Bolt (2008)

 

There's no doubt about it- "Bolt" is great family entertainment, bolstered by bright, engaging animation and likable characters. My only worry is that people will shy away from this movie because of some irrational hatred from one of the voice actors, Miley Cyrus. Well, let me put your mind to rest folks- Penny (voiced by Cyrus) is not even the lead, and in the scenes she is in she does a fine job, and in actuality, does not make you want to put your head through a wall, although her singing might be a different matter.

   John Travolta voices the eponymous character, a white German Shepherd who is adopted and taken home by a little girl, his little girl, who as it comes to pass, becomes the star of a very lame television show. In the show, Penny plays a prepubescent badass who fights the evil Doctor Calico (voiced by Malcolm McDowell) as his minions side by side with the genetically engineered Bolt.

   The catch- Bolt, who has been duped by camera tricks and showbiz gimmicks, thinks the show is real, and fights every new episode to save his beloved Penny. The director (voiced by James Lipton,) in order to evoke convincing acting from the job, refuses to take multiple takes and never lets Bolt of the set of the TV show, much to Penny's dismay.

   When Bolt is accidentally shipped off to New York City in a cardboard box, he must face real-world consequences for his confused behavior. For the first time he bleeds, he becomes hungry, and he is separated from Penny. It is there he meets Mittens (voice of Susie Essman,) a streetwise alley cat whose fate becomes entangled with Bolt's. The scenes introducing Mittens are hilarious and cleverly conceived.

   The next addition to the group, Rhino the hyperactive hamster (voice of Mark Walton,) makes things a little silly but his goofiness will please kids and the young at heart. Mittens wants Bolt to stay with her, but Bolt insists on journeying on to find Penny, which leads to an exciting and emotional finale.

   I loved the characters in this movie, and this bears up to multiple viewings. It's touching, but doesn't tear you up (like "The Fox and the Hound," which reduces me to tears) and isn't too scary or dark for kids. I also liked the fact that they made Penny's mother overweight without adding any fat jokes or showing her eating a cheeseburger in every other scene. The movies need more positive portrayals like that.

   "Bolt" is a very cute movie that should charm audiences of all ages, especially animal lovers. I don't recall a single potty-related or off-color joke, although some of the showbiz satire should go over the heads of kids. A must see family film!
                                                     Rating-
                                                         8.0/10

Hunger (2008)

Consumed with artistic ugliness and teeth-grindingly nasty realism, Hunger is the first film by up-and-coming director Steve McQueen, not to be confused with the The Great Escape man. No. This Steve McQueen is big, black, and British, and knows more about European prisons in the 80's than any man should be comfortable knowing.

     The setting is 1981 Ireland, and the film follows Bobby Sands, a real person, we are told. Bobby is played by Michael Fassbender, who is now acclaimed for playing in McQueen's new NC-17 drama Shame. Fassbender is considered a handsome man by many, and seeing him brought to this sad physical state is disturbing, to say the least.

     The real Bobby Sands, an member of the Irish Republican Army, was arrested for keeping handguns in his home, with a history of other suspected crimes. In the movie, we are never told this. He is simply there, participating with the others in a no-wash strike, demanding better treatment. His rebellion is quickly and brutally ended when a group of guards drag him, kicking and screaming, and cut his unshaven hair and beard.

    Undeterred, Bobby begins to starve himself, but not before a serious talk with one of cinema's only cool priests, Father Dominic Moran (Liam Cunningham). What the 'ole father's saying is, basically, don't do it.

     Despite the father's strong urging not to proceed, Bobby does, and both he and his counterpart Fassbender begin rapidly losing weight (my mother says Fassbender's weight loss took "dedication," and I agree, but dedication leaning towards insanity.)

    Sound unpleasant? It is. Sand's story is linked with the stories of prisoners Davey Gillen and Gerry Campbell (Brian Milligan and Liam McMahon) and prison guard Raymond Lohan (Stuart Graham) who might feel guilt about the whole situation. Or he might not. Hard to tell, since the film has minimal dialogue. He might just be an unhappy guy.

    At first, I found this movie to be a bit of a bore. Bread crumbs falling onto a lap? Why waste a close-up on that? (I stand by what I said then on that matter.) But, just when I thought I'd have to admit my stance to the film snobs of the world and endure their rage, it got better. It was around the time of the brutal rest home scene (which wasn't very restful) and the conversation between Bobby and Father Dominic, which goes on for seventeen minutes, according to Wikipedia, but doesn't get old.

