RISE OF THE GUARDIANS

Rise of the Guardians (2012)

Grade: B+

Featuring the Voices of: Chris Pine, Alec Baldwin, Jude Law, Hugh Jackman, Isla Fisher and Dakota Goyo

Premise: When the Boogeyman threatens to replace all hope in children’s hearts with fear, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sand Man and Jack Frost must work together to stop him.

Rated PG (contains some action and scary images)

I had wanted to see Rise of the Guardians for some time. After all, the trailer promised another one of those brilliantly-animated kids movies with a few celebrity voices, but also a cool concept: Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sand Man and Jack Frost teaming up as a kind of mythical Avengers team to stop forces of evil in the world. Santa as a feisty Scandinavian wielding swords? The Easter Bunny as a six-foot-tall boomerang-wielding toughie? Yes, please! Rise should engage both parents and their children as an action-packed adventure, but, like the best holiday movies, it also brings back some of the simple joy of childhood, when you were innocent enough to believe in these fairy tale figures, and to believe that they’re watching over you at night.

            Rise begins and ends with Jack Frost (voice of Chris Pine), a mischievous loner who was long ago given the powers of flight and cold by the silent but ever-watchful Man in the Moon. But Frost, who has no holiday on which to be celebrated, and no fame amongst the children of the world, is lonely, and he’s increasingly weary of his solitary existence. His isolation ends when he’s selected to join forces with the Guardians—Santa (here called ‘North’, and voiced with an accent by Alec Baldwin), the Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman), the Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher) and the Sand Man (who is mute)—to stop the Boogeyman (Jude Law), also known as Pitch Black, who has been slowly regaining power thanks to children’s increasing cynicism and distraction. Pitch’s goal is simple—keep Christmas, Easter, good dreams and regular tooth collection from happening so that children stop believing in the Guardians, thereby deriving them of their power and giving him free reign to terrorize the world’s population. As long as one child believes in the Guardians, there’s hope, and Pitch is determined to snuff it out. While Jack Frost proves a capable ally to the Guardians in fighting Pitch and his dark minions, it becomes increasingly clear that all the Guardians’ hopes may hinge on one lonely boy (Dakota Goyo) who is looked down on by his friends and neighbors for believing in all these children’s idols.

            Rise of the Guardians is a thrilling ride, packing together gorgeous animation and vivid imagination with engaged, engaging celebrity voice actors and a few impressive twists and turns. Law makes Pitch a truly sinister villain, allowing the deck to stack increasingly against our heroes before a deserved happy ending. While Rise doesn’t have the lingering emotional impact of Pixar at its best, it’s a very entertaining in-the-moment experience the whole family should be able to enjoy.

Rise of the Guardians (2012)

Directed by Peter Ramsey

Written by David Lindsay-Abaire; Based on the book series “The Guardians of Childhood”, and the short film “The Man in the Moon” by William Joyce

Rated PG

Length: 97 minutes

42: The Jackie Robinson Story

42 (2013)

Grade: C+

Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie, Andre Holland, Lucas Black, John C. McGinley, Christopher Meloni and Alan Tudyk

Premise: Jackie Robinson is handpicked by Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey to become the first African-American in Major League Baseball.

Rated PG-13 for thematic material including frequent racial slurs, profanity, sensuality and some intense emotional content

Even before the end credits at the end of the new baseball movie 42 appeared on the screen, the audience I saw it with burst into unexpectedly enthusiastic applause. And as we filed out, I heard people saying “it was so good” and “I loved it”. I wish I could join them in those sentiments. I don’t know what it is: maybe I was tired after a long work week, maybe I just wasn’t in a movie-watching mood, maybe I was annoyed after about a dozen previews (or else sorry I wasn’t about to watch some of those movies instead); whatever it was, 42, a movie based on Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947, made surprisingly little impression on me. And that’s disconcerting, seeing as I’m a huge baseball fan.

