Friday, July 8, 2011

Zookeeper

MPAA (PG) CNS/USCCB (A-III) Roger Ebert (3 stars) Fr Dennis (3 stars)

IMDb listing -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1222817/
CNS/USCCB review -
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/movies/11mv078.htm
Roger Ebert’s review -
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110706/REVIEWS/110709990

Zookeeper (directed by Frank Coraci, screenplay Nick Bakay, Rock Rueben and others including the film's star Kevin James) is a kid friendly mash-up of (R-rated) Forgetting Sarah Marshall and (PG-rated) Night at the Museum set at the Zoo.

The film begins with Griffin Keyes (played by Kevin James) setting-up a dream wedding proposal to his girl friend Stephanie (played by Leslie Gibb) – they’re riding on horseback on the beach as it nears sunset.  Stephanie spots an odd wine bottle sticking out of the sand.  Inside it is a note, as she finishes reading the note, beginning Griffin’s proposal she turns around and there’s Griffin on his knee finishing the proposal, “would you marry me?”  It’s all lovely, but Stephanie, who looks (and in the movie actually becomes) a super-model, believes that she can do better than a zookeeper.  So she answers “no.”  How embarrassing. 

Folks, if you’ve _ever_ been dumped or otherwise had your heart radically crushed in some way, remember this scene.  It will put a smile on your face ;-).  There the two are, riding off on one horse together into the sunset with Stephanie berating him about how unbelievably stupid he was to think that she’d ever marry a “mere zookeeper,” and all he can say “Honey, I may have ordered some Mariachis so just ignore them as we pass by, and please ignore the fireworks (heart shaped, exploding above them) as well."  Yes, that has _got to be_ the most gut-wrenchingly awful/funny dumping scene in American film since Woody Allen’s 1970s-era Bananas where Allen had his girlfriend in the movie breaking-up with him saying “Honey, it’s not that I’m not attracted to you. I’m _not_, but that’s not it...” :-) 

So crushed, Griffin Keyes goes back to the zoo where he’s loved by the animals and respected by much of the staff, including, above all, by zoo vet, Kate (played by Rosario Dawson)

 The movie resumes five years later.  Griffin’s  brother Dave (played by Nat Faxon) is getting married.  Griffin throws a pre-wedding party for him at the zoo.  Dave, who operates an exotic car shop is rich, though not necessarily the most up on social graces.  His knockout fiancé Robin (played by Steffania de la Cruz) though doesn’t seem to mind.  I’m not sure whether it was Dave or Robin, but one of them invited Stephanie to the party, not realizing that this may fluster Griffin.  It does, but they do start talking.  In the course of the conversation while clearly indicating that she’s still not interested in someone who’s just a zoo-keeper, she indicates that she’s in the midst of a muddled relationship with a man who would have seemed to be utterly perfect for her, Gale (played by Joe Rogan).  Gale was rich, a tri-athlete and (turned out to be) a great ballroom dancer.  But he’s also kind of a, well, a-hole (sorry folks for the “R-rated terminology” for a PG-rated movie but “jerk” just doesn’t cut it).  So Griffin realizes that Stephanie “is in play.”

Will Griffin “sell his soul” to get the girl of his dreams?  He realizes that Stephanie wants him to quit the zoo.  He also knows that his brother Dave would give him a job at his car dealership if only he’d ask.  The animals (who we find a la Night at the Museum can talk and are voiced by the likes of Nick Nolte, Silvester Stalone, Adam Sandler, Maya Rudolph and Cher) get all worried that Griffin’s gonna dump the zoo for Stephanie, so they all try to help him get Stephanie without having to leave the job, giving all sorts of heart-felt “mating advice” that, well, works for them but...  Griffin even enlists zoo vet Kate to help him get closer to Stephanie by going with him as his date to his brother’s wedding.  Much ensues.  And yes, he get’s his chance.  What’s it gonna be?  The super-model Stephanie or comely in her own right vet Kate and the animals?  You get the picture.

I have to admit, I enjoyed this picture.  I found Kevin James played a _great_ lovable schmuck who in the end, of course, does “choose well.”  It’s kind of a hokey story.  But I’m kind of a sucker for them.  And the talking animals were fun.  They were a little crude but in a “cub scout camping trip” sort of a way.  So I do think the movie’s safe for kids.

One last thing, something that Americans my age (who were teens in the 1970s) would appreciate.  Yes, this film was set in Boston.  If you see the movie, you’ll understand. ;-)


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Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times

MPAA (R) CNS/USCCB () Roger Ebert (3 Stars) Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1787777/
USCCB review -
Roger Ebert's review -
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110628/REVIEWS/110629979 
 
Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times (R rated for occasional language, directed and co-written by Andrew Rossi as well as Kate Novack) is a documentary about how the nation’s flagship newspaper, The New York Times, is seeking to cope with and respond effectively to the challenges posed by the “new media” of the internet. 

The challenges are plenty and many deal with revenue.  Why should companies buy ad space in the New York Times when they can have their own easily accessible websites on the web or advertise on countless other people’s web pages via services like Google?  Why should people pay the New York Times for a classified ad listing when they can post such ads for free on Craigslist?  Why should people pay for a subscription to the New York Times or buy a copy at a newsstand when they can (or could) read the New York Times (or their favorite columnists) for free on the web?  

