Mini Reviews
It's Complicated (out now) is a chick flick. Maybe that's why I didn't like it. Hard to believe that in a comedy starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, that's it John Krasinski who gets the most laughs. He's good but the screenplay is not. Most of the characters are overly dramatic and it felt like there was much padding. Some scenes were very strange indeed. Grade: C+.
Up In The Air (out Jan 14) is the story of a man (Clooney) who spends almost every day of his life travelling across the country. He's on a quest to chalk up 10 million frequent flyer miles. But what life does he have outside of work? The arrival of two very different women will leave him with this question. Both funny and moving, this is one of the year's best. Plenty to think about. Grade: A.
Fantastic Mr. Fox (out now) is based on the Roald Dahl novel. It's the story of a devious fox who starts stealing food from the nearby farmers. The lives of his family and friends and soon in danger when the farmers seek revenge. Can Mr Fox outsmart them all? The characters are cute, the dialogue is witty and the storyline is fun. Another feather in the cap of director Wes Anderson. Grade: A-.
The Princess & The Frog (out now) is old school Disney with its hand drawn animation (as opposed to computer animation). It's the tale of a prince and young woman who are both turned into frogs by an evil voodoo guy. There were a lot of distracted kids at my screening so perhaps it's not reaching its target audience. I didn't mind it... but it's not in the upper echelon of Disney's animated classics. Grade: B+.
Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (out now) goes over the same territory as the original. Not much else to say. Grade: C+.
Old Dogs (out Dec 26) is about two good friends who have to look after a pair of 7 year olds for two weeks. It'll take me forever to explain how moronic this plot is but hey, it's family orientated and I saw it on Christmas Day so let's just let sleeping "dogs" lie. Grade: C.
9 (out now) is an animated film set in a post-apocalyptic world (seems to be a lot of such movies these days) about a group of small robots who are trying to evade the larger, more menacing robots. There's not much else to it. The animation was decent but the story was not up to par. Grade: C+.
Bright Star (out Dec 26) is a beautifully shot movie from Academy Award winning director Jane Campion (The Piano). Set in the 19th Century, Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) was a fashion designer who fell in love with a budding poet by the name of John Keats (Ben Wishaw). The dialogue feels more "real" than your normal period piece and the romance comes through strongly. Grade: A-.
The Lovely Bones (out Dec 26) is chilling in places, soothing in others. Yet I left the cinema feeling hollow and unsatisfied. It's as if every second page from the novel had been torn out. The characters were poorly developed and aside from the opening half-hour, there was no suspense. I wanted to like this movie but sadly, it disappoints. Grade: B-.
Nowhere Boy (out Dec 26) shows us the teen years of John Lennon, before he found fame with The Beatles. He had a rather troubled upbringing - raised by his aunt after his mother gave up on him. I liked the exploration of Lennon's relationship between these two people but the scenes with his developing band were dull. A great performance from Kristin Scott Thomas. Grade: B.
Sherlock Holmes (out Dec 26) sees the famed detective try to uncover the mystery behind a villian who has returned from the dead. Robert Downey Jr is terrific in the lead and Jude Law isn't too bad either. Sadly, there's not enough suspense or humour and I think director Guy Ritchie has taken an approach which is too dark, too serious. Grade: B-.
