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Posted on April 25, 2007 at 11:39 am

C
Lowest Recommended Age: High School
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violent action, and some language.
Profanity: Mild language
Alcohol/ Drugs: Drinking, smoking, attempted drugging
Violence/ Scariness: A lot of action violence, shooting, car crashes, terrorism, fighting, bombs
Diversity Issues: Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters: 2007

If Philip K. Dick could have seen into the future, he would never have agreed to have his story “The Golden Man” be adapted into a movie, at least not this movie.


Nicolas Cage, who also produced, plays Chris Johnson, a low-rent Las Vegas magician whose ultimate act of prestidigitation is hiding one very special ability behind a bunch of “$50 tricks.” He can see into the future. Not much — only two minutes ahead. And not for anyone else’s future — only his own. But he can see far enough ahead to dodge a punch — or a bullet. And if, for example, he wants to meet a pretty girl sitting by herself in a restaurant (Jessica Biel as Liz), he can project into the future several different approaches and Groundhog Day-style find the one that will produce the desired results.


It isn’t just because she is pretty that he wants to meet her. It is because for the first time he has seen more than two minutes into the future. He has seen her, and he wants to know what that means.


Callie (Julianne Moore) is an FBI agent with a lot of hair who barks a lot of orders about securing perimeters and takes time for target practice in the middle of a major crisis involving a missing nuclear device and some nasty terrorists who may be planning to set it off. Maybe Chris can help! She’d better put him in one of those A Clockwork Orange eyelid-propping contraptions and see if he can figure out a way to dodge a very, very big bullet indeed.

Time for drastic measures — like tossing away any Constitutional rights and getting that hair under control.

“What about intel?” someone asks. “We don’t need it,” Callie snaps. “We have HIM.” You don’t need to be Chris to forsee we’re in for a lot of bang bang and the obligatory shooting of the black secondary character is mere moments away.


This movie has one sensational stunt, but there’s a boy-who-cried-wolf aspect with too many fake-outs. Eventually, the goodwill of the audience is worn out. I can see 96 minutes into the future of everyone who buys a ticket for this film and forsee that they will be disappointed.

Parents should know that this film has a lot of intense peril and violence, including terrorism, shooting, explosions, bombs, car crashes, attempted drugging, and punches. Most of it is “action-style,” meaning that there is not much blood. There is very brief bad language, much less than usual for a film of this genre. There is also a non-explicit sexual situation, again with less detail than typical for a PG-13. Some audience members may be disturbed by the themes of the movie, including terrorism and violations of Constitutional rights.

Families who see this movie should talk about the advantages and disadvantages of being able to see into the future.


Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy two others based on stories by Philip K. Dick, The Brave Little Toaster (for all ages), and Blade Runner (for mature teens and adults). They will also enjoy Cage’s better action films, The Rock and Con Air.

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Grindhouse

Posted on April 4, 2007 at 12:43 pm

B+
Lowest Recommended Age: Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating: Rated R for strong graphic bloody violence and gore, pervasive language, some sexuality, nudity and drug use.
Profanity: Very strong language, including racial epithets
Alcohol/ Drugs: Drinking, smoking, drug use
Violence/ Scariness: Extreme, intense, graphic, and grisly violence, guns, knives, fighting, torture, many characters injured and killed, attempted rape
Diversity Issues: Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters: 2007
Date Released to DVD: 2007
Amazon.com ASIN: B003VMFWYI

NOTE: This movie has extremely graphic, grisly, violent, and disgusting images, situations, and characters. It is not appropriate for anyone under 18 or for many adults. The positive rating is only for its intended audience, fans of this genre.


Famously violent but critically acclaimed film-makers Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez are fans of “grindhouse” movies. A grindhouse was a theater specializing in exploitation films — movies made with no artistic pretense or aspiration, with more attention to the advertising than the storyline. These films were usually not just low-budget but almost no-budget, poorly shot, poorly acted, poorly written. But they had a visceral appeal — usually visceral in literal terms because what they lacked in refinement or insights about the human condition they made up in shock and outrageousness. Despite their undisguised origins as purely commercial — exploitation king Roger Corman is proudly the only producer in history who has made money on every single film — these movies have an unpretentious appeal and even a gritty sincerity that can hold up well against Hollywood confections, especially those that try to hide their resolute commercialism under a veil of pomposity.