One _could_ say, produce a product that’s simply incomparable in quality, limit free access and people will still buy it.  But there are other challenges.  Page One considered the phenomenon Wikileaks, noting that Wikileaks came on the scene by simply posting (on YouTube) a highly provocative, leaked classified video that it had received of a problematic U.S. combat operation in Iraq.  The NYT journalists noted several problems with the video, notably that two versions of the video were posted by Wikileaks on YouTube.  The first was the raw, unedited version (38 minutes long - so it presumably had to be cut-up into several 10-15 minute segments as per YouTube policy).  The second version was an “edited version” that was actually more provocative than the first, because it focused on the killing of a number of seemingly unarmed Iraqi men while editing out evidence present in the raw version that one of those men _may_ have been carrying an rocket-propelled grenade. 

The Wikileaks incident described above highlighted both the promise and the problems present in “citizen/activist journalism.”  (Indeed, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was asked in a phone interview shown in the documentary if he considered himself more of a "journalist" or more of an "actrivist.  He chose the "activist" label. “Citizen journalism” is prone to amateur mistakes while activists tend to seek to _actively_ portray a particular slant or point of view.  The editing out of the visual evidence that _one of a group of men_ killed in this attack _may_ have been carrying an RPG could have been an _amateur mistake_ or a conscious _activist_ decision to slant the story.  The incident could showcase the continued need for a professional journalistic class (or a “priesthood” as it were) to _mediate_ the raw data into coherent and honest reporting.  It was noted that some time later, when Wikileaks received a huge cache of classified U.S. documents, Wikileaks itself decided to go to the New York Times, The Guardian (of England) and Der Spiegel (of Germany) to ask for help in filtering the information in such a way that its contents could be released without directly endangering any American lives.  So even Wikileaks founder Julian Assange apparently understood the value of having a credible mediating agency like the New York Times filtering and organizing the data to produce a coherent and honest product.

However, the difficulties in maintaining the reputation of producing a coherent and honest product were highlighted in the case of NYT reporter Judy Miller, whose articles about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction during the months leading up to the Iraq War were seen as instrumental in mobilizing Congress and public opinion to support the war.  Judy Miller was depending on classified information that she was receiving from her intelligence sources.  The New York Times has since been roundly criticized for not exercising due diligence in making sure that she (and the Times) were not being scammed.  A particularly revolting scene in the documentary was a clip of then Vice-President Dick Cheney referring to Judy Miller’s articles _from the New York Times_ (a newspaper that’s normally anathema to the American Right) to justify the march to war: “There’s a report (even) in New York Times today ...” What I found so revolting about that segment is that Judy Miller was being fed her information by the same “pro war” faction within the U.S. intelligence community of which Dick Cheney was part.  (I’m not saying that Dick Cheney _ordered_ someone to leak cherry-picked intelligence to Judy Miller, but someone was doing so and this certainly this manipulated leaaders and public opinion to support the G.W. Bush Administration's call for war in Iraq).  The Judy Miller case serves as a painful example of how even the New York Times occasionally gets bamboozled, a reality that somewhat undermines  its “need for a journalistic priestly class” reason for its continued existence: Sure “amateurs” often get fooled but so does (occasionally) the New York Times.

The New York Times is also portrayed as seeking to make peace and even to partially coopt some of the new media phenomena by hiring younger, new media savy reporters like Brian Stelter (who began his writing career by running a highly successful blog) to its media desk department.  The Times would also deploy their highly articulate, if somewhat crochety and certainly more traditional media reporter David Carr to various conferences and public forums to defend the continued relevance of the New York Times.  In a particularly funny line in the film (which also shows up in its trailer), refering to the happily blogging and twittering Stetler, Carr notes that he has nightmares that “[Stelter] is actually a robot built in the basement of the New York Times for the purpose of destroying me.”  Carr, however, becomes the central figure in this documentary, tirelessly defending the Times and other traditional newspapers, noting in one conference that “internet aggregators” (sites which collect links to various stories) would have almost nothing to aggregate if not for the content porduced by those traditional news outlets.

The New York Times is portrayed as flirting with the possibility of moving towards an “NPR business model" perhaps seeking a number of foundations to help underline its mission.  It also is portrayed as anamored with the potential of eReaders like Apple’s iPad (note here, that I often read and _enjoy reading_ the New York Times through my Kindle that I received as a birthday present a couple of years ago from my dad).

Finally, the documentary makers give ample time to David Carr’s righteous disgust with rival Tribune Company chairman Sam Zell’s approach to seek to further “commercialize” traditional newspapers.  Sam Zell’s philosophy has been to respond to the current financial/existential challenges to traditional media by challenging his papers to “give the people what they want.”A clip shown in the documentary has Sam Zell even suggesting that perhaps newspapers “should include a porn section.”   The documentary makes ample note that a few years after taking over it was Sam Zell's Tribune Company (which owns among other newspapers, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times) that had to file for bankruptcy protection and not the New York Times.

