Waking Nightmare: Why Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox Endures!

The Good: Good themes, Clever character twists, Decent construction and edits from the source material
The Bad: Some less successful edits, Simplistic resolution, Packed with multiple flat supporting characters
The Basics: Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox is a clever adaptation of the Flashpoint crossover event in movie form!


This month is shaping up to be a pretty intensive month for me with reviews of Marvel Comics-based works. To balance that, I figured I should seek out some DC Comics-based works. In advance of the third season premiere of The Flash and with a fascination for the more adult-oriented works coming from DC Animation that I discovered by watching Batman: The Killing Joke (reviewed here!), I figured that it was a good time to take in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox. Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox is an animated film adaptation of Flashpoint (reviewed here!) and while it has been quite some time since I read that crossover event and its various volumes, I recalled it well enough to look forward to both the animated film and the new season of The Flash.

Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox is a work that bends the traditional DC Comics Universe and offers a glimpse into one of the most provocative alternate universe scenarios that DC Comics ever created. The animated rendition of Flashpoint does a generally good idea of portraying the complexity of the graphic novel crossover event while minimizing the less successful subplots of the books.

Opening with a flashback to Barry Allen's backstory in his childhood with his mother before her murder, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox leaps back to Barry Allen's adulthood. On his mother's birthday, Barry Allen is called to action when the Flash Museum is attacked by the Rogues, who were hired by Professor Zoom. When Eobard Thawne uses the Rogues to carry the bombs he wants to use to destroy the Flash Museum, the Justice League arrives to stop the bombs from detonating. With the Rogues detained and Zoom being sent to S.T.A.R. Labs for containment, The Flash's success is undermined by a remark from Thawne, so he tries to run off his frustration.

Barry Allen wakes up at his desk at Central City Police Department where no one recalls The Flash and he is devoid of his powers. Outside the CCPD, Barry Allen encounters his mother and he is shocked that she is alive. From Nora, Barry learns that the world is on the brink of war and the only superhero she seems to know about is Batman. In Gotham City, Batman is briefed by Cyborg on the impending war between the Amazons and Atlanteans in the ruins of Europe. Batman refuses to join the war effort and when Barry Allen visits Batman, Allen discovers that in this reality, Thomas Wayne is Batman and Bruce Wayne is dead. As the world falls into carnage as various elements get caught between the building armies of the Amazons and Atlanteans, Allen is convinced that the only way to right the world is to find and thwart Professor Zoom, whom he believes is responsible for the destroyed world on the cusp of war. To find Zoom, Allen enlists Batman's help in recreating the accident that made him The Flash, with initially disastrous results. But in attempting to save the world, Barry Allen becomes deeply embroiled in saving the darkened reality!

Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox does a decent job of illustrating how important Nora Allen was to Barry Allen in order to set up the premise of the film. As well, while the initial incident in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox seems somewhat pointless, it is enough to sell Barry Allen's assumption in the altered timeline. The Reverse Flash is a time-traveling meddler who seeks to undo all of the heroism of The Flash, so when Allen wakes up without powers in a darkened present, Eobard Thawne is a reasonable suspect from the available evidence.

Flashpoint was an incredibly complex crossover event in the DC Comics books, so condensing it down to seventy-five minutes necessitates cutting quite a bit of material. As one who generally enjoyed the book series, the most glaring and frustrating omission comes in the form of leaving out The Joker. Because Thomas Wayne has such a significant presence in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, that his search for the Joker is treated as a very minor tangent and dropped after only the second allusion to the Joker is somewhat disappointing.

What is not disappointing is the quality of the animation. Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox is one of the more consistently well-rendered DC Animation projects and given the scope of it, that is no small task. The character designs are distinctive enough that the bulk of the characters are instantly recognizable in every frame in which they appear and that helps the flow of the film stay tight and taut.

It is worth noting that Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox is very much intended for adults; the on-screen kill count is exceptionally high and several of the character deaths are fairly graphic (as is Barry's first attempt to regain his powers!).

The voice acting in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox quite good. Led by Justin Chambers as Barry Allen, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox might be a world-bending war story, but the portrayals of Barry Allen and Thomas Wayne make the film far more relatable and present some more universal themes. It is a bit disappointing, based on the clarity of the voice acting and the themes of Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox that no one seems to recognize that Barry's grandmother was simply reciting the Serenity Prayer from Alcoholics Anonymous. That said, that is not a fault of the actors and their clear, emotive, performances help to create the world of the Flashpoint reality as well as the animators.

