Toy Story 3

Movie Review: Toy Story 3

Director: Lee Unkrich

Reviewed: 29 June 2010

jamesintexas rating: ***1/2

Toy Story was the first completely computer-animated film ever when I saw it in 1995. Now, there are more films out there, and the Pixar Renaissance has hit an amazing peak with Wall*E, Finding Nemo, and Up. Years later, Toy Story 3 picks up with the main character Andy going off to college. Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz (Tim Allen) rally the familiar cast of toys together as they deal with the emotions of not being played with anymore, not being needed by a boy heading off to a different part of his life. Most of the toys end up in Sunnyside Day Care which on the surface appears to be the solution to their problems. At Sunnyside, they will be constantly played with, constantly loved because the children cycle in and out. However, Lotso, the pink bear who lords over the center, rules with an iron fist. Toys are kept in cages at night, there is no possibility of escape, and the wildest, youngest kids obliterate the newest toys, breaking them and not playing with them in an age-appropriate way. A prison break must occur, and afterwards, the question remains: What will Andy do with his toys as he leaves for college?

This film is endlessly inventive and very funny. A highlight is Ken (Michael Keaton) and Barbie's relationship, with Ken recast as a metrosexual in need of someone to appreciate his love of clothes and his Dream House. The escape sequences from Sunnyside pay off in a major way, with intricate plans and subterfuge, as well as a hilarious/creepy set of minor guard characters who aid Lotso in his plan.

The most poignant, tear-jerking moment occurs at the end when Andy passes the torch of the toys to another child. That's when I lost it. Passing on beloved toys to another kid packed an emotional punch for me. The subtext in the film involves the nature of play. To play with toys is to involve yourself in a world of your own creating.

The thing I have always loved in the Toy Story universe is the collision of the toys--Woody the cowboy with Buzz the spaceman, all friends with Mr. Potatohead. In my basement and backyard, the Star Wars characters conspired with the G.I. Joe characters, forming alliances with He-Man and Go-Bots. The world of that creation is a unique and personal thing, sometimes alone in your own head, or sometimes with a treasured friend of family member.

Andy's sister seems to be the quiet symbol of the future in this movie. Her toys and Barbies are thrown out without reflection, and she worships the implied iPod with her earbuds on all the time, even in conversation. The directors draw the contrast but don't underline it. What are kids losing through those devices? Do kids lose the desire and opportunities to play at a much younger age now with the rise of the omnipresent media and technology. Would I have played as much as a kid if I had had the internet, Playstation, cable TV, and access to every movie or TV show? The answer has to be no.

And, as wonderful as an iPod is, will it ever symbolize or mean as much as a piece of plastic, worn-down Boba Fett or Skeletor or Destro? There's something about playing with (loving?) a toy that makes these films so fantastic. The filmmakers get it, and this is entertainment of the highest order.

RocknRolla

Movie Review: RocknRolla

Director: Guy Ritchie

Reviewed: 29 June 2010

jamesintexas rating: **1/2

I'm working my way backwards through Guy Ritchie's canon, and first with Sherlock Holmes and now with RocknRolla, I'm starting to get a handle on his aesthetic. Films filled with many creatively-named characters. Some hyperkinetic editing and action scenes. Loads of drinking and drug use. Quick thinking lead characters with quick dialogue. And, some torture, some terrible, terrible deaths. And fun music. To be clear, I liked, did not love Ritchie's RocknRolla, though there are many fun moments and a winning performance from Gerard Butler.

Butler stars as One-Two, a lower-level hood in London with buddy Mumbles (Idris Elba from The Wire), works small muscle jobs in the city under the thumb of local kingpin Lennie Cole (the always great Tom Wilkinson, chewing the scenery and loving his lines) and occasional work from accountant Stella (Thandie Newton). Mark Strong narrates as Archy, Cole's right hand man, providing the colorful backstories and a reliable anchor in the film.

A convoluted caper goes wrong, and a Russian billionaire Uri is out some money he needs to make a land deal go down with Cole. One-Two and Mumbles steal that money with the assistance of Stella, and use that money to pay Cole. A lucky painting is exchanged and goes missing. Money is owed and needed by various characters. Chaos ensues.