So this documentary offers much to think about regarding the challenges facing traditional news outlets and asks the audience to contemplate a world without entities like the New York Times.  Ultimately Page One does not offer any clear solutions.  What it does do is show a managing staff at the New York Times aware of the stakes involved and with reasonably competence and openness to also the positive of this era seeking to make sure that the New York Times do not simply crash and die.  I’d like to add here, that if the New York Times would become a kind of  NPR in the future, I would certainly be willing to contribute to it if that ultimately ensures its survival.


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Monday, July 4, 2011

Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon [2011]


MPAA (PG-13) CNS/USCCB (A-III) Roger Ebert (1 Star) Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB review
Roger Ebert’s review

Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon [2011] (directed by Michael Bay and written by Ehren Kruger) is the third and most ambitious movie based on the Transformer toy line first conceived in Japan and in the early 1980s and sold there by the Japanese toy manufacturer Takara and brought to the United States by Hasbro when it bought U.S. distribution rights in 1984. 

The basic concept behind the Transformer toy line was that each toy was a “two in one.”  In one state, the toy looked like a robotic “action figure.”  But when properly “folded together” (manipulated), the robot would “transform” into something else – a vehicle, an insect, a prehistoric animal, etc.

Guessing at the possible sources of inspiration for the toy line is rather fun: 

The Transformer toy line came out a short time after the Rubik’s cube craze, which was introduced to the world as a 3-dimensional transformational puzzle in 1980.  In the 30 years since its introduction, over 350 million Rubik’s cubes have been sold, making it the best selling toy of all time. That toy-makers around the world would seek to find their own ways to capitalize on the joy/intrigue/delight evoked by playing with this toy would not be surprising.  While obviously easier to successfully manipulate than the Rubik’s cube, the Transformer toys do produce a certain delight resulting from the successful transformation of a toy “that’s a robot” into “something else” and back again.

Then there could also be several long standing/”traditional” cultural reasons and as well as a number of more modern ones as to why the Transformer toys originally came out of Japan:

An East Asian country, Japanese culture is permeated by Buddhism (Zen Buddhism in particular). A central tenet of Buddhism is that of samsara; that is, that _nothing is stationary_, that life (and indeed all things) are continually changing. Toys that are capable of changing shape from one state to another and back again actually express this concept quite well.

Then the Japanese have been famous for the art of Origami or paper-folding in which a humble two-dimensional sheet of paper is folded and transformed into all kinds of marvelous shapes.

In more recent times, in the post-WW II years, Japan became famous for its Godzilla movies in which various monsters were seen as materializing as a result of human negligence or evil to wreak havoc on humanity.  Godzilla was portrayed as a giant lizard that materialized in the sea as a result of nuclear radiation.  The Smog Monster materialized from and fed on pollution.  These monsters would fight it out over Tokyo, while humanity, the creator of these monsters, found itself largely at their mercy.  (This description of the 1950s era Godzilla movies starts to sound actually a lot like the plots of the current Transformer movies.  More on that below ;-). 

Finally in the 1980s, Japan was basking in its post-WW II scientific-technological miracle.  The Transformers were essentially cool shape-shifting “robots” which both fostered pride in Japan’s technological progress and arguably served to encourage Japanese youngsters into continuing this technological march forward.  I say this because there are actually intriguing physical and mathematical concepts embedded in both the Rubik’s cube and the Transformer toys which make them not only "cool" but arguably formative/educational:

For as one proceeds from studying the simplest of atoms to studying ever heavier atoms (with more electrons, hence more orbital shells) and then from the simplest of molecules (like water) to ever more complex organic molecules (like carbohydrates, proteins or enzymes), to make sense of them, quantum mechanics becomes increasingly a discipline which seeks to identify and exploit the symmetries and degrees of freedom present in the more complex structures. 

A casual observer may not see a Transformer toy as basically _a kids’ representation of an enzyme_ but the concept that allows a toy transform from that robot into a a sports car (or into an F-15 fighter plane or into a mushroom or daisy) is _essentially the same operating concept_ by which an enzyme turns “on” and “off” – in one configuration an enzyme is “off” in another it is “on.”  What makes transformation from the “off” state to the “on” state possible are “joints” (carbon atoms in organic molecules).  Each “joint” (or "node") brings with it a number of degrees of freedom (a joint being able to twist a portion of a molecule in one direction or another).  

Then a just like a bug or a car (or a human form for that matter) can be classified by the number of planes and points of symmetry present within it, complex organic molecules can be classified in the same way.  And a complex organic molecule _can_ conceivably fold-in on itself or expand outward., just like a transformer toy can convert from a closed shape (like that of a bug, car, etc) into its expanded form (which in the transformer toy would usually be a robot).  The study of symmetry in mathematics is called group theory and really is quite elegant.

So there is a lot embedded (or "going on") in these Transformer toys!

Now having created a line of toys in which “robots” are able to be converted into “something else,” the need arose for its Japanese manufacturer Takara (and U.S. distributor Hasbro) to come-up with a “back story” explaining “why” these shape-shifting robots would exist. 

Already two kinds of Transformers toys were developed Autobots that were robots that transformed into essentially benign objects, and Decepticons that transformed into more malevolent objects (like weapons, tanks, military aircraft, etc). 