Ultimately, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox is a gruesome exploration of what one man's grief can create and it is well-rendered even if it has to gloss over some of the complexities of the source material.

For other animated films based on DC Comics books, please check out my reviews of:
Wonder Woman
Watchmen: Tales Of The Black Freighter
Batman: Gotham Knight

6/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Masturbating Teenagers, Unsweet Statutory, And The Continued Seduction Of Selena Gomez Make Behaving Badly Creepier Than It Is Funny.

The Good: Fun, fast-paced dialogue, Good cast
The Bad: Third wall breaks, Creepy direction, Uses all of the conceits of the genre
The Basics: Behaving Badly is an unsettling sex comedy that has an impressive cast doing terrible things.


After pretty much every major studio release I watch, I try to catch an independent film. I like supporting indie films and trying to find a balance between the popular films and the art films in my reviews helps keep me a well-rounded reviewer. Sadly, not all independent or artsy films are actually worth it. Behaving Badly is one such “indie” film. While the movie has a surprisingly good cast for a movie unlikely to blow up at the box office, even with its August release, it fails to rise above a schmaltzy sex comedy. While there are sex-focused comedies (as opposed to romantic comedies that are focused on relationships, sex comedies are fundamentally just about a protagonist getting laid) that are actually worthwhile, Behaving Badly is not one. Behaving Badly is not this year’s Sex Drive (reviewed here!).

Behaving Badly is a lackluster comedy that seems like it is trading on Selena Gomez’s star power and the popularity of sex comedies as forged by prior works like American Pie and, to a much lesser extent, movies like Miss March (reviewed here!). In other words, the film trades much more on cheap background nudity, softcore seduction dialogue, and frequent references to teenage masturbation than anything genuinely clever. As is typical of these films, the teenage protagonists are unrealistically smart, beautiful and charmed by everything that is outside their initial characterization (in this case, Selena Gomez’s Nina Pennington is uber-religious – in a fundamentalist Christian way- yet finds it enchanting when Rick extorts his pedophilic adulterous father when they catch him with an underage hooker and the father of his best friend).

Rick Stevens is a fairly normal teenager who finds himself in a world of trouble with a dead body in his car trunk and a case of crabs when he finds his mother on the couch, near death, as part of her latest melodramatic suicide attempt. In the suicide note addressed to him, Rick learns that his mother found out that he had a fling with is best friend’s mother. The story flashes back to how Rick found himself in the predicament by going back two weeks prior to an average day. On that day, he more or less gets a blowjob from a stripper before his best friend’s mother, Pamela, seduces him. Rick worries about what this means for his chances with Nina Pennington, the girl he has lusted over for years. After Rick lies to Nina about knowing Josh Groban, who is in town for a concert the next night, Rick becomes determined to get backstage passes. To that end, Rick asks the local strip club owner for a favor and in exchange for tickets, he has to go buy ecstasy for the perverted scumbag. Screwed on that deal, Rick and his best friend Billy Bender witness their fathers at a nearby hotel having sex with an underage hooker, which helps them get out of a dent Rick put in the car.

Continuing to lust after the idealistic Nina, Rick tries to resist his hot lawyer (when the Aston Martin the Lithuanian mobsters who are fixing the car give him as a loaner gets him in trouble with the police) and Pamela. To raise money, Rick throws a party with his sister and her stripper friends. That leads to a number of arrests that force Rick to try to save all of the people in his life as well as rise to the occasion of being the boy that Nina wants him to be.

Behaving Badly has virtually all of the conceits of the genre, including the meathead ex-boyfriend of the chaste girl the protagonist lusts after who brings violence into mix and pointless drug references. The result is a movie that feels stale, despite the fast-pace of the dialogue and a few initially snappy jokes. The humor is split between quick, witty remarks and awkward attempts to sexualize a number of young actors and actresses who are playing characters much younger than they are. The visual gags are relegated to frequent shots of Billy nervously vomiting and things like sex toys being washed alongside dishes.