The film overflows with characters and story lines, and I think that is one of its weaknesses. There's a thread with a rock star who is possibly dead, possibly hiding, and it weaves in and out of the plot. The action sequences are fun, especially one that involves a low-speed chase between Butler and a titanic Russian heavy. There's some funny back and forth among One-Two and his mates, particularly with one buddy who has one request before going to prison. Wilkinson has a lot of fun, and Ritchie seems overly enthusiastic to showcase all of the layers of the criminal strata in London. At times, this film does seem like a travelogue, but it is fun.

If you're into this kind of film, see it, but don't have any expectations. And for the record, I'd like to see Gerard Butler in this kind of film opposed to flighty romantic-comedies. And seeing Idris Elba aka Stringer Bell with his English accent, looking calm and having fun is refreshing after the intensity of his years on The Wire.

Edge of Darkness

Movie Review: Edge of Darkness

Director: Martin Campbell

Reviewed: 1 July 2010

jamesintexas rating: *1/2

It's difficult to believe that Mel Gibson has not been seen in a film since Signs in 2002, but now he is back in the revenge thriller Edge of Darkness, as a grieving father who must destroy everyone in his path as he searches for his daughter's killers. Gibson stars as Boston cop Thomas Craven, and seven minutes into the film, his daughter is gunned down in front of him at the door of their home. Moments before the killing, his daughter was getting physically ill and mentioned something that she needed to tell him. Since in this kind of film, the only logical response to the death of a loved one is to cut a bloody path of revenge, Craven explores his daughter's internship with Northmoor Industries, a pseudo-weapons research facility which deals with classified materials and classified projects, leading to a slimy lawyer, Senator, and corporate president Jack Bennett (Danny Huston).

The best parts of the movie are conversations between Craven and possible CIA agent Jedburgh (the wonderful Ray Winstone) who seems interested in helping (or in just not stopping) Craven's unraveling of the conspiracy. The worst parts of this movie include everything else. Gibson is dependable and fine as the father, but Huston is so nefarious, the plot complications so ridiculous, and the CGI at times took me out of the movie.

I like action movies, and I can handle revenge thrillers without nuance. However, this film feels sloppy, lazy at times, and uncreative. Director Martin Campbell has made much stronger films, in particular GoldenEye and Casino Royale. I guess part of the appeal of this film is seeing Gibson behaving badly and killing people in different ways.

I do not recommend this film.

Winter's Bone

Movie Review: Winter's Bone

Director: Debra Granik

Reviewed: 1 July 2010, 26 June 2010

jamesintexas rating: **** (4 stars = Highest Rating)

I am always on the lookout for a summer movie that shines with creativity, a unique vision and offers me a window into a world that I have never seen or imagined. Summer seems to be the site of sequels and vapid action films (of which I can be a fan), but Winter's Bone is no sequel or overblown special effects extravaganza. Rather, this quiet, intense film is simply the best American film so far released in 2010.

Southwestern Missouri along the Arkansas border is the setting, bracing up against the Ozark Mountains. It is winter, the characters wear gloves and hats, and it looks frigid; it appears to be that period in November where it gets really, truly cold without the arrival of snow yet. Set against a simultaneously bleak and beautiful landscape of trees, mountains, and animals who follow the characters into town on the way to school, Ree Dolly (a revelatory Jennifer Lawrence, future Oscar nominee for Best Actress) raises her two younger siblings and cares for her invalid mother in a small cabin in the woods while harboring a secret desire to join the Army. Her high school seems to present two options: motherhood and the military. When Sheriff Baskin (the always watchable Garret Dillahunt, Tommy Lee Jones's deputy in No Country For Old Men) arrives at her door one day, Ree learns that her no account father, Jessup Dolly, has been busted for cooking meth and put up the house and land as bond to get out of jail. If Jessup doesn't show for his court date, the sheriff explains, then Ree and her family will lose the house, rendering them homeless and possibly scattering the family.

"I'll find him," Ree states grimly and resolutely, and the journey begins. With purpose, Ree searches through the back country for her dad, marching up hills and stepping over barbed wire and encountering some malevolent and truly dangerous folk who may be tied to her father's drug-cooking ways, some of whom are her own blood relatives. There's Teardrop, her uncle (John Hawkes), who tries to discourage Ree from asking the wrong people the wrong questions about her dad. When his wife tries to plea Ree's case, Teardrop wearily replies, "I already told you once...with my mouth" hinting at the violence that he is capable of inflicting. Ree's journey takes her to small homes and bars, farms and cattle auctions all while staying true to her character. She has two siblings to care for, and the tenderest moments of the film come when she is teaching them how to cook, shoot a rifle, skin a squirrel. "Watch me make this stew," Ree tells her siblings, "so you can make it yourselves."

