Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

With Prince Caspian, the sequel to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, director Andrew Adamson takes C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia in a darker direction with, ironically, a greater sense of humor. The result is a film that is more morally nuanced and that much more engaging than its predecessor.

A year has passed in the lives of the Pevensie children since their return to England. However, more than 1,300 years have passed in Narnia, none of them good. Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson) left Narnia shortly after the Pevensie's, and the human Telmarines have waged a war against Narnia's magical inhabitants, driving them close to extinction. The Pevensies are summoned back to Narnia by Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes), and together they fight against the evil Lord Miraz (Sergio Castellito) to restore the Narnians to their rightful society, Caspian to his father's throne, and Narnia to civility.

The time span between the two movies lays a solid groundwork for the sequel. Since the first movie had a happy ending with all the loose ends tied up, it would have been unfortunate to attempt a "let's pick up directly where the last film left off" sequel (admittedly, this has more to do with Lewis' quality as a writer as opposed to Disney/Walden's abilities as movie makers). In fact, this convention allowed the storyline to introduce a greater sense of danger surrounding the film's heroes than existed in the first book, vesting the audience deeper into their adventure.

The performances delivered by the leading characters are improved from the first movie, but only Castellitto's portrayal of Lord Miraz deserves a 'good' rating. His menace is palpable, his ascent to power believable (think Claudius from Hamlet), and his presence exudes corrupt aristocracy.

While its darker tone and improved performances lend credibility and urgency to the story, the forced Disney/Walden-style pandering makes for a rather schizophrenic experience. The movie moves from scenes of children playing with talking animals to themes of assassination, fratricide, and war freely and the 143 minute run time simply isn't long enough to explore the juxtaposition thoroughly. Because of this, the movie often has the feel of a child attempting to find a seat at the grown-ups table.

Rating:

• Buy it now
• Worth $10 at Costco
• Happy we rented it, but also happy we only rented it
  
• No good at any price
• That numb feeling at the top of your head? That's your cerebral cortex closing up shop

m&n

Review: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

How anyone ever thought there was more than one movie worth of material to The Mummy concept, I'll never know. And yet, last Friday, Neesha and I watched The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. On the other hand, the movie grossed $200 million, which is more than I make in a year, so what do I know?

The film begins in 1946, 13 years after The Mummy Returns. The plot is familiar. There's an ancient curse, a counter-curse, a sarcophagus holding secrets, an evil Emperor frozen in time with his terracotta army, and a snake-wrapped diamond that will awaken said Emperor to overrun and oppress the world. I'm making an assumption on the last statement. The reason the Emperor was considered a plague worthy to be destroyed by Rick O'Connell was never stated all that clearly, but tyrannical dominion is a common ploy.

On a related note, if Rick O'Connell dies halfway through the second movie and we're left with the High Priest Imhotep, The Scorpion King, and The Dragon Emperor, all invincible megalomaniacs trying to control the world, who wins?

The film seems to target undemanding pre-teens, which makes sense as it also seems to have been written and directed by one. Everything is overplayed. From spending too long establishing themes and background (twenty five minute exploring how the O'Connells were bored in Oxfordshire) to lines whose poor delivery is only exceeded by the writing ('You guys are like Mummy magnets'), to a lack of attention to period detail (the Chinese paramilitary using AK-47s), almost every element of the movie grates. Even the endless stream of special effects and massive action sequences are diluted and uninvolved to the point where, when Rick O'Connell finally kills the Dragon Emperor (sorry for the spoiler), you're left to wonder if you even care. Director Rob Cohen seems to be unaware of the film's tone, being comedic one minute and dramatic the next with no effort at creating a comfortable juxtaposition.

Unfortunately, The Mummy: Rise of the Aztec is due for release sometime in 2010. I assume this has something to do with Jonathan's final comment about going someplace where there are no mummies. Namely, Peru.

But, wait, the Aztecs were...and the Incas...forget it. The sad thing is that I know I'll rent that one, too.

Rating:

• Buy it now
• Worth $10 at Costco
• Happy we rented it, but also happy we only rented it
  
• No good at any price
• That numb feeling at the top of your head? That's your cerebral cortex closing up shop

m&n

Review: The Dark Knight

"You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself bceome the villain." Such is the theme of The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan's sequel to Batman Begins, which pits Batman (Christian Bale) against his arch rival, The Joker (Heath Ledger).

