Rango - The Lizard with no Name

Director Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp are back together again after working on the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies. This time it’s a fully computer animated feature film but this one is quite unusual and different from other computer animated films.

Visually this movie is much more gritty and realistic looking, both in the large variety of characters being portrayed and the environments. In fact it looks so realistic that it’s more like a live-action film except with characters that are all desert animals; lizards, chameleons, rattlesnakes, owls, armadillos, road runners, turtles, bats, rats but far from looking like cartoon characters, these animals all look very close to nature with quirky human traits.

The visual style is so strikingly real in all its intricate details that it will captivate you even when the story drags a little in places. Adding to the realism is the fact that eight-time Oscar nominated Cinematographer Roger Deakins was the visual consultant, so the lighting and photography is that much more immersive.

This movie is a western in the same style as the Sergio Leone ‘Man with No Name Trilogy’ spaghetti westerns with Clint Eastwood and follows all the classic western conventions. An outsider who is going through an identity crisis; trying to find who he is, finds himself quite suddenly abandoned on the side of a hostile desert road and is eventually pressed into service as the Sherriff of an abandoned, drought-ridden desert town called Dirt run by local varmints.

There are parallels to the Disney children’s story Brave Little Tailor (1938) here when the newcomer, a chameleon voiced by Johnny Depp, boasts of having killed 7 people with one bullet and then is made to confront the bad guys in a showdown in the middle of the town street at noon. By some fluke he gains the respect of the local citizenry when he accidentally kills a menacing hawk that preys on them.

This film can be enjoyed by adults but may be a little scary for younger children depending on how savvy they are. Children are definitely going to love the visuals and some of the visual gags but the film makers insist that children are much savvier than adults give them credit for. 

It’s definitely not a cartoony animated film and this could start a trend toward more serious and realistic looking animated films. I had the feeling while watching this movie that it was so unique and singularly striking visually, that it will probably become a cult classic of sorts.

This movie marks the first time that George Lucas’s company ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) has produced a full length animated film. The company has been at the forefront of the digital revolution that has taken the film industry by storm, pioneering computer generated effects for live action films since the beginning with movies like The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and the Jurassic Park trilogy (1993 – 2001) just to name a few, but until now has never ventured into full length animation.

Gore Verbinski had worked with ILM on the effects for all the Pirates of the Caribbean films and felt comfortable enough with their collaborative relationship to try something that had never been done before. The results are definitely brilliant.

By assembling the voice actors in a room and allowing them to interact with each other while playing out a scene, instead of the usual individual isolated recording of the voices, gives the movie a sense of spontaneity and awkwardness that makes it feel like you’re watching a live-action movie. Add to this the highly detailed characters and environments, plus the natural and realistic lighting and Rango becomes a visual experience you won’t soon forget.

I recommend you watch this movie on Blu-ray and an HDTV because the video quality is of the highest standard and really impresses with the stunning detail of the images in High Definition on a big screen.

JP

Submarine

Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts) is a teenager with a lot to deal with. His classmates think he's gay, his parents think he has mental issues, his father sometimes stays in bed for weeks and his mother has started going out to see an ex-boyfriend.

A UK and US co-production that takes place in a small sea-side town of Swansea, Wales, this is a quirky, dark comedy about adolescence, and the pitfalls of young love based on the novel by Joe Dunthorne.

What’s great about Submarine is definitely the actor's performances and the story. Although the characters are all a bit odd and have unusual personalities, the actor's portrayals really keep you hooked into the movie, especially the two main teenagers who are a lot of fun to watch.

Oliver wants to fit in but prefers to isolate himself from society. Only one thing will solve his problems. Being very analytical like his oddball father he decides to pursue a girl from his class, Jordana Bevan (Yasmin Paige), whose personality is not exactly sweet or sympathetic but is just anti-social enough for him to have a chance with, and therefore be accepted by his school mates as being normal and cool. 

He can’t seem to get up the nerve to approach her and fails several attempts, but Jordana, it turns out, is attracted to his nerdy shyness and aggressively pursues him. After many awkward moments they finally begin dating and he really begins to develop feelings for her. Unfortunately their short and unusual courtship is interrupted when Oliver must deal with his emotionally repressed parents who are on the brink of an infidelity. Horrified, Oliver takes it upon himself to intervene with hilarious results. Meanwhile, Jordana is having problems with her own parents and needs Olivier’s support. 

There is a whole subplot with the adults of the film that is very funny and beautifully portrayed by Noah Taylor from Shine (1996) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Sally Hawkins recently from Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) and Made in Dagenham (2010), and Paddy Considine recently from The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and Hot Fuzz (2007) comically balancing the film with the pitfalls of marriage equivalent to the teen story.

