Family Friendly Soul Saver – the Puss in Boots review

Let’s face it. After the dreadfull Shrek Forever After there was not much lower Dreamworks Animation could sink. 2010 was the end of the line for a studio that once had the guts to stand up to Disney, en route paving the way for the success of Pixar (which, ironically, was bought by Disney eventually). And then, let’s stay topical, came a new year. And in 2011 everything was different. Pixar’s Cars 2 was a disappointment (apparently, I have not seen it) and Dreamworks turned out not one, but two decent films.

The first one was Kung Fu Panda 2, which I found amusing and beatifully made. And now there is Puss in Boots, a spin-off of the Shrek series, starring its most enjoyable supporting character. Now, I am not going to suggest that Puss in Boots is anywhere as good as the first two Shrek films. But it looks gorgeous, has enough funny jokes (although one very annoying one too) and it does the job well, as long as the job is “entertaining the kids without boring the parents”.

Animation is really the only genre in which the 3D thing kinda works. Which makes perfect sense, considering that the makers probably use software similar to the stuff used to build the three dimensional worlds of immersive video games. In live action there is still a very strong hint (and often more than a hint, Nova Zembla I’m looking at you) of characters being cardboard cutouts placed a foot in front of the scenery. In five animation films I have not yet seen that problem appear (Toy Story 3, Shrek Forever After, Rango, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots being the corpus).

The film itself then: Puss in Boots tells the origins story of its titular character. Puss (Antonio Banderas) is but an often kitten when he is taken into a orphanage in which he befriends the egg-headed Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis).They grow up together, but Humpty is a bad egg (this joke is often made in the film) and he implicates Puss in his crimes, effectively turning him into an outlaw. Years later they meet again, on a quest to capture the goose with the golden eggs…

The story is pretty tough for the youngest kids, and the film is not suited for younglings under the age of six. However, that does mean that older viewers have something to invest in. Banderas excellent voice work, and the good support he gets from Galifianakis and Salma Hayek is of considerable help to him.

Some of the jokes are drawn out too long. The “bad egg” one being one and a reference to Fight Club being the other. And the really annoying one is the twice repeated blood-boiling, toe-curling “miaow” by a stereotypically queer cat (yes, they’ve managed).

But this is not a film that aims for sophistication. It is a holiday picture. A family friendly ride in the multiplex theme park. You’re not supposed to get out all sick and you don’t: Just pleasantly thrilled and a bit wet. And, together with its 2011 sibling, Puss in Boots saved Dreamworks Animation’s soul.

And the winner might be… [Animation]

Yes. I know. It’s only the end of November. And I haven’t even seen most of these films yet. Nonetheless, the Award season has by now started across the Atlantic pond and the Oscar chatter is unavoidable in international film discussions. So, over the next months I will quickly go through some of the favourites in various categories. Today: Animation. Which has not seen its strongest year. Last year was the year of Toy Story 3, of course, but also How to Train Your Dragon, The Illusionist and the not-even-nominated Chico & Rita. But this year Pixar screwed up Cars 2, so the race is less predictable. These are my expected nominees:

Rango (Gore Verbinski)

Kung Fu Panda 2 (Jennifer Yuh)

The Adventures of Tintin (Steven Spielberg)

Where We Stand: Nine Months in the Multiplex

It is September. We’ve had the Oscars, Cannes and the blockbuster season, and this weekend saw the end of the Venice film festival.  So, most of what was to happen in film this year has already happened. Time for a little overview then.

Last year I kept lists of the best ten and the worst ten films of the year. I’ve done the same thing for this year so far. And to start off on a good note: this year’s worst films aren’t that much worse than last year’s worst films. 2011’s Clash of the Titans was Conan the Barbarian, in terms of noisy nonsense, but Conan still offered some fun. Last year we had a Sex and the City sequel, this year we had the third Transformers movie. Those two cancel each other out. The same goes for Sucker Punch and Prince of Persia, and for Get Low and Fair Game. The ‘worst films of 2011’ list, for all the dreadful terrors that are on it, is not my main concern.

