My life was changed in a movie theater last weekend, hopefully for the better. (See my review here) so I’m having difficulty mustering up enthusiasm for this week’s crop of Xmas season blockbusters. However, Nicole Kidman in John Cameron Mitchell’s Rabbit Hole is just around the corner (opening limited this week; Editor’s Note: Review coming SOON on Rabbit Hole!), so there is hope on the horizon that there are more good movies to come before the end of the year.
TRON: Legacy directed by Joseph Kosinski, starring Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde. Back in 1982 Disney released it’s most cultish picture, TRON, a crazy assemblage of video game science fiction, revolutionary computer generated animation and German expressionist design aesthetics. Buzz for TRON: Legacy has been strong since the first promos appeared at ComicCon 2009, and fanboys can rejoice that it’s finally here, one of the most anticipated blockbusters of the Xmas season. However, the wait might not have been worth it. Early reviews are less than enthusiastic, some are downright disappointed. From the Stranger:Those who made it through all three interminable hours of Avatar will be well prepared for the onslaught of simulated humanoid FX. As Clu, a digitally de-aged Jeff Bridges motion-captures his way through the Uncanny Valley and into your nightmares, mugging with phony features that look rubbery and puttied-over.
Like many modern day remakes it’s overly long (127 minutes), overly serious and overly convoluted. This is what happens when fanboys make films.
Yogi Bear in 3D directed by Eric Brevig, starring Dan Aykroyd, Justin Timberlake, and Anna Faris. Based on the Hannah Barbara cartoon starring Yogi Bear and his side-kick Boo Boo, this picture aims to copy the success of the Alvin & the Chipmunks franchise. Can you believe the there’s a third Alvin movie coming out next year? Didn’t they make two of those Garfield movies? Families with young kids just can’t get enough of computer animated anthropomorphized nostalgia acts. It’s in 3D, and you know how people go crazy for 3D nowadays. By all means do not look at the poster art (to the left) when reading the tag-line “Great things come in bears.”
I Love You Phillip Morris directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, starring Jim Carey and Ewan MacGregor. Making its unofficial Seattle debut during the 2010 Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, ILYPM tells the true story of a con artist’s repeated attempts to break his lover out of jail. There’s something endearing about that premise. It took long enough for the film to get here, because Hollywood distributors didn’t want to touch a movie with gay sex. It’s too bad, because the controversy over sex will probably overshadow what at heart is a light and harmless romantic comedy. Egyptian at 7:15 and 9, weekends at 2 and 4:40 as well.
The Egyptian midnight movie is Hayao Miyazaki’s extraordinary Ponyo from 2008. Come for the cute antics of Ponyo the goldfish princess and her 5-year old human friend Sosuke. Stay for the radiant beauty of Cate Blanchett’s Gran Mamare. She’s the size of the entire sea.
