement scam and accidentally discovers the secret of why the aliens are stuck here while he is “infected” with alien DNA. As you can imagine, he begins to become an alien. This causes problems at home. Plus, when the government finds out, he becomes the most valuable commodity on the planet. The aliens have very advanced weaponry—which has mostly been confiscated—but it is linked to their DNA which means humans can’t use it. We can’t even figure out what each weapon does. But our hero—anti-hero really—can fire the weapons.
The movie is shot with that frenetic, rough, edgy documentary look that has become popular recently, even though it often doesn’t work well. In this case it does. If you’ve seen Quarantine, it’s sort of like that, although the middle part of this movie loses the POV camera and settles into more mainstream styles while managing to keep the suspense and tension highish.
It’s a good movie. Better than I’d hoped. It is inventive and clever and shot so well one forgets one is in a movie theater. It didn’t occur to me until I was walking out that ¾ of the movie is CGI. It was seamless. We would expect no less from Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) who produced this one.
This one is rated R, and rightfully so. They love to use the F word in South Africa. It is gory, but not in a gratuitous way. One of the alien weapons blows people up—literally. But the camera never lingers on the gore. Each sequence only lasts about half-a-second. Lots of blood spatter.
The script is good. It takes our main characters, the bureaucrat and an alien named Christopher Johnson, through interesting changes. The audience follows each as they slowly and painfully find common ground through dire necessity. The ending is bittersweet. No one gets what they want, or even need. And the movie slips back into documentary mode at the end, which is very effective. We get to see the worst and best of both species.
As I said, it is a good movie. Better than most these days, but not a mainstream affair. It is genre at its best . . . not mainstream at all, and will not appeal to many people. I liked it.
Sneak preview! I saw a trailer for a new Zombie movie! It’s called Zombieland, and stars Woody Harrelson. Woo-hoo!
Friday, August 7, 2009
Movie Review: GI Joe
GI Joe It’s terrible. The writing is worse than the original cartoon. There is no acting; None required, and none given. The CGI is fine, but the technology and science are beyond fantasy—incomprehensible and irrational. There are air battles underwater—with machine gun sounds. The female Joe—a very cute redhead—has a nice suit of skin tight body armor—just like the guys, except hers has nipples molded into it . . . not to put too fine a point on my criticism.
This movie seems to me to be the perfect example of everything wrong about Hollywood; it is bright and glittery and action-packed and shallow—completely devoid of content. To give this thing the critique it deserves I would have to have the DVD so I could watch and pause, watch and pause, and the length of my review would be fifty pages—easy. Either that or the Mystery Science Theater 3000 guys should devote a two-hour special to it.
One wonders if actors—and producers and directors for that matter—are not able to imagine anything about a movie when they read the script. Can they not tell how bad something is going to be? Or does it happen during the process? But then surely the editors can tell?
It should never have seen the light of day. Instead, they should have cut it into four half-hour segments and put it on Saturday morning television as a kind of kids mini-series. At least then we could change the channel.
This flick will appeal to the 8, 9, and 10 year old set, and the nostalgia set, and will make money, which is all this one is about. There is not one minute of genuine entertainment in it. Even the lines delivered for laughs are stilted, poorly shot and fall flat. At least Transformers was fun.
This movie seems to me to be the perfect example of everything wrong about Hollywood; it is bright and glittery and action-packed and shallow—completely devoid of content. To give this thing the critique it deserves I would have to have the DVD so I could watch and pause, watch and pause, and the length of my review would be fifty pages—easy. Either that or the Mystery Science Theater 3000 guys should devote a two-hour special to it.
One wonders if actors—and producers and directors for that matter—are not able to imagine anything about a movie when they read the script. Can they not tell how bad something is going to be? Or does it happen during the process? But then surely the editors can tell?
It should never have seen the light of day. Instead, they should have cut it into four half-hour segments and put it on Saturday morning television as a kind of kids mini-series. At least then we could change the channel.