I have two main concerns. The first one is the list of films that should have been on the ‘worst film’ list, but aren’t there, because the list is already filled. I’m thinking of Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter, of the superfluous The Eagle, of the failed Horrible Bosses and the incoherent The Rite (review forthcoming). That these films are now in the large bulk of ‘mediocre’ films is a problem.

My second concern is the ‘best films of 2011’ list. There are films on there that really don’t deserve to be there. Mainly because I am still to stumble upon anything resembling A Serious Man, or The Hurt Locker. True Grit, though good, was nowhere near the Coen’s best work, and Oscar grabber The King’s Speech felt strangely tame and artificial, despite outstanding performances.

So on this year’s ‘best of’ list, so far, we find such films as Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Rango. For a film to be simply exciting (Rise…) or simply funny (Rango), and for it to showcase impressive technological advances (both) is now good enough. Just compare: In 2010 the one animated movie on the list was Toy Story 3. Now it is Rango.

Of course The Fighter was excellent, and so was Black Swan. And Bridesmaids was fantastically funny, despite the excessive vomiting and diarrhea. Source Code is the closest we’ll get to an Inception this year. But it is the closest to it, not a match. Furthermore Bridesmaids doesn’t hold up to Four Lions or Kick Ass. And I am yet to find anything as emotionally charged as Winter’s Bone or El Secreto de Sus Ojos. Harry Potter 7.2 was satisfying, but not much more than that…

Nothing to feel really good about then? Well, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger were not as bad as I expected them to be. They were surprisingly entertaining actually, apart from the action scenes. X-Men: First Class lived up to its expectations, and Fast Five was an outrageous guilty pleasure. These films kinda make up for the big let down of Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides.

But in conclusion, all in all? Quite too many films did not live up to potential or expectations or the sheer common decency of meeting the lowest level of quality you can still get away with. 2011 is just not good enough. Yet.

What’s left to look forward then? Well, the award films will start pouring in, with strong contenders in We Need To Talk About Kevin, Martha Marcy May Marlene, War Horse, The Help, The Iron Lady, We Bought a Zoo and The Ides of March. And perhaps the The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo remake. But I’m looking forward most to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which really should see Gary Oldman pick up a long overdue little gold statue.

Best of 2011 so far: Black Swan, The Fighter, The King’s Speech, True Grit, Rango, Source Code, Bridesmaids, Harry Potter 7.2, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and The Tree of Life.

Worst of 2011, so far: The Green Hornet, The Green Lantern, Paul, Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Unknown, Sucker Punch, Get Low, Conan the Barbarian and The Tree of Life.

Yes. Malick’s is in both categories. Everyone who has seen it will understand.

The Advantage of not Being a Pixar Film – the Kung Fu Panda 2 review

There is a great deal of enjoyment to be had with Kung Fu Panda 2. The sequel to Dreamworks 2008 hit animation film combines interesting characters with good action sequences, a decent number of big laughs and breathtaking animation. Actually, with Pixar’s Cars 2 appearing to have had a somewhat lukewarm reception with the American critics, this years Academy Award for best animated feature may well turn out to be a real contest.

Kung Fu Panda 2 benefits a great deal from not being a Pixar film. The ‘masters’ of the genre have the problem of the expectation of the public, of the high standards they have set themselves with the golden three-piece of Wall-E, Up and Toy Story 3. Films that were not just animated films, or children’s movies, but proper adult dramas at the same time. Wall-E (together with The Dark Knight) was responsible for the Academy’s decision to raise the number of Best Film nominees to ten, and promptly Up and Toy Story 3 ended up on the list of nominees for that prize in their respiective years. If Pixar, as it now appears, take it a little easier this year with ‘just-a-kids-flick’ Cars 2, then the film need not actually be bad in order to disappoint.

Dreamworks Animation have none of these problems. They have already squeezed their most profitable and adult-minded franchise, the Shrek films, for the last drop of money that was in it with the shameless cash-in of Shrek Forever After. They have dispersed with the image of a ‘rogue group of artists’ and can now be seen for what they really are: a movie studio. A commercial venture in the entertainment industry, that sometimes makes good (How to Train Your Dragon), and sometimes makes less good (Madagascar) or even bad films (Megamind). Part of the job.

