The Hangover
"You ever seen a baby do that?"
From Todd Phillips, director of the equally funny "Old School", comes this top-grossing comedy of 2009. You may have heard of it. A bachelor party in Las Vegas turns sour when four friends wake up the next morning hung over (hence the title), the groom-to-be is missing, and they have absolutely no memory of what the heck happened the previous night. It's crass, tasteless, off-the-wall, somewhat predictable, but oh so friggin' funny. Zack Galifianakis (as Alan a.k.a. "fat jesus") is the breakout castmember of the film, but kudos must be given to Ed Helms (of "The Daily Show") as toothless dentist Stu, Bradley Cooper as Phil, straightman of the group (and a total asshole whenever his wife and kid aren't around), Mike Tyson (the greatest singer of all time), the peppy Heather Graham, and way-over-the-top-but-just-right villian Ken Jeong. The first 20-30 minutes of the movie build up rather quietly, with lots of story and character setup, sporadic laughs here and there, nothing too great - but it's all a warm up. Once the titular hangover kicks in, it's one madcap event after another, and it never fails to make me laugh. "Hey! There are Skittles in there!"
Avatar
"Shut your pie-hole!"
Yeah, yeah. The biggest box office hit of all time (so far). The movie that kicked the 3-D craze into overdrive. A cinematic game-changer in the field of special effects performances. A total ripoff of "Dances With Wolves", sometimes referred to as "Dances With Smurfs". A co-worker of mine called it a ripoff of "Ferngully: The Last Rainforest". WHAT? Are you serious? As director James Cameron indicated in an interview, it's actually inspired by Frank Herbert's "Dune" novels and Edgar Rice Burroughs' "John Carter of Mars" series. In the far flung future, Jake Sully (played with "joe shmoe" charm by Sam Worthington) is a paraplegic marine on his way to the hostile planet of Pandora. Seems there's a mineral on this world called "unobtanium" (a real scientific term) that's worth big bucks to a seedy corporate honcho played by Giovanni Ribisi (boo) and hired millitary muscle Colonel Quaritch (hiss), played by Stephen Lang. Unfortunately, the blue-skinned native people, the Na'Vi, live right on top of it. Now Jake must infiltrate them via the Avatar program (remote-controlled Na'Vi bodies) to get them to move - if only the Na'Vi princess, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana of "Star Trek", in a great "invisible" performance) wasn't so dang cute. It's the classic story of a man going native and choosing to fight his own people. Beautiful special effects, some intriguing ideas, kickass action sequences, amazing utilization of 3-D, Sigourney Weaver (still a legend), and a welcome aura of "working class sci-fi" (a James Cameron specialty - this movie sometimes feels like a collection of "James Cameron's Greatest Hits", a highlight reel of scenes from past films - not a bad thing). Overrated? It's up to you. I like it.
A Serious Man
"Even I don't understand the dead cat."
Ah, the Coen brothers. These days there's a lot of focus on their new film "True Grit", but in 2009 they gave the world "A Serious Man", one of my favorite films in the Coen canon. Set in Minnesota in the 1960's (and filmed here as well), "A Serious Man" tells the tale of Larry Gopnik, a Jewish physics professor whose life is quickly starting to unravel. His wife, totally out of the blue, wants a traditional Jewish divorce so she can marry her lover ("Sy Ableman?"), his pothead son is about to be Barmitzvah'd, his live-in brother Arthur is going crazy, a student is trying to bribe him for a good grade, and the three Rabbis he's been trying to visit for advice aren't helping at all. This movie is shot through and through with Jewish fatalism and the belief that living life with humble dignity is enough to carry you through it all. The entire cast is perfect, but Michael Stuhlbarg must be singled out as the beleaguered Larry Gopnik. I'd never heard of this guy before (or since), but he's spot-on as a guy who has no idea how or why these bad things are happening to him or how to fix them, but soldiers on anyway because, well, there's nothing he can do but soldier on. Carter Burwell contributes yet another excellent score for the Coens, this one with a Jewish tinge. But it's the bros, Joel and Ethan, who have everything under control. From the spooky, ghost story-like opening scene, to the hilarious parable about the "goy's teeth", to the fatalistic/enigmatic/karmic final shot, it's easily one of their best films yet. Supposedly, a lot of this movie is autobiographical. Which parts? Dunno (shrugs). Don't care, it's one of my favorites, no matter what. Funny, dark, shocking, offbeat, and oddly real. Check it out.
