Now this is how you destroy
the world. Roland Emmerich's
2012 pounces on a
Nostradamus-style loophole in
the Mayan calendar and rams
the apocalypse through it,
gleefully conjuring up an
enormous amount of
Saturday-matinee fun in the
process. A scientist (Chiwetel
Ejiofor) detects shifting
continental plates and sun
flares and realizes that this
foretells the imminent
destruction of the planet.
Just as the molten lava is
about to hit the fan, a
novelist (John Cusack) takes
his kids on a trip to
Yellowstone; later he'll hook
up with his ex (Amanda Peet)
and her new boyfriend (Tom
McCarthy) in a global journey
toward safety. If there is any
safety. The suitably
hair-raising plot lines are
punctuated--frequently,
people, frequently--by visions
of mayhem around the globe:
the Vatican falls over, the
White House is clobbered
(Emmerich's Independence Day
was not enough on that score),
and the California coastline
dives into the Pacific Ocean.
Unlike other action directors
we could name, Emmerich
actually understands how to
let you see and drink in these
vast special-effects
vistas--and they are
incredible. He also honors the
old Irwin Allen disaster-movie
tradition by actually shelling
out for good actors. Cusack
and Ejiofor are convincing
even in the cheesiest
material; toss in Danny Glover
(the U.S. president), Woody
Harrelson (a nut-bar
conspiracy-theorising radio
host), Thandie Newton, and
Oliver Platt, and you've got a
very watchable batch of
people. Emmerich hasn't
developed an ear for dialogue,
even at this stage in his
career, and the final act goes
on a bit too long. This is a
very silly movie, but if
you've got a weakness for
B-movie energy and hairbreadth
escapes, 2012 delivers quite a
bit of both. --Robert Horton
At a time when too many
animated films consist of
anthropomorphized animals
cracking sitcom one-liners and
flatulence jokes, the warmth,
originality, humor, and
unflagging imagination of Up
feel as welcome as rain in a
desert. Carl Fredericksen
(voice by Ed Asner) ranks
among the most unlikely heroes
in recent animation history. A
78-year-old curmudgeon, he
enjoyed his modest life as a
balloon seller because he
shared it with his adventurous
wife Ellie (Ellie Docter). But
she died, leaving him with
memories and the awareness
that they never made their
dream journey to Paradise
Falls in South America. When
well-meaning officials consign
Carl to Shady Oaks Retirement
Home, he rigs thousands of
helium balloons to his house
and floats to South America.
The journey's scarcely begun
when he discovers a stowaway:
Russell (Jordan Nagai), a
chubby, maladroit Wilderness
Explorer Scout who's out to
earn his Elderly Assistance
Badge. In the tropical jungle,
Carl and Russell find more
than they bargained for:
Charles Muntz (Christopher
Plummer), a crazed explorer
whose newsreels once inspired
Carl and Ellie; Kevin, an
exotic bird with a weakness
for chocolate; and Dug (Bob
Peterson), an endearingly dim
golden retriever fitted with a
voice box. More importantly,
the travelers discover they
need each other: Russell needs
a (grand)father figure; Carl
needs someone to enliven his
life without Ellie. Together,
they learn that sharing
ice-cream cones and counting
the passing cars can be more
meaningful than feats of
daring-do and distant
horizons. Pete Docter
(Monsters, Inc.) and Bob
Peterson direct the film with
consummate skill and taste,
allowing the poignant moments
to unfold without dialogue to
Michael Giacchnio's vibrant
score. Building on their work
in The Incredibles and
Ratatouille, the Pixar crew
offers nuanced animation of
the stylized characters. Even
by Pixar's elevated standards,
Up is an exceptional film that
will appeal of audiences of
all ages. Rated PG for some
peril and action. --Charles
Solomon
The sixth installment of the
Harry Potter series begins
right where The Order of the
Phoenix left off. The
wizarding world is rocked by
the news that "He Who Must Not
Be Named" has truly returned,
and the audience finally knows
that Harry is "the Chosen
One"--the only wizard who can
defeat Lord Voldemort in the
end. Dark forces loom around
every corner, and now
regularly attempt to penetrate
the protected walls of
Hogwarts School. This is no
longer the fun and fascinating
world of magic from the first
few books—it's dark,
dangerous, and scary. Harry
(Daniel Radcliffe) suspects
Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) to
be a new Death Eater recruit
on a special mission for the
Dark Lord. In the meantime,
Professor Dumbledore (Michael
Gambon) seems to have finally
removed the shroud of secrecy
from Harry about the dark path
that lies ahead, and instead
provides private lessons to
get him prepared. It's in
these intriguing scenes that
the dark past of Tom Riddle
(a.k.a. Voldemort) is finally
revealed. The actors cast as
the different young versions
of Riddle (Hero Fiennes-Tiffin
and Frank Dillane) do an
eerily fantastic job of
portraying the villain as a
child. While the previous
movies' many new characters
could be slightly
overwhelming, only one new key
character is introduced this
time: Professor Horace
Slughorn (with a spot-on
performance by Jim Broadbent).