So the basic story presented Marvel Comics' Transformer comic book series, that became an animated television series and served as inspiration for the more recent Transformer movies, including this current one was that of a battle between evil Decepticons and the more peace-loving (in current American ideological speak “more freedom loving” but it’s basically the same thing – because peace is largely rooted in an ethic of “live let live” so long as it does not hurt anybody) Autobots.

Viewers of the Transformer movies may be confused or even appalled by the fact that people are largely “side characters” in the drama of this battle between the Autobots and Decepticons.  

But one could look at the comic book series, children’s animated series or the more recent films with the following perspectives that _could_ make sense of the matter:

First, consider this epic battle between the Autobots and Decepticons to be analogous to the battles between Godzilla and the Smog Monster in the 1950s-era Godzilla movies.  Indeed, in this current movie, Transformers 3, Chicago becomes the hapless, suffering Tokyo of those 1950s movies.  We get to watch and perhaps marvel at the destruction wreaked on the city (I’m a Chicagoan actually ;-) by forces largely beyond our control.

Second, there is a “Clash of the Gods” aspect to the Autobot vs Decepticon story.  The Transformers are presented as an alien race of intelligent mechanical beings from a planet Cybertron far more advanced than us that extends its rivalry/battle _to our world_ as well.  Indeed, much of the current movie, Transformers 3, centers on the efforts of humanity (and various representative individuals within our human community) to “manage” (and perhaps exploit) this conflict between these two forces which are much more powerful than us.

Finally, I do find interesting the trend in American sci-fi movies present since at least the movie Independence Day (1996) and continuing to this release (as well as of the release of another such movie recently, called Battle: Los Angeles), that America seem intent now on _inventing_ “alien invasion” scenarios so that we could continue to feel like “underdogs,” when _in reality_ we have by far the strongest armed forces in the world and currently spend more on them than the rest of the world combined.  There is a logic behind our level of military spending and the world could become a far more chaotic place (at least initially) if we chose to draw down our military’s size.  However, I do think it is worth noting that we seem to be finding the need to _invent_ “aliens” to fight because there aren’t too many enemies _on this earth_ that could really challenge our Abrams tanks, cruise missiles, and drone and stealth aircraft.

So then, what to say about the actual film?

Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon is not Dostoyevski.  It’s a screen adaptation of a story that first appeared as a comic book, which itself was created to give a ‘back-story’ to a ‘really cool line of toys’ that needed a reason to exist.  As such, the dialogue in Transformers 3 is something that you’d expect more in a graphic novel than from Shakespeare (but then the Bard wasn’t exactly enlisted to write this screen play).  The dialogue is sparce, arguably Spartan/Laconic, but evocative.  A 10 year old will understand what’s going on.  

Main characters include Sam Witwicky (played Shia LaBeouf) who returns from the previous Transformer movies and plays the role of an “any man.”  He knows the Transformers from his previous encounters with them (he’s friends with the Autobots, knows the dangers presented by the Decepticons) but as an “any man” he is “a nobody,” who isn’t taken seriously by either the government, notably by Charlotte Mearing (played by Frances McDormand) who heads a US government intelligence agency in charge of managing the U.S. government’s relationship with the Autobots, or really anybody of note.  He begins the story,  as someone "with talent but _unemployed_."

There’s Sam’s love interest Carly (played by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) who replaces Mikaela Banes (played by Megan Fox) in the previous Transformer movies.  Carly’s a photo-model and though she loves Sam, she’d also wish that he’d finally succeed in becoming the more important, more respected person that she believes that he could be.  (Present in many of the superhero comic books is an element of male “wish fulfillment,” that of an “average guy” not being actually an “average guy” bur being rather “super” in some way, and there being some very attractive woman who both likes him despite him being average but also wishes that he succeed in “stepping-up” and becoming the “awesome person” worthy of her affections). 

There are also Sam’s parents Ron (played by Kevin Dunn) and Judy (played by Julie White) who love their son but _also_ wish that he finally make something of himself.

There’s the villain, Dylan (played by Patrick Dempsey) who’s a rich industrialist who also is hot for Carly and who meddles in the conflict between the Autobots and Decepticons, saying at one point to Sam, “As my dad told me, 'if it’s _not your war_, just make sure you get on the side that’s going to win.'” 

And finally there are the Transformers.  There’s the good Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) leader of the exiled Autobots, there’s Megatron (voiced by Hugo Weaving) leader of the malevolent Decepticons and Sentinel Prime (voiced by Leonard Nimoy of former Star Trek original series fame) who was the leader of the Autobots until he and his space craft were lost trying to escape the Autobots’ home planet during the course of the climatic battle there between the the Decepticons and Autobots. 

The crash of Sentinel Prime’s crippled spacecraft “on the dark side of the moon” is presented as the true motivation for the U.S.-space race to the moon in the 1960s and sets-up the story of Transformers 3: The Dark of the Moon.

What happens?  Well, if you wish to know go see the movie.  Much happens.  In the course of “much happening,” Chicago (like Tokyo of the Godzilla movies) is largely flattened.  I think most will guess who wins in the end ...;-)

Would I recommend this movie?  Sure.  It’s probably not for the smallest of kids.  There is a lot of glass breaking, skyscraper stomping violence in movie, but as is typical of current PG-13 fare, it has virtually no blood or gore.