This flick will appeal to the 8, 9, and 10 year old set, and the nostalgia set, and will make money, which is all this one is about. There is not one minute of genuine entertainment in it. Even the lines delivered for laughs are stilted, poorly shot and fall flat. At least Transformers was fun.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Star Trek
Star Trek I remember it like it was yesterday. The first time I saw a commercial for the upcoming new series called Star Trek. I must have been around 17 or 18. At the very last second, the Starship Enterprise streaked across the television screen and I knew everything had changed. Sure, I’d been reading sci-fi for years by that time, and I was familiar with the concept of starships. But in the movies up to that time, there were only two kinds of spaceships; rockets (liquid or solid fuel) and flying saucers, which represented the alien tech (think This Island Earth, Day the World Stood Still, Forbidden Planet). But when the Enterprise came onto the screen and it wasn’t a rocket and it wasn’t a saucer, we experienced a paradigm shift—at least I did. This was a Starship. Built in space, never meant for atmospheric flight, and obviously FTL. (Faster than light.) My mom and I waited all summer for the new season to begin while dad scratched his head and wondered what all the fuss was about.
I loved Star Trek. Both of them. I was never a trekkie, never went to conventions or dressed up in those ridiculous costumes. It meant far more to me than that. Those people were posers, pretenders, stuck in shallow affectations with no real idea of what they were seeing. Not the show itself, which in retrospect was often pretty bad, but the potential, the promise, the completely positive portrayal of the human condition.
And yes, I knew it was just a TV show. Often poorly written, bad sets, bad makeup, bad acting. But infinite vision.
This new movie finally allows the series to live up to its potential. It is the ultimate back-story, the ultimate action movie. All the characters are back and intact. The casting is brilliant. The story holds together with just enough content to keep us in our seats, driven by relentless action, but is very well written nonetheless. The actors bring all the old favorites alive; Spock, Uhuru, Chekov, Sulu, McCoy and Scottie. Except they are all young, new, cadets thrown into a life and death situation. Captain Pike is the skipper of the Enterprise when the story begins. (If you are a true-believer you know who that is). And the security guys all wear red jerseys. But the kid playing Kirk steals the movie. He has a presence. The writer and director should be nominated for academy awards, but probably won’t be. I think every major theme from the original series is in this movie. The faithful will be well-fed, I guarantee. The myriad items from everyone’s past finally come to light and we discover origins. It begins with Kirk’s father, George, sacrificing his life and his ship for the good of the Federation. I was crying in the first five minutes. (but I often cry at phone commercials, so, you know . . .)
ILM did the special effects and they are hand-wringers. The critics are right; This is the movie for everyone, fan or not. If you like action and smart, funny characters with just enough pathos to make them real, this is for you. The audience applauded at the end. Leonard Nimoy is in this one, now in his 70’s. He’s awesome.
Like a few others before it, this movie is a game-changer. It met or exceeded every expectation. I plan to go back and take Nita. It is rated PG-13. No cussing, no sex. (one itty-bitty clothes-changing scene, no big deal) and lots of great big things blowing up, planets being sucked into black holes, the usual tourist stuff. And Spock has a girl friend!
Sure, there were some problems. I still hate it when vessels in space fly like planes and make cool sounds, but that’s the movies. The sets were incredible. The Enterprise gets bigger with every movie. And this is the best of the Star Trek movies.
I loved Star Trek. Both of them. I was never a trekkie, never went to conventions or dressed up in those ridiculous costumes. It meant far more to me than that. Those people were posers, pretenders, stuck in shallow affectations with no real idea of what they were seeing. Not the show itself, which in retrospect was often pretty bad, but the potential, the promise, the completely positive portrayal of the human condition.
And yes, I knew it was just a TV show. Often poorly written, bad sets, bad makeup, bad acting. But infinite vision.