            42 was Jackie Robinson’s jersey number, a number that has since been retired in all of baseball (with the notable exception of one current player in the final stages of a Hall of Fame career), and those hallowed digits help emphasize the impact of the actions of the man who wore them. It’s impossible to imagine professional baseball today without African-Americans (to say nothing of other minorities), but in 1947, it was a joke, an indignity, an outrage, and Robinson (played in the film by unknown Chadwick Boseman) was dealt blood-curdling insults, 90-mile per hour fastballs aimed straight at his head, and hundreds of letters containing messages of hate and threats to himself, his wife and his son. Even his own teammates didn’t want to share a bus or a hotel with him. But because Robinson came gamely to the ballpark everyday, and, most notably, because he didn’t react in any way to any of the abuse, African-Americans were soon a regular part of American’s pass-time. And they still are.

            The film detailing this is part biopic, part history lesson and part (very small part) baseball movie. It starts with Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey (an especially craggy Harrison Ford) who knows the day is coming when Major League Baseball will have to bring in African-Americans, and decides to hasten it. Against the wishes of his colleagues and advisors, he goes out and finds Robinson, a shrew individual with home run power and blazing speed. So Robinson goes from the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues to the Dodgers’ minor league team in Montreal. And after just one year, he’s proved himself enough to join the big club. But some of his teammates don’t want him, to say nothing of the local press corps, opponents, and especially fans, who think their entertainment is being tainted by the presence of a black man on the field with their favorite stars.

            Part of the problem with 42 is that it tries to cram a lot in, from Robinson’s stardom in the Negro Leagues and his burgeoning relationship with his wife, Rachel (Nicole Beharie), his interaction with his personal biographer, Wendell Smith (Andre Holland) to his on-field feats for the Dodgers and the reactions of his teammates, coaches, Rickey, and the fans. As a result of all this cramming, none of this is fully-baked. Rickey’s interest in integrating baseball is never fully explained (a shame, since Ford really does give a good performance), Robinson himself is only given a shred of a personality, his relationship with his wife is wallpaper on the film and could’ve been cut completely, and a few isolated incidents of Robinson receiving racist insults go on for many long minutes. And not to mention, Robinson’s white teammates are a dime a dozen, lucky to get any distinguishing characteristics.

            Since most baseball games are longer than most movies, I don’t expect a movie like this feature a whole lot of baseball action, but the movie bounces around like a pinball, unsure of whether it wants to be a seedy biopic, a commentary on the cruelty of racism, an ensemble picture about the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, a buddy-buddy relationship with Robinson-Rickey or Robinson-Smith or something else. But the movie starts slow, most of the scenes are short and most of the dialogue clichéd inspirational hokum (“because I love this game”, “you’re a good man, Jack”, “because I believe in you”). Call me a killjoy, but it didn’t add up to a very invigorating 2 hours. I won’t tell you not to see it, but I found myself undeniably uninspired.

Bottom Line: While 42 commemorates Jackie Robinson’s breaking of baseball’s color barrier effectively enough, the movie is long, slow and talky, staying mostly off the field and struggling to find an entertainment factor. Harrison Ford’s very un-Harrison Ford performance is interesting, though.

42 (2013)

Written for the Screen and Directed by Brian Helgeland

Rated PG-13

Length: 128 minutes

A STRIPPER, A WIZARD, SOME TREBLEMAKERS AND THE MALCOLM X: The Movies I Almost Forgot

A Stripper, A Wizard, Some Treblemakers and THE Malcolm X: The Movies I Almost Forgot