Instead of being funny or even titillating, Behaving Badly has a pretty high creep-out factor. Rick Stevens tells his lawyer he is seventeen when she offers him a cigarette, so most of the film is preoccupied with an underage boy getting statutory raped by his best friend’s mother and masturbating frequently. Actors Nat Wolff (Rick) and Lachlan Buchanan (Billy) might be of legal age, but the characters they play are not, so director Tim Garrick’s obsession with crotch shots of the two in their underwear is just creepy.

Behaving Badly is not even overly original. Rick gets into a bet with a psychopath that he can bed Nina and that’s the basic plot of at least one other popular sex comedy. So, fans of nudity and Selena Gomez blowing kisses and flirting to the camera are likely to feel that they have seen everything in Behaving Badly before. There is nothing exceptional or original about Behaving Badly.

That leads to the big mystery of Behaving Badly. How did Tim Garrick assemble such an impressive cast for such a piece of crap film?! Actors who participate in Behaving Badly include the hilarious Cary Elwes, Jason Lee and Patrick Warburton, along with a well-used Heather Graham, Elisabeth Shue, and Mary-Louise Parker. Dylan McDermott might well be playing his funniest character in his repertoire as strip club owner Jimmy Leach. The usually dramatic McDermott is slick, creepy, and does some hilarious physical comedy in Behaving Badly.

Nat Wolff plays the archetypal “I can’t get laid, but I seem to have sex all over the place” plain high school student Rick Stevens in Behaving Badly. Wolff is bland, but plays the straight-laced bland kid well.

Selena Gomez plays Nina Pennington and her role infuses something smart and satirical into the otherwise vacuous and dull Behaving Badly. Writers Tim Garrick and Scott Russell use Gomez to sneak in a number of lines about church hypocrisy and naïve overachievers that Gomez plays with a straight face well. Still, Gomez seems to be around mostly for the cute factor and the shock of the well-established good girl being around strippers, adulterers, and masturbating teenagers.

Even to see that, Behaving Badly is not worth it. The moments of cleverness and the moments the impressive cast is used in ways unconventional for the performers do not justify the rest of the film’s content. The jokes are more misses than hits and the only surprise in Behaving Badly was that the oft-referenced Josh Groban does not make a cameo appearance.

For other sex-driven films, please check out my reviews of:
Bound
Walk Of Shame
Making The Rules

2.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Psych Season Five Is Mediocre Until A Concept Episode Outshines The Rest!

The Good: “Dual Spires” is brilliant, Funny
The Bad: No superlative performances, Greater character development is sacrificed for plot convenience.
The Basics: Psych is good television in its fifth season, though there is a lone, truly great episode for fans of Twin Peaks.


Concept shows are harder for me to bear with when the series shows fidelity to the concept, as opposed to organic character development. Psych is one such concept show. The idea behind the show is ridiculously simple. Focusing on a fake psychic who wanders around playing detective, with his trusty sidekick, Psych spent the first four seasons with Shawn (the fake psychic) flirting with the chief detective in Santa Barbara, Juliet. But, with the climactic events of the fourth season finale, it seemed like there would be real changes in store for the characters of Psych.

The fifth season of Psychcould have led to some real development and conflict, namely between Juliet and Lassiter. The final episode of the fourth season had Juliet being victimized by a serial killer and in resolving that episode, Lassiter actually rose to the occasion of being heroic in relation to her. The writers and producers of Psych completely abandon that potential in favor of a return to highly episodic works that quickly return Juliet to work and have only the use of Harry in a new job as a serious change between this and prior seasons.

Cases include a Chinatown kidnapping that involves gangs and two brothers, one who fights for love and one who just wants to fight. Gus and Jules switch partners which allows Lassiter to benefit from Gus's knowledge. The pair investigates a UFO abduction and find a true gentleman as a most dangerous adversary. Gus and Shawn investigate a car thief ring. Shawn and Gus join forces (and, alternately, combat) their geriatric dopplegangers when a retired police chief is killed.

The pair happens to be on a boat when four inmates on a furlough make an escape attempt, which Shawn makes worse, resulting in a hostage situation! The duo competes against a fake profiler when people on an organ donor list get killed off! That profiler quickly makes the move on Juliet that Shawn has not in the prior years and Shawn complicates their budding relationship when he helps a superspy complete her mission. When Despereaux returns, Shawn and Gus go to Canada to extradite him, leading to a change in the Shawn/Juliet relationship.