In the original stories, The Joker is the only antagonist that seems to understand enough about the Batman identity to dissect it. He is a villain whose own trauma in life has essentially made him the spiritual opposite of Gotham's hero, resulting in a tumultuous love affair that is almost as endearing as it is wicked. Nolan rises to the opportunities presented by this relationship in his second film, something the earlier movies never did. Tim Burton's Batman was a stylized endeavor that put to great use the assets of Jack Nicholson, but it also side-skirted the essence of The Joker's being, abolishing him of his true menace in favor a more sardonic and wisecracking approach. Where Nicholson's The Joker was gripping and entertaining, Ledger absolutely takes you in and legitimately frightens you because of the way he attacks the humanity of his victims. While Nicholson was willing to kill indiscriminately in his bid for control of Gotham's streets, Ledger is much more precise, even surgical, in his efforts to inspire not only fear but chaos in those streets. The Joker's victims aren't those he physically kills as much as those left behind, forced to choose between abandoning previously vaunted morals, values, and relations and the expediency of survival.

While I have long held Darth Vader to be the greatest movie villain (having not seen Hannibal Lecter, though just having a vague understanding of the character make him my number two), The Joker moves past him easily. While a lack of empathy seems to be the trademark of many great villains, The Joker is all the more frightening since he seeks to force Gotham's citizens to betray their own feelings of empathy. Best. Movie. Villain. Ever.

Rating: conflicted. I thought it was very well done, though it's not a movie I would necessarily recommend. Neesha would rather not see it again.

Review: Finding Neverland

I am becoming a Johnny Depp fan. Captain Jack Sparrow was certainly a fun character and well played, but it is in such roles as Willy Wonka and J.M. Barrie that Depp demonstrates the range of his theatrical ability. Depp is one of the few actors who, when you watch him on the screen, you see only the character he wants you to see.

Adapted from a stage play by Allan Knee, Finding Neverland begins in 1903 with Scottish playwright J.M. Barrie (Depp) at a personal and professional crossroads. At the theater, his most recent play, Little Mary, is pronounced a failure on opening night. At home, his marriage to a social-climbing wife (Radha Mitchell) is imminent of such a judgement itself.

A chance meeting in Kensington Gardens with a widow, Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Kate Winslet), and her four young sons opens up a deep friendship, and provides the creative ignition to Barrie's greatest work. The playwright forms a particular closeness to Peter (Freddie Highmore), the least biddable of Sylvia's boys and the one most affected by their father's recent death. It is from this terrain that we are invited to trace the roots of Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up.

Depp delivers a child-inside-the-man act that you expect to become annoying, but never does. He plays an awkward, rather eccentric man who springs to life in the company of children. His portrayal leaves you with the impression that Barrie's behavior is less a theatrical urge to impress the Llewelyn Davies boys than a boyish delight in pretending. This stands in strong counterpoint to Peter's beyond-his-years sobriety, which creates an "eternal boy meets actual boy" conflict that forms the dominant theme of the movie. This distincition is understood by Peter when, on the opening night of Peter Pan, he is cooed over by people who imagine him to be "the" Peter Pan and he reacts sharply, "I'm not Peter Pan. He is," pointing at Barrie. For his part, Depp's Barrie cuts an oddly disturbing figure. Passive, but intense, in him reside the pleasures, and the dangers, of innocence.

The defining experience of Barrie's own childhood was the death of his older brother David, which he felt forced him to grow up sooner than he should. From this you understand that Barrie's Pan has apparently been summoned from the ghost of his childhood rather than nostalgia for his youth. This allows for a greater appreciation of his efforts to preserve the innocence of the Llewelyn Davies boys ("Boys should never be sent to bed. Every morning they wake up one day older.") and the sorrow he feels when George, the eldest, is forced over the threshold of maturity.

Peter Pan opened in 1904, with most of the events in the movie taking place in 1903. This creates an interesting dynamic for the concept of Barrie's eternal boy, given that in ten years the Llewelyn Davies boys would be confronted with the brutalities of The Great War, making Peter Pan's line, "To die would be an awfully big adventure," particularly poignant.

George would serve as a second lieutenant in Flanders, where he died of a gunshot wound to the head in 1915. John joined the Royal Navy and served in the North Atlantic and would outlive all but his youngest brother. Peter, who served as a signal officer in France and was ultimately awarded the Military Cross, committed suicide in 1960. Michael, whose personality greatly influenced the characteristics of Peter Pan, drowned in 1921. It was acknowledged by his surviving brothers and Barrie that suicide was a possibility. Nicholas was only a year old when Peter Pan hit the stage in 1904. Coincidentally, he was not included in Finding Neverland. Nicholas would survive until 1980.