     The realism really stands out here. The filth, the feces, the full-frontal male nudity that prudish or fearful American filmmakers try so desperately to hide. Yup, schwangs flop a-freely, but rarely in a titillating way. The acting seems similarly real, as do the little details (radio 'phones up the vagina? That's *one* way to get them to your jailed hubby.)

    I did think that Bobby's character seemed a little underdeveloped. He was passionate about his cause, and the ambiguity of that cause was thoroughly explored. But he wasn't developed enough for me to fully care about him. My favorite character was the priest who, in his one short scene,  was neither bitter, hypocritical, rapey, or pedophilic, and gave off the best impression.

     An interesting watch for people who either do or don't know a lot about English-Irish hostilities, Hunger is worth watching through the slower parts, and at 98 minutes, it's short and concise. It pulls no punches, offers no enemies (except maybe Margaret Thatcher) and gives a compelling look into an ugly part of history.

     Note - The condition of the penitentiary makes modern American prisons look like Disneyland, and makes you not only think about basic human rights, but also about foreign state institutions that leave their prisoners in similar conditions.

Mum & Dad

The movie world is made up of four different kinds of families: the normal families (much less common than the latter varieties, and debatable, as no family is totally normal), offbeat families, and crazy families, for starters. Then there's the titular Mum & Dad clan, which brings us to the scariest and most dangerous variety, umpteen steps past crazy, and reveling in their own perversion.

   It's hard to even call them family, as such. Only one child, the severely brain-damaged Angela (Miciah Dring), is their own. The others are kidnapped additions brainwashed into adhering to the family's rules. These are vindictive Birdie (Ainsley Howard) and her silent "brother," Elby (Toby Alexander). It kind of reminds me of the 1970 horror film Girly, in which "new friends" are brought forcibly into a family of depraved Brits, If Girly were applied with the visceral brutality of a blunt hammer.

   The newest addition is quiet Polish immigrant Lena (Olga Fedori), who meets the loquacious Birdie at the airport where they both clean. Lena isn't stupid; she's just awfully polite -- too polite to follow her instincts. When Birdie and Elby "accidentally"  make Lena miss her bus, she goes home with them, against her own better judgment.

   Enter "Mum and Dad" (Dido Miles and Perry Benson). Mum is a manipulative, slick sexual deviant. Dad is also a deviant, who hits Lena over the head and rapes raw meat in front of his family (the camera then closes in on the cum in the meat *gags*). It's the kind of family relatively normal people stay away from, and Lena is not only determined to survive, but to escape.

   To remain free of all pretenses, I will just call a spade a spade -- this is a torture flick, competently executed, but mostly devoid of any higher purpose, deeper meaning, or pathos. It does sport, however, an intense and cleverly executed ending and decent acting (best from Dido Miles, who plays a soft-spoken psychopath so well). As a note to people who, like myself, can stomach graphic violence but have trouble with sexual assault, there are no rape scenes in this film, although sexual perversion is prevalent.

   Lena is a likable heroine, and although she certainly doesn't bring about fascination, the viewer will want to see her through. The film is primarily set in the home of the killers, with shots of airplanes soaring overhead, conveying a feeling of distance and one's desperate need of rescue going unnoticed. Now that I have called a spade a spade, I recommend Mum & Dad to extreme horror buffs and those with (very) strong stomachs.

Step Brothers

 

     Okay. If you are planning to rent this film because you like Will Ferrell, or because you laughed (as I did) at his intellectual masterpiece Land of the Lost... stop and think for a minute, a practice this film ignored completely. Emotionally underdeveloped males are not funny.

     Vindictive man-child squabbling is not funny. Middle aged men too lazy and pathetic to get off of their behinds and get jobs, only feed off of their long-suffering parents with the will and determination of parasites... not funny. Even if one of them is played by Will Ferrell, the humor is still pretty nonexistent.

     Step Brothers, an uneasy blend of Paul Blart - Mall Cop and Chuck & Buck, is the kind of throwaway film people might awkwardly refer to as "cute" (as in "was it a good movie? it was... cute.") The trouble is, it is far too resolute in it's crudity to pass as such.