Again, I personally have some problems with the “alien invasion” films _of our day_ and would ask people who see the movie to reflect on (and hopefully come to reject) the “propagandistic” aspect of such films.  But having then articulated these concerns, I’m a realist.  This is a typical American summer-time movie and it obviously gives some delight to mostly younger and middle aged audiences who remember movies like this of the past.

Finally some words about the 3D in this movie:  While a 2D version of this movie exists and is playing in theaters, it seemed to me particularly hard to find the 2D version playing at a convenient time.  As with current most 3D movies, the 3D is _largely unnecessary_.  Rather it serves primarily as an excuse to extort a few extra dollars from movie goers (and to eventually force television viewers to buy expensive 3D televisions which are now entering the market).

Here I do hope that between Japan, China, the EU and the United States, one or another of these economic powers will come to see what is going on here -- an attempt by electronics manufacturers to eventually force the world’s consumers to buy new largely unnecessary, _fatigue causing_ (and perhaps even unhealthy) television technology -- and that one or more of these economic powers will use its regulatory power to stop this needless and exploitative trend on the part of television manufacturers.

There is simply no reason other than jacking-up ticket priced today and forcing consumers to buy 3D televisions in the future for movies like this to be(1) made and (2) _primarily_ distributed in 3D.


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Saturday, July 2, 2011

Larry Crowne


MPAA (PG-13) CNS/USCCB (A-III) Roger Ebert (2 stars) Fr Dennis (2 ½ Stars)

IMDb listing -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1583420/
CNS/USCCB review -
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/movies/11mv076.htm
Roger Ebert’s review -
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110628/REVIEWS/110629975

Larry Crowne (directed and co-written by Tom Hanks along with Nia Vardalos of My Big Fat Greek Wedding fame) is a gentle movie about a gentle man, Larry Crowne (played by Tom Hanks) who gets downsized by a big-box retail chain (in the movie called Umart) despite being a longtime exemplary employee because he never went to college (instead, he had 20 years in the Navy right out of high school).  Without some college education, by company policy Larry could never be promoted, so the company let him go.  (I simply don’t understand the logic, because Larry didn’t appear to be looking for a promotion being happy where he was.  But there it is, and this kind of corporate logic is unfortunately going to hurt an awful lot of people in the coming years.  First, there are people like Larry Crowne who since time immemorial have held _and succeeded_ in jobs involving great responsibility without having a college degree (and where are people who are good, honest, hardworking but simply may not be bright enough to get a college degree supposed to go?) and second, is it really in society’s interest to have highly educated employees sorting clothes and stacking boxes at “Umarts?”)

However, Larry’s sudden and yes “painful” downsizing sets up the rest of the story.  He finds that without some college he can’t get a job in retail elsewhere.  He has a house and a SUV like car and isn’t sure how he’s going to pay it all.  To be sure, he’d probably have a Navy pension and would be eligible for unemployment compensation for some time.  Still, like millions of others in his shoes, the job loss was going to cause him problems.

So Larry decides to go take some courses at the local community college.  Realizing that he can’t bleed money into his SUV’s gas tank any more, he buys his neighbor’s motor scooter.  And in a gentle way, he makes new friends, notably with a 20-something student named Talia (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and later with one of his teachers, Mercedes Tainot (played by Julia Roberts). 

To be sure, I found the developing romance between Larry and Ms Tainot (becoming Merci at some point) to be the most difficult part to accept in the whole movie. 

And to the movie’s “pc” (?) credit, the romance _isn’t_ “consummated” in any way during the course of Larry’s semester as Ms Tainot’s student, and isn’t really consummated by the end of the film either.  But I did find _this whole aspect of the movie_ burdensome from the beginning.  I do believe it would have been better to have had Larry meet some 40-something single/divorced woman (perhaps even played by Nia Vardalos, or perhaps having her play the role of the teacher leaving Roberts with the role of the love interest).  This student would certainly _also_ have "a story" but I'd just find it better to go that route than go the route of the “student - teacher” relationship.  

Yes, Ms Tainot _did have her own story_ and her own marital problems that were interesting in their own right – Tainot’s husband, Dean Tainot (played by Bryan Cranston) “working at home” while she was teaching classes at the community college, was falling ever deeper into internet porn addiction.  And she herself was drinking ever more heavily, coming home each evening to her large kitchen blender, ice, rum and daiquiri mix.  All this was well portrayed. 

But the romance between Larry / Ms Tainot felt suspiciously like male “wish fulfillment” again, and in a movie that otherwise is so beautifully gentle, low-key – hey, I’m a priest, ‘low key’ and ‘gentleness’ (and the occasional Barney Miller style ‘walk-in’ ;-) make-up parish life most days – I found it a shame that the screen-writers (Hanks / Vardalos) decided on taking the movie in such a needlessly “Hollywood” direction.

Still, I generally liked the movie.  I just wish that it had avoided that “romance” which in my mind was needlessly problematic.