Rating:

• Buy it now
• Worth $10 at Costco
• Happy we rented it, but also happy we only rented it
  
• No good at any price
• That numb feeling at the top of your head? That's your cerebral cortex closing up shop

m&n

Review: Get Smart

Comedies are a hard genre to recommend, one way or the other. What makes one person laugh out loud may be considered dull and prosaic by someone else. Hence the phrase, "Comedy is funny business." Get Smart is a pretty tame affair. With the exception of a few slapstick gags, most of the jokes are done deadpan with a sort of melancholy delivery that would have made Chaplin proud.

Steve Carrel stars as Maxwell Smart, a secret agent for CONTROL, who, along with Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), attempts to stop the evil organization KAOS from taking over the world. Not much of a plot, but the movie is meant as escapist comedy, not social commentary...I hope. Carrel's version of Max Smart is less bumbling and more inexperienced than Don Adams, and his dry delivery of Smart cliches (e.g., "Sorry about that, Chief," "Missed it by that much," and "Would you believe?") turn them more into throw away lines than memorable catch phrases. This characterizes most of the movie, which gives due respect to the original television series without attempting to be a direct imitation of it.

If you are not familiar with the Get Smart of the 1960s, or if you are a die-hard purist, you likely will not enjoy the movie. Even if those don't apply to you, you still may not enjoy the movie. After all, "comedy is a funny business."

Neesha's favorite line:
"Bomb didn't go off."
"Oh, really, bright eyes? What alerted you? Was it not the boom-boom or the lack of a mushroom cloud?"
"It was the mushroom cloud for me."
Mark's favorite line:
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"I don't know. Were you thinking, "Holy shoot, holy shoot, a swordfish almost went through my head?" If so, then yes."
Caleb's favorite line:
"Too bad about all the dead movie stars."
"Yes. What will we do without their razor-sharp political advice?"
Ainsley's favorite line: "Okay, not to keep dwelling on this, but that was some kiss. How did you know that would work? Have you kissed other men who then plummeted to their deaths? "

Rating:

• Buy it now
• Worth $10 at Costco
• Happy we rented it, but also happy we only rented it
  
• No good at any price
• That numb feeling at the top of your head? That's your cerebral cortex closing up shop

m&n

Review: I Am Legend

In I AM LEGEND, Will Smith joins the ranks of Vincent Price (in 1964's THE LAST MAN ON EARTH) and Charlton Heston (in 1971's OMEGA MAN) as the star of an adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel of the same name. Often surprising in its focus on loneliness and loss, this thoughtful, eerie, and.What do Will Smith, Vincent Price (The Last Man on Earth), and Charlton Heston (Omega Man) all have in common? Richard Matheson's 1954 horror classic I Am Legend.

The plot is simple enough. A medical scientist that moonlights as an Emma Thompson look alike develops the cure for cancer by engineering the measles virus to attack cancerous cells. Unfortunately the virus mutates and kills 90% of Earth's population while mutating 9% into zombies that feed upon the flesh of the 1% who are immune. As military scientist Robert Neville, Will Smith is the lone survivor in New York City. Immune to the virus in both its airborne and contact forms, Neville searches for a cure as he wanders Manhattan, Times Square, and the Flatiron District with his dog, Sam.

While I Am Legend is based on a horror story (flesh-eating zombies, and all), the horror element is simply the vehicle to carry the story. In this regard, it suffers from the same flaw as Signs, namely, an audience unable to see beyond the trappings. Robert Neville's efforts to save humanity in its physical form parallels his own struggles to maintain his own humanity(witness Shrek, Bob Marley, and the video store). This becomes particularly poignant after he is forced to strangle Sam, his lone companion for three years, after she (Sam is short for Samantha) becomes infected with the virus. The movie is often surprising in its focus on loneliness and loss as it shows Neville haunted by memories of his family leaving quarantined Manhattan two years prior. While not exactly Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, Smith delivers a solid and convincing performance in a movie that basically amounts to a 90-minute soliloquy.
Rating:

• Buy it now
• Worth $10 at Costco
• Happy we rented it, but also happy we only rented it
  
• No good at any price
• That numb feeling at the top of your head? That's your cerebral cortex closing up shop

m&n

Review: The Golden Compass

The plot of the movie centers entirely around the existence of daemons and Dust. Since the goods guys are trying to protect them and the bad guys are trying to destroy them, you get the idea that you should care about them, but the implications of their destruction are never fully explained. The movie is fairly fast paced, which comes at the expense of any character development. My guess is this is more a flaw of the screen play than the actual novel. There are several original elements within the movie, but little is done with them. The casting is excellent

When The Golden Compass came out in theaters, the only thing I kept hearing about is that it was an avowed atheist’s attempt to discredit Christianity generally and Catholicism specifically. Neesha read the book when she was younger and never understood the criticism though she admitted it was in her pre-Horsley days, so she may have missed it. I watched the movie with an eye open for such propaganda, and reached a conclusion. Either it doesn’t exist, I’m not very smart, or the man is incompetent as an atheist apologist. If you were of a mind, you could draw parallels between the Catholic Church and the Magisterium (sp?), the Orwellian authority trying to destroy daemons and Dust, though to be honest I saw more parallels with the Bush administration than with religion.

