Mr. Fantastic

Alright so I think this will not be the only review I do this week as I have a few movies I might want to talk about this week. Also I have to get to a list of requests from Rick, who wants me to review Horror movies, consisting of all Slasher Flicks. I'll see how many rentals I have left over after grabbing the new stuff later this week, Rick.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox follows the story of Mr. Fox, a fox who was once a professional Farm Thief, giving up his trade when he learns he is to become a father. Twelve Fox Years later he moves his family to a new home with the secret goal of returning to stealing. When three farmers decide to kill Mr. Fox, a standoff between them and all the woodland creatures begins.

And here we have the third movie with George Clooney in a row. I'm beginning to think the man cannot make a bad movie... I am then of course reminded of Batman and Robin. Fantastic Mr. Fox is quite honestly amazing. It's a strange experience watching the film since it's just so off beat, in such a good way. It's so subtle in it's humor, downplaying the audacity of talking animals. Everything seems almost muted, it doesn't jump out at you like a lot of family films. This movie isn't loud, wildly colorful, or fast moving and that's what gives it it's charm.

You obviously cannot talk about this movie without talking about the animation. It's all done in stop motion, which is all just beautiful. The aesthetic of earthy browns and fiery oranges give the film scenery that is just amazing to watch. All the characters seem intensely detailed, this being one of the first stop motion films I've seen with realistically moving eyes that didn't seem just painted on. The fact that a majority of the characters are covered in fur make the fact that this movie is as smooth as it is just makes me applaud the film makers.

I think the reason Fantastic Mr. Fox works so well, and maybe why it seems so odd, is that it doesn't just jump into a plot, and when it does it doesn't just pursue it till the end. The film first allows the audience to settle into a world, gently nudging the plot forward in the background before it comes crashing into the foreground. It's a layered film, with many themes and aspects to explore. Midlife crisis, family rivalry, sense of community, and risk vs. security are all core aspects to a larger whole.

This is a film that you need to see, at least once. It's beautiful, well written, and extremely funny. It comes out on the 23rd so if you see it on the shelf, pick it up. You won't be dissapointed.

Staring Contest

The Men who Stare at Goats

After his wife leaves him, journalist Bob Wilton hightails it to Iraq for a story and to prove to his ex wife that he is a man. There he meets Lyn Cassady, a man who claims to be a recently reactivated psychic spy. Together they head into Iraq where Lynn explains to Bob the military's secret psychic spy program from the Cold War.

This is an interesting movie... It's hilarious, well executed, great characters and acting, and becoming poignant when needed. It's just a shame with all those qualities it still feels lacking. Now I enjoyed this film immensely, and suggest anyone a fan of dark quirky comedies to see it, but there's just something missing from this film. Something that just doesn't draw you in as deeply as other films.

This film seems to swap from dark comedy to drama without any real flow, the themes of the film don't match very well in that regard. In one seen you have this oddness of a soldier hopped up on LSD in attempts to prove his psychic powers running through the camp naked firing wildly, the next shot he shoots himself in the head. Dark comedies can be dramatic, but in this film the shift from one theme to the next seems stiff, and comes without warning.

This all compounds with the psychic abilities themselves. Half the time the whole idea of psychic powers seems silly and easily explained, all nonsense in the context of the film and only real in the flashbacks. Then another time they appear as real, with no logical explanation to have. The movie doesn't seem to want to decide if the Lynn character is a real psychic or if he's just a con man that believes his own con...

But with all that said, the film is still worth watching. It's a funny and odd dark comedy, if you can handle the mood shifts you will enjoy it immensely. The way Clooney and McGregor play off eachother, a timid young reporter and an old psychic supersoldier... Clooney completely taken by his own story and McGregor going along for the sake of his story, it's great.

This film is definitely for those who enjoy the ludicrous and dark comedies, it may be worth buying, but you wouldn't be wasting money to rent it first to see if it's for you.

Fly Me Away

Up in the Air

Ryan Bingham has a job that keeps him in the air throughout the year, a fact he is most pleased with. Spending most of his time flying around the country, he has taken to a lifestyle of no commitments, always on the move. When a young woman comes to his company with an idea that will keep him grounded, he takes her on the road with him to show her how it needs to be done, and hopefully preserve his way of life.

