I see dead people

Efron plays the title character, Charlie St. Cloud. He’s a smart, sensitive, fun-loving guy about to head off to Yale on a sailing scholarship. But his plans hit the skids, in a big way, when his younger brother Sam (Charlie Tahan) is killed in a violent car crash, with Charlie at the wheel. Charlie is overcome by guilt and spends the next several years fulfilling a promise to play catch with his brother on a daily basis – even though his brother is dead. And instead of going off to college, Charlie works as a caretaker at the local cemetery. Generally a good place to keep tabs on dead people.

The first half of the movie centers on the bittersweet relationship between the brothers who are both struggling to ‘move on’. The second half is largely devoted to Charlie’s budding romance with a former high school sailing nemesis named Tess (Amanda Crew) who may or may not be dead too.

Efron does an admirable job with the movie, which falls under the ‘not great, but not a total waste of time’ category. The supporting cast is fine, though Kim Basinger and Ray Liotta have surprisingly small roles and consequently very little to showcase in the way of character development. Basinger plays the boys’ single mother, who moves away after the accident. And Liotta is a paramedic who believes that Charlie’s life was spared for a reason.

Zac Efron in Charlie St. Cloud is like Miley Cyrus in The Last Song – two actors on the cusp of adulthood taking on more mature roles in an effort to break out of their Disney shells – if only their fan base would let them. Tweens will want to see this movie even though it’s totally inappropriate. It is, after all, rated PG-13 for a reason. Charlie St. Cloud features some fairly brutal moments on land and at sea, not to mention adult themes about death, guilt, love and redemption. But Zac being Zac… good luck keeping the girls at bay. That hair! Those eyes! Oh my! Okay, I admit it. He is kinda cute. And when the camera zooms in on those Newman-esque baby blues, one thing becomes crystal clear: if his eyes don’t change color, Efron has a real future as a leading man in the chick flick universe.

Salt

The role of Salt was originally written for Tom Cruise but I don’t think the gender switch adds or detracts from the final product. They’ve both played this same type of slick, sharp, kick-ass character before – in this same type of big budget, stunt-driven, bullets-flyin’, bombs explodin’, reality-suspending cinematic joyride.

I’d love to be able to reveal more about the plot of Salt. But that’s impossible to do without giving too much away. Needless to say, the movie’s believability factor (or lack thereof) definitely benefits from the recent, real-life, Russian-U.S. spy swap. Otherwise, the whole Cold War-esque, happily-married spy-next-door thing might have seemed very passé. Maybe it’s time to dust off those Scarecrow and Mrs. King reruns after all (whatever happened to Bruce Boxleitner anyway?).

In many ways, watching Salt is like watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith without the Mr., so it’s devoid of the sexy and funny that made that Jolie-Pitt flick a breakout hit. But if you like movies in the vein of the Bourne, Mission Impossible, or Matrix franchises, then a dash of Salt will satisfy your appetite for relatively light summer fare (especially compared to Inception). And just as the good ol’ Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty had its sequel, my guess is that this SALT will trigger a SALT II too, eventually.

Relative unknown Joey King (yes, Joey is a girl) plays Ramona Quimby, a spirited young girl whose boundless energy and active imagination are alternately endearing and frustrating to those around her, especially big-sister Beezus (played by Disney Channel mainstay Selena Gomez).

When Ramona’s father (John Corbett in ultra-sensitive hunky-dad mode) gets laid off, Ramona cooks up scheme after scheme to help the family out. But as her efforts routinely backfire, even Ramona begins to question her propensity for marching to the beat of her own drum.

Ramona and Beezus is a light family drama that occasionally gets a bit sad. I even shed a few tears – though I attribute those to experiential relatability more than anything else. It’s hard not to relate to, recognize, or envy the various relationships touched upon in the movie: There’s Ramona’s relationship with her sister Beezus; her relationship with her parents (Corbett and Bridget Moynahan); her parents’ relationship with each other; her relationship with her school teacher (Sandra Oh); her relationship with her Aunt Bea (Ginnifer Goodwin), and Bea’s relationship with a former high school sweetheart and neighbor, Hobart (Josh Duhamel). None cut too deep. But then again, this movie has a rather limited target demo consisting mostly of 8-12 year old girls. I took two smart and sassy 10-year-olds and they both seemed to enjoy it. Rumor has it that Miley “Hannah Montana” Cyrus was initially offered the role of big sister Beezus. All I can say is… well… thank goodness for small movie favors. I’m still processing The Last Song.

Ultimately, Ramona and Beezus is just okay as a feature film. It’s more like a good TV movie with a really good cast and a really, really good message for girls (and boys) of all ages. When Beezus admonishes Ramona for always coloring outside the lines, Ramona sets her straight, saying (paraphrasing here) “Sometimes I like to color inside the lines. It just depends on the picture.” I like that answer.

At the center of the story is poor Bazil played by Dany Boon, whose father was killed by stepping on a landmine and who as an adult just happens to be in the wrong place and gets shot in the head. He awakens to find that the bullet is lodged there permanently and could kill him at any time, and on top of that he has neither a home nor a job. Wandering and panhandling, he meets a man on the streets of Paris who sees right away that Bazil is in need of “a family.” The man takes him to a junkyard heap where he introduces him to a quirky band of characters who live together in an ingenious underground home. This warm and wacky group includes a contortionist, a human calculator, a Guinness record-holder for Human Cannon Ball distance, a maker of fabulous animatronics machines and others all recycling the world’s garbage for art and profit.

When Bazil stumbles upon the people who made the landmine that killed his father and the bullet that changed his life, both arms dealers in offices just across the street from one another, he feels compelled to do something to stop them. His newfound family is all too happy to help. The ensuing schemes pit the arms dealers against one another and use all the skills these junk repurposers possess to a hilarious end.

Jeunet knows how to use visuals to move a story along like no one else. There are times it feels like the best of silent film; Dany Boon’s face is reminiscent of Harold Lloyd. But the script and wordplay are also pitch perfect. I laughed out loud more in this film than I have in a very long time. Just as in Amelie, the world Bazil and his friends inhabit is pure fantasy surrounded by a very real Paris.

I’d recommend this to anyone who needs to laugh and isn’t put off by subtitles or a cast of mainly unknown faces. It really is fabulous. And my mother liked it, too. (In its native France, Micmacs‘ full title is Micmacs à tire-larigot, which translates as “Nonstop Shenanigans.” )

The Despicable Me of the title is a super villain named Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) who accomplishes his evil deeds with the assistance of a mad scientist named Dr. Nefario (voiced by Russell Brand) and an army of amusing yellow minions. But recently, Gru’s been one-upped by a younger villain named Vector and he’s feeling the pressure to pull off an epic heist. So he gathers the minions and Dr. Nefario and announces his grand plan: they’re going to steal the moon! First though they have to “acquire” a shrink ray, but just as they manage to steal it, Vector swoops in and grabs it from them.

Gru must get that shrink ray back and part of his plan to get inside Vector’s lair involves sending in three little orphan girls selling cookies. So he adopts the girls, Margot, Edith and Agnes, and of course, they turn his life upside down. We start to see a softer side of Gru as they start to warm his evil heart. He becomes so attached to them he even begins to rethink his plan to steal the moon.

By the end, Gru manages to do it all and be both super villain and super dad. He even manages to make his hard-to-please mother (voiced by Julie Andrews) proud. This is a movie with heart and humor, and even with the extra charge for 3D, is well worth the price of admission.