Rating:

• Buy it now
• Worth $10 at Costco
• Happy we rented it, but also happy we only rented it
  
• No good at any price
• That numb feeling at the top of your head? That's your cerebral cortex closing up shop

m&n

Review: National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets

Towards the end of the movie Neesha commented, "Didn't they do this in the first movie?" Such is the flavor of National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets. I found it to be a well-trafficked, by-the-numbers story that played a lot like a cross between Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Goonies without the brilliant dialogue ("Hey you guys!" Genius).

I think my biggest disappointment (aside from the movie claiming to open five days after the end of the Civil War, when it was really only four days after Lee surrendered) was that I was able to figure out most of the clues long before Ben Gates. From the HMS resolute to the desk in Buckingham Palace and in the Oval Office, to Ben sticking his hand in the hole in the eagle's chest and pretending it was being eaten, if I hadn't seen it before I had experienced it. Note to all future screen writers: if a joke is predictable, then by definition it isn't witty.

Rating:

• Buy it now
• Worth $10 at Costco
• Happy we rented it, but also happy we only rented it
  
• No good at any price
• That numb feeling at the top of your head? That's your cerebral cortex closing up shop

m&n

Review: The Scarlet Pimpernel

The Scarlet Pimpernel was originally produced in 1982 as a television miniseries based on Baroness Emmuska Orczy's book of the same name as well as its sequel, El Dorado. Despite being a television miniseries made in 1982, it is actually well done and most enjoyable. A pre-Gandalf Ian McKellan plays Chauvelin opposite a post-Bond girl Jane Seymour as Marguerite. However, the star-performance was delivered by Anthony Andrews, who plays the foppish Sir Percy Blakeney to perfection, interpreting a traditionally annoying role as humorous and witty.

• Neesha's favorite line: "More's the pity. Then your tailors will rule the land, and no one will make the clothes. So much for French fashion, and French politics."
• Mark's favorite line: "My dear chap, I never would have dreamt of depriving you of your moment of triumph. Alas, a moment was all I could spare."
• Caleb's favorite line: "I say, I swear you've been taking lessons; the cravat's a picture!"
• Ainsley's favorite line: "I'faith, for one thing, it does seem monstrous ill-dressed for any society, even a new one. Sink me, your tailors have betrayed you."
• Best line that should have been used, but wasn't: "Weeny man away!"
  

Rating:

• Buy it now
• Worth $10 at Costco
• Happy we rented it, but also happy we only rented it
  
• No good at any price
• That numb feeling at the top of your head? That's your cerebral cortex closing up shop

m&n

Review: Chicken Little

Some friends gave us a gift card to Blockbuster Video some months back. Last night we finally used it on Chicken Little. Good film for the whole family. The plot was an amusing twist on the traditional, "The sky is falling," story of Chicken Little and the jokes were random enough for Neesha and I to appreciate them. While some humor elements did wear thin, I attribute most of that to my being closer to 30 than to 3. For a Hollywood that doesn't produce much I'm willing to let my kids see, this was a worthy effort with enough references to the '70s, '80s, and '90s to keep the adults happy (e.g., "Stay on target, stay on target!").

The only negative? Wannabe by the Spice Girls. That they used the song was actually quite amusing given the context. The problem is that it is still in my head. Picture, if you will, a tall, thin, white male prancing around the living room with a laughing, two-year-old boy in one hand and a vacuum cleaner in the other, all the while singing,

"Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want,
So tell me what you want, what you really really want,
I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want,
So tell me what you want, what you really really want,
I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna really
really really wanna zigazig ha."

• Neesha's favorite line: "That's your mom and dad? And they brought the Intergalactic Armada?!"
• Mark's favorite line: "This is surprisingly accurate."
• Caleb's favorite line: "You'll have to go on without me. Just leave me some ammo, a little bit of water...chips if you've got 'em."
• Ainsley's favorite line: "Runt, old buddy, the fate of the world depends entirely on me and, to a far lesser extent, you."

Rating:

• Buy it now
• Worth $10 at Costco
• Happy we rented it, but also happy we only rented it
  
• No good at any price
• That numb feeling at the top of your head? That's your cerebral cortex closing up shop

m&n