UP
"Put him in the Cone of Shame."
Like the Coen brothers, the geniuses at Pixar Studios can always be counted upon to deliver great stuff. This is one of their best, right up there with "The Incredibles", "Monsters, Inc", "Toy Story 3", and "Wall-E". Meet 78 year-old Carl Fredericksen (voiced by Ed Asner), who, in an attempt to fulfill he and his late wife's dream of visiting South America, ties thousands of balloons to his house in order to float there like a domestic dirigible. Along the way, he's joined by chubby Wilderness Explorer (Boy Scout) Russell, a flightless giant bird named Kevin, a dog named Dug (who talks via a high-tech collar), and tangles with famous explorer Charles Muntz (Carl's hero, voiced by Christopher Plummer), who's gone obsessively nuts and will stop at nothing to fulfill his goals. The Pixar people are masters of great storytelling and fully-realized, memorable characters, and this is a prime example of that. Directors Bob Peterson and Pete Docter (another Minnesotan) give us something hilariously funny, exciting, touching (the opening 10 minutes of this movie will produce tears) and largely original, from the basic concept (the floating house) to the fact that the main character of the story is a senior citizen (incredibly rare these days) to the setting (South American plateaus) to the moving, award-winning score by Michael Giacchino ("Star Trek", "Lost"), it's pure heaven. And I've gotta give a shout out to Russell (newcomer Jordan Nagal), one of my favorite Pixar characters of all time. He cracks me up.
District 9
"Don't point your fucking tentacles at me!"
Even though I haven't seen "District 1-8", I still enjoyed this one. Ha, ha, just kidding. This is not a sequel or anything, it's original. From South African director Neil Blomkamp (and producer Peter Jackson) comes a new science fiction thriller that does what the best science fiction thrillers do best - it's about ideas. Over twenty years ago, an alien spaceship appeared in the skies above Johannesburg, South Africa. It was adrift, with most of its alien crew killed off by - plague? - who knows, but all we do know is that last living members of the crew, alien "worker bees", needed our help, so we shuttled them down and put them in a refugee camp that would later come to be known as District 9. Today, people are tired of their alien neighbors (referred to as "prawns"), and want them kept away from human civilization, so MNU (Multi-National United), the corporation in charge of District 9, sends young go-getter Wikus Van De Merwe to evict the aliens and send them to District 10, a new camp that doesn't resemble a concentration camp at all (sarcasm). While doing so, Wikus accidentally sprays himself with a toxic chemical that begins to transform him into - bum buh BAHHHH - one of the prawns. Soon he's on the run from police, MNU, Nigerian gangs, and even his in-laws. Sharlto Copley gives a breakthrough performance as Wikus. It's a very human, very understandable performance (even if unlikable), sort of a sci-fi Scrooge, and you're not sure exactly what he's going to do for most of the movie, which creates lots of tension. The movie starts off in a sort of documentary style, but switches to a traditional movie style as the film goes on, which is unique. The realization and performances of the prawns are incredible, some of the best effects work of the year (by "Lord of the Rings" genius Richard Taylor), with the alien Christopher Johnson (his human name) being one of the sole sympathetic characters in the film, a wonderfully realized character. The tone of the movie is harsh and raw and very violent - there's an action-packed robot-centric climax that puts anything in the "Transformers" movies to shame. Even the musical score has a kind of raw beauty to it. And since the movie is an allegory of the situation in South Africa, with mostly South African talent both behind and in front of the camera, it's no wonder. "District 9" is a raw, uncut diamond in the rough.
Boom! Pow! Ess-plosion!
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