My Thumb Up: Up In The Air

Starring: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga
Co-Starring: Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman

I went to see Up In The Air on New Year's Eve. I've gone to the movies every year on the Eve's — Christmas and New Years — for a long time and it gets more and more crowded. Seems there are fewer parties and bar/restaurant-sponsored events.

You've already read my review of Avatar from Christmas, so now on to New Years.

George Clooney stars in Up In The Air as a corporate axe-man for hire. You want to downsize your company and are too chicken shit to do it? Call his company, owned by Jason Bateman, and they'll send someone out to do it for you. Clooney prides himself on his ability to be empathetic while getting the job done. He's threatened by a young whippersnapper who shows up and suggests a high-tech, less personal procedure to increase profits.

What I Liked
• An interesting concept that hasn't been done before.
• The plot takes many turns and I was surprised. More by what didn't happen than what did. There were several times in the beginning where I thought it would end up a certain way, and it didn't.
• The acting was first rate. I particularly liked Vera Farmiga.
• The story is relevant, giving us glimpses into the job termination process and how different people react. I'm glad I've never had to fire someone.
• I traveled a lot during my corporate days and I was reminded of a time when I got to see the country. I didn't travel as much as the main character, but there was a time when I returned to my hotel after a focus group and didn't know where I was...not even what city I was in. I knew I'd checked into the hotel and was in the correct place, just couldn't put together the big picture until I walked into the lobby.

What I Didn't Like
• The level of product sponsorship and logo placement in the movie was over the top. Sometimes it felt like I was watching a huge commercial.

Up In The Air gets my thumb up. I enjoyed it, was surprised by the plot turns, and believed the characters because of the great acting.

I think there's a lot in the movie that is relatable. The characters are complex as well as the situations in which they find themselves. I think everyone will see pieces of themselves.

My Thumb Up: Avatar

Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana (Avatar only), Sigourney Weaver
Co-Starring: Michelle Rodriquez, Giovanni Ribisi

** SPOILER ALERT **

Let me sum this one up in a single sentence: Avatar is a science fantasy CGI Dances With Wolves in outer space presented in the classic Cameron style!

The plot has been done before. A lot. A greedy (American?) company run by (all white?) tools plunders an indigenous population in the interest of corporate profit.

What I Liked
• It's a big budget action movie that puts all the development money up on the screen.
• The concept of an avatar and how it works here is very interesting. Complex but seemingly understandable and believable.
• Use of 3D technology.
• Imaginative foreign world that is a beautiful, almost overwhelming presence on the big screen.
• Characters are distinctly drawn, but with a movie this long, more time could have been spent on back story instead of some action sequences.

What I Didn't Like
• I was put off from the very opening when the 20th Century Fox intro played and I was painfully reminded that I was giving $13.75 to News Corporation and Rupert Murdoch.
• A rehash of the "Dances With Wolves" storyline with a healthy dose of Aliens thrown in. These are my TOP TWO FAVORITE movies of ALL TIME so you'd think I wouldn't bitch about it. But it seemed "been there, done that" when all was said and done.
• Just because you have the computer power to render a million things on the screen doesn't mean you have to. Impressive? Yes. Adds to the story? No. Refer to how George Lucas ruined the second Star Wars trilogy.
• Yes, the technology is impressive. But the people and animals of Pandora still look CGI. The flora looked CGI, too, but that seemed to work by enhancing its beauty.
• Classic Cameron story telling where there are several build ups and climaxes where you think the movie is going to end only to find out things are going to get worse. However, I wasn't peaking through my fingers because I wasn't scared. I think the CGI characters didn't evoke that in me. It was too fantasy, not potentially real.
• Sigourney Weaver plays her Ripley character from Aliens except she doesn't have as much screen time.
• Michelle Rodriguez plays the same character as Jenette Goldstein (Pvt. Vasquez) in Aliens, the bad-ass rebellious Latina who eventually does the right thing.
• Giovanni Ribisi plays the same character as Paul Reiser (Carter Burke) in Aliens, the greedy white corporate douchenozzle who's willing to do anything in the name of corporate interests.
• Speaking of Ribisi, I can never look at him as the character he plays. All I see is a screwed up Scientologist and my admission price is supporting him and Cruisitology. Then I start to wonder how many others in the cast and crew are whacked since they travel in packs and hire each other since non-Scientologists are 'suppressives' to be avoided.
• I swear none of the futuristic aircraft in any of Cameron's films look like they could actually fly.
• There are modified "Get away from her you bitch" dockloaders from Aliens, too.
• If you've watched Aliens and Terminator 2 as much as I have, you hear many of the same sound effect. Clinking pipes, metal feet walking on metal grates, etc. The music is very similar, too.
• This is set way in the future, yet the script uses familiar colloquial phrases from today. I mean, will people still be shouting "Shit!" when there's danger in the year 2200?

What I Learned
• Computer animation still can't produce characters that are human.

I give the movie my thumb up. I've been thinking about the movie since I saw it. Any film that makes me think about it for days is worth the price of admission. It isn't forgettable.

You'll like the film if you are into video game style graphics and action.

I saw it in 3D and wonder if I might have enjoyed it more in 2D. I may have to go back and see it again.

Who Creates Your Favorite Current Animated Movies?

Take the new poll in the sidebar.
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The African Queen: I Don't Get It

I forced myself to sit through The African Queen this weekend, a film from 1951 starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn that was filmed mostly in Africa with studio shots in London. In years past, I've started to watch it knowing that it's supposed to be one of the greatest movies of all time. Boy, my taste buds sure weren't having any of this film. I kept thinking it would get better but it just slogged on and on. I wish I could sue someone for the two hours of my life I'll never get back.

Can someone please tell me what everyone sees/saw in Ms. Hepburn? I've seen her in four movies now and honestly I think she's a crappy actress. It's the same wooden personality. She's delivering the lines as an actress, not speaking them as a character. I don't get it. I think Candice Bergen went to the Katharine Hepburn school of acting.

For The African Queen, she was nominated for her fifth Best Actress Academy Award, losing to Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire. Humphrey Bogart won Best Actor.

Hepburn won her second Best Actress Oscar for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner where she was the worst of the six primary players. Heck, I think Louise "Wheezy" Jefferson (Isabel Sanford) out-acted her as the maid in that one!

The only role I've seen her in where I actually enjoyed her performance was in On Golden Blonde Pond where she won another Oscar. I think that's simply because the role fit the acting rather than her delivering a special performance.

It'll be a long time before I see another of her other movies.
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Composer Philip Glass

Back in the early 80's, I saw an incredible film on PBS. I always remembered that Philip Glass was the composer. His unique repetitive high-tech style is played over a video of urban life that is accelerated to show the fast paced nature of the world. The combination is mesmerizing.

Now, with the impetus of his Best Score nomination for Notes On A Scandal and the marvel of the Internet, I have finally found it on his site.

The work is called Koyaanisqatsi.
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"The Crone Returneth"

Saw Notes On A Scandal yesterday. The movie was great. I know when something really affects me when it dominates my dreams that night!

It's up for four Oscars:

Judi Dench — Leading Actress
Cate Blanchett — Supporting Actress
Patrick Marber — Writing, Adapted Screenplay
Philip Glass — Score

Loved them all!
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