Without giving more away, let me just say this: Jennifer Lawrence's performance is flat-out phenomenal. Not in a histrionic, big way, but in tiny, compelling ways. The way she talks to her siblings, the way she walks with her mom. With such a strong central performance, it is easy to overlook the supporting cast, but nearly everyone in this film looks and feels authentic. John Hawkes as Teardrop is revelatory and complex. There's music in the background of many scenes, with local people playing the instruments and singing the songs.

What emerges, as some reviewers have pointed out, is a kind of backwoods Omerta, a code of silence among the inhabitants of this small corner of Missouri. When the Sheriff arrives to speak to Ree in the beginning, Granik focuses her camera on the neighbors, watching and studying the exchange in the background. The message implicit is the us vs. them mentality. Ree won't walk into her best friend's house without her husband's permission, and she refuses to beg for food from her neighbor, teaching her brother, "You never ask for what ought to be given." The threat of violence is present in nearly every scene, creating a palpable sense of dread. The mystery drives the story: Where is Ree's father?

Another way of engaging the film is to see it as a story of women. "Ain't you got no men that can do this?" asks one woman who Ree asks for help. She has none. Women both inflict violence upon Ree and bring her sustenance; she goes to the women of her community who provide her with the clues or hints as to where to find her dad or serve as the buffer between her and their men.

This film is simply excellent. I have seen it twice in less than a week, and it is the leading contender for the Best Picture I've seen this year. It evokes a place unseen in a way that is unlike most movies. It reminds me of family and communities examined closely in, say, Sling Blade or Ulee's Gold. The director infuses this story with humanity and dignity; never do the characters become stereotypes or objects of derision. Even a tricky scene with Ree meeting with an Army recruiter ends up being one of the most unexpected and powerful of the film. Upon informing Ree that at seventeen, she will need her parents' permission to join as well as learning that Ree takes care of her two younger siblings, the recruiter kindly tells her "It sounds like it would be more challenging for you to stay at home and take care of yours," acknowledging in a quiet way that Ree's soldiering through the day supporting her family is as difficult and complex as fighting in a foreign land for the army. The notion that Ree is not seen as an adult by the government is nonsensical; she's established herself as fully capable as she wanders the mountains of her community, desperately trying to save her family's home from being destroyed.

A powerful film.

American Graffiti

Movie Review: American Graffiti

Director: George Lucas

Reviewed: June 28th, 2010

jamesintexas rating--**** (Highest Rating)

My neighbor Jim Pitrak (a freshman at Kansas U) loaned me his car during my senior year in high school for a semester. The car was a red Nissan half-back Sentra, we called it the ****box, and I loved driving to school with that car, picking up friends with the car, going out on dates with my first girlfriend with that car. I was not someone who drove a great deal in high school. I was on my bike mostly or driven by Jim in that halfback (once in the trunk on a particularly crowded trip to Dunkin' Donuts). I could tell you, though, what most guys on the Cross Country team drove, how they drove, who was the wild man that you didn't want to be in a car with on a Saturday morning Sunday trip to Newton Park. Driving defines a person during their teenage years, and American Graffiti, George Lucas' self-admittedly anthropological study of cruising the strip in 1962 in a small California town, captures the high school and post-high school feeling perfectly. It has a truth to it that is powerful and timeless. In a car, you can search out what you're looking for, even when you're not sure what it is.

The film is a sonic delight. From what I understand, Lucas's use of wall-to-wall music from this time period (pre-British Invasion) was landmark and much-imitated after this film. It seems like every song I grew up hearing on Friday Night Fifties on WJMK with DJ Dick Biondi is in this film. Growing up in a house that always had the radio on, I get the central conceit of having hilarious DJ Wolfman Jack tie the film together. Every teen cruising has his or her radio tuned to the Wolfman who provides comic relief through bits with callers and cues up the greatest hits of the day.