I’ve reviewed 77 movies on this blog since I started it on the recommendation of a friend back in mid January, 2012. Some I couldn’t wait to be over so I could free myself from its annoying, over-dramatic clutches (The Master, Wrath of the Titans) and others have become some of my all-time favorites (Hugo, The Hunger Games, Les Miserables). But ever since I watched The Help on January 24, 2012 with the intention of writing a critic-style review, my tendency to watch movies for entertainment has become something else: fluffy feel-good time-fillers have been torn apart, flash-and-bang summer blockbusters have been critiqued as if they were serious movie labors of love and not just spectacles, and I’ve found myself buying tickets to movies I never thought I’d watch, all for the purpose of having posts to write. But despite my sometimes manic obsession with having content for posts for this blog, some movies have slipped through the cracks. A few I watched, became otherwise occupied and then procrastinated on until I’d lost enthusiasm and forgotten what I really thought, some I watched just to kill time-with no intention of ever putting the time and effort into a review, and at least one I had reviewed…right up until I accidentally deleted the two hours’ worth of effort. Anyway, eight titles were significant enough that I wanted to make mention of, for one reason or another: 61*, Pitch Perfect, Unstoppable, Malcolm X, Oz the Great and Powerful, The Lucky One, Magic Mike and The Bourne Legacy.

I’m pretty sure you have to be a hardcore baseball fan to really enjoy 61*, but I am a really hardcore baseball fan, so I enjoyed it (My Grade: B+). Billy Crystal’s made-for-TV love affair with an unforgettable season of professional baseball chronicles New York Yankee teammates Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle’s chase of the single-season home run record, which was 60 at the time, a number put up by the great Babe Ruth. Thus the living legend, Mantle (Thomas Jane) and the unassuming regular Joe, Maris (Barry Pepper), each powerful sluggers, looked to hit at least 61 homers in 1961. Surrounded by a colorful and effective supporting cast, Jane and Pepper have a ball playing the two hyper opposites who were actual friends until the looming idea of making history began to create tension between and around them. Watching the movie not only brought to life a Golden Age of baseball I’ve read about but obviously never seen, but also took me back to my childhood, when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa had their own historic chase of Maris’ record of 61 homers during the 1998 season and set the imagination of the world on fire, keeping baseball fans of all ages running to their TVs every night. The love of baseball is all over this movie, as is the spirit and humanity of the men who play it. It’s also a fitting tribute to Roger Maris, one of the most overlooked and underappreciated men in the long history of pro baseball.

A true sleeper hit, Pitch Perfect has become of those movies that did modest box office business but, on video, has become That Movie That Everyone Saw (My Grade: B). After eternal embarrassment in the national finals her junior year, Audrey (Anna Camp), leader of the a capella group The Bellas, tries to rally girls for one more go at a trophy, but she’s forced to turn to a young, aspiring DJ (the always-good Anna Kendrick) to find the right mixes of catchy and incredible sound that could grab attention. Pitch Perfect is a lot of fun, what with its great music (Madonna, Bruno Mars, Simple Minds and more), Rebel Wilson’s instant-classic portrayal of goofball Fat Amy, a pair of amusingly snarky commentators (Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins) and one jump-out-of-your-seat moment (I won’t spoil the surprise). It’s definitely one I’d like to see again.

Runaway train flick Unstoppable is the original Movie I Forgot (My Grade: B), one that I just never got around to reviewing, even though I watched it back in this blog’s golden age (February 2012). The late Tony Scott’s partly-based-on-a-true-story adrenaline rush is a movie I had long wanted to see. Denzel Washington and Chris Pine (the new-age Captain Kirk) make a great team as a conductor vet and trainee who get caught up in serious business when they inadvertently become the last hope for a New England community when a huge unmanned train stocked with chemicals races toward it, forecasting catastrophic damage. True, character development isn’t a priority, but the two leads develop solid chemistry and you definitely root for them to save the day during pulse-pounding, edge-of-your-seat sequences. It’s not exactly groundbreaking filmmaking, but it makes for a very entertaining hour and a half.