It’s all done with dry humor, emotional insight and great character studies. The movie feels very much like other quirky coming of age comedies like Lars and the Real Girl which is one of my favorites and a must see if you haven’t seen it yet.

If you liked quirky coming of age movies like Submarine try these other very good films in the same genre; Lars and the Real Girl (2007), Ben X (2007), 500 Days of Summer (2009) and It’s Kind of a Funny Story (2010).

JP

Kung Fu Panda 2: Evolution of a hero's journey

Kung Fu Panda 2 is a worthy sequel to the first Kung Fu Panda (2008) and full of awesomeness from DreamWorks animation, the studio started by Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg who also brought us last year’s MegaMind (2010), How to Train Your Dragon (2010), Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), Over the Hedge (2006), the Shrek movies, and the Madagascar movies. 

Last time we saw our big dreamer panda hero Po (voiced by Jack Black) and the Furious Five, he had just become the Dragon Warrior. Now Po’s next task is to achieve inner peace, but he is more confused and frustrated than ever because he wants to know things about his past without offending his loving father, who is a goose, and who doesn’t have the answers Po is looking for.

Meanwhile, there appears a new villain who threatens China’s peace with a new weapon that uses the power of gun powder. Previously only used in fireworks celebrations, it is now being used for more sinister and war like purposes by the proud Lord Shen (voiced by Gary Oldman) who wants to control all of China and destroy Kung Fu with his powerful new invention; cannons.

While the Furious Five, voiced by Angelina Jolie (Tigress), Jackie Chan (Monkey), Seth Rogen (Mantis), Lucy Liu (Viper), and David Cross (Crane), are trying to stop the devious Lord Shen’s forces, Po tries to discover where he came from and how he came to be the adoptive son of a goose. It seems the menacing Lord Shen himself has some of the answers Po is looking for but without inner peace Po will not be able to defeat him and only when he finds the truth about his past does he achieve inner peace.  The truth turns out to be quite a dark tale but it’s told in flashback with enough exciting action and humor that it pays off in the end. 

One of the things I liked about the first Kung Fu Panda was the brilliant color pallet and picturesque Chinese landscapes. This new movie delivers the same striking color schemes and stunning big vistas although in somewhat darker shades. The story too is a bit darker this time but still enjoyable for the whole family.

It is one of the most popular films in China where the government only allows 20 foreign films to be released per year because of strict censorship laws that only allow for movies with a positive message to be shown to its people. Kung Fu Panda 2 passed with flying colors being respectful of the Chinese culture while delivering a positive message about loyalty and how the truth can help us to realize our potential. Much like the current Arab revolution, once the truth about the Arab leaders was exposed to the world as ruthless, murdering dictators squandering the wealth of their countries, one person’s defiance and sacrifice inspired everyone to rise up against them no matter the odds.

With the Kung Fu Panda series DreamWorks has started to apply the lessons learned from Pixar’s animated films and made their stories more timeless without all the pop culture references that they were becoming known for, so that people can enjoy these films for years to come without becoming dated.

JP

Super 8

From director J.J. Abrams whose first feature film was Mission: Impossible III (2006) and was the producer and/or director of Cloverfield (2008), and the new Star Trek (2009) will be coming out with sequels to all these franchises starting this year with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) directed by Brad Bird, Star Trek 2: Into Darkness in 2013 and Cloverfield 2 in 2014. 

Being mentored by Steven Spielberg and being very much a Sci-fi fan boy himself, the nostalgic Sci-fi thriller Super 8 is an homage to both, especially the Spielberg Sci-fi movies of the 1970s like Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) but there are also many elements that reminded me of The Iron Giant (1999) and the Korean monster film The Host (2007), making this an extremely fun and moving picture.

The human story is very carefully grounded in the excellent heartfelt performances of the whole cast and always remains the focus of the film. The extra-terrestrial part of the story never over-whelms the human story, and this is what Spielberg and Abrams are both so good at. 

Taking place in a small town in rural America, a group of teenagers are busily involved in making a Super 8 movie for a contest they want to enter.  Filming on location at a local train station one night they witness a derailment that was not an accident but part of a much bigger government conspiracy.  Something escapes from one of the freight cars but no one has seen it. Soon reports of strange events and people gone missing start to panic the town’s people, and our group of future filmmakers are now also involved in trying to solve the mystery of the derailment and why the military has arrived so quickly to conduct strange tests. It sounds a lot like E.T. except that this alien is not so friendly.

Abrams uses his signature style of filming here as he did in Star Trek where he loved to use lens flares, and he uses them in this picture also but he seems to restrict them only to scenes that signal when the alien is somewhere close by, giving those scenes an eerie feeling.