Within his mind he holds a key
secret in the battle to defeat
the Dark Lord, and Harry is
tasked by Dumbledore to
uncover a memory about
Voldemort's darkest
weapon--the Horcrux. Despite
the long list of distractions,
Harry, Ron (Rupert Grint), and
Hermione (Emma Watson) still
try to focus on being
teenagers, and audiences will
enjoy the budding awkward
romances. All of the actors
have developed nicely, giving
their most convincing
performances to date. More
dramatic and significant
things go down in this movie
than any of its predecessors,
and the stakes are higher than
ever. The creators have been
tasked with a practically
impossible challenge, as fans
of the beloved J.K. Rowling
book series desperately want
the movies to capture the
magic of the books as closely
as possible. Alas, the point
at which one accepts that
these two mediums are very
different is the point at
which one can truly enjoy
these brilliant adaptations.
Harry Potter and the
Half-Blood Prince is no
exception: it may be the best
film yet. For those who have
not read the book, nail-biting
entertainment is guaranteed.
For those who have, the movie
does it justice. The key
dramatic scenes, including the
cave and the shocking twist in
the final chapter, are
executed very well. It does a
perfect job of setting up the
two-part grand finale that is
to follow. --Jordan Thompson
When you consider that
old-fashioned tearjerkers are
an endangered species in
Hollywood, a movie like The
Notebook can be embraced
without apology. Yes, it's
syrupy sweet and clogged with
clichés, and one can only
marvel at the irony of Nick
Cassavetes directing a weeper
that his late father
John--whose own films were
devoid of saccharine
sentiment--would have sneered
at. Still, this touchingly
impassioned and great-looking
adaptation of the popular
Nicholas Sparks novel has much
to recommend, including
appealing young costars (Ryan
Gosling and Rachel McAdams)
and appealing old costars
(James Garner and Gena
Rowlands, the director's
mother) playing the same
loving couple in
(respectively) early 1940s and
present-day North Carolina. He
was poor, she was rich, and
you can guess the rest;
decades later, he's
unabashedly devoted, and she's
drifting into the memory-loss
of senile dementia. How their
love endured is the story
preserved in the titular
notebook that he reads to her
in their twilight years. The
movie's open to ridicule, but
as a delicate tearjerker it
works just fine. Message in a
Bottle and A Walk to Remember
were also based on Sparks
novels, suggesting a
triple-feature that hopeless
romantics will cherish. --Jeff
Shannon
If you like your humour
broadside up, hold the
subtlety, you'll want to nurse
this Hangover with your best
mates. The ensemble cast
meshes perfectly--it's like a
super-R-rated episode of
Friends: silly, slapstick, and
completely in the viewer's
face. When four pals go to
Vegas to celebrate the
imminent nuptials of one of
them, they partake in a
rooftop toast to "a night
we'll never forget." But
they're in for a big surprise:
their celebration drinks were
laced with date-rape drugs, so
when they awake in their hotel
room 12 hours later, not only
are they hung over, but they
can't remember what they did
all night long. Oh, and
they're missing the
groom-to-be. The film is so
cheerfully raunchy, so
fiercely crude, that the
humour becomes as intoxicating
as the mind-altering
substances. The standout in
the ensemble is Zach
Galifianakis, who is
alternately creepy and
hilarious. Ed Helm (The
Office), in addition to his
memory, loses a tooth in
uncomfortably realistic
fashion, and Bradley Cooper
(He's Just Not That into You)
has deadpan comic timing that
whips along at the speed of
light. "Ma'am, you have an
incredible rack," he blares to
a pedestrian from the squad
car the guys have "borrowed."