Kung Fu Panda 2 is one of the good ones. The story sees panda Po, now a trained Kung Fu warrior, cross fists with Lord Shen, a peacock bent on destroying Kung Fu and conquering China with the use of gunpowder. Po is joined by his friends Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Crane and Viper. Meanwhile Po himself has some daddy-issues to work out: he comes to the conclusion that the goose that raised him cannot possibly be his father.

As I said: the animation is gorgeous: there is a beautifully drawn opening sequence, and the computer animation is of a detail I had not seen before. I said the same thing about Rango previously, and it appears that the technology and the craft in using it are still progressing with giant leaps.

The voice work is very good. Jack Black convinces as Po – a great example of succesfull typecasting in animation. He is surrounded by big stars: Gary Oldman as Lord Shen, and (amongst others!) Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen and Lucy Liu as his friends. One actually wonders, considering how much aspecially Monkey (Chan), Viper (Liu) and Mantis (Rogen) get sidelined, what the point is in bringing all these expensive voices to the studio for this film.

That also hints at the one major problem with Kung Fu Panda 2: the over abundance of characters. There are just too many different fluffy and not so fluffy animals doing Kung Fu. Quite a number of them have no real prupose or function in the story, other then to model for toys to be sold or given away with Happy Meals. The marketing department here takes control of the storytelling – which is always a disappointing moment.

But to the kids it won’t matter: They’ll enjoy themselves a lot and will find great affection for Po. Luckily for them, and for Dreamworks, there is a short epilogue that leaves open enough space in character development for a third installment. And as an adult I would not mind seeing that one as well.

The Big 2011 Academy Award (that is: Oscar) Prediction List

Tomorrow night some Hollywood people over in Hollywood are going to spend the evening giving each other little gold statues and thanking their mothers. And let’s face it: for a day or so it is the most important happening on the planet. More important than Lybia even, although I do kinda expect an agonizing joke about Aaron Sorkin (the writer of those zingy dialogues in The Social Network) having scripted Khadaffi’s mid-week sort-of-speech.

Over the last months I have named several actors, actresses, directors and films as potential Oscar winners, but here is the final list. It is not complete, as I have not delved into shorts, documentaries, foreign films, or short foreign animated documentaries, but it does feature all the major and technical categories. This is not a list of who I think should win, but of who I think will win. And why they will.

 

Best Film: The King’s Speech

 Because: of what I’ve written in the first paragraph of my review of the film.

 

Best Director: David Fincher (The Social Network)

Because: The Social Network is not winning best film, and this is how the Academy usually makes up for that.

 

Best Leading Actress: Annette Benning (The Kid Are Allright)

Because: the Academy is giving her an oeuvre award at the expense of Natalie Portman and her superior single performance in Black Swan.

 

Best Actor: Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)

Because: he should have but did not win last year for an even better performance.

 

Best Supporting Actress: Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech)

Because: she’s riding the wave of success of this film. And she truly supports Colin Firth in his performance.

 

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (The Fighter)

Because: Geoffrey Rush was comic relief in The King’s Speech, and Jeremy Renner is awesome, but The Town was a bad movie.

 

Best Original Screenplay: Inception

Because: it is the most orginal of the nominees, and this way the academy will make up to Nolan for not even having a Best Director nomination.

 

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network

Because: of those zingy flashy dialogues by Aaron Sorkin.

 

Best Animated Film: Toy Story 3

Because: everybody was crying their eyes out under the 3D goggles.

 

Best Original Song: ” We Belong Together”, Randy Newman (Toy Story 3)

Because: everybody was crying their eyes out under the 3D goggles.

 

Best Score: Alexandre Desplat (The King’s Speech )

Because: in a very classic way it tells the story without calling attention to itself. Thus being the polar opposite to Hans Zimmer’s bombastic Inception score.

 

Best Cinematography: Roger Deakins (True Grit)

Because: of all the work he has done with the Coens, and because the movie breathes “Western”.

 

Best Costume Design: Alice in Wonderland

Best Make-Up: The Wolfman

Because: no matter how crappy both films are, these awards have nothing to do with a film’s quality. They are craft prizes.

 

Best Visual Effects: Inception

 Because: that revolving hotel corridor was a REAL revolving hotel corridor, no computer graphic.