Tarantino and Rodriguez have re-created an evening at a grindhouse or a drive-in, circa 1970. It’s a double feature complete with fake trailers (from up and coming directors Eli Roth of Hostel, Edgar Wright (Shawn of the Dead, and Rob Zombie House of 1000 Corpses) and a commercial for the restaurant next door (note that characters from the movie are drinking sodas with its logo), faux scratches on the film and “missing frames” and reels and perfect replica opening credits. Somehow, the stories retain their 70’s vibes, even though they include a few updates like text messaging and references to the war in Iraq.


The first movie is “Planet Terror,” a zombiefest directed by Rodriguez. A pole dancer named Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan of “Charmed”), her former boyfriend Wray (Freddie Rodriguez of Showtime’s “Six Feet Under”), a sheriff (Terminator’s Michael Biehn) and his barbecueing brother (Jeff Fahey), an adulterous doctor with three big needles of anesthetic, and her squabbling twin babysitters face off against some oozing flesh-eaters in a battle so completely over-the-top that it almost makes sense when the lovely leg that got chomped off is replaced by a machine gun as a prosthetic. Talk about your pistol-packin’ mama. And when the zombies come, it’s like the “Thriller” video, without the dancing — or the happy ending.


The second film, directed by Tarantino, is “Death Proof,” starring Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike, a guy who drives a souped-up “death proof” stunt car and likes to use it as a weapon of mass destruction. Some of the pretty ladies he goes after include Sydney Poitier (daughter of the Oscar-winner), Tracie Toms and Rosario Dawson (both from Rent), and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (who appeared with Russell in the very different Sky High). This film has some characteristically choice Tarantino dialogue, cheerfully profane, hilariously frank, and divinely corkscrew, like a mash-up between Preston Sturges and Richard Pryor. The first half is mostly talk, talk that manages to mingle street insults, girly confidences, and Robert Frost, plus of course a lot of movie name checks. But when the don’t-take-rides-from-strangers action starts, it is stunning.

The break-out star here is real-life stuntwoman Zoe Bell (playing a stuntwoman named Zoe). She more than holds her own as an actress — while she is in the midst of one of the most astonishing stunts in movie history, the “captain’s mast” — with a devilish sizzle and fearless spirit that seem completely natural and utterly engaging.


Rodriguez and Tarantino also bring high spirits that give an organic brio to their mastery of story, tone, and visual story-telling. Their unabashed affection for the grindhouse genre keeps them from becoming arch, po-mo, or self-consciously ironic. This is a tribute, not a parody. At times, they seem to fetishize everything, even the literal film stock itself. There are loving close-ups of female curves, gleaming weapons, and gory wounds. There is sheer delight in the over-the-topiness: when someone says “no-brainer,” he means it literally. They have honored the sources that inspired and entertained them with a low-down, dirty, crazy, joyride that is packing heat, along with some nastily entertaining thrills.

Parents should know that this film includes just about everything that could be of concern in evaluating its appropriateness. It has non-stop intense, gross, graphic, grisly, and disgusting images of violence, including zombies chomping on bodies, attempted rape, torture, and every possible kind of homicidal butchery. Characters use very strong language, smoke, drink, and smoke marijuana. There is nudity, and there are sexual references and situations including a same-sex kiss and adultery. A strength of the movie is the portrayal of loyal friendships between diverse characters.


Audiences who see this movie should talk about how some of today’s most acclaimed directors were inspired by low-budget movies with no artistic aspirations.


Audiences who appreciate this movie will appreciate the other films by its directors, including Pulp Fiction and the Robert Rodriguez Mexico Trilogy, (El Mariachi, Desperado, and Once Upon A Time In Mexico). They may also enjoy some of the movies that inspired this one, including Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, Russ Meyer’s Faster Pussycat Kill!..kill!, Vanishing Point, and Gone in 60 Seconds (the original, of course). And they will enjoy the comic books that inspired some of these movies, like those collected in The EC Archives: Tales From The Crypt Volume 1.