"I should have been a
[bleeping] cop," he tells
himself approvingly. Director
Todd Phillips brings back his
deft handling of the actors
and the dude humour that
worked so well in Old School,
as well as the unctuous Dan
Finnerty, memorable as a
lounge/wedding singer in both
films. But it's the nonstop
volley of jokes--most cheerily
politically incorrect--that
grabs the audience and
thrashes it around the hotel
room. Just watch out for the
tiger in the bathroom. --A.T.
Hurley
Pure. Popcorn. Entertainment.
That's an exact classification
of director Michael Bay's
Transformers: Revenge of the
Fallen. The action is nonstop,
with battles and explosions
from start to finish. The
camera (without any subtlety)
exploits Megan Fox's hotness
to the max. As if she weren't
enough, a new sex kitten
(Isabel Lucas) is thrown into
the equation. Shia LaBeouf is
as charismatic as ever, and
fills the starring role with
ease. And then there's the
humour. Sam's parents (Kevin
Dunn and Julie White) provided
some semi-raunchy
laugh-out-loud moments in the
first movie, but now they take
it to the next level.
Sometimes it seems like they
are trying a little too hard,
but it is still hilarious. As
far as the “plot” goes,
the writers didn't waste much
time--it's really just a
context for the giant-robot
death matches and dramatic
slow-mo sequences. The movie
kicks off two years later
where the Autobots have formed
an alliance with the U.S.
government, creating an elite
team led by Major Lennox (Josh
Duhamel), in an effort to
snuff out any remaining
Decepticons that show up. The
bad guys keep coming, and it
turns out that a much more
menacing force than Megatron
is out there--and it is
looking for something on Earth
that is tied to the very
origin of the Transformers
race. Fans of the franchise
will be delighted by the
addition of many new robot
characters (there are well
over 40 in the sequel, versus
only 13 in the first). The
second Transformers has shaped
up to be one of the worst
reviewed and most successful
movies of all time. This
strange pairing is really just
an indication that this movie
has one purpose: to entertain.
The creators didn't want to
waste time bogging down the
action and drama with
substance--which was arguably
a good decision. --Jordan
Thompson
It’s way past time that Isla
Fisher bagged herself a
leading role, after solid
supporting turns in the likes
of Wedding Crashers and
Definitely, Maybe and finally,
in Confessions Of A
Shopaholic, the ex-soap star
gets her chance. She seizes it
quite well, too. Based on the
Sophie Kinsella book of the
same name, Confessions Of A
Shopaholic is a fairly
conventional romantic comedy,
but it’s still a very
enjoyable one. It’s directed
by PJ Hogan, who previously
gave us the excellent double
bill of Muriel’s Wedding and
My Best Friend’s Wedding,
and it follows Fisher’s
character Rebecca as she tries
to cover up her dedication to
shopping, while yearning for a
job on a fashion magazine. The
plot goes through the fairly
standard shenanigans of the
genre, but there are one or
two things that lift
Confessions Of A Shopaholic
above the norm. Firstly,
it’s breezy and very good
fun. Secondly, PJ Hogan knows
this genre better than most,
and fashions (no pun intended)
a quite tight movie. And
thirdly there’s Fisher. It
may not be a role that makes
her an outright movie star,
but there’s compelling
evidence here that she’s got
the talent to be a leading
lady in her own right. This,
her first stab at headlining
such a film, works really
quite well, and her charm and
enthusiasm is the best thing
in it. Worth taking a look at.
–-Jon Foster