Finally and certainly far more positively, all kinds of the bit characters in this movie definitely deserve mention.  Larry’s neighbors Lamar (played by Cedric the Entertainer) and his wife were great as were the “slightly megalomaniacal”  economics professor Dr. Matsutani (played by George Takei) and Talia’s somewhat jealous “biker” err “motor-scooter riding” boyfriend Dell Gordo (played by Wilmer Valderamma).  Nia Vardalos also does an “audio cameo” as the voice of Ms Tainot’s GPS device.

All in all, this was not a bad movie, just that, in my mind, it could have been a better one if they had stayed away from the teacher-student romance theme and thus added one more character to the story.


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Friday, July 1, 2011

Monte Carlo


MPAA (PG) CNS/USCCB (A-II) Roger Ebert (2 stars) Fr. Dennis (3 stars)

IMDb listing -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1067774/
CNS/USCCB review -
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/movies/11mv075.htm
Roger Ebert's review -
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110628/REVIEWS/110629976

 It’s the summer, so travelogue movies are “in season,” and I found Monte Carlo (directed and cowritten by Thomas Bezucha and April Blair and others) to be a particularly sweet one.

Grace (played by Selena Gomez), a part time waitress at a diner in a small town on the plains of Texas is graduating from High School.  She had been saving to go to Paris for a trip after graduation, “putting money away in a cookie jar” whenever she could since at least the beginning of her freshman year.  Along the way, she convinced a slightly older co-worker Emma (played by Katie Cassidy) to go with her as well.  The movie begins on graduation day, and they seem to be set. 

At the last minute, Grace’s 21 year-old new step-sister Meg (played by Leighton Meester) is thrown into the mix by their recently married parents, Grace’s mom Pam (played by Andie MacDowell) and Meg’s widowed father Robert (played by Brett Cullen).  Adult or almost-adult chidren of recently remarried parents, the two, Grace and Meg, had clearly not fully accepted their parents’ new arrangement or each other as "sisters."  Added to this college senior Meg really didn’t like waitress Emma.  Both Grace and Meg are not thrilled with their parents’ meddling.  But both parents _insist_, so there... 

Emma has her own little drama to deal with.  Long time boyfriend, Owen (played by Cory Monteith), really doesn’t understand why Emma has to go on this trip to Paris: “All I need is right her in my truck,” he says to her seated next to him in his pickup.  Emma responds that she’s never even been outside of Texas and really would like to go.  So Emma leaves on the trip after having had this fight with Owen.

So there the three go - Grace, Emma and Meg - arriving in Paris together and soon discover that the “value package tour” that they purchased was less than they had hoped for.  In particular, the tour guide, Madame Valerie (played by Valerie Lemecier) seemed obsessed with keeping both “on schedule and on budget.”  So for different reasons all three are aghast – Emma has trouble keeping up with the tour because all she brought for the trip were high heels (for “stylish Paris”).  College student Meg is appalled that the tour group had to sprint through Louvre without so much as stopping at a single painting to catch a breath, much less admire it, and Grace feels embarrassed that “this was all her fault,” that “she booked the worst tour in Paris.”

Their fortunes change however after they are left by the tour group atop the Eiffel Tower.  Emma simply can’t get down the steps of the Eiffel Tower in time.  Trying to get back to their hotel by foot, they get caught in a rain storm.  To get out of the rain, they enter a very posh hotel and ... that’s while they are in the ladies’ room they accidently run into a snotty young English heiress named Cordelia Winthrop Scott who looks like the spitting image of Grace.  (Indeed, Selena Gomez plays Ms Cordelia as well).

Good ole Cordelia is upset that here she is in Parish though her luggage was still somewhere else and all her friends are in Majorca.  In a tiff, Ms Cordelia leaves the hotel presumably to go to Majorca without saying anything to the receptionist even though he was frantically trying to locate her luggage for her.  Anyway, when the Grace, Meg and Emma step out of the bathroom, the receptionist, indeed the whole hotel staff confuse Grace with Ms Cordelia.  And the rest of the story opens from here ...

Much, mostly sweet, happens afterwards...  Yes, the three are jetted off to Monte Carlo (hence the title of the film) on the French Riviera for a charity benefit that Ms Cordelia should have attended.  Ms Cordelia’s luggage also arrives (to Monte Carlo).  So the three young ladies from Texas now get to dress in fine high society clothes.

What makes the movie _nice_, however, is that the movie goes in the direction of The Princess Diaries rather than Sex and the City.  Indeed, the PG rating is _entirely appropriate_ in the film.  All three of the young ladies “find themselves” and “find their direction” as a result of the trip.  And yes, Emma after getting a taste of “high society” finds that she prefers the waitresses instead.  Indeed, she makes up with Owen.  What happens with the other two, Grace and Meg, I’m not going to reveal here except that remembering that this is a story, (and a sweet one at that) they both “find their destinies,” both of those destinies are nice.  And yes, they also find that they do like each other.  What a nice movie! 

Could they have discovered all that on a Eurail pass rather than in haute rich Monte Carlo?  Certainly, but again this is "a fairytale."  And the exaggeration in the story didn’t hurt. 

A comment then about the screenplay.  Remembering that this is _a story_, I very much enjoyed the tightness of the script.  Throughout the film little things that appeared to be mere details come to have importance later.  Even that the three came from a small town Texas (rather than from a small town in say Ohio or Alabama) made a difference to how a couple of scenes played out.  So viewers, watch for the details and see how the screen writers used them to tie the story together.  I’ve long enjoyed “a good story,” and I found the story telling this movie to be very, very good.  

