Film is Pwn

It is snowing in my hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina.  An alien invasion does not debilitate New York City to the degree that an inch of snow shuts down Charlotte.  Charlotte’s citizenry forget how to behave when beset by fears of the white powder descending from the heavens like millions of malicious storm troopers.   (more…)

I finally got around to watching the latest Pixar movie Up — recently released on DVD — this weekend, and while it’s tough to argue that Pixar movies are consistently excellent (Finding Nemo, Wall-E, The Incredibles, etc.) I wasn’t in a big rush to check out Up.  The film is and was advertised as the adventures of a grumpy old man and a chubby boy scout in a house sent airborne by a gaggle of balloons.  Interesting, sure, but when the choice between Up and The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 came, I opted with the pretty good Denzel Washington thriller.

In retrospect and with respect to Pelham 1-2-3, I made the wrong choice. Up is terrific, thoroughly entertaining and with a great heart. My knee-jerk reaction is that I prefer Up over Wall-E and Finding Nemo, great films both.

The talking dog named Dug cracked me up every time he spoke with perfectly annunciated cadence to great dialogue translated to humanese, “I will stop the dogs! . . .  Stop you dogs!” and “I have just met you, and I love you.” (more…)

It had long been stuff of lore that after mankind obliterates itself in a future world war presumably in relationship to one too many obtuse letters to the editor over downtown parking, cockroaches would inherit the earth.  Or that’s what the powerful cockroach lobby would like us to believe.  “Don’t squish those cockroaches,” they are wont to say, “After all, post-apocalypse they will be responsible for carrying on humanity.  Granted, it will be a bold, disgusting, disease-carrying new breed of humanity that decries the evils of that great Satan known as the Orkin Man, but it’s all we’ll have.”

But much to the cockroach apologist’s dismay, a recent film known only as “9” has put forward an interesting new hypothesis about who will inherit the Earth after doomsday, and it is neither a roach based theory nor is it the meek.  No, 9 (which is now tied with W and O for the shortest title in motion picture history) has an unorthodox prediction: Sock puppets.

Yes, after man, woman, bear, badger, and even the ever resilient the bigfoot have been obliterated, the ruins of civilization will be home to a new breed of curious little, mouse-sized sock robots.
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If this isn’t in Ebert’s Little Movie Glossary, it should be.

The Inherited House Rule: When you are left a house (it’s usually incredibly large and probably worth twice the national average) by a family member, they either died crazy and alone in the house or they died in or were recently sent to an insane asylum. Also, unexpected secrets no doubt will be experienced and overcome in the first two weeks to three months inside the house.

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In the interest of full disclosure, I walked into the theaters to see the latest Pixar computer animated movie, Wall-E, with not one, but two agendas. 
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The new feature length release Futurama: Beast With A Billion Backs is the second in the line of direct-to-DVD movies based on the cancelled, animated TV show Futurama.
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I don’t dream often – at least I don’t remember them if I do. I always get confused when people tell me about their dreams. It’s an odd world that I’m just not used to experiencing. But I have a feeling that Hayao Miyazaki dreams a lot; the world of Spirited Away feels just like how people describe a dream.
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In 1995 Pixar hit mainstream audiences blindsided with Toy Story, the very first feature length computer animated film. A movie about the secret life of toys their hopes and their collective insecurity about their owners not playing with them. When I saw it shortly after it came out I was hooked. The Pixar team had engrossed me with revolutionary computer animation and superb story telling.

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