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Action/Adventure Movies -- format Science-Fiction Thriller

Meet the Robinsons

Posted on March 22, 2007 at 2:19 pm

B+
Lowest Recommended Age: Kindergarten - 3rd Grade
MPAA Rating: Rated G
Profanity: None
Alcohol/ Drugs: None
Violence/ Scariness: Cartoon-style peril, including dinosaur, no one hurt
Diversity Issues: None
Date Released to Theaters: 2007
Date Released to DVD: 2007
Amazon.com ASIN: B000ROAK2W

At times, all of us feel like strangers in the world. In Disney’s bight, colorful, CGI animated film (available in 3D in some locations), Lewis (voice of Daniel Hansen) is left on the steps of an orphanage as a baby and rejected by over 100 prospective parents. He constantly invents machines that will help solve problems. But his love for inventing just seems to make him feel more separate from the world, more isolated, more weird. It seems he will ever find a family or a place where he feels at home.


Mildred (voice of Angela Bassett), who runs the orphanage, is sympathetic and fond of Lewis, but that is not the same. He has a roommate, Michael “Goob” Yagoobian (voice of Matthew Josten), who is just as lonely as he is. Lewis is better at understanding the problems of machines than he is at understanding what makes people work — or not work. His head is so full of plans that he does not always see what is going on in front of him.

When he takes his latest invention to the school science fair, he does not notice that two very unusual people have taken an interest in it. One is “Bowler Hat guy,” an even apter name than first apparent. The other is a boy named Wilbur Robinson who says he is from the future and he needs Lewis to accompany him there right away.


In keeping with its theme, the movie is visually inventive, especially in 3D. The story is uneven and a little too long, its wacky characters not as adorable as it wants us to think they are, and the ending not quite as logically consistent as it should be. But any movie that has a chorus of frogs singing Big Band music and a healthy respect for failure is worth seeing.

Parents should know that the movie’s themes include parental abandonment and rejection by potential adoptive parents, which may be disturbing for some children. There is some cartoon violence and peril, including a scary dinosaur. No one is badly hurt, though a child has a black eye and refers to having been beat up. There is some schoolyard language and a reference to being over-caffeinated.


Families who see this movie should talk about what it means to keep moving forward and to let go of the hurts of the past. Why did Lewis change his mind about what he thought he wanted? They may also want to talk about the many different ways people create families — and about some of the more unusual hobbies of their family members.

Families who enjoy this film will also enjoy the book, A Day with Wilbur Robinson, by William Joyce. They will also enjoy the dazzlingly inventive graphics in another animated film about an inventor based on Joyce’s work, Robots. The bowler hat guy is a little reminiscient of villain played by Terry-Thomas in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or Jack Lemmon in the delightful Great Race.

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Action/Adventure Animation Comedy Family Issues Movies -- format Science-Fiction

The Last Mimzy

Posted on March 21, 2007 at 2:41 pm

B
Lowest Recommended Age: Kindergarten - 3rd Grade
MPAA Rating: Rated PG for some thematic elements, mild peril and language.
Profanity: None
Alcohol/ Drugs: None
Violence/ Scariness: Peril and confrontations, some tense scenes and possible peril
Diversity Issues: Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters: 2007
Date Released to DVD: 2007
Amazon.com ASIN: B000Q66FB6

Two children find toys that make them more intelligent and powerful and send them on an adventure in this fine story for 4th-8th graders and their families. After he plays with the toys, Noah (Chris O’Neil) doesn’t need his glasses any more. He can hit a golf ball like Tiger Woods. Instead of struggling in school, he puts together a science fair project that could earn him a Nobel Prize. Noah’s little sister Emma (Rhiannon Leigh Wryn) can make the rocks that came with the toys spin. She can create some sort of vortex and stick her hand inside, making its atoms come apart. And one of the toys seems to be a kind of a generator, so powerful that it blows out all the electricity in the city.


These are not the kind of toys you can find at the store. Noah and Emma find them in a box washed up on the shore near their family’s weekend home on the coast of Washington state. And shutting down the electricity in Seattle is not something that goes unnoticed, not in these days of the Patriot Act, where, as Noah’s father is reminded by Nathanial Broadman of Homeland Security (Michael Clarke Duncan), the government no longer needs a warrant to search your house.


Noah and Emma will need all of their new powers and the help of some grown-ups — their parents (Timothy Hutton and Joely Richardson) and Noah’s teacher Larry (“The Office’s” Rainn Wilson) and his wife to solve the deeper riddle behind the toys and help save those who sent them.