All in all, I would imagine that this would make for both a nice family movie, especially when a newly “blended family” is trying to come together.  And no, the message _certainly isn't_ that one has to go to “Monte Carlo” (or have a ton of money) to make things work out. Though “going-off on an adventure together" may actually bring a family/new sibblings closer (think of The Incredibles).

And I would also think that this would make for a nice young adult date movie.  Yes, the movie’s a bit corny and the girls would probably enjoy it more than the guys.  But ending with a “happy date” is generally a good thing.  So “going/accepting corny” at times can a good thing as well ;-).


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Saturday, June 25, 2011

Bad Teacher [2011]


MPAA (R) CNS/USCCB (O) Roger Ebert (2 Stars) Fr. Dennis (2 ½ Stars)

IMDb listing -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1284575/
CNS/USCCB review -
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/movies/11mv072.htm
Roger Ebert’s review -
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110622/REVIEWS/110629989

The first and most important thing that folks should know about the comedy, Bad Teacher (directed by Jake Kasdan, written by Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg), is that it certainly deserves its R-Rating, and its makers would probably consider the Catholic News Service’s “O” (for Offensive) rating as a badge of honor.

I say this because while I would imagine that many/most older teens and especially college students/young adults (some of whom would either be teachers, studying to be teachers or certainly have friends who are teachers or studying to be teachers) as well as older adults (ie parents) would certainly enjoy this movie, there is at least one Something About Mary-like scene in Bad Teacher involving bodily fluids that I certainly would not want to be a parent feeling the need to explain to their 14-15 year old.  So parents, _you are warned_: the R-rating here is absolutely appropriate and no, this would _not_ be a “family movie.” 

So then, why make or review such a movie at all?  Well, because Bad Teacher is often very, very funny.  Why?  Because the makers of this film did try to portray a true “teacher from hell” (awful teacher) and ... most viewers would agree, they probably succeeded ;-).

The movie begins with a small, very small “faculty gathering” at the end of the school year wishing departing 7th grade teacher Elizabeth (Liz) Halsey (played by Cameron Diaz) “all the best” after 1 year of teaching as she leaves John Adams Middle School (JAMS) to get married.  They give her a $37 dollar gift card (“almost $40") to Boston Market.  She thanks them, apologizes for “not being particularly engaged” in her work that year, because,  well “she was planning her wedding ...” and then heads off to the parking lot where she hops into her red Mercedes sports car, burns rubber as she speeds backing-up out of the parking-lot, cutting off a school bus packed with her former students in the process.  She comes home, only to find her rich fiancé (along with his mother) waiting for her to dump her.  Damn ...

Three months later, she’s back teaching 7th grade at JAMS, driving a used red Neon, ready to start the school year ... Has she changed, learned from her experience?  Well, she convinced herself that her fiancé dumped her, not because she was using him for his money, but because her breasts weren’t large enough (if they were large enough, presumably, _he wouldn’t care_ if she was using him for his money ...).

So she decides to get a “boob job.”  When she finds out that this would cost her over $9,000, money that she does not have “on a teacher’s salary,” she gets really mercenary about getting the required money.  No, she doesn’t stoop to (outright) prostitution for it.  But truly anything else goes: Stealing “excess money” collected from the annual “school car wash” which she took responsibility for after finding out how much money it had made the previous year (no doubt, she believed that she “earned” the extra money the carwash made with her taking it over);. taking (extorting?) money from parents by promising special attention and “tutoring if need be” for the kids whose parents, well ...

She was just one _really bad_, utterly self-absorbed person, who actually “chose a career” in a field that most people would consider a “helping profession.”  Why would she have done that?  Certainly, not to actually teach for a living.  She probably went to college with hopes of meeting a (really rich) guy to marry, one who could buy her that red Mercedes convertible to drive.  And she had _almost_ succeeded ... Having failed the first time, "older but retooled" she was hoping get "back in the game."

The other faculty are a hoot as well.  There’s Elizabeth’s rival at the school, Amy Squirrel (played by Lucy Punch) who’s also single, also looking for a guy, but who sees her "secret weapon" with regards to both men and her students to be her "downhome cutsiness and creativity" -- “ice breakers," "games," “craft projects,” etc.  Then there’s Russell Gattis (played by Jason Segal) a decent-looking (but not superbly "fit") 30-something “gym teacher,” who’s single but who none of the single women teachers at the school take seriously because, well, he’s a gym teacher.  Instead, both Amy and Liz have their eyes on nerdy but apparently from a rich family “new-meat” history teacher Scott Delacorte (played by Justin Timberlake).  And there’s sweet and also single Lynn Davies (played by Phillis Smith) who again neither Liz nor Amy take seriously because she's, well, "rather large."  Ever-optimistic but out of touch, Principal Wally Snur (played by John Michael Higgins) tries to lead a cheerful ship.  And there are a whole bunch of other bit-part teachers present as well, some of whom organized a pretty awful “lounge rock-band” that plays the local suburban “Best Western” circuit. 

