WALL-E, Hancock, Wanted, & The Dark Knight

WALL-E
Voiced by Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Fred Willard, Sigourney Weaver & John Ratzenberger

Honestly, Pixar can do no wrong. Even "Cars," my least favorite of the Pixar lineup was really good. "WALL-E," full of compassion, humor and a new hope for a better future, clocks in as one of the mega-animating companies finest. The computerized artwork is so advanced and intricate that it will blow you away. The story is one for the books as well: a classic passive character trying to reach his dreams... love. Awww isn't it cute? The originality factor is the fact that he's a robot created with much inspiration from E.T. Oh yeah, it also has an environmental plug. Very timely.

Grade: A


Hancock
Starring Will Smith, Charlize Theron & Jason Bateman

"Hancock" is a fun, comical twist on the recently crowded superhero film genre. Smith and Bateman bring the movie to life - it would be horrible without them - and Charlize is hot as ever. However, it was predictable. Too predictable. But fun!

Grade: B-


Wanted
Starring James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie & Morgan Freeman

With a cast like this, the movie is badass enough. But throw in some crazy effects and stunts and it just adds to the pot. It was kind of like a melting pot of "Fight Club" and "Lucky Number Slevin," and it holds onto some of the philosophies in Dotoevesky's "Crime & Punishment"; if you kill one, you're saving many. However, compared to an action film like the one below, I prefer real effects and stunts rather than the popular computer animated ones, but the end was great because main characters die.

Grade: C+


The Dark Knight
Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine & Morgan Freeman

Christopher Nolan brings Batman back with many familiar faces from "Begins" and a few brilliant new ones. (Yes, this review is going to rave about Heath Ledger's monumental depiction of The Joker.) The film surpasses Nolan's first take on the Batman series by a long shot. It's powerful, emotional, dark and full of exploding hospitals, flipped 18-wheelers, and intense "social experiments." Two-and-a-half hours seems short for this non-stop thrill ride. The script is smart and allows one-sided characters such as Two-Face to come to life.

Bale, once again, brings us a Batman that is not a hero, but a keeper of Gotham. Eckhart makes us hate Harvey Dent for being the perfect man, someone everyone loves and the mob hates. He's better than Batman. But the character transforms so perfectly into Two-Face that it's scary. Gyllenhaal, faced with a feat of playing a role someone has already played (Katie Holmes), does a fine enough job as Rachel Dawes and is really stunning in the film. The fate of her role is surprising and unforgettable as well. And totally necessary. Then there's Oldman who allows Lieutenant Gordan to be the least stoic of characters in the film, allowing the audience to breathe a bit. Caine and Freeman are excellent as usual, though not as note-worthy as the performance by Ledger.

Heath Ledger will win an Oscar as The Joker; mark my words. This performance is raw, uncontrollable, creepy beyond all words, demented, so dead-on funny, and in every sense: perfect. Every time he was on screen I was captivated, and every time the scene shifted away from him, I wanted him back. He allowed himself to embody so much freedom with the role, and when an actor does that, he or she is unstoppable.

Even though it only released three days ago, I've seen "The Dark Knight" twice (and will probably see it again) and it is ranked as one of the best films I've ever seen.

Grade: A

Smokin' Aces

Smokin' Aces (DVD)

Staring Jeremy Piven, Alicia Keys, Ryan Reynolds, Ben Affleck, & Taraji Henson

A single playing card - no matter what the suit, no matter what the color, no matter if it's got a joker on it or game rules - is two sided. If it falls, it will land on one of two sides. It will never stand up alone. This is the way "Smokin' Aces" evolves. From a particularly good eared, two-dimensional script, the characters and their situations fall heavily to the ground. With a whole lot of drive, a few original traits, and completely no audience empathy or appreciation, the ensemble, which is all too big to begin with, kicks ass, but we could care less.

However, there is one set of killers out to assassinate Vegas-rich Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven), and that is the female contract killers, Georgia Skye and Sharice Watters, played by singer Alicia Keys and "Hustle & Flow's" Taraji Henson. Keys delivers with on-time attitude and brings life and attractiveness to her character, whereas the other actors just deliver their lines. Henson is the key to Key's prosperity as a reasonable character. The duo are friends, and Sharice cares deeply for Georgia, which brings some humanity to the movie.

What's the conflict? It's simple. Kill Israel. Who are the characters? Well, there's a ton of them, played by Ben Affleck, Ryan Reynolds, Andy Garcia, Ray Liota, Common, and the list goes on. What happens? A lot and not all at the same time. The idea was present but the delivery was all wrong. Reynolds, Garcia and Liota are at a career low. Their lines are fast and important which is a terrible mix, and they're not having much fun - Garcia especially. He is a lame duck in the film.

"Smokin' Aces" is clearly not a movie for a sappy friendship to bud either - it's a guy's movie, a shoot-you-in-the-face, blood-thirsty, action extravaganza. Or it should have been. For like the card trying to stand, it falls. Director and screenwriter, Joe Carnahan, presents us with a situation, but instead of showing it to us, he tells us. Multiple characters talking so rapidly about something that should be paid attention to by the audience, but can't, allows our affliction (or what was left of it) to diminish.


Where's the action? Well, to tell you the truth, with all of the plot confusion, when the action occurs, it's free of conflict, which is very, very bad. Action without conflict in an action movie is like kicking yourself in the groin. Some of the scenes are unexpected and good, like when "Lost's" Matthew Fox interrogates another "Lost" actor, Nestor Carbonell, about his credibility of being a true FBI agent. Of course Carbonell's character, Pasquale Acosta who bit off the the skin on his fingers so he can't be traced, is not an FBI agent. This scene is fun to watch and has great dialogue, and an end that has great collision. Another character that's fun to watch is Jason Bateman's Rip Reed who is erratic and completely hilarious.

There is a build up, too, in "Smokin' Aces," which is the death of Israel. If he does not die, this would not be a movie. Well, it would but I would hate it even more than I do now. We watch "Smokin' Aces" not for the characters, not for the dialogue, not for the confusing plot, but for the climax, when Israel comes face to face with fate. We'll just leave it at this: it's a huge let down.

However, what saves this movie from being one of the worst films ever, is that it pulls off one of my favorite tricks in cinema, something successfully pulled off in "The Village" and "Children of Men," the incredibly shocking and unpredictable killing of a main star within the first half-hour. "Smokin' Aces" does this and is effective in the act, gaining some respect.

Grade: D