This new movie finally allows the series to live up to its potential. It is the ultimate back-story, the ultimate action movie. All the characters are back and intact. The casting is brilliant. The story holds together with just enough content to keep us in our seats, driven by relentless action, but is very well written nonetheless. The actors bring all the old favorites alive; Spock, Uhuru, Chekov, Sulu, McCoy and Scottie. Except they are all young, new, cadets thrown into a life and death situation. Captain Pike is the skipper of the Enterprise when the story begins. (If you are a true-believer you know who that is). And the security guys all wear red jerseys. But the kid playing Kirk steals the movie. He has a presence. The writer and director should be nominated for academy awards, but probably won’t be. I think every major theme from the original series is in this movie. The faithful will be well-fed, I guarantee. The myriad items from everyone’s past finally come to light and we discover origins. It begins with Kirk’s father, George, sacrificing his life and his ship for the good of the Federation. I was crying in the first five minutes. (but I often cry at phone commercials, so, you know . . .)
ILM did the special effects and they are hand-wringers. The critics are right; This is the movie for everyone, fan or not. If you like action and smart, funny characters with just enough pathos to make them real, this is for you. The audience applauded at the end. Leonard Nimoy is in this one, now in his 70’s. He’s awesome.
Like a few others before it, this movie is a game-changer. It met or exceeded every expectation. I plan to go back and take Nita. It is rated PG-13. No cussing, no sex. (one itty-bitty clothes-changing scene, no big deal) and lots of great big things blowing up, planets being sucked into black holes, the usual tourist stuff. And Spock has a girl friend!
Sure, there were some problems. I still hate it when vessels in space fly like planes and make cool sounds, but that’s the movies. The sets were incredible. The Enterprise gets bigger with every movie. And this is the best of the Star Trek movies.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Terminator Salvation
Terminator: Salvation Does it seem as if a review for this movie is redundant? There have already been three. First we tried to kill Sarah, then John, then John’s girlfriend. Who’s left to kill? The story-line in these movies involves time paradoxes and frankly, was never solid enough to support more than a couple flicks. Like Conan, they were just a vehicle for the world’s most muscular man to flex, and kill people. Which is totally valid, don’t get me wrong. But enough is enough already.
First, let’s get this out of the way; it’s a great action movie, meaning there’s lots of action. Fun to watch—unless (here comes the caveat) you have a brain larger than a walnut.
The story revolves (barely) around a guy on death row who donates his body to science and becomes an unwitting vassal of Skynet, the machine culture bent on eradicating humans. In the meantime John Connors father (who hasn’t gone back in time yet so he can impregnate Sarah, Jon’s mother), then a teen-ager in the war-ravaged ruins of LA, is captured by the bad robots and befriends the unwitting cyborg who thinks its human, while John is leading heroic raids against the machines and battling the leadership because only he knows the future, and a female pilot is shot down, and the resistance leadership is planning a big counter-attack, and blah,blah, blah. The whole thing collapses into a black-hole of too many so-what’s and I-don’t-cares?
Actually, I was hoping for a true paradigm shift on the order of the new Star Trek, but I was sorely disappointed. There are too many hackneyed scenes, left over from a hundred other movies, too many scenes and stunts and effects that were there just to be there—having nothing to do with the plot or the action—of course intelligent machines would have fire pots placed in strategic locations so there would be, you know . . . fire. And as usual, too many holes, and mistakes. Easy to avoid mistakes. Like, what was the point of the atomic bomb, which had nothing to do with what was going on? And why did everyone’s radio work only a few miles from the blast (and EMP) and growing mushroom cloud? And on and on. This one had the same problem as Armageddon. Not enough thought went into it to actually create a viable story worth two hours of our time. It was just big explosions and random emergencies. And bad science.
Arnold declined to be involved, but they threw in a completely unnecessary look-alike-slash-manikin to play the “Terminator” for about five seconds. Don’t’cha wonder what people are thinking sometimes?
In the end, nothing is resolved, which means these idiots are actually contemplating another one.