Curt (Richard Dreyfuss) and Steve (Ronnie Howard) are two high school graduates engaging in rituals familiar in July-August in many American cities: the last night before the departure for college, perhaps out of city or out of state; the passing off of a beloved car to an underclassman, in this case, Terry the Toad (Charles Martin Smith); the decision of whether to stay or go; the question of continuing or ending a high school relationship. John (Paul LeMat) circles around their evening in his souped up car, a guy who has an auto shop in town, is a bit older, and seems resentful that the two are getting out of town. Laurie (Cindy Williams) is Curt's sister, dating Steve, and unsure of what the future holds for her, especially since she faces the dilemma that she is starting her senior year while her boyfriend is leaving. The performances are all fine with Dreyfuss being the central figure on his quest to figure out himself.

Lucas follows each character throughout memorable moments in the evening, getting into trouble, rumors of a guy in a bitchin' car trying to take down John in a race, gang members who threaten violence, sock hops, late night diner conversations with girls that coulda been the one, trying to buy alcohol, a car getting stolen, throwing up, and a wonderful scene in the radio station as Curt tries to find Wolfman Jack to get a message to a woman in a white T-Bird that is haunting his evening, always eluding him.

I loved this film. I'm not sure why it had eluded me, but I want to talk to my parents and friends about it. I'm saddened (in a way) that George Lucas has hidden since the Star Wars films because he seems so sure of himself behind the camera here, the screenplay so well-constructed, the music so well-chosen.

The connections and references to American Graffiti are omnipresent: Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Star Wars, Dazed and Confused, Superbad, Stand By Me, etc... Lucas's camera takes us into the lives of these kids and captures these moments. There's an innocence to the times that is slightly shading darker as the film ends: hints of the Vietnam War and the futures of the main characters.

At one point in the evening, three of the main characters ponder a question that haunts the film. It is something to the effect of, "Why do you have to leave great friends behind to make new great friends?", something akin to "Why do things have to change?" The struggle of defining yourself amidst the change and deciding when to hold on to something and when to leave is the crux of this film.

It is the crux of our lives too.

The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call-New Orleans

jamesintexas movie review: The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call-New Orleans

Director: Werner Herzog

Reviewed: May 2010

jamesintexas rating:--*** 1/2

Herzog never makes a boring film, and although I've only seen Grizzly Man and Rescue Dawn, I've heard plenty of interviews with the German director, and his focus seems acutely different than a typical Hollywood director. Herzog takes some risks in this film: employing the tic-filled Nicolas Cage to play the lead character in The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call-New Orleans, setting the film in post-Katrina New Orleans with bridges, landmarks, and animals always lurking around the edge of the frame.

Cage plays Terence McDonagh, a crooked cop of sorts, hooked on junk ever since he injured his back, a gambler, a close friend to prostitute Frankie, played by Eva Mendes (though their relationship does not seem sexual), and a man struggling to steal as much out of the property room as possible. I will be the first to say that I have not seen the first Bad Lieutenant film with Harvey Keitel, so I won't be comparing the two films here. However, I felt that Nicolas Cage won me over by the end of this film, and I was palpably moved by McDonagh's wrestling with his demons.

Cage's histrionics are fun, as are the occasional iguanas that linger in the foreground of scenes. "What are these ****in' iguanas doing on my coffee table" McDonagh growls to Stevie, played by the always watchable Val Kilmer. Herzog keeps his camera in interesting places, suggesting many things, noticing bridges and church steeples poking out in the distance behind neighborhoods. The soundtrack works, and the scene towards the end at McDonagh's desk is well-staged.

Warning: this movie is bizarre, filled to the brim with interesting, quirky performances, difficult to stomach at times, but ultimately, I was exhilarated by it all. A scene where McDonagh accosts two young people on their way out of a club is terrifying and then sickening. A scene in a retirement home is brutal and difficult to watch. I wish Nicolas Cage would stick to acting in films like this, and stop showboating in action films. His talent is considerable.

Iron Man 2

jamesintexas Movie review--Iron Man 2

Director: Jon Favreau

Reviewed: May 2010

jamesintexas rating--**


Wow, what a disappointment. Welcome to the summer movies of 2010, I guess. Iron Man 2 kicks off the summer with a whimper, struggling to make sense of itself and wasting a cast of marvelous actors. It will rule the box office this week (and no doubt, make a truck full of money), but will anyone want to watch this movie again?