For whatever reason, as soon as I joined the local library here in Lynchburg, Denzel Washington’s Malcolm X biopic really caught my eye in the DVD rental area (My Grade: B-). Spike Lee’s 202-minute monolith made for a long sit, but it’s a great vehicle for Denzel and a very interesting look at the life of one of the 20^th century’s most electrifying figures, the black supremacist Muslim preacher Malcolm X. Sure, the first hour’s long and slow and you wonder where it’s going, but in the second hour, when Malcolm comes into his own and begins his fiery pulpit-pounding, the movie really picks up. A detailed study of the man’s entire adult life, it’s an interesting look at faith, prejudice, selfishness, duty, human frailty, and envy. I probably wouldn’t ever watch it again because it’s so long (I didn’t mean to watch the whole 3.5 hours in one sitting, but I got hooked), but I’m glad I learned the history.

I had written my full review for last month’s blockbuster release, Oz the Great and Powerful (My Grade: C+), but as I went to finalize the draft on my blog, I accidentally deleted it, and it was gone forever. Luckily, I still remember all the main points. Oz is a sort-of prequel, sort-of spinoff to the classic The Wizard Of Oz, with James Franco starring as Oz, a small-time magician magically whisked away, via tornado, to the colorful and wonderful land of Oz. There he’s greeted as a long-prophesied coming king and an all-powerful wizard, but he learns he must defeat an equally-powerful wicked witch to claim his throne and his fortune. And the question is, which witch is it? Is it Mila Kunis’ doe-eyed Theodora, Rachel Weisz’s sultry Evanora, or Michelle Williams’ sweetie-pie Glinda? I’m not a big Franco fan (he just doesn’t seem like a very good actor), but my big problem with the movie was that the special effects used to create Oz, while eye-catching, are so pristine that real people don’t look believable walking amongst them. It’s also easy, later on, to believe Franco is in front of a green screen talking to thin air at a time when he’s conversing with a fully-CGI sidekick. And I kept waiting for a falling house and a certain pair of slippers. The delightful Joey King did steal my heart, though, as a spirited little girl made of china.

 I knew what to expect with The Lucky One, because I know what to expect from Nicholas Sparks adaptations (My Grade: C+). You have one person who’s given up on love/doesn’t have time to love and another person who seemingly can’t love, and BOOM, they fall in love. But there will always be complications and someone always bites the dust. I hope that wasn’t a spoiler. In this case, the person who can’t love is a PTSD-afflicted former marine (a buffed-up Zac Efron), who found a picture of a woman (Taylor Schilling) lying in the sand in Iraq and came to consider her his good luck charm. Back in the states, he embarks on a long journey to find her, and when he does, he falls in love. But how will he keep his secret hidden, and what will she do if she ever finds it out that his coming to her was no accident (like, why does he have a picture of her)? Pretty typical stuff, but some decent acting makes this a passable chick flick.

Yes, I watched Magic Mike (My Grade: C). No, I didn’t care much for Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer and Matthew McConaughey flashing their buns and gyrating before crowds of squealing women, but I wanted to see if director Stephen Soderbergh could actually create an intriguing sort of romance between Tatum’s strutting showman Mike and Cody Horn’s squeaky-clean Girl Next Door. Did he succeed on that objective? Um... You may think I’m foolish for expecting otherwise, but Magic Mike too often gets lost in the raunchy male revue where the main actors strut their stuff, throwing plot details to the wind in order to show us women gushing over men in firefighter helmets, military commando fatigues, ripped-up Tarzan outfits and G-strings. What goes on outside the club really doesn’t matter. Would it be cool if furniture-making enthusiast Mike actually broke from the stripper mold and followed his passions in life? Sure. Would it be nice if he and cool-chick Cody Horn got together for real, not just at a club? I guess. Does it really matter, though? Nope.

Boy, was making The Bourne Legacy a misguided venture (My Grade: C-)! Opting to create a fourth entry in a lucrative series without the previous three entries’ star actor (one Matt Damon), writer/director Tony Gilroy gives us a really long, really talky, not-very-interesting look at “another agent”, pharmaceutically-enhanced Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner). In the movie, Cross hooks up (no, not like that) with a smart but naïve doctor (Rachel Weisz) to turn the tables on the Government suits (Edward Norton, Stacy Keach, and others) trying to wipe them both off the map. But there’s only one really cool action scene, a lot of government lingo that goes right over one’s head, and a serious lack of Matt Damon. Renner’s not a bad actor, but his character has no depth, and at least Damon seems like a complex sort of guy. And why would you set up a chance for Aaron Cross to duke it out with an even more enhanced Asian baddie only to have them simply have a motorcycle chase and never fight it out mano-a-mano? Basically, watching this movie was an effort, and that shouldn’t be said of a blockbuster action flick.