Gus learns about Shawn’s relationship when they investigate a murder at Scare Fest. After a concept episode that is an homage to Twin Peaks (reviewed here!), Shawn and Gus are sent to Police Academy. Psych does its annual Christmas episode that shows Shawn what life would have been like for those around him had he not returned to Santa Barbara five years prior. After another random mystery, the season ends with the return of Yang as the hunt for Yin reaches a climax no one expected.

Fundamentally, Psych Season Five utilizes the characters from the prior seasons in very familiar ways. In the fifth season, the principle characters are:

Shawn Spencer – He continues to play the fake psychic detective and is thrilled when Juliet returns to work, though he does not make any advances on her until she expresses interest in the fake profiler. Catching a glimpse of what might be in store for him if he comes clean with her, he continues his charade,

Gus – He continues to act as Shawn’s sidekick and hampers him slightly when Shawn witnesses a murder, but he does not. Never seen this season using his “super sniffer” or doing his pharmaceutical sales work, he is committed to the Psych agency now,

Harry Spencer – Now determining which cases the Santa Barbara Police Department will contract out to Psych, he takes a perverse joy in making Shawn work for his money. Otherwise, he just shows up,

Lassiter – Back to his usual, arrogant self, he only really rises to the occasion when his sister arrives to make a video of how the detective bureau works,

Juliet - Begins the season at a desk job away from the detectives, working to find her equilibrium after her capture and torment. She falls for the rich fake profiler before hearing Shawn reveal his true feelings over a wiretap,

and Vick – A complete nonentity for the season, she is only truly memorable for her position of authority in investigating the murder of her predecessor and Henry’s former boss.

Gus seems sillier than before. Ironically, he also seems more faith-motivated than in prior seasons. Psych is also more overtly addy in the fifth season than in prior seasons. There are noticeable references to Snyders of Hannover, Snickers bars, and several other products throughout the season. There are no superlative performances in the fifth season of Psych. Instead, these are all the familiar characters and performances that James Roday (Shawn), Dule Hill (Gus), and the rest of the actors have played for the prior years.

The lone episode that makes me recommend bothering with the season (the fifth season of Psych is not bad, just familiar in a way that feels more monotonous than original) is “Dual Spires.” “Dual Spires” is a parody/homage to the David Lynch cult television favorite Twin Peaks. As a fan of that series, “Dual Spires” is a treat to watch and one of the most entertaining hours that Psych pulled off.

In the end, though, Psych is largely average and familiar, leaving little reason for viewers to be enthusiastic about continuing to watch the series.

For prior seasons of Psych, check out my reviews of:
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4

5/10

For other television reviews, visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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With Factory Girl, I Swear Off Biopic Fiction For A While

The Good: Acting, Moments of movement
The Bad: Utterly unlikable characters, Lack of plot, Uneven pacing, Not as advertised
The Basics: Can't the bottom line, just once, be "This is a bad film, not worth your time?"


First off, I've come to hate reviewing films that are supposedly fictional biographies of people who have ever been alive. The reason I hate this is invariably, people get mixed up with the review and its critique being about the actual person who is the subject of the biopic as opposed to the character presented on screen in the film I am reviewing. I know nothing about Edie Sedgwick, the subject of Factory Girl, so when I reference her, I am writing solely about the character presented in this film. The second thing one ought to know off the bat is that anytime a movie needs to advertise that it's sexy (or in this case: "SEXY. UNCUT. UNRATED.") I feel a bit wary. The last film I saw that was truly sexy was Bound (reviewed here!) and no one had to tell me it was sexy. Finally, I've seriously come to resent reviewing DVDs of films I find I do not enjoy. There's something offensive about having to check out the DVD bonus features to write a thorough review on a disc for a film that bored the crap out one anyway. I mention this because I'll openly admit I didn't make it all the way back through Factory Girl with the commentary on; I just couldn't do it. What I heard didn't make me appreciate the film more, I was done with it.

Edie Sedgwick, wealthy trust fund girl, finds herself in New York City in the early 1960s where she meets Andy Warhol, who is instantly taken with her. Warhol puts her in one of his artistic, underground films and she is soon on his arm all around town, promoting Warhol's art and not being paid for it. Soon, Edie is into drugs, Warhol has moved on and Edie's mental health and finances are on the verge of a collapse.

And by that time, the audience doesn't care.