This movie is well worth seeing and is fun for the whole family. It has plenty of suspense and drama in equal parts and is paced very well so it’s never boring and has a very emotional and moving climax.

 J.J. Abrams is the new Spielberg of today’s generation and his films are always going to be something to look forward to. Don’t miss it.

JP

MicMacs

From French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, in the same signature visually immersive style as his previous films Delicatessen (1991), City of Lost Children (1995), Amélie (2001) and A Very Long Engagement (2004), comes another visually distinctive, retro nostalgic film; the humorous, charming revenge comedy MicMacs (2010).

Part circus, part Toy Story, part Buster Keaton, part Mission: Impossible, and part Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, it’s a magical and enchanting mishmash of ingredients which produces a wonderful soufflé of color and childlike comedy. 

Highly inventive and imaginative, the story is about Bazil (Dany Boon) whose life is changed irreparably in two separate incidents that leave him orphaned in one instance, and homeless and brain damaged in another, both due to products manufactured by large weapons corporations. When one day he discovers the headquarters of these two corporations across the street from each other in a neighborhood of Paris, he decides to exact revenge in the style that Amélie Poulain would have been proud of. 

The homeless, easy going, good natured Bazil is taken in one day by a group of very unique and colorful secondhand dealers who live in a junk yard cave, and with their help the fun begins. Each member of his new family of outsiders has a unique set of quirky talents and they all decide to work together on a plan to help Bazil in his quest for revenge by setting the two arms manufacturers, who caused his misfortune, against each other in a series of brilliantly funny stings.

The plan is a sort of mission impossible with retro household gadgets and circus act feats of daring. Using their imaginations to create inventive tools from old salvaged equipment they set about their task with Buster Keaton style determination and with hilarious results. This film also reminded me a bit of the Wes Anderson animated film Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), about an underdog who also tries to outfox a group of big corporations using some very inventive techniques with comic results.

If you’re a fan of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s films you will not be disappointed. This movie is easily right up there with his best work since Amélie and Delicatessen. If you’re not familiar with this director’s work I recommend that you run out and rent these films asap. Your life is not complete if you have not seen these delightful movies. If you like the movies of Terry Gilliam or Tim Burton, with their distinctive visual worlds, and unique sense of childlike wonder, you will enjoy the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet.  He is the Terry Gilliam of France, the Tim Burton of Paris.

JP

Das Boot (The Boat)

One of the best War movies ever made!” 

Universally recognized as the best submarine movie of all time and one of the most heart-pounding thrillers ever filmed!

This film takes all of the drama and suspense inherent in a submarine-based story and delivers it in a near- perfect package, establishing Das Boot as not just a terrific adrenaline rush, but one of the best movies ever made.

It is unlike any other war film in that it confines the audience in a confined submarine where we digest the fear and panic of the human beings on screen. In short, "Das Boot" is a religious experience.

These are just some of the movie critic’s comments written about Wolfgang Petersen’s epic 1981 German U-boat movie Das Boot, based on the 1973 novel by Lothar-Günther Buchheim, and believe me the critics are not exaggerating.

I have seen this move about six or seven times and it’s just as gripping and suspenseful on every viewing. I’ve owned every version of this film that was ever put out because it is an essential classic; a must own and a must see if ever there was one, and one of the most historically accurate accounts of patrols in the Battle of the Atlantic.

It has often been imitated over the past 30 years by film makers and TV commercials and is still widely considered the benchmark for suspense and authentic, un-glamorized depictions of men at war and submarine warfare. What I like about the film besides its suspense and authentic look, is the clear message of the waste of war and the performances are absolutely without parallel. This movie puts you in the most harrowing situations alongside these young men and never lets you out. You can’t help but feel what they feel.

While the characters were fictionalized, all the events depicted are real events witnessed by the author of the book who spent time on German U-boats in World War II as a photographer and war correspondent. 

Although it’s a long movie you never notice the time go by as the story is so real and gripping with unbearable tension. Don’t be intimidated by the length or reputation or the subtitles, you will be rewarded with an unforgettable experience.

The music is haunting and the sound effects build the tension up to nail biting, teeth grinding levels, making Das Boot perfect for the home theater experience and now that a new restored version has been released on Blu-ray you can experience it as it was always intended on the big screen in High Definition.

Since Das Boot, director Wolfgang Petersen has directed such films as Troy (2004), The Perfect Storm (2000), Poseidon (2006), Air Force One (1997), In the Line of Fire (1993) and Outbreak (1995).

This film is definitely one of those films you must see before you die and in fact it is listed in the book by the same name; ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’. 

JP