So, yeah, from the good to the bad, there have been several movies I never took the time to craft a full-length review for, but that I either enjoyed or thought notable (even if for how underwhelming they were). Thank you, as always, for reading.

**This post is written in memory of the great film critic Roger Ebert, who died this past week at age 70 and without whose influence and thousands of writings I would never write about movies the way I do on this blog.**

61* (2001) – Directed by Billy Crystal – Written by Hank Steinberg – Rated TV-MA for language and some alcohol abuse – Length: 129 minutes

Pitch Perfect (2012) – Directed by Jason Moore – Written by Kay Cannon; Based on the book by Mickey Rapkin – Rated PG-13 for language and sexual content – Length: 112 minutes

Unstoppable (2010) – Directed by Tony Scott – Written by Mark Bomback – Rated PG-13 for language and intense sequences of action and peril – Length: 98 minutes

Malcolm X (1992) – Directed by Spike Lee – Written by Spike Lee and Arnold Perl – Rated R for language (including racial slurs), some violent content, sensuality and images related to drug and alcohol abuse – Length: 202 minutes

Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) – Directed by Sam Raimi – Written by Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire; Based on the book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum – Rated PG (contains action, sensuality, and some scary images) – Length: 130 minutes

The Lucky One (2012) – Directed by Scott Hicks – Written by Will Fetters; Based on the book “The Lucky One” by Nicholas Sparks – Rated PG-13 for sexuality, violent content and some language – Length: 101 minutes

Magic Mike (2012) – Directed by Stephen Soderbergh – Written by Reid Carolin – Rated R for strong graphic sexual content, language, and scenes of drug and alcohol abuse – Length: 110 minutes

The Bourne Legacy (2012) – Directed by Tony Gilroy – Written by Tony Gilroy and Dan Gilroy; Based on the “Bourne” novel series by Robert Ludlum – Rated PG-13 for intense violence, language, and some gory and disturbing images – Length: 135 minutes

TAKEN 2

Taken 2 (2012)
Grade: C-
Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Rade Serbedzija and Luke Grimes
Premise: Bryan Mills and his wife and daughter are menaced by international terrorists while on a vacation to Istanbul.

RATED PG-13 for intense action, language and brief torture-related images

Embarrassing. That's the word for Taken 2, a perfect example of an unnecessary movie that was only made because its predecessor, 2009's Taken, made an impressive splash at the box office ($145 million) and became a sort-of classic. That film wasn't an Oscar-winner or a groundbreaker, but it took an actor everyone knows (Liam Neeson) and turned him into a badass, looking to steal back his kidnapped teen daughter (Maggie Grace) from smelly Albanian sex traffickers. He did get her back, of course, making good on a promise ("I will find you, and I will kill you") he made to a particularly ill-fated Albanian named Marco (from Tropoya).

Opting to go by the mantra "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", the original's creators, Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, have punched out a lazy sequel that is not only less invigorating than the first but barely even interesting on its own terms. Basically, the family and friends of the Albanians who didn't make the first film's end credits want revenge, so, when Bryan Mills (Neeson) is on a business trip to Istanbul, they opt to strike. The only problem is, his ex-wife (Famke Janssen) and daughter decided to spring a surprise visit on him. Thus, there are more targets for the Albanian baddie (Rade Serbedzija) and his cronies to kidnap. But Bryan Mills is dangerous even when he and his ex are handcuffed and chained up in a dungeon, even when he's unarmed and his only contact to the outside world is his daughter, who managed to escape capture. He's Bryan Mills. And he will kill you.

