Master Dilettante

Alas, the three-day weekend is almost at an end. At least I caught two flicks, gorged myself at two BBQs and generally relaxed. Here’s what I saw:

Wall-E

Caution: Spoilers below!

I had no knowledge of Wall-E before walking into the theatre. I vaguely recall seeing a remote-controlled Wall-E robot with a bunch of dancers on TV at an NBA playoffs game. I held the notion in my head that Wall-E must be some sort of E.T.-like film with Wall-E the protagonist among a number of mischievous and/or wide-eyed children, likely engaged in domestic comedy or a little light adventure together.

My presumption was wrong.

Wall-E is the latest animated adventure from Pixar, starring the endearing, whimsical Wall-E (which stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth Class). Wall-E, essentially, is an autonomous, intelligent, mobile trash compactor, persevering at his job on Earth 700 years after the accumulation of environmental waste has left the planet uninhabitable due to toxicity. He makes a surprising discovery with great promise to the human species, and this discovery, along with a robotic romantic interest, lead Wall-E on an action adventure.

As I’ve come to expect from Pixar, the animation was phenomenally good — many of the panoramas look like photographs. The animation was so good that I was extremely revolted by the animated cockroach that becomes Wall-E’s sidekick.

One surprise was that the first half of the movie, it seemed, involved almost no dialog; for a time, I thought the entire film might be devoid of dialog until Wall-E finally found someone with whom to converse.

I don’t recall whether Pixar has been preachy in the past, but I loved the environmental message. I’m not particularly environmentally conscious, although I recycle and, like everyone else, have been bemoaning gas prices these days. While I’ve been trying to catch a rerun of “The Human Footprint” on the National Geographic channel, I’ve become increasingly sensitive lately to the amount of waste I personally generate. I’m alarmed by the amount of food I waste, garbage I generate and even the amount of recyclables I recycle. With this personal anxiety, the environmental message resonated with me.

I also loved the health message. When Wall-E encounters Earth’s survivors on holiday in space, he finds that they’re atrophied, lazy, obese and sustained by liquid diets. I think this condition just might be to be avoided, and I’m going to do some sit-ups after I write this post.

Overall, another fine work from Pixar. I’m not sure it’s as good as the 96% fresh tomatoes reflected on Rotten Tomatoes, but I was pleasantly surprised and thoroughly entertained. I recommend Wall-E.

Wanted

Angelina Jolie, guns and the promise of action? Sign me up!

I didn’t know much about this flick either but expected from the trailers that it would be suitably entertaining. It continues the trend of movies adapted from comic books and graphic novels. Surprisingly, Angelina’s is not the main character, although she’s clearly the second most important character. Instead, Wanted stars relative unknown James McEvoy as Wesley Gibson, a cube-dwelling, down-trodden drone — surely a familiar archetype to those of us in the Valley. (The only other film in which I’ve seen McEvoy is The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, in which he plays Mr. Tumnus the faun).

The plot is the basic formulaic one that I’ve always been drawn to in both books and movies: The relatively unassuming discovers latent talents transforming his or her life into one of heroism. I don’t think I’ll ever give up on these childhood fancies, and why should I? I think of Harry Potter, Jack Ryan, Belgarion, Lessa. Yes, I lead a rich interior life at times . . . . In Wanted, Wesley Gibson discovers his genetic and familial heritage as a “good” assassin. This discovery leads him through action, intrigue and a few plot twists.

As with most action-adventure films, you’ll have to disregard a relatively thin plot and suspend disbelief at most of the physical feats. If you can do that, you will, like I did, be entertained for a couple of hours. Rotten Tomatoes, by the way, reflects 72% fresh tomatoes.

I saw Michael Clayton Saturday and highly recommend it. Akin to the role of Victor the Cleaner in Le Femme Nikita, George Clooney plays Michael Clayton, his law firm’s “fixer” — deftly applying his law enforcement background, legal experience and people skills towards solving the most difficult and delicate of problems for the elite clients of his New York law firm. Had I known such a job existed, I might have stuck with my own legal career and aspired towards it.

Over the course of a few days in which his personal family and financial problems converge with a crisis for his firm, Clayton gets to the bottom of an enigma while wrestling with his conscience over moral dilemmas.

I had no knowledge of the movie nor expectations going into it and was captivated from the outset. It gets 90% fresh tomatoes on Rotten Tomatoes. Go see it!

Mid-June, I had occasion to see an excessive number of movies — 8! — over just a few days. In alphabetical order, here are my very quick recommendations on each:

• 300: I’d seen this Gerard Butler film and saw it again. What guy doesn’t like epic battle stories with a hint of sex?
• Blades of Glory: Not my favorite Will Ferrell movie but an amusing diversion nonetheless. One of the funnier comedies I’ve seen this year. C’mon, two guys pairs figure-skating? That funny sh*t sells itself.
• Breach: The critics seemed to like this based-on-reality cold-war flick about a spy for the Soviet Union in the FBI, and I thought it was engaging but not memorable.
• Bridge to Terabithia: The previews of this movie were misleading. I expected a Science Fiction or Fantasy tale involving real events. This movie is sweeter and involves imaginary events concocted by the two child protagonists. This felt like two movies, not quite tied together, and I was surprised by the ending. Somehow, the movie didn’t feel cohesive to me. But of all the movies I’m reviewing right now, it was the most memorable due to the dissonance.
• Eragon: This adaptation of precocious Christopher Pioline’s fantasy novel was as bad as critics thought. Derivative, poor special effects, bad pacing, bad acting. I am enjoying the books — I’m a sucker for fantasy tales involving the discovery of latent power — and will read the final installment of the trilogy, but I’d say skip the movies altogether. (I can’t imagine a sequel will be made).
• Ghost Rider: Wow. Worse than Eragon. Avoid.
• Shooter: I’ll readily admit I like Marky Mark on the big screen. I enjoyed The Italian Job, among others, and I liked Shooter, in which Marky Mark’s character is framed for an assasination. I’m a sucker for action films in which the hero has unrealistic, nearly super-human powers.
• Stranger Than Fiction: I just realized I saw two Will Ferrell movies that week. Not as slapstick funny as Blades of Glory but interesting in its own right. I recommend seeing this at home.