It was worth seeing—barely. I give it a solid but tedious ho-hum. Rated PG-13. Nita didn’t bother going, she has more sense.
First, let’s get this out of the way; it’s a great action movie, meaning there’s lots of action. Fun to watch—unless (here comes the caveat) you have a brain larger than a walnut.
The story revolves (barely) around a guy on death row who donates his body to science and becomes an unwitting vassal of Skynet, the machine culture bent on eradicating humans. In the meantime John Connors father (who hasn’t gone back in time yet so he can impregnate Sarah, Jon’s mother), then a teen-ager in the war-ravaged ruins of LA, is captured by the bad robots and befriends the unwitting cyborg who thinks its human, while John is leading heroic raids against the machines and battling the leadership because only he knows the future, and a female pilot is shot down, and the resistance leadership is planning a big counter-attack, and blah,blah, blah. The whole thing collapses into a black-hole of too many so-what’s and I-don’t-cares?
Actually, I was hoping for a true paradigm shift on the order of the new Star Trek, but I was sorely disappointed. There are too many hackneyed scenes, left over from a hundred other movies, too many scenes and stunts and effects that were there just to be there—having nothing to do with the plot or the action—of course intelligent machines would have fire pots placed in strategic locations so there would be, you know . . . fire. And as usual, too many holes, and mistakes. Easy to avoid mistakes. Like, what was the point of the atomic bomb, which had nothing to do with what was going on? And why did everyone’s radio work only a few miles from the blast (and EMP) and growing mushroom cloud? And on and on. This one had the same problem as Armageddon. Not enough thought went into it to actually create a viable story worth two hours of our time. It was just big explosions and random emergencies. And bad science.
Arnold declined to be involved, but they threw in a completely unnecessary look-alike-slash-manikin to play the “Terminator” for about five seconds. Don’t’cha wonder what people are thinking sometimes?
In the end, nothing is resolved, which means these idiots are actually contemplating another one.
It was worth seeing—barely. I give it a solid but tedious ho-hum. Rated PG-13. Nita didn’t bother going, she has more sense.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Watchmen
Watchmen Wow—lot’s a fanfare and advanced hype on this one. Watchmen is based on a “graphic novel” from the eighties, which won all kinds of awards and most people say is the best GN ever. Woo-hoo. It’s still a comic.
It is a strange story which takes place in a kind of alternative universe where Richard Nixon serves five terms as President, we win the Viet Nam war, and society falls into a malaise of crime, decadence and nihilism. Oh, I get it . . . . .
But here’s the twist; a bunch of people decide to fight crime by becoming super heroes. Think “Mystery Men” meets the “Avengers.” They are regular people with lots of training, skills, and more courage than sense, wearing outlandish costumes (just like the comics) and doing what they can to clean up the city. They have the same challenges as the rest of us. One is insane, one is a fascist wanna-be rapist, one is the smartest man in the world with an ego to match, etc. “Masked Crusaders” have been outlawed and the are all in retirement when one of their own is murdered, leaving the others to try and solve the mystery. Is someone coming after all the “Masks?”
One of them actually has super-human powers. He is called Dr. Manhattan. Disintegrated in a nuclear accident, he reassembles himself and learns to control matter an energy on the atomic level. But he is gradually becoming disaffected with the plight of humanity. As others plot to take control of the world for the “benefit of mankind” Dr. Manhattan wanders off to Mars where he can think in peace.
In the meantime, nuclear war has never been more immanent and likely. The Doomsday clock has been set to four minutes to midnight and everyone is scared, especially since Dr. Manhattan, who can save them, has vanished.
This is as private a vision as a vision can get. In some ways it is brilliant. In others, it is hopelessly deficient. The visual aspects of the movie are wonderful, the acting is superb, and even the screenplay holds up. I had decided not to see it based on an interview with the director, which I read, but my brother-in-law, James insisted, so I went.