Jason Reitman seems to have a way of going about movies, taking something reviled and reveling in it. With Thank you for Smoking we saw a spokesperson for the Tabacco Industry as our protagonist, talking about spin and marketing as a way of life. Juno showed us Teen Pregnancy as not something tragic and forever heartbreaking, but as something snarky and something to laugh at. Here we have a man who not only has to deal with airlines, but prefers to be there than home.

It's interesting to me that his protagonists are never truley good people Thank you for Smoking was a Tabacco Spokesperson, Juno a pregnant teen who was cynical and almost callous to those around her, and now a man who fires people for a living, sure he helps them along the way to finding a new path, but he doesn't really seem to care about them. The man is empty, with no real connections...

This movie follows this broken man as his lifestyle is challenged. He sees an end to his anchorless ways, and fights to regain it. All the while toppling over a romance story that shows that maybe being grounded wouldn't be so horrible. The movie plays with these ideas of keeping yourself free and tying yourself down to something throughout, an amazingly small main cast showing so many aspects of life on the move. All concluding in an ending that's almost bittersweet, despite everyone getting what they want.

This is a movie that should be seen, it should be seen multiple times, alone and with friends. It's an amazingly simple story that really opens into some complex themes if you let it. When you see it on the shelf March 9th, pick it up.

The World of Tomorrow

Alright, since it seems that I have an audience now... Which is just plain weird, I'm gonna try to get to a review a week again. So here's the deal, movies don't come into my store on Tuesday anymore, we now get the prestreets on Thursday or Friday. What this means I have only 3-4 days to watch all my prestreet rentals over the weekend, even less time if I actually work. I'm going to try and get new movies up, but I'm gonna be taking requests and suggestions as well. So shoot me a request or suggestion at TheScarletRogue@GMail.com Subject Line: MovieGeek Request.

2012

In 2012 the Mayans predicted the end of the world, and they were right. In the year 2012 the planetary alignment causes a blast of Neutrino waves from the sun that melts the earths core, causing the planet to slowly crumble. Jackson Curtis (Cusack) is on a camping trip with his kids when the world starts to end, now he and his family search desperately for a way to escape the madness while the world literally falls apart around them.

Disaster Movies, let me say just one thing about Disaster Movies. They should be awe inspiring. This isn't something subtle here, theres no subtext, or silent menace in the shadow... You are destroying something. A city, a ship, the entire world, something is going to be utterly annihilated and the audience needs to feel it. Say what you will about movies like Volcano, Independence Day, or Armageddon(And honestly, I could say a lot.) But they knew how to make the destruction, the disasters of their movies feel disastrous.

2012 is almost comical in that regard. The destruction is so outrageous and the action is so ridiculous that you'll be hurdled out of the experience. It simply feels as though the makers of the movie are trying to make you laugh at the utter destruction of California as a whole. Donuts roll in the path of the protagonists, slow driving old ladies block their path as the road crumbles behind them, and a subway train shoots out of the ground as the heroes take off in a plane. There is nothing to the action except for barely missed it scenes, where inevitably the protagonists will just barely skirt by as something attempts to crush, drop, or explode around them. Many of these moments happen within SECONDS of each other, it's simply too much.

And this is John Cusack, do you know how much you have to work for me to dislike a John Cusack film? He and the cast are really the only saving grace in this film. Sure they're all just stock, nothing more than placeholders between the over the top action and destruction scenes, vessels for us to sit with and take us from explosion to explosion... But with actors like John Cusack, Danny Glover, Woody Harrelson, and Oliver Platt, at least some emotion is drawn from these rather bland characters.

Though even with the horrible things I've just said, it's not as horrible as I expected. I was expecting from word of mouth something truly bad, and got something merely poor. It's not a good movie, that's for sure. And while it fails, even in regards to it's own genre, you won't be gnawing your own foot off to escape it if you pick it up. It's certainly not a purchase, though, only a rental.

And I just got through the entire review without ranting why the theories behind 2012 are wrong. I'm quite proud of myself.