You know the drill--Liam Neeson's Mills is basically MacGyver crossed with James Bond, Jason Bourne and Chuck Norris, able to break out of any bonds, remember every little convenient detail of every little setting, able to disarm a bearded baddie at moment's notice, and, though he's mortal, he always saves the day. And Maggie Grace is a cutie, so it's convenient to have her have to start her frantic running from the hotel pool, with her bikini top in plain view while she runs around in an unbuttoned blouse. And though the main characters steal cars, break things and cause havoc, the local police are never more than a minor obstacle avoided about as easily as brushing away a fly. And though Bryan Mills is meant to be unnerved by his captors' giving his ex a cut on the neck that can supposedly drain a terminal amout of blood in 30 minutes, she nonetheless survives the next two hours of running around, and is healthy and happy by the time the screen goes black.

Yeah, the movie is that lazy. Mills wants his daughter to be safe in the local American embassy, so he has her drive at top speed past a group of armed marines, plowing through the front gate and leveling a security check booth. To get an idea of where he is in the city, Mills has his daughter throw grenades around the city so he can time the explosions (sorry about that one dude's car). After dismantling all the old bad guy's minions, he tells the bad guy to piss off and leave him alone, then drops his gun to show that he's extending him mercy. Then he turns and walks away. C'mon, what kind of a self-respecting vengeful baddie doesn't pick up the gun, no matter the high-minded morals of the not-really-such-a-bad-guy hero? Really?

Basically, Taken 2 is a poor effort on all accounts. Neeson is on autopilot, Grace deserves better,  the country of Albania gets embarrassed by how inept its scariest terrorists are, the Istanbul police department gets embarrassed at its incompetence (they can't outdrive a teenager in a yellow cab), and one mano-a-mano fight is dragged out to pathetically theatrical extent just because it's been too easy for Mills to buzzsaw through all the other guys to this point and someone has to show some legitimate opposition! The editing is sloppy, the fights poorly put together, and the ending too weak and schmaltzy.

Bottom Line: This feebly-plotted and too-easy attempt to squeeze dimes out of moviegoers on the coattails of the first movie's success isn't worth your time. Really. Unless you want to be reassured that Albanian terrorists can't hurt anybody.

Taken 2 (2012)
Directed by Olivier Megaton
Written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen
Rated PG-13
Length: 92 minutes

WRECK-IT RALPH

Wreck-It Ralph (2012)

Grade: B+

Featuring the Voices Of: John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch and Alan Tudyk

Premise: The villain of an old-fashioned video game decides to try his hand at being a good guy, with disastrous results.

Rated PG for stylized action and some crude humor

            I’m pretty everyone has played some sort of video game. Thus, it should intrigue most everyone that the central premise of Wreck-It Ralph is along the lines of the central premise of Toy Story—when the humans are away (in this case, when a certain arcade closes), the video game characters come to life. They have lives, personalities, relationships and even goals. Our titular character is the villain of a simple game called Fix-It Felix, a game in which the Felix of the title is a handyman who uses his magic hammer to repair the damage done to an apartment building by a marauding misanthrope, Ralph (whose in-game slogan is “I’m gonna wreck it!”). Somehow, this simple game has conquered the years and remained popular in arcades despite its aged graphics and basic function, but as it reaches its 30 year anniversary, there’s discontentment brewing. Ogre-sized, big-fisted Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly) is tired of being laughed at and hated by people playing the game, tired of living in either a mud patch or a pile of bricks and tired of being ignored and left out by the snooty apartment tenants. His attempts to join Felix (Jack McBrayer) and the others at a 30^th anniversary party come to naught, as Felix politely rebuffs him under pressure from the others. As he leaves the apartment, Ralph sees the handsome collection of medals Felix has obtained by winning the game so many times over the years, and he gets it in his head that if he had a medal, the others might like him better.