Seriously, the most interesting moments in Factory Girl all come before or as Edie and Warhol meet. Why? Because at that point in the film, Edie is an artist looking for a break who glides into the New York City art scene with a cute little shimmy and the dialogue between her and Warhol when they meet is quirky, weird and surreal. It's all downhill from there.

There comes a point fairly early on in the film when Edie's fortunes begin to change while she helps Warhol's stature and sales increase where she approaches Warhol for money for her work and he turns her down. No compelling reason is given for why she does not walk at that point. The two aren't intimately close, he's done nothing for her career and, in fact, she doesn't seem to be having all that much fun with him. The character makes no real sense and soon she degenerates into (essentially) a crack whore (yes, I know the difference between speed, heroin and crack, but no one calls them 'heroin whores,' though it does have a pretty good ring to it). If I wanted to see that, which I don't, I'd watch Requiem For A Dream (reviewed here!) again. You know, I guess I just find it hard to empathize with characters who make the choice to get into drugs; the end result is not terribly surprising.

But worse than the vacuous nature of the characters and their pointless degeneration into drug addicts (this is truly turning me off to films about anyone in the 60s and 70s as I grew up pretty well indoctrinated by "Just Say No" and the whole "everybody was doing it" mentality just reeks of stupidity to me) is the way too many of the actors overwhelm the roles they are in. So, for example, in Factory Girl, a number of the characters are either unnamed or their names are not said with any frequency as to associate them with their character. The perfect example is Edie's henchman Jimmy Fallon. No, her henchman is Chuck Wein, but from the moment he appears on the screen, I groaned and said "That's Jimmy Fallon." And throughout the film, it was Jimmy Fallon as . . . no, it was pretty much just Fallon walking around the film.

And it's not just Fallon who sticks out as himself. Mena Suvari's entrance into the film (sure, she's a brunette here, but the eyes are a dead giveaway!) is marked similarly by "Hey! That's Mena Suvari!" And she does so little in the film that every time she appears, the MS alarm goes off. Edward Herrmann and Illeana Douglas are stuck in similar niches. Even Guy Pearce as Andy Warhol has an element of Guy Pearce as Andy Warhol. From the moment I recognized the actor as Pearce, he stood out some and never fell back within the character.

Why, then, do I list the acting as one of the few decent things about this movie? First, Hayden Christensen. Yup, Hayden Christensen. Writers Aaron Richard Golub, Captain Mauzner, and Simon Monjack and director George Hickenlooper may have chickened out or not gotten the clearance to call Christensen's character anything other than "Musician" but from the moment Christensen appears on screen, he is Bob Dylan. And you know what, it's not "Hayden Christensen as Bob Dylan," it's Bob Dylan. He's that good. No one is more surprised than I!

Sienna Miller does a fine job of playing Edie Sedgwick. This is the first film I've seen Miller in and she did a fine job, easily convincing me of the character of Edie (whether I liked the character or not). Miller has a wonderful sense of movement that immediately lures the viewer in to watching her, at the very least.

But the movie is not terribly sexy, unlike what it claims. Maybe it's just me, but considering most of the nudity in the film involves bruised buttocks getting needles shoved in them (that's not a euphemism, most of the film's nudity comes in the form of the drug use context), it's hard to call the movie sexy. There is a decent love scene between Edie and "the Musician," but it comes so late in the film that anyone but the most stouthearted of film viewers will have given up on the movie well before then.

As for the "Unrated" aspect, I'm surprised that this film didn't get an "R." Sure, there's a lot of drug use and bare breasts, but it's nothing an 18 year-old can't handle.

As for the DVD extras (I suffered through them, so please read this!), most of them are self-absorbed tributes to the real Edie Sedgwick and they are dull. George Hickenlooper talks about what a fascinating woman Edie was, but after sitting through his 99 minute movie, he failed to convince me. Repeating it over and over again in the behind-the-scenes featurette, the commentary and the section on the real Edie didn't sell me. Other bonuses include Guy Pearce's video diary, Sienna Miller's casting tapes (hoorah for Hickenlooper who saw Miller's potential off these!), and the film's trailer (much better than the actual movie). There's one deleted scene which adds no value to the film or the DVD.

