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Summer Movies

Summer is upon us and where are the blockbusters? Here is a list of some of the flix that people will be watching and talking about. Not too much that is exciting, in my opinion, but I am hoping that some of them are surprising. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until September for a dose of Clooney.

Alice in Wonderland

With his Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton is back with a film that may look in some ways like one of his others but in a lot of ways is a different animal. Mia Wasikowska (In Treatment, Amelia) plays 19 year old Alice, a young woman who has always had vivid dreams and is being shoved into marrying to a total prig. She falls down the infamous rabbit hole while running away from her “engagement party” to think about her options. And once down in this strange world, she encounters all the usual suspects, the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp with a strange lisp), Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum, the Cheshire Cat, the March Hare, etc.

The Princess and the Frog

I finally had the chance (i.e. excuse) to see this movie when my 10-year-old niece decided she wanted to see it for a second time. After all, there’s just something intrinsically appealing about a good ol’ fashioned, hand-drawn Disney princess fairy tale and the promise of a “happily ever after.” The Princess and the Frog follows the standard formula of the princess classics, but with a few modern twists. Our heroine is a hard-working, African-American waitress named Tiana (voiced by Anika Noni Rose) who dreams of opening her own restaurant in the great city of New Orleans. Her fate gets tied, however, to that of an arrogant, lazy Prince named Naveen (Bruno Campos) who’s been turned into a frog by a sinister (and potentially scary to little kids) voodoo doctor. When Tiana kisses the frog and becomes one herself, she and Naveen hop along the bayou in search of a mystical woman who may be able to make them human again. Along the way, they befriend a cajun firefly and a trumpet-playing alligator and of course, fall in love.

Avatar

I’ve heard it described as Dances with Aliens and that is a pretty good description, though I think Dances with Wolves had better character development. Avatar tells the story of a paraplegic soldier, Jake, who goes to the planet Pandora where evil corporate humans want to mine for a super-expensive, rare mineral, but the local population (Na’ vi) stands in the way. Jake is taking his dead brother’s place in a science program that infiltrates the Na’ vis by using avatars, earth people inhabiting Na’ vi bodies as they sleep in the lab. At first Jake is a gung-ho Marine ready to do his duty, but once he becomes a Na’ vi, falls in love with the head guy’s daughter and gets into their new agey lifestyle, he predictably decides to fight the power.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

It shouldn’t come as any big surprise to Chickflix fans that Fantastic Mr. Fox has made its way onto our friendly little blog. After all, it stars the voice of George Clooney. And sure enough, listening to George Clooney for an hour and a half is almost as entertaining as watching him. On second thought, watching him is still way better. But as an animated flick, Mr. Fox does deliver.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is delicious, a fun film for kids and the adults who take them to see it. I saw it in 2D because my six-year-old excuse for seeing movies like this has something against the 3D glasses, but I think it must be even more fun in 3D. Cheeseburgers flying off the screen at you… how much fun would that be? But even without the benefit of 3D this movie was chock full of laughs for both my first-grade companion and me.

Fall Flicks

So, what is coming up this fall? More for the chicks, one can only hope. Usually, post-summer we get back to having adult fare and start the march to the Oscar race. The list below is wide releases. If you are in New York or Los Angeles, you will have a much wider choice. For the rest of us, there are a few gems and a bit of dreck. But that’s just my opinion. What do you think?

9

9 is a strange little animated film, and I really had no idea what I was getting into when I went. Basically it is a dark, animated Terminator for kids. Machines took over the world and went to war with man and in the post-apocalyptic world that is left, a small group of burlap sack dolls wages a final battle against the Machine that killed the world.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

My six-year old co-critic and I are agreeing to disagree on this one. He gives it an enthusiastic thumbs up. Me, not so much. Don’t get me wrong; I am a big fan of animation. I’ll even go to see an animated movie without a kid in tow. But this is not one I’d recommend to adults who aren’t accompanying little ones. The jokes meant for the adults in the audience just aren’t that clever and I wasn’t really amused by much except for Scrat. He’s the crazed squirrel who’s been chasing the elusive acorn through all of the Ice Age movies and in this one, it seems like his dogged pursuit is finally halted in the name of love when a wily, female squirrel, Scratte, arrives on scene.

Up

Up is a glorious, sweet film – another brilliant work from Pixar. I laughed, I cried. No, seriously, I teared up during the opening sequence that portrays the life-long love affair between the main character, Carl Fredrickson, and his wife – from their first meeting as children to her death – without a word of dialogue. From there, it’s a movie about Carl figuring out how to live his life after devastating loss and the adventure begins.