The very part of the story that is most likely to appeal to children — making the kids the central characters and giving only them the power to save the day — is also its weak point. A great deal rests on its young actors, and Wryrn falters in the big scenes, seeming to be repeating her lines rather than feeling them. The updates to the 1943 short story feel shoehorned in and the scenes of the government coming in to investigate are like an echo of the unforgettably powerful scenes in E.T. But the film wisely does not try to wow the CGI-savvy audience with its special effects, keeping them low-key enough to feel enticingly possible. And its respect for studying science, for taking responsibility for addressing the problems around us, and for family commitment, communication, and loyalty are lessons this toy of a movie teaches very nicely.

Parents should know that this movie has some tense scenes with some mild peril. There is some kissing with a very mild sexual reference and an unmarried couple lives together.


Families who see this movie should talk about the idea of “cultural pollution” and how each of us can take responsibility for protecting our environment and our communities. Why would someone send such an important message in the form of toys?

Families who enjoy this film will also enjoy E.T. – The Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Edward Eager’s delightful Tales of Magic books. The title of this movie comes from Lewis Carroll’s famous Jabberwocky nonsense poem from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.

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Action/Adventure Drama Family Issues Fantasy Movies -- format Science-Fiction

Children of Men

Posted on December 22, 2006 at 11:19 am

B+
Lowest Recommended Age: High School
MPAA Rating: Rated R for strong violence, language, some drug use and brief nudity.
Profanity: Very strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs: Drinking, smoking, drug use
Violence/ Scariness: Intense and graphic peril and violence, many characters killed
Diversity Issues: Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters: 2007
Date Released to DVD: 2007
Amazon.com ASIN: B000N6TX1I

“A baby is God’s opinion life should go on,” Carl Sandburg said. So, in a world where babies have stopped being born and the death of the youngest person on earth is an international tragedy, there seems to be no point in just about anything. It appears that all of humanity is only decades from extinction. With no future, any sense of order and structure is gone. Any sense of hope or purpose has disappeared. All that exists is increasingly more violent and frantic chaos and increasingly more violent and frantic efforts to contain it.

The world is engulfed with anarchy, and only England is left to uphold what passes for civilization, a nihilist bureaucracy supported by a brutal armed force. Its one object is to hold on to what little is left by keeping out the avalanche of people fleeing the chaos of their own countries. The huddled masses yearning to breathe free are shipped off to prison camps and deported. Or just shot, because, why not? Justice, kindness, honor, and loyalty no longer mean anything. The only values left are expediency and any possible shred of a sense of control.

Theo (Clive Owen) is personally and professionally burned out. The one connection he has to peace, affection, and laughter is to his old friend Jasper (Michael Caine), a cynical, pot-smoking aging hippie. He lives away from the rest of the world and cares tenderly for his wife, who is completely unresponsive as a result of severe physical or emotional trauma.


Theo is captured by rebel forces led by his ex-wife (Julianne Moore), who wants him to obtain papers from his influential relative to permit the transport of a young woman who is pregnant. Protecting her from the authorities and the ravenous curiosity of the world gives Theo something to care about.


This is a heart-thumping thriller with two of the most exciting chase scenes since The Matrix Reloaded. But it is also a thoughtful, provocative, and complex film, each shot packed with details, each scene packed with ideas. Theo’s highly placed cousin collects the world’s great masterpieces, protecting them — for what? Theo’s escort of the young pregnant woman recalls the nativity, as he tries to find a safe place for her to give birth to the baby who will carry all of the hope of the world, protecting her from brutal soldiers. Though it takes place in 2027, the setting does not look too far from our own surroundings — this is not one of those futuristic stories where people wear silvery mylar, have flying cars, or zap themselves from one place to another. But there are understated references to other places and events that demonstrate the richness of the film’s underlying conceptual base. The performances, especially Owen and Caine are so deeply grounded and heartfelt that they draw us deeply into the story. Instead of just another chases and explosions movie, this is a film that is adrenaline for the mind and spirit.

Parents should know that this movie is disturbing and extremely violent with graphic images and many characters injured and killed. There is non-sexual nudity, extremely strong language, drinking, smoking, and drug use.


Families who see this movie should discuss why the absence of children led to such violence and anarchy. What will happen next? They may want to read the book, by P.D. James or learn more about the possible causes of declining fertility rates worldwide.


Families who enjoy this film will also appreciate other dystopic visions of the future, including 28 Days Later, Gattaca, Blade Runner, Solyent Green, and a made-for-television movie called The Last Child.

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