 

Best Sound Editing: Inception

 Best Sound Mixing: Inception

Because: of the thundering freight train, the way the sound effects mix with the musical score and that sound of Paris folding ontop of itself.

Best Editing: 127 Hours

Because: of the way it mixes regular images with hallucinations and home video recordings.

So, the take: The King’s Speech and Inception both walk away with four Oscars, but those of The King’s Speech have more gravitas, so that film will be the evening’s big winner. The Social Network gets two statues, but nice ones, so they won’t feel like losers. Toy Story 3 picks up two as well, because everyone cried their eyes out under the 3D goggles. Other awards are neatly divided between the other best film nominees: The Fighter, The Kids Are Allright, 127 hours and True Grit get one each, just as The Wolfman and Alice in Wonderland for awards that say nothing about the quality of those films. The big loser will therefore be Black Swan, which should win Best Director, Best Leading Actress and Best Editing, and for me was even the Best Film of the year. But, as with Pi and Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky is just too much of a  radical pessimist for the Golden State.

Awards Bait Sure, But Disappointing Melodrama – the The King’s Speech Review

Let us first just get the Oscar thingy out of the way: If you make a British film about British royalty in a wartime period setting, with big British (stage) stars in major and supporting roles, featuring a (socially) handicapped person who overcomes this handicap in order to serve his nation, whilst developing a special friendship with someone from a completely different social order, you’d do a bloody bad job if you would not get nominated for at least twelve Oscars.

Colin Firth obviously did not take a single risk, having lost out as leading actor to Jeff Bridges last year. Bridges’ award for Crazy Heart can be seen as the usual ‘oeuvre’ award; the stereotypical situation in which someone gets a deserved prize for just the wrong film (see also Scorsese and The Departed). This year Firth cannot miss, having already won all the minor awards for his role as the stammering king George VI. Paradoxically, he should have won last year for A Single Man, and then see Bridges pick up his career prize for True Grit this year.

But that’s the Oscar rabble, brought in to highlight how, occasionally, awards hipness does not reflect film quality. I mean, it is not the case that The King’s Speech (dir. Tom Hooper) is a bad film. It is altogether quite acceptable. But it does not at any moment stand up against Black Swan, True Grit, or even Inception or Toy Story 3.

The story of the film is quite straightforward. British prince Albert stammers and, persuaded by his wife (Helena Bonham Carter), he tries to get rid of this problem by seeking the aid of unconventional Australian speech therapist  Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush, unrecognizable to those who only know him as Barbosa from Pirates of the Carribean). The abdication of his playboy brother and the looming war with Germany put an extra urgency on the success of the therapy, and a stress on the developing friendship between the monarch and the antipode.

The King’s Speech plays out as common melodrama, but for the first hour there is plenty to enjoy. During this hour the action is confined to small rooms: bedrooms, car interiors and Logue’s practice. This bears the risk of turning the film into a ‘televisional’ product, but the opposite happens. Through smart cinematography and wonderful set design (the wallpaper in Logue’s practice is hilarious) the feel of the film is utterly cinematic. This hour also contains all the initial battering and smart talk between the flamboyant Logue and the aristocratic prince which provides the film with most of its laughs.

But when the second hour moves the action into palaces, ballrooms and Westminster Abbey,, this effect gets lost and the looks of the film seem clichéd, tired and – pardon the Latin – quite cheap. It is also then that you lose the interest in and empathy for Albert. Sure I’m glad for him that he overcomes his stammer, but by abandoning the comfort of little rooms and bringing in the wider social context and real world international politics, Bertie’s stammer suddenly seems very, well, irrelevant. And when he finally is able to deliver that rousing wartime speech I feel uncomfortable: at the same time I’m supposed to delight in Bertie’s victory over himself, but his happens at the onset of the greatest tragedy of the 20^th century, while so much still had to be sacrificed, and not by the royals mind you, before one could speak of a real victory.

A final little issue-thingy: To cast as Winston Churchill the despicable Wormtail (or better: Timothy Spall, who played the weak traitor in the Harry Potter films) is a regretful miss, one that takes you even further out of the story.

But of course The King’s Speech is going to win those Oscars, and Colin Firth will win his deservedly for just the wrong film.

