Anyone who loves movies should see James Cameron's astonishing "Avatar." Wildly entertaining, with images and sound that are magnificent, there's never been anything like it. Regardless of what its cost might be, the mega-budget is on the screen for all to see.
Some of the philosophical underpinnings of the story are a tad too fan-boyish, and Cameron's screenplay could use some oomph, but motion pictures are a visual medium, and "Avatar" knocks it out of the park in that regard. Spectacularly so. The climatic battle is a movie unto itself.
In the year 2154, U.S. Armed Forces rocket to Pandora, an earth-sized moon orbiting a giant star. It has a mineral humans want. Pandora is not a threat, but the Marines are eager to fight.
The fantasy world they encounter is inhabited by the peaceful Na'vi, who are blue-skinned giants living in a magical forest. Because humans can't breathe on Pandora, they will use avatars -- Na'vis of their own making -- to explore the land.
The movie will ultimately center on the self-discovery made by one man, Jake Sully, a paraplegic. Being a Na'vi avatar liberates him. The film is about war and peace and love and dreams and Earth wisdom versus what may be infinite wisdom.
The acting, even amid the technological 3-D brilliance, is very good. Sam Worthington is Jake, and look for Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang and Zoe Saldana in supporting roles.
I saw "Avatar" in 3-Dimension, and I strongly suggest you do the same. If there's a must-see movie of the season, this is it.
Romantic comedies haven't been very good lately. "All About Steve," which everyone seems to have forgotten Sandra Bullock dumped on our laps like a bowl of hot soup this year, was not funny at all. This brings me to "Did You Hear About The Morgans?"
The Morgans are Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant, a high-profile, married New York couple who are skating on thin ice with each other. They witness a murder in Manhattan, and become part of the federal government's Witness Relocation Program.
Sent to Wyoming, these dyed-in-the-wool New Yorkers face life in a rustic homestead overseen by a terrific twosome, Sam Elliott and Mary Steenbergen. Sounds like cliche city, doesn't it? Well, except for the expected cow-milking scene, it isn't. I was laughing out loud during the movie.
The comedy rises out of some very snappy dialogue by Marc Lawrence, who also directed. This romantic comedy's a winner.
"The Messenger" has an Oscar-worthy performance by Woody Harrelson as a military officer whose grim duty is to tell family members that their loved one has died in combat. He does his job by the book.
A young soldier (a very good Ben Foster) is assigned to work with him, but he wants to show more compassion to the survivors, which Harrelson won't allow. The men will encounter a father whose anger sears your soul, and Foster's character will fall in love with a widow.
Steve Buscemi and Samantha Morton are exceptional as the seething father and the woman torn by grief.
The outstanding film is directed by Oren Moverman from a superb screenplay he wrote with Alessandro Camon. They both know that telling a sad story can uplift an audience. The movie is powerful stuff and is not to be missed.
Also not to be missed is "Up In The Air." It might flay emotions already made raw in this current recession. George Clooney plays a man who fires people for a living. Companies hire him because it's safer than having a co-worker handle the dismissal duties.
Clooney sells the despondent employees a bill of goods about their promising future. He's glib and, although he won't admit it, he's also a lonely man. Sex for him is something he schedules in his day-planner, mostly with a businesswoman he meets (Vera Farmiga). She flies around the country as much as he does.
Anna Kendrick is Clooney's rookie assistant and Jason Bateman is his boss. The film is directed by Jason Reitman ("Thank You For Smoking" and "Juno"), who is becoming a wonder to watch. It's co-written by Reitman and Steve Turner, from a novel by Walter Kirn.
This is comic satire that kicks in quickly and never lets up, succeeding perfectly on every level. The cast is top-to-bottom flawless.
"Up In The Air" is that rare commodity, an excellent studio movie that has the imagination and determination to tackle a contemporary subject without fear -- job loss and the empty souls of the shallow people who profit from failure.
"Nine" is based on a Broadway musical based on the movie "8 1Ú2" by Federico Fellini. For purists, it is not the stage production (songs have been cut), and it is not Fellini. What could be? "Nine" is also very theatrical, as well as being a tribute to Italian films of the 1960s. It's not an easy sell, but I'm selling it.
In April, I took the Rome subway to the gates of Cinecitta, Italy's renowned motion picture studio, just to see it and take a few photographs. The studio property plays an important role in the movie, which is in color and black and white; therefore, the connection was fun.
Also fun is the film itself. It's breezy and sticks to the framework of Fellini's opus. In both features, the celebrated Italian director Guido Contini is having a serious creative meltdown. Writer's block doesn't begin to describe it.
Over the course of the picture, he imagines the women in his life, from the witchy woman on the beach he met when a child, to his mother, to his wife, his mistress and his cinematic muse. Other strong females include Guido's beloved costume designer and a reporter for Vogue magazine. Add the hounding press and a nagging producer, and you've got a man in anguish. All Guido wants to do is make a movie, but a price has to be paid for the mistakes of his past.
I enjoyed the entire cast. Daniel Day-Lewis is very good as Contini, and you'll see Marion Cotillard, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, Sophia Loren, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Stacy Ferguson (the singer Fergie) and some familiar faces from Italian movies. Each of the women gets a big musical number, and each is a pleasure to watch, although it's Fergie who shines the brightest as she belts out her tune.
"Nine" is a treat. Rob Marshall directed from a screenplay by Michael Tolkin and the late Anthony Minghella.
Although "Cinema Italiano" and "Be Italian" are definitely peppy, the rest of the songs aren't all that memorable.
I liked the style of the picture, the edits and the angles, as well as the look of it. There's also that glamour factor, the ladies who are fun to watch, as well as the overall spectacle that will hold your interest.
"The Road," from the novel by Cormac McCarthy, is neither as shocking nor as depressing as the book, and if they wanted to make a movie about it, it needed to be shocking and depressing.
Viggo Mortensen underplays to the point of somnambulance. What we needed was the look of pure terror in his eyes as he and his young son wander the wasteland of an America after an apocalyptic event that has rendered the land infertile and sunlight an almost invisible factor. In this case failing to jolt means failing to stir emotions.
"Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call -- New Orleans" is a grim and gritty ode to a corrupt cop played with scenery-chewing energy by Nicolas Cage. Drug addled and addicted to gambling, he's a deranged man in a world gone mad: New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit. Is he a fool or a vision of our future?
Legendary German director Werner Herzog hits all cylinders in this ode to mania and mayhem.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Dec. 22 2009 |