Some of Elizabeth’s seventh graders also have stock personalities of note.  There’s suck-up Sasha Abernathy (played by Kaitlyn Dever), cool girl Chase Rubin-Rossi (played by Kathryn Newton) and chubby Garrett Tiara (played by Matthew J. Evans) who’s in love with Chase and doesn’t have a clue that there’s no way at all that she’s ever going to be interested in him.  Here Liz, tries really, really hard to straighten him out to that fact, no doubt because she saw herself as  Chase when she was in 7th grade as well.

So the cast offers much comic potential and, with often wildly exaggerated crudity, largely delivers.  There’s a scene in which a startled, ever-baked cookie wielding Sasha finds her teacher, Liz, smoking a pipe in her Neon with the windows rolled up in the school parking lot between classes.  Liz answers her stupefied student by lifting up a random piece of paper she quickly finds on the passenger seat of her car, while still trying keep the smoke in her lungs and saying: “Hey, it’s medicinal, I have a prescription, see ...” Would one expect to catch a real teacher smoking pot in the parking lot between classes?  ONE WOULD HOPE NOT.  But then, Liz, is one really, really bad, awful teacher.  And so it goes ... and you get the picture. 

Clearly, Bad Teacher is _not_ for everyone.  It _glories_ in being awful.  Clearly it deserves its R-rating.  It _seeks_ to shock and offend.  As I noted at the start of this review, there is a scene or two that I really would not want to be _either_ parent or teen watching the film together.  That said, it is a very funny film, funny because we would hope it could not possibility be _that_ true.


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Friday, June 24, 2011

Cars 2 [2011]


MPAA (G) CNS/USCCB (A-1) Roger Ebert (3 ½ stars) Fr Dennis (3 stars for technical quality 1 star for message)

IMDb listing -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1216475/
CNS/USCCB review -
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/movies/11mv073.htm
Roger Ebert’s review -
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110622/REVIEWS/110629995

Cars 2[2011] (directed by John Lassater and Brad Lewis, screenplay by Ben Queen, story by John Lassater and Brad Lewis again as well as Dan Fogelman) is a PIXAR movie that I went to see with some unease.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve liked a lot of PIXAR movies over the years including Finding Nemo, WALL-E, Up and (grudgingly again) Toy Story 3

Why my problem with the Cars (as well as the Toy Story) films?  Well, I just find myself uneasy (and suspicious) watching man-made, commercial (read sellable) objects so personified as they are in such films.  Why doesn’t it bother me to watch talking fish in Finding Nemo or talking barnyard animals in the Shrek series, I do not know.  I also admit that I loved Robin Williams’ Bicentennial Man about a sentient robot who sought to become more and more human, I absolutely loved the dog-collar devices in Up that allowed us to understand what dogs were thinking and I even had little problem with the robot approaching consciousness in WALL-E who discovered that he was lonely.  With his beeps and whistles, WALL-E reminded me a lot of R2D2 of Star Wars

Where I seem to draw the line, however, is when things that kids (and adults) routinely buy (or have bought for them) suddenly are given super human personalities.  Yes, a kid would give a doll or even action figure some personality as well.  But it would be _the kid_ doing so him or herself, _not_ the company manufacturing (or representing) the toy doing so for them.  With regard to the cars in Cars, they _are_ charming and are given personalities often associated with people who would be driving such cars in real life.  Yet, there is consumerist propaganda here - if you want to be perceived as cool, _buy_ a cool car.  To be sure, there’s _some_ backpedaling here from total crassness of that message.  Mater (voice by Larry the Cable Guy) the “hick” tow-truck is presented as a loveable hero in the Cars movies. (Lightning McQueen (voice by Owen Wilson) is the race car that Mater the humble tow truck keeps in-line and they become best friends in the first Cars movie). Still, I do voice my protest against a series of child-oriented movies (Cars and Toy Story in particular) which have a part of their message saying in effect “the things you own are ‘people’ too.”  No they are not.

Having said all this, what else to I think of Cars 2?  Well, from technical and creative perspectives, the movie is outstanding.  Different styles of cars are given different personalities.  Foreign cars are given foreign accents.  Michael Caine, for instance, voices a “British spy.”  What’s the car representing him?  Well a sleek, silver Triumph Spitfire sports car that one could imagine James Bond driving.  Organized crime-like “thugs” are represented by “loser” cars like the AMC Gremlin, AMC Pacer, the Yugo.  And the evil, bespeckled German scientist (voice by Thomas Kretschmann) is represented by an old East German Trabant (incidently, possibly the worst mass produced car ever made).  Italians are represented by Fiat-500s, Frenchmen by Peugeots, the Queen of England at the end of the movie by a Rolls Royce.  

What’s the movie about?  Well, it’s topical - about fossil fuel vs biofuels.  Again, the movie pedals and backpedals in so many directions during the course of this movie on this topic that by the end it probably doesn’t offend anyone much, except irritating adult viewers with such a crass attempt to, in fact, not offend.   

Would I recommend the movie?  Ok, I’ll go out on a limb.  No.  It’s a well made animated film, as Pixar’s generally are.  But bottom line, the movie’s about consumerism, and even about the fuel that drives our consumerism.  And no, “objects” are not people, and all fuels are _not_ the same.


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