All in all, there's nothing here that's entertaining, informative or even enjoyable for fans of drama, biographies or (from what I've read) fans of Edie Sedgwick. And if you weren't one before, this film won't make you one. I'm going to go watch Frida (reviewed here!) now to clean my palate.

For other works with Beth Grant, be sure to check out my reviews of:
The Artist
Extract
No Country For Old Men
Southland Tales
Little Miss Sunshine
Matchstick Men
Donnie Darko
Rain Man

3.5/10

For other films, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page where the reviews are organized from best film to worst!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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A Quick Fairy Tale Of Worth: The Princess Bride!

The Good: Funny, Entertaining for all ages, Acting
The Bad: Plot is simple, Characters are all "types"
The Basics: With a great blend of humor and inventive dialog, The Princess Bride takes the tired old fairy tale formula and makes it new again.


The real magic of The Princess Bride is that it plays remarkably well for people of all ages with a fair amount of entertainment all the way around. This is a comedy that could be classified as "family entertainment" that actually succeeds in entertaining the entire family. It is funny, cute and well-told, despite the simplicity of the story.

The Princess Bride opens as a fair tale being told to a sick child by his grandfather. The tale is the typical fairy tale with an intriguing twist; none of the characters talk like they usually would in a fairy tale. So, Westley, a farm boy for Buttercup, spends his time being abused by her until she realizes that he loves her and she loves him. Far too poor to be married, Westley sets out to better himself and thus win her hand. Unfortunately, he is killed by the Dread Pirate Robert and five years later, she finds herself engaged to the nefarious Prince Humperdink. Humperdink is a war monger who wants to have Buttercup killed by what appears to be a neighboring kingdom so he has an excuse to bring his people to war there. Humperdink employs the ridiculous Vizzini and his henchmen Inigo Montoya and Fezzik. The trio of kidnapers runs into trouble when they are followed by a mysterious man in black who seems bent on recovering Buttercup and foiling their plans. The man in black turns out to be Westley and his resurfacing reignights the love he had with Buttercup in a weird race to save her life and his own and stop Humperdink's horrible plans.

Basically, this is a fair tale; man and woman fall in love, encounter obstacles and must overcome them to prove their love. There is revenge in the form of Inigo Montoya versus his mysterious six-fingered man, there is love in the form of Westley and Buttercup and there is scheming in the form of Prince Humperdink. But at the end of the day, the only thing that significantly distinguishes The Princess Bride from any other fairy tale is the dialog. The way the characters speak makes the movie a treat to watch and rewatch. For example, in most fair tales when two swordsmen square off, they hurl insults or barbs, when Westley and Inigo find themselves facing each other with foils, they spend the battle complimenting the swordsmanship of the other. Fezzik, the giant, discusses strategy while being suffocated by Westley when Westley, reluctantly must fight him. Outside his desire for making the fight as sportsmanlike as possible, Fezzik is basically a "type;" the adversary turned friend or simply, a Giant.

So while the characters are eccentric, they are essentially types: Westley a hero, Humperdink a villain, Inigo a hero seeking revenge, Count Rugen the object of Inigo's revenge who is mostly a coward, and Buttercup a would-be princess.

Why watch the movie? The dialog is truly great and funny and it stands up over multiple viewings. The acting is quite good. Seeing Mandy Patinkin on Dead Like Me and watching him as Inigo Montoya is a wonderful show of how much range he has as a great actor. Wallace Shawn - a favorite of mine - gives an incredibly ridiculous over-the-top performance as Vizzini and he steals every scene he is in.

Cary Elwes as Westley is phenomenal, escaping the bland roles he has often been condemned to since. Elwes is charismatic and has a great sense of timing in The Princess Bride. Similarly, Robin Wright performs well given the material she is given. Even Andre the Giant shines as Fezzik, bringing a strange lovable quality to the character.

It is Chris Sarandon who shines consistently in The Princess Bride. Sarandon does a great job of portraying a maniacal villain in Humperdink without ever appearing absurd. He uses a sense of timing and bearing to wonderfully convince the viewer that he could have risen to his position and station. He is quite the professional here.

Anyone will enjoy this movie and it is a worth addition to any DVD collection.

For other fantasy films, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Labyrinth
Breaking Dawn, Part 1
The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy

7.5/10

For other movie reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2012, 2005 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Utterly Charmless: Ashton Kutcher's Butt, Natalie Portman Naked And Random Lesbian