One night at a next door game’s tavern, Ralph meets a drunken soldier from Hero’s Duty, a Halo-style us-versus-them alien apocalypse. When the soldier hints that winning the first level wins one a medal, Ralph hides the man in a closet, steals his armor and weapon, and joins the game. Luckily, he sneaks in undetected by the tough-cookie commanding officer (Jane Lynch), and though the going is tough, Ralph gets his medal. But when he tries to escape one attacking alien, he falls into an auto-piloted shuttle craft that shoots him back out in the arcade games’ central hub and sends him spiraling into Sugar Rush, a cutesy go-cart-racing game that resembles what Mario Kart might look like if its characters were designed by Strawberry Shortcake and its scenery by Willy Wonka. Despite the game’s gentle nature, Ralph finds his medal almost immediately stolen by a fellow outcast, a glitchy character named Vanellope (Sarah Silverman). Vanellope is too awkward and clumsy to compete with the other girls, and she isn’t allowed to participate in the headlining races because of the game ruler’s (Alan Tudyk) fear that increased popularity in her character might cause her glitch to spread and ruin the game. But the girl won’t give Ralph his medal unless he helps her win a race, and he’s determined to not go through another day as the unwanted numbskull villain.

           

 Like most animated movies these days, Wreck-It Ralph is a visual wonder, though it’s not trying for realistic scenery in the vein of Brave or The Croods. But almost anyone who has ever played video games (from kids who barely ever put now their Nintendo DS systems to college students who OD on Xbox360s to adults who remember old-fashioned arcade games like Pac Man) will recognize different game features, character designs, and visual gags. The pixilated movement style of the apartment patrons in Fix-It is deeply amusing, the all-colors-and-sounds senses onslaught of Hero’s Duty should be easily recognizable for those who play Halo and Call of Duty, and Sugar Rush’s many small visual gags are hilarious. In fact, you’d have to work really hard to not enjoy Wreck-It Ralph, even if it didn’t have an involving story (one of the winning aspects is an odd couple chemistry developed by Fix-It Felix and the tough female commando as they join the search for the missing Ralph). And while that story does have familiar themes about being true to yourself, accepting others, and being okay with being different, it doesn’t overdose on themes, or become preachy like some animated movies do. And it keeps throwing curveballs en route to a satisfying ending.

          

  Bottom Line: With the cleverness and brilliance of its character and background design, plus an engaging story that tickles the funny bone and touches the heart, Wreck-It Ralph is a Toy Story-esque entertainment that will delight the family.

Wreck-It Ralph (2012)

Directed by Rich Moore

Written for the screen by Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee, based on an idea by John C. Reilly, Sam Levine and Jared Stern

Rated PG

Length: 108 minutes

THE CROODS

The Croods (2013)

Grade: B

Featuring the Voices of: Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Gloris Leachman, Catherine Keener and Clark Duke

Premise: A family of traditional cave people trusts a mysterious outsider to lead them to safety through their rapidly-changing world.

Rated PG for fantasy action, scenes of peril and some intense emotional content

It’s no longer safe, box-office wise, to make a kid’s movie that’s only for kids. These days, to gain any street cred (or notable monetary returns), even a PG-rated animated adventure meant for kids must grab adults, too, either with tongue-in-cheek political jokes or pop culture jabs, accomplished celebrities providing the voices, catchy radio-ready showtunes, or more mature themes. Like last year’s Brave, Dreamworks Animation’s The Croods makes its living in the latter category, enchanting kiddies with a visual spectacle but aiming for the heart with a storyline regarding one of the oldest and most relatable relationships—that of parent and child. Brave was about an adventurous girl who felt like her old-fashioned, stuffy mother was cramping her style and ruining her life, but then she got a taste of life without her. The Croods, too, features an adventurous girl in a traditional family home who yearns for excitement, but who, ultimately, realizes home is where the heart is.