Remember how great Marvel comics were? How their heroes had real problems and challenges like the rest of us? Acne, babysitters, self-esteem issues? This is like that, but on steroids.
We are glad we saw it, but neither of us would recommend it to the general public. It is a hard R rating, with some very disturbing scenes and themes, but I think the rating is about right. It didn’t rise to NC-17, quite. So if you like strange, intellectually and visually stimulating and someone’s very personal vision, this is the movie for you.
It is a strange story which takes place in a kind of alternative universe where Richard Nixon serves five terms as President, we win the Viet Nam war, and society falls into a malaise of crime, decadence and nihilism. Oh, I get it . . . . .
But here’s the twist; a bunch of people decide to fight crime by becoming super heroes. Think “Mystery Men” meets the “Avengers.” They are regular people with lots of training, skills, and more courage than sense, wearing outlandish costumes (just like the comics) and doing what they can to clean up the city. They have the same challenges as the rest of us. One is insane, one is a fascist wanna-be rapist, one is the smartest man in the world with an ego to match, etc. “Masked Crusaders” have been outlawed and the are all in retirement when one of their own is murdered, leaving the others to try and solve the mystery. Is someone coming after all the “Masks?”
One of them actually has super-human powers. He is called Dr. Manhattan. Disintegrated in a nuclear accident, he reassembles himself and learns to control matter an energy on the atomic level. But he is gradually becoming disaffected with the plight of humanity. As others plot to take control of the world for the “benefit of mankind” Dr. Manhattan wanders off to Mars where he can think in peace.
In the meantime, nuclear war has never been more immanent and likely. The Doomsday clock has been set to four minutes to midnight and everyone is scared, especially since Dr. Manhattan, who can save them, has vanished.
This is as private a vision as a vision can get. In some ways it is brilliant. In others, it is hopelessly deficient. The visual aspects of the movie are wonderful, the acting is superb, and even the screenplay holds up. I had decided not to see it based on an interview with the director, which I read, but my brother-in-law, James insisted, so I went.
Remember how great Marvel comics were? How their heroes had real problems and challenges like the rest of us? Acne, babysitters, self-esteem issues? This is like that, but on steroids.
We are glad we saw it, but neither of us would recommend it to the general public. It is a hard R rating, with some very disturbing scenes and themes, but I think the rating is about right. It didn’t rise to NC-17, quite. So if you like strange, intellectually and visually stimulating and someone’s very personal vision, this is the movie for you.
Escape to Witch Mountain
Escape to Witch Mountain This is a Disney remake of a Disney movie from the 70’s (I think). I is about two alien teenagers who are trying to save the earth from being taken by their people, whose home planet is dying. It stars Dwayne Johnson as the Vegas taxi-driving ex-con with a heart of gold who helps the kids evade their own hunter-assassin as well as our governments MIB, who are desperate to get their hands on real, live extra-terrestrials. This was not made with awards in mind, just good entertainment for kids and adolescents, and it delivers on its promise. Cleaned up and de-hokiefied from the original, brought up to date, and with good special effects, it is a fun, action-packed suspense thriller for about 10 and up. Younger kids can see it but they might not get it and it might be a little scary in a few parts, so I’d be cautious.
Johnson is making a name for himself as a solid actor and action hero a la Arnold and Bruce Willis. The kids (I don’t know who they are and IMDB is blocked these days) play their roles well, if not brilliantly. It’s a fun movie for adults as well, a genuine popcorn flick. Nothing objectionable. PG-13. We all liked it . For a professional synopsis and review, see Carol Cling in today’s RJ.
Johnson is making a name for himself as a solid actor and action hero a la Arnold and Bruce Willis. The kids (I don’t know who they are and IMDB is blocked these days) play their roles well, if not brilliantly. It’s a fun movie for adults as well, a genuine popcorn flick. Nothing objectionable. PG-13. We all liked it . For a professional synopsis and review, see Carol Cling in today’s RJ.
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