Movie Review- Wreck It Ralph

Dan and I spent this rainy Saturday morning catching the cheap and early showing of Wreck It Ralph at AMC. Originally, we had wantedto make sure to see it at Disney's El Capitan Theater, but due to our new push to save money, sacrifices had to be made. This time, it was sacrificing playing Name-That-Tune with the organist pre- show and a live stage spectacular. Sigh.

Wreck It Ralph was a home-run. It's funny, clever and heartwarming. It has both a strong story and solid character development. The bond between Ralph and Vanellope reminded me of Pixar's Up and had a sweet ending.

I loved the fantasy world of the story and the way in which the characters from the various games interacted. Disney really has a vast array of ways in which they can utilize the characters and themes of this movie with regard to merchandising, theme park promotion and future movies. It's a great brand. I think that it must have been so much fun to have been part of the development of this movie, coming up with ideas for the games and characters. This movie had so much room for creativity and what's more, everything created for the movie wove in perfectly with existing arcade brands that we all know. It was so well done.

During the movie, I was driven nuts by the voice of the Candy King. It sounded just like the voice of long dead, Ed Wynn (voice of Disney's Mad Hatter). During the credits, I was surprised to find out that it was actor Alan Tudyk, who played Wash on one of my favorite series, Firefly.

I thought that the opening scene where Ralph is at a Bad-Anon meeting, was not as funny as it should have been, because the surprise and creativity was undercut by last year's Pixar short, Short Fry. The concept was so similar to the one in Short Fry, but Short Fry had better comedic writing. The scene was vital to the illustrate Ralph's motivation and frame of mind, but it's unfortunate that it was so similar to the Pixar short.

It's time to end this review and go play a game on our very own vintage Pac-Man machine!

Movie Review- Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas is a movie that lives up to its tagline, "Past. Present. Future. Everything is connected." Yes, it's all connected in very broad themes and generalizations. Cloud Atlas is a big muddled mess that tries to encompass everything and accomplishes little.

The movie is composed of six vignettes, each taking place in a different time period. Each story has a wildly different tone and it's very jarring how the movie constantly jumps between the stories. It kept me interested, as I was waiting for a profound connection that never materialized. It jumps so much that it is impossible to become connected to individual characters or storylines. Some of the stories are mildly engaging and some are outright clunkers.

I didn't read the novel, although I can see where the story may have worked as a book. There is not enough time in a movie format for the audience to adjust to the shifting between the different tones of the stories. Perhaps different editing would have resolved this problem, but it was a huge reason that the movie failed for me. In particular, I was driven nuts by the Jim Broadbent's zany nursing home antics and the baby-talk language between Hanks and Berry while they are navigating a primitive future Earth. It was bad!!!

A style choice that occasionally worked, but was mostly cringe worthy (I'm looking at you Hanks!!!) involved having the main actors play several different characters. I've never seen a movie with so much prosthetic make-up. Some of it very poorly done, looking more like stage make-up. It was often so fake looking, that I think it may have been an intentional choice that didn't work. The entire movie had so many clashing tones and styles, that who knows?

This movie was a overwrought mess.

Movie Review- The Watch

Dan and I saw The Watch, a few weeks ago, the same weekend that we saw Ted. We actually ended up watching Ted first, on the recommendation of the teenager working the ticket counter at the Pacific Theaters, because "Who likes movies about Aliens?". Yes, I know that taking the advice of a teen movie worker, probably wasn't our shining moment, but Ted was okay.

The Watch isn't a great movie, but I found it to be a lot funnier than Ted. Unlike in Ted, the humor isn't exclusively crude. I think that the cast and interplay between them is what made the movie fun to watch. They clearly enjoyed themselves making this movie and that made me go along for the ride. I love Ben Stiller, even though he makes a lot of dumb comedies. He never fails to make me laugh.

This movie is a dumb comedy, but there are worse in this genre. It doesn't need to be seen in theaters, but it's worth a rental. The aliens are surprisingly well executed.

I loved the bit where Stiller's character is trying to get together a neighborhood watch. It really shows the honest apathy and weirdness that happens when you try to get a bunch of strangers together for a cause, everyone out with their own agenda. Good characters ( even though Vince Vaughn is playing the same guy he always plays) and funny stuff.