Plot

The Croods are practically your typical family. There’s an old-fashioned worrywart father (Grug, voiced by Nicolas Cage), a gentle, compassionate mother (Ugga, voiced by Catherine Keener), a feisty old grandma (Gloris Leachman), a klutzy teen boy (Thunk; Clark Duke), a fierce little toddler who doesn’t speak but can sure as heck bite, and that rebellious teenage girl, Eep (Emma Stone). The Croods are cavemen with thick limbs, otherworldly strength, sloping foreheads, and the tendency to hunt and kill for food with all the savagery of the animals they’re hunting. They’re also prone to huddling in their cave for days at a time when something startles them. It’s this barren, no-frills, do-nothing lifestyle that’s bothering Eep. She’s tired of the dark, tired of the cave, tired of her father’s cautionary stories (a little girl had some curiosity…and DIED). She wants something more.

One night, she awakens to a strange, moving light in the distance. It’s fire, something she’s never seen. The maker of this particular fire turns out to be a man, a more modern homo sapien with a head full of creative ideas named Guy (Ryan Reynolds). Eep is not only fascinated by Guy and the fire he’s created, but she’s startled by his claims that their world is ending, and that he’s going north to a distinct distant mountain to be safe from volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. When Eep introduces Guy to the family, Grug is the only one who doesn’t take kindly to him (he’s wary of trying new things and doesn’t trust this newcomer with his family). But when Guy’s words prove prophetic and his new means of collecting food, wearing foot protection and using horn-like shells to keep in touch make the family’s life easier, Grug feels old and out-of-touch, and his bitterness starts to show. But as the catastrophes close in, it’s clear the family can’t survive if they’re fighting amongst themselves.

What Works?

Obviously, computer animation has gotten pretty darn good, but sometimes you have to see a movie like The Croods to be reminded just how good. This movie is unbelievable. The landscapes are gorgeous (and the explosions frighteningly realistic), the creatures impressively detailed and the main characters as impressive as any computer-generated humans yet. In fact, it’s amazing how, for instance, Eep can be a tanned, broad-shouldered, gap-toothed cavewoman and yet also suggest the cute but gawky Emma Stone, with bright green eyes and freckles on her nose. This isn’t motion-capture, they’re-supposed-to-be-real-technology a la Avatar and Beowulf, but the people are unmistakably human and all convincingly alive. Speaking of which, there’s some terrific voice work. Stone is reliably good and Reynolds is a hoot with an animated part that might not, in live action, support his leading-man persona, but the real star is Cage. While Cage’s live action career has gone off the rails in recent years thanks to the star’s penchants for schmaltzy melodrama and hammy overacting, those qualities prove perfect for bringing the grouchy, roaring, fearful and determined Grug to life. It’s downright fun picturing Cage going wild in a studio making the noises Grug makes when he pounds the ground with his fists and when he chases Guy in a jealous/angry rage. He also makes the character a real man, whom we feel for (when Ugga whispers in his ear, late in the proceedings, "You did good", it's impossible not to think of how much real fathers and husbands only want to hear those words.).

What Doesn’t Work?

I was fighting back tears for the last 30 minutes of The Croods, so it’s hard to take shots at the movie, but there’s never any mistaking its aimed at children. While the movie begins and ends with exciting, meaningful sequences, much of the middle is devoted to repetitive slapstick and over-the-top action (that Grug is the butt of jokes because he refuses to yield to Guy’s ‘new age’ thinking is beaten into the ground). That tearjerker ending, also, is very much on the schmaltzy side. The flaws aren’t enough to keep me from watching it again and enjoying it, but even though my eyes were stinging, my movie critic senses were tingling. But these irritants--typical for kids movies trying to hold young attention spans--are not fatal.

Bottom Line (I Promise): Spectacular animation, some great voice work from well-known celebs, and a entertaining shtick crossed with relevant emotion make The Croods an engaging and well-rounded movie for the family.

The Croods (2013)

Directed by Kirk De Micco and Chris Sanders

Written by Kirk De Micco, Chris Sanders, and John Cleese

Rated PG

Length: 98 minutes