Oscar nominations 2011 – No Big Surprises

The Oscar nominations for 2011 are in, and there are few surprises so far. There is a lot of love for The King’s Speech (12 nominations), because it is a British film about royalty with a handicapped protagonist who overcomes his affliction whilst developing an unlikely friendship with a social outsider. I mean, come on… The Town did not receive the much attention, despite a well-deserved nomination for Jeremy Renner as supporting actor.

Other films much featured are: True Grit (10), Inception (8), The Social Network (8), The Fighter (7),  Black Swan (5) and Toy Story 3 (5). In the best picture category I put the Dutch release dates of films not yet shown here.

The Oscars will be awarded during a ceremony February 27^th.

Best Picture
Black Swan (3 February)
The Fighter (24 March)
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech (17 February)
127 Hours (unknown)
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit (10 February)
Winter’s Bone

Best Director
David O. Russell – The Fighter
Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech
David Fincher – The Social Network
Joel And Ethan Coen – True Grit
Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan

Best Actress
Natalie Portman  – Black Swan
Annette Bening  – The Kids Are All Right
Jennifer Lawrence  – Winter’s Bone
Michelle Williams  – Blue Valentine
Nicole Kidman  – Rabbit Hole

Best Actor
Javier Bardem – Biutiful
Jeff Bridges – True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network
Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
James Franco – 127 Hours

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams – The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo – The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld – True Grit
Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale  – The Fighter
John Hawkes  – Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner  – The Town
Geoffrey Rush  – The King’s Speech
Mark Ruffalo  – The Kids Are All Right

Best Original Screenplay
Another Year – Mike Leigh
The Fighter – Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, Keith Dorrington
Inception – Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right – Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
The King’s Speech – David Seidler

Best Adapted Screenplay
127 Hours -  Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
The Social Network – Aaron Sorkin
Toy Story 3 – Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich
True Grit – Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Winter’s Bone – Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

Best Animated Film
Toy Story 3
The Illusionist
How To Train Your Dragon

Best Foreign Film
Biutiful (Mexico)
Dog Tooth (Greece)
In A Better World (Denmark)
Incendies (Canada)
Outside the Law (Algeria)

Best Score
How to Train Your Dragon – John Powell
Inception – Hans Zimmer
The King’s Speech – Alexandre Desplat
127 Hours – A.R. Rahman
The Social Network – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Best Song
Coming Home from Country Strong – Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
I See the Light from Tangled – Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
If I Rise from 127 Hours – Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
We Belong Together from Toy Story 3 – Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Best Cinematography
Black Swan – Matthew Libatique
Inception – Wally Pfister
The King’s Speech – Danny Cohen
The Social Network – Jeff Cronenweth
True Grit – Roger Deakins

Best Costume Design
Alice in Wonderland – Colleen Atwood
I Am Love – Antonella Cannarozzi
The King’s Speech – Jenny Beavan
The Tempest – Sandy Powell
True Grit – Mary Zophres

Best Art Direction
Alice in Wonderland – Robert Stromberg, Karen O’Hara
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 – Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan
Inception – Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias and Doug Mowat
The King’s Speech – Eve Stewart , Judy Farr
True Grit – Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh

Best Visual Effects
Alice in Wonderland –Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 – Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian
Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
Hereafter – Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
Inception – Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
Iron Man 2 – Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

Best Sound Editing
Inception – Richard King
Toy Story 3 – Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
Tron: Legacy – Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
True Grit – Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
Unstoppable – Mark P. Stoeckinger

Best Sound Mixing
Inception
The King’s Speech
Salt
The Social Network
True Grit

Best Documentary Feature
Exit through the Gift Shop
Gasland
Inside Job
Restrepo
Waste Land

Best Live Action Short Film
The Confession
The Crush
God Of Love
Na Wewe
Wish 143

Best Animated Short Film
Day & Night
The Gruffalo
Let’s Pollute
The Lost Thing
Madagascar

Best Documentary Short Subject
Killing In The Name
Poster Girl
Strangers
Sun Comes Up
The Warriors Of Qiugang

Best Editing
Black Swan
The Fighter
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network

Best Make-up
Barney’s Version
The Way Back
The Wolfman

2011 – Short Preview:

We kick the year of in the middle of the awards season. The big ones are of course the BAFTAs, the Oscars and the Golden Globes (although this year’s comedy nominations suggest that they’ve lost their minds there). Main contenders (apart from last year’s Inception, Toy Story 3 and A Winter’s Bone): 1) Darren Aronofsky’s ballet film Black Swan. 2) Horror based on a true story in Danny Boyle’s 127 hours. 3) British Royalty, handicaps and Colin Firth in The King’s Speech. 4) Coen Brothers Western remake True Grit. 5) Family drama with awards darling Nicole Kidman Rabbit Hole and 6) The Fighter, a boxing drama starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale.

There will be a trainload of mostly uninteresting comic book movies coming out. Captain America: First Avenger, The Green Lantern, The Green Hornet, Thor, X-Men: First Class are all completely uninteresting and instantaneously forgettable. Well, that’s the guess. The only one I am really looking forward to is Cowboys & Aliens, because it has cowboys. And aliens. And Daniel Craig. Finally I hold my heart for Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tin Tin: The Secret of the Unicorn, because the first pictures were, well, awful.

 

 

 

 

The Adventures of Tin Tin: The Secret of the Unicorn

Looking forward at this year’s comedy offerings one must not set one’s hopes too high. We get The Hangover 2 (bwerk)… Johnny English 2 (nooo!) And we get Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and a sweary alien in Paul (mwah) and if anything is to save the year it must be Your Highness, a medieval set comedy piece the trailer of which suggests that it is at least in the same league as Robin Hood: Men in Tights. In romantic comedy we see two films (No Strings Attached and Friends with Benefits) about people having sex without having a relationship. Which is about as unfunny as, well, pornography.

Your Highness

BLAMs then. The original Big Loud Action Movies of this year are JJ Abrams super secretive Super 8 and Paul Bettany versus vampires in Priest. Sequel fare there is in Sherlock Holmes 2 (with the amazing Noomi Rapace joing Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law), Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon (which is promised to be at least less dorky then its predecessors) and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, in which Jeremy Renner steps up as the pupil of Tom Cruise. Furthermore there are a gazillion films about aliens attacking earth (see also: Paul and Cowboys & Aliens)

Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon

Pixar has as yet its most unpromising offering in years, with Cars 2. Disney continues its classic track of the last two years with Winnie the Pooh and other animation hits might be Rango (which looks greatly odd) and Gnomeo and Juliet.

Shakespeare then: The Tempest, directed by Julie Taymor (Titus) will be a real treat, but I am taking the airplane-in-an-emergency-landing-head-between-your-knees position for Anonymous, a Roland EMMERICH! Take on the Bard’s lifetime.

Stuff I need not mention: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II, Pirates of the Carribean: At Stranger Tides.

End of the year round-up: The Best Films of 2010* **

*Dutch release dates. Includes therefore The Hurt Locker and A Serious Man, but no Black Swan or 127 Hours.

** As I am no professional critic I have not seen everything. Films such as The Social Network, Scott Pilgrim and Sex and the City 2 have so far managed to elude me.

10        Centurion

Beautifully shot chase film by horror specialist Neill Marshall, who learned exactly the right lessons from Gladiator and who “masters the art of the graceful decapitation” like no-one else.

9          Four Lions

Proves that you can turn even the most touchiest of subjects, Muslim-terrorism, into comedy-gold. At the expense of the characters perhaps, but that is at no point a killjoy in this film.

 

8          Kick Ass!

Violent, geeky and morally questionable, but sooo funny. Extra credits for a stand-out Nicholas Cage performance.

 

7          Catfish

The controversy over the truthfulness of this documentary is not really that interesting, from a creative point of view. Catfish is an amazing story about very interesting people, and the ‘facebook’ film that The Social Network is not.

 

6          Toy Story 3

Would probably have ended up higher if I had an emotional investment in the series, which I did not have. Excellent characters, great voice work, beautiful music and an appropriate theme for a satisfying final chapter.

 

5          A Winter’s Bone

Who could’ve thought that a film could be deeply depressing and fiercely uplifting at the same time? Debra Granik proves it can be done, owing a big debt to Jennifer Lawrence superior performance.

