Jun 20, 2011
(Rated G, 75 mins.)
…or better titled “Pure Genius” as Disney propels to new heights in a musical masterpiece reinvented from the bold 1940 “Fantasia”. Sixty years after the release, a new generation of animators and filmmakers offer an exciting showcase for today’s audiences, mesmerizing to all. Think of it as a grown up night at the symphony as Disney visually interprets classical compositions by Beethoven, Shostakovich, Respighi, Gershwin, and Stravinksy to name a few. World renowned conductor James Levine takes up the baton, leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with a musical language that accompanies breathtaking imagery. Honestly if you could see music, this would be its pictorial and should be seen on an IMAX screen or at least the largest screen available. A great recommendation for all children and moms (dads too), on a sweltering summer day when a little relaxation is needed. The cool, elongated whale performance, the delicately portrayed yet upbeat flamingo dance, all eloquently matched to the proper sounds through sight. Guaranteed to make you whistle tunes all week long. Hosts include James Earl Jones, Quincy Jones and Steve Martin. Guests include Bette Midler and Angela Lansbury best known as the teapot in “Beauty and The Beast”.
Jun 20, 2011
(rated PG-13, approx. 120 mins.)
Nicolas Cage stars as Jack Campbell, a cold-hearted, bachelor millionaire running a hot shot billion dollar Wall Street company, who files ex-girlfriends away like old tax returns and blows his old Auntie off for Christmas dinner. Except this Christmas he wakes up, (or is he in the middle of a nightmare) that sends him to Suburbia from hell. A land of mini vans instead of Porsches, duplexes instead of sky rises, and little screaming, dirty-diapered kids. His wife (Tea Leoni) is the college sweetheart he left at an airport the day some of us make that decision to take the “road less traveled”, the same day he chose work over love. It’s a modern day Ebenezer Scrooge as Cage sees his Christmas future (or it this case present) in a surreal existence teaching the value of love because love is all that really matters. While laugh out loud funny with some moments comparable to Cage’s “Honeymoon In Vegas” the story could have been cut by twenty minutes and saved us of our biggest Chistmas wish: A snappier outcome to what is already obviously going to happen.
Jun 20, 2011
Failure To Launch – so what do you get when you put “Sex and the City” favorite gal pal Sarah Jessica Parker, together with big screen heartthrob, Matthew McConaughey? A sure fire hit even if it never really launches. Maybe I’m being a little too hard on this Peter Pan Syndrome movie about a guy (Matthew) who refuses to move out of mom (Kathy Bates) and dad (Terry Bradshaw’s) house, so they hire an professional intervention-type girl who guarantees she can launch him to marriage, and launch them to freedom. The formula, makes for a good two hour date flick, even though Matthew can’t match the comedy skills of Parker. It’s okay though, he’s hunky to look at. But it’s the parents and the sidekicks like Zooey Deschannel, that add a fun balance to a sweet movie. The only problem is that no matter how cute or how much chemistry, Parker never really performs any amazing feats quite convincing enough to show us that he would actually leave. Silly fun none the less. Two tiaras.
Jun 20, 2011
(Rated R, 109 min.)
Opens Jan. 28
A startling journey into obsession, the film tells the story of an intelligence agent so taken by a beautiful killer, he cannot bear to apprehend her.
Ewan McGregor stars as the Eye, a lonely, isolated British intelligence agent whose wife and daughter have gone AWOL on him. The Eye’s current mission is to track Joanna Eris (Ashley Judd), a woman suspected of blackmailing the son of a prominent man. As he follows her, he becomes increasingly fascinated with this enigmatic femme fatale and the somewhat paralleling story their histories share.
K.D. Lang serves as the fairy-godmother-go-between-on-line for McGregor and his client assignments, sympathetic to McGregor’s need to be reeled back into reality. Patrick Bergin does an excellent job as the first love interest to Judd’s twisted character with a daddy fetish. Jason Priestly as the junkie punker in a short-lived role that adds to a fascinating story that slowly unravels, to not the ending I would have hoped for, but nonetheless kept me intrigued.
Jun 20, 2011
“George of the Jungle’s” Brendan Fraser grows up to deliver a role as a father, John Crowley, whose two of his three kids have Pompe Disease (a form of Muscular Dystrophy.) Based on the book “The Cure” the true life tale is a slow moving movie that has a little more depth than its generic title. Immediately we do fall in love with little Megan (Meredith Droeger) and Patrick (Diego Valazquez) ages 6 and 8 – stuck inside their debilitating bodies with tiny smiles and big souls with such a will to live. And we fall in love with Fraser’s daddy role – willing to do anything for his children at any cost. Enter Dr Robert Stonehill (Harrison Ford) a pioneer in enzyme research whose findings hold the most promise to a cure. But like any scientist he needs more funding. Can the research meet FDA approval? Can the two men put their own agendas aside for the sake of science? Can you maintain objectivity in science when there’s personal attachment? These are some of the questions asked in this mundane but solid movie. The bigger question to me is why is it that former sex symbol movie stars (like Al Pacino and now Harrison Ford) can only scream their lines in order to make impact so that the audience might actually suspect they can still be hot performers? Ford has completely disintegrated into some annoying old man. The lovely Keri Russell – who was so delightful in “Waitress” – is underused as the depressed and guilt-ridden mother who is helpless in saving her children and only there to throw an arm around Fraser’s neck whenever he comes home with research updates. In the end there’s never anything wrong with this movie but there isn’t anything right. Although it must be said that a box of tissues in its tear-jerking conclusion comes in for the much needed and slight save. And that’s the only reason it garnishes one and a half tiaras
