Pirates of the Caribbean III: At World’s End

We went to see this in the theatre a couple of weekends ago.

It sees the return of all the main characters, and the despatch of two of them.
Although I love to watch Johnny Depp playing Captain Jack Sparrow, I was sorely disappointed with this episode in the series.

Unlike the previous installment, this felt sluggish and bloated.
It felt as though they had run out of ideas and were just doing this as a routine money earner for Disney. Maybe I was feeling a bit out of sorts when I went to see it, but I don’t think so. I think that the film makers had lost the earlier “rollicking fun” vision that made both prior pieces a joy to watch. The lighter side was completely overshadowed with the darker aspects; and that lack of balance, in my opinion, made this a less enjoyable experience.

I also like Chow Yun-Fat, but the potential introduction of other pirates just didn’t work that well for me even though it probably could have. His talents weren’t really used, and there was no light side here either. Even Barbossa has a lighter side, albeit a slyly subtle lighter side.

On the plus side, the costumes and make-up continue to be fantastic and the visual look of the films are still well crafted.

My rating: 2 out of 5.
My advice: If pirates aren’t your thing, then don’t bother with this. If you want to follow the series, then get this out of your local video store on a rainy Sunday. The special effects probably would look better on a theatre screen, but I’m not sure that I’d want to encourage you to spend that much money on this episode.

My Super Ex-Girlfriend

This is another of the films watched in-flight on my recent Singapore excursion.

I like Uma Thurman, she can act and somehow manages to look good in vinyl.
As for Luke Wilson, I can watch him for hours without getting too badly bored.
I even enjoy tongue-in-cheek, mickey takes of genre. But this one unlike the title character, G-Girl, just doesn’t fly.

The idea at its most basic has a lot of potential. A neurotic superheroine whose clingy, needy, suspicious nature drives her normal guy boyfriend to dump her. She then sets about exacting her revenge for being thus treated, using her superheroine skills. Opportunities for humour appear to be highly likely.

Sadly, though there are cute moments, it just doesn’t deliver on its potential.
The best part of the whole movie is Eddie Izzard’s portrayal of Professor Bedlam aka Barry.

He camps it up a bit and I mean that strictly with regards to the nature of the character. He takes the idea of a spurned first love becoming an arch-villain to his young-love’s superheroine and runs with it. He plays it camp, yet subtle. Jealousy and possessiveness done with a deft super-villainous touch.

My advice:
Only rent this if you’ve seen every fun movie in the video store, or better yet, if it’s free on TV and the rest of the channels are rubbish.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 (Eddie is worth 1 point, looking at Luke Wilson is worth 0.5 point).

Cars

Right at the outset I need to let you know that my flight inbound to Singapore was spent in an aisle seat next to a portly (but very nice) Frenchman. And I had to watch Cars in black and white.

In all fairness to childrens animated films, that is probably not the best way to view them. Although I did do a quick check on this film on my return flight, and I might be wrong about that comment as the colours seemed to be excessively gaudy. Perhaps someone who has seen this film on a screen larger than that in the back of an airline seat headrest could confirm that either way for me.

The premise of the story is simple – there are three racing cars trying to win the coveted prize, The Piston Cup. One is a rookie – Lightning McQueen; one is the current champion “The King”; and the third is the perpetual runner-up Chick Hicks. As a three-way tie occurs, the option is a “race off” to be held across country in California.

Lightning McQueen, voiced by Owen Wilson, is the central character. He is proud, brash, mouthy and unappreciative. And in his rush to be the first to the new track, he manages to get himself lost in a small dusty old town called Radiator Springs. And it is here (of course) where his life lessons begin.

He slowly begins to appreciate others, gets a grip on the concept of friendship, and finally learns the unusual lesson of respecting his elders.

While many of the themes of animated movies are similar – friendship, appreciation and the value of a family, Cars actually manages to add in a new one. The most wonderful Paul Newman voices Doc Hudson, the local old-timer Judge with a secret history. Lightning goes from thinking of Doc as a crusty old Judge to admiration and on to valuing the wisdom and talent of his older counterpart.

Lightning’s final act of redemption occurs in the last few minutes of the film, along with his reward for following the “higher path”. And this also stems from his new sense of empathy, appreciation of friendship and respect for others. It is also a glaring lesson in opposing the sporting mentality of “winning is everything, at all costs”.

I enjoyed this film. It’s not excessively funny, sloppy, silly or annoying. It is formulaic, very few kids movies aren’t, but it adds a few nice touches of its own to the genre. It will also appeal to those kids brought up in a home that adores the Indy 500.

Don’t rush out to hire the DVD, but if you feel like something light and animated, it could be an option. And no, I won’t be adding this to my collection.

But the list of great talent who lent their voices to this film deserves mention.
Owen Wilson is Owen Wilson – animated car or not.
Paul Newman is fantastically understated as Doc Hudson.
Bonnie Hunt strikes a nice counterpoint to Owen Wilson as Sally Carrera.
And of the “minor characters” my favourites were:
Larry the Cable Guy as Mater (absolutely fantastic) will bring into being a whole new sport – Tractor Tipping !!
Tony Shalhoub as Luigi does a very nice turn here.
John Ratzenberger takes the mickey out of himself. (As a result of how many characters he has voiced for Pixar!)

It rates a 2.5 out of 5.

Over the Hedge

This was our DVD choice last night.

The trailers for this film looked promising, and since we both love animated children’s features we decided it was time to get this one out of the video store.

It is the story of a raccoon (RJ, played by Bruce Willis) who gets on the wrong side of a bear (Vincent, played by Nick Nolte), and then goes about using the naïvity of a family of critters who are newly awakened from hibernating to get himself out of trouble.

Interestingly both raccoons and possums are meant to be nocturnal animals, and as far as I know the possum doesn’t actually hibernate and I’m not so sure any of the other animals in this animated family group do either. But in the interests of film-making that is pretty much ignored.

Perhaps I’m feeling a bit grouchy this weekend, or perhaps I’m a little bit jaded over the anthropomorphising of animals. I don’t really know.

Actually, I do know. This movie is a rip-off of Ice Age, which incidentally, was the Saturday night movie on TV last night. The morality theme was pretty much identical – that of using people for your own means followed by the awakening of a “spirit of family”. It is also the second movie I have seen this year that uses the hyped-up squirrel motif in conjunction with caffeine intake – see a much funnier version in Hoodwinked.
The casting didn’t really do the film any favours. For the most part the main characters were fairly blandly voiced, with the exceptions of Wanda Sykes (Stella), William Shatner (Ozzie) and Thomas Haden Church (Dwayne).

I’m getting fussy in my old age. I’ve been spoiled with the cleverness, intelligence, uniqueness and inventiveness of the Shrek and Ice Age franchises, and then on to the parody that is Hoodwinked. These really are films that both children and adults can enjoy. Over the Hedge is a pale imitation of any of those predecessors.

My rating:
Despite all of the comments above, this movie has some very funny moments and for kids they probably won’t care about some of the stuff I have mentioned, so I’ll rate it a 2.5 out of 5.
For adults wanting to enjoy a movie alongside their kids, and hoping for a multi-levelled offering, I have to rate this a 1 out of 5. This one won’t be an addition to my DVD collection.