 

4          A Serious Man

Best. Coen Brothers Film. Ever.

 

3          Inception

A visual and narratological masterpiece. 2^nd and 3^rd viewings allow for the emotional heart to find its place. Perhaps the most important film of the year, because Nolan shows that very expensive action films need not be stupid. Even Michal Bay now wants his next Transformers film to be smarter.

 

2          The Hurt Locker

Testosterone and adrenaline fuelled “small” film about big issues. Its focus on character rather than politics makes it intensely emotional and, surprisingly, very political. “Exactly 17.3 times better than Avatar”, its big awards-competitor.

 

1          El Secreto de Sus Ojos

Excellent character study, harrowing thriller and portrait of a society. El Secreto de Sus Ojos has no flaws. Its devastating climax lingers and haunts your dreams. The film was the big surprise of 2010’s Foreign Language Oscar category, and of the entire year for that matter.

Blockbuster Season 2010: The Round-up

Okay. So that’s it. It is the first of September, and although some big loud action movies are still to premiere on Dutch screens, I call it a day for the blockbuster season of 2010. September is the month in which we’ll get to see Machete and Piranha 3D, but it is also the month of the Venice Film Festival and, interesting for the locals here, The dutch Film Festival in Utrecht.

And what a weird blockbuster season it has been. Whereas other years were actually good (2008 saw The Dark Knight, Iron Man and only had The Incredible Hulk to cry about) or very bad (2009, if only for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and GI: Joe) 2010’s summer saw its major titles sink, but saw other, unexpected, films deliver.

Tent pole pictures such as Green Zone, Iron Man 2, Clash of the Titans, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and The Expendables all disappointed, some to the degree of outright awfulness. Robin Hood was okay, as were Predators, Knight and Day and From Paris With Love. And these four films actually belonged to the B-list to be honest.

Of course, Inception was great. If my review seemed critical, it was only because I set the bar higher for that film. Three other films that I really enjoyed were Centurion, Kick-Ass and Salt. Big pictures of course, but not the movie events that dominated the summer. The A-Team was a delightful guilty pleasure, but it disappointed at the (U.S.) box office, so unfortunately there will probably not be  a sequel.

So, apart from Inception, what was the blockbuster season of 2010 about? Well, to be honest, it was not really about big loud action movies. Of course Inception was big and loud, and an action film, but it does not belong to the same league as Armageddon or Transformers. The other films that drew large crowds this summer were, well, kids movies.

Toy Story 3 was amazing; the only film in 3D that was worth the extra bucks so far. It deserved to be as successful as it was. Shrek Forever After (also in 3D) was a disgrace, but it was a popular success. Let’s just hope that Dreamworks will leave Shrek alone now, and in time I may forgive them. Finally, there was the remake of The Karate Kid, which was far from faultless, but was carried by great performances and had a sincere heart.

The big debates now will focus on two questions: is 2010 an exception, or are family films the future of the blockbuster season? Harry Potter will of course finish with two big bangs, but what’s next? The other question: what to think of 3D? Is it the future of the business? The savior of cinema? Some studies suggest otherwise. I think it will only work as an added attraction for films that were from the first moment thought of as 3D pictures. Avatar for instance, or Toy Story 3. Turning ‘normal’ 2D films into 3D, sometimes with the help of inadequate conversion processes, only helps to kill of the hype and the audience willingness to pay extra.

So this was it: the blockbuster season. One film I’ve yet to mention is Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, which has had its American and UK release, but will only hit Dutch screens this autumn. I don’t expect too much of it. It seems immature fatiguing nonsense, with an unlikable hero who thinks the L-word refers to lesbians. Geek stuff I guess. Must be, with Michael Cera doing that Michael Cera thing that some people seem to like.

 

(This trailer is so annoying that I want to see and then hate this film)

So, let’s ease into the autumn, towards the Holiday season films and the first contenders for awards season 2011. Just a few titles you may already want to look up: The American, 127 hours, Four Lions, Tamara Drew and Terence Malick’s The Tree of Life. Terence Malick? Yes. Terence Malick. Also, there is the ‘new Slumdog Millionaire’ with Africa United. I’m looking forward already.