Robert Downey, the eminently likeable actor in such gems as Home for the Holidays, Wonder Boys, Kiss-Kiss, Bang-Bang, and Tropic Thunder, returns as billionaire Tony Stark, techno-weapons expert who has transformed himself (using a number of helpful talking robots) into the Iron Man weapon. Let me be forthright; I enjoyed the first film quite a bit. Although it was overshadowed by its darker, deeper cousin The Dark Knight in the summer of 2008, Iron Man itself was fun, buoyed by Downey Jr.'s performance, as well as top-flight special effects, and a supporting, nasty turn from the Dude himself, Jeff Bridges. It was fun, pure and simple. However, after staying past the credits of this bloated, aimless sequel, I'm not looking forward to the inevitable Iron Man 3, 4, and 5.

There's no problem with Downey Jr.'s snarky, miles-a-minute performance as egomaniac Stark. His lines don't read as funny as I had hoped they would; again, knowing the good lines from the trailer does decrease their power. Gwyneth Paltrow returns as Pepper Potts, Starks' secretary-friend-turned CEO, and the Oscar-winning Paltrow mostly stands around, talks on the phone, looking frightened/concerned. Don Cheadle replace Terence Howard as Starks' buddy Rhodey; Cheadle is always dependably solid. His humor is sharply displayed in the last minute of film, and it could have livened up the proceedings much earlier. It was a relief to see him cut on Stark and throw jabs back at him. They should have given him a chance to loosen up earlier.

Scarlet Johansson, who has not made a good film since Lost in Translation, emerges as a new secretary, Natalie Rushman, working for Stark Industries; Natalie is more than she seems, but unfortunately, Johansson's performance is not. It is dull, emotionless, and besides some butt-kicking that, frankly, Uma Thurman in Kill-Bill, Carie-Anne Moss in The Matrix, and Malin Akerman in Watchmen could have done in their sleep. I don't know what it is about Johansson, but I don't think that she brings anything to the table in this film. Cheadle tries gamely, Downey Jr. delivers the best that he can, but the true tragedy of this film is Mickey Rourke.

To be clear, I like Mickey Rourke. I like his bizarre hair, crazy-Russian-prison tattoos, his mumbling Russian line readings as Stark nemesis Ivan Vanko. Yet, he's wasted here, given an incomplete character and not given much to do, besides looking at a computer screen and some furious typing! Rourke has such a presence and physicality, even as a comic book sized antihero in Sin City; here, he's confined and diminished, defusing his creativity and effectiveness. There's some incomprehensible backstory about how Stark's dad betrayed Vanko's dad way back in the day, getting Vanko's dad deported back to Russia; Rourke has a state-of-the-art physics lab in Siberia where he toils away, replicating the Iron Man suit during the opening minutes. Rourke is such an interesting, provocative actor; his work in The Wrestler was so compelling, that it is difficult to watch him here snarl and cackle, mumble his way through lines. Vanko's character is poorly developed (and disappears for at least 20 minutes by my count in the middle to last third of the film), and the final fight is anticlimactic at best, uninspired and boring at worst. I awarded a half-star more to this film because of Rourke's frightening electric whips, which--in the film's most exciting sequence--slice a car in two!

Rourke deserved better direction, as did Sam Rockwell as his co-villain, a weapons expert Justin Hammer. Rockwell seemed to be trying hard to replicate Downey Jr. at times; at other times, I was wishing Gary Oldman was there to inject some silliness or accents, ala The Fifth Element. Anytime Rockwell is on the screen, the movie falls flat. And when Rockwell and Rourke are together, what should be fun isn't.

Cinematically, there's no point in even trying to film a jailbreak scene in the post-Dark Knight era. No one can beat The Joker sewing a cell phone bomb into a prisoner who is then checked into the prison. A blob of C4 on a cafeteria plate and some slow-mo Mickey Rourke walking away from the cell as it explodes in a towering fireball is just not going to cut it. Go big, Favreau, or go home.

And finally, I've grown tired of Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury, wandering into the film several times as Basil Exposition, giving us tedious backstory, setting up inevitable prequels, sequels, referencing other superheroes, other characters, other eventual movies. After the credits end, they introduce yet another superhero movie, and I rolled my eyes. When I'm annoyed by Samuel L. Jackson, something's not working.

Save your money.