      It mistakes winces for laughs and hammers its content ferociously into the viewer's face, hoping that its gall will earn some kind of respect. It's not even or satirical enough to pass as dark humor. As a feel-good raunchy comedy, it misses its mark completely, despite some 'ah gee' moments near the end where relationships are salvaged and the imbeciles are rewarded for their actions.

    The premise runs like this - two older people Robert (Richard Jenkins) and Nancy (Mary Steenburgen) meet at a science convention, bond, and are in each other's pants within the next five minutes. They put their clothes on, straighten up and get married. Nancy and Robert would like nothing more than to take Robert's boat and embark on an indefinite vacation.

      The trouble arises with their two sons, Brennan (Ferrell) and Dale (Reilly), middle-aged slackers who live at home and don't take well to the courtship.The two of them spend the film masturbating, eating junk food,  being beaten by children, beating children, and flaunting foul language like a college degree. Their idiocy is almost redeemed by the introduction of Brennan's successful brother, Derek, who is more deplorable than they are. But it's tough competition.

      One both rubs his testicles on a drum set and is forced to lick a mound of dog feces, all in the same film. If you are interested in seeing Will Ferrell's balls, maybe you should rent and enjoy this movie. If not.... maybe not. They should probably be marked as Will Ferrell = Brennan and John C. Reilly = Dale, since there is no personal variation between them. They exist as characters to disgust and half-heartedly amuse.

    Although Richard Jenkins, playing in my recent reviewed film Burn After Reading and receiving an Oscar nomination for The Visitor (bought but not seen) has participated in many of the Farrelly's films, I had no idea he could sink this low. He's the only character with a working brain in the film (as his wife smiles and says "I think they're bonding," he responds, "I don't like this.")

    However, for this character to work, one would need a director with a apparently functional brain. At an afterwords at the credits, when Brennan and Dale face their grade school-sized bullies, one punches a child repeatedly, his head bobbing back and forth like a rag doll. That's the whole trouble with Step Brothers - it has no understanding of what's funny and what isn't. Equipped with this bumbling ignorance, it shamelessly hits all the wrong notes (Rated R.)

  ***

Me & Orson Welles

     You needn't know much about Orson Welles to see (or like) this movie. Nor do you need to devour Shakespeare. As an unsophisticated and non-well-read viewer, I found Me & Orson Welles to be an enjoyable and unpretentious period piece by Richard Linklater, the director of the also enjoyable, unpretentious, but more comically oriented The School Of Rock. But now, instead of the manic Jack Black, Linklater has cast Zac Efron in the lead, a controversial decision considering many non-twelve-year-old girls consider him a pretty boy unfit for anything past High School Musical. But don't worry, the guy doesn't seem limited to teenybopper franchises, and he does fine here, in a film he rather self-importantly deemed the first of his roles he was actually interested in.

   He is backed up by virtual unknown Christian McKay, Eddie Marsan, and talented but typecast Leo Bill, who is forever willing to play the nerd, misfit, psychotic, or pervert. Efron plays Richard Samuels, an ambitious and slightly naive "almost eighteen-year-old" living in new York City in 1937 who regularly skips school, much to the chagrin of his disgruntled mother, and gets a part in the Mercury Theater's production of "Julius Caesar" after publicly singing an awful song about cereal. Womanizer Joe Cotten (James Tupper) and womanizer-in-training Norman Lloyd (Leo Bill), who both have their minds on only one thing (and it's not theater), show him the ropes along with Assistant Sonja (Claire Danes), who Richard promptly develops a crush on.

     The show revolves around keeping Orson happy, a self-obsessed terror set on his own talent. Richard won't be paid. You must not argue. The actors laugh, as a knee-jerk reaction, at Orson's unfunny jokes. What does he earn for all this? "The chance to be sprayed by Orson's spit." Why does Richard keep the job at all? He has hope he can make it in the acting business. It's better than going to school. Sonja might be a big part of it. Norman and Joe classily comment that "every man in the show wants to get into her pants," then make a bet- the first one to succeed gets five dollars. It is easy to guess that Sonja will be furious and broken-hearted that Richard made the bet, but it doesn't happen, which highlights the unexpected turns the movie takes.

    The rest of the movie concentrates on the quirks of the cast and Orson's ego, as well as Richard's realization that whatever turn the show takes, he wants to be a "part of it all." This is well done, except for occasional bad line. For instance? "What's it like to be a beautiful woman?" Richard randomly asks Sonja. *Wince* What gutter did they pull that from? The only saving grace is that Sonja receives it as a bad line. Zac Efron starts out rather awkward in the first five minutes, delivering such off-kilter lines as "you play with real feeling." The heavily romanticized dialogue just doesn't feel natural, and it's a relief when the lines become smoother and wittier.

   Christian McKay plays Orson Welles as perfectionistic, hard-headed, and childish. When he gets in a fight with his actors, he hollers at the top of his lungs, trademark spit spurting out of his mouth, "I am Orson Welles! And every single one of you stands as a adjunct to my vision!" Mm-kay... His unfailingly reasonable agent John Houseman (Eddie Marsan) tries to get through to him, but the bottom line is nothing that Orson Welles doesn't want to do will even be brought to the table. He is a great character, and you see something sympathetic in him, then he throws you for a double loop. Me & Orson Welles is a historical film for people who don't have the time and patience for historical films, and establishes Zac Efron as an actor worthy of some respect (Rated PG-13.)

*
 

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

   The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is about a regular kid -- not a child prodigy, not particularly wise beyond his years. The only thing that separates him from the willfully blind adults who surround him is that he has not yet learned to hate. The film never depicts him as a hero, at least an intentional one, just a kid who acts like any other would act, innocently unknowing of the expectations and prejudices of those around him.

     The protagonist is a blue-eyed, brown-haired eight-year-old named Bruno (Asa Butterfield) living in a stage were fantasy and reality remain merged. He resides with his family in Germany, with his older sister, soldier dad, and mom. He tries to find fun as best he can, with no help from his sibling, who is the simpering lapchild type, engaged in a misguided coming-of-age, decorating her walls with appreciation for her country and throwing aside her dolls.

     After living comfortably in their home, his family announces they are to move away, closer to the new job. His father has earned a promotion. This is supposed to be good news, but isn't for Bruno - he wants his old house and friends and doesn't want his life changed. Worse, he has no say about the matter and is moved to a base where men in gray pass him stiffly,  talking to his father.

    There are no children he can see, until he stumbles quite by accident on a farm occupied by underwashed, underfed people. He is encouraged to stay away, as his father tells him the people are not humans and shouldn't be treated as such. But they seem human enough to him, especially Schmeul, a boy his age who catches his attention. They meet and laugh at each other's names, and promise to visit more.

     In a different situation, the friendship would be considered harmless, and Bruno would be able to freely play with the boy before his return. The fact that he is living in Auschwitz puts a damper on that ideal. As is, Schmeul is treated as a flea-ridden cat -- don't bother to get attached to him, he'll be gone soon enough. But love for his fatherland has not impressed itself in Bruno's mind yet, and he ignores the others warnings', pleased to have another child to interact with.

     This film is based on a young adult novel by John Boyne, described as a "fable" by the author. It contains telling details of the holocaust, but from a child's eye view -- nothing is treated as if Bruno's concentration was turned, and yellow stars and fences are interspersed with the normal thoughts of a kid - toys, friends, and irritating siblings. It is a small but powerful story, meant to send a message with only as much information as we need. The rest we know for ourselves.

     For basically first-time actors, the young boys who play Bruno and Schmeul do fairly well. However, I was annoyed by the skips and jumps in Butterfield's performance. In scenes of fantasy and play, he behaved naturally, but when the story becomes more intense, he seemed slightly confused about how to react to the script, which hampered the believability somewhat. He did a generally good job, however, and one shouldn't want him to progress too fast to avoid a Culkin-ish speed-up of maturity.

     The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is quiet and infused with moral ambiguity. Bruno doesn't view his father as a monster even as he begins to know more. Even his mother doesn't seem completely aware of the situation, and although she knows of the prisoners, it still comes as a shock when she figures out what the torrent of smoke streaming into the air is.

     Also, it contains the most shocking and unexpected ending since The Life Before Her Eyes. Although the adults turn away, reminding themselves of their good fortune that they are not within the barbed fence, they are forced, in the most horrendous way possible, to look back. Everybody finds their inner humanity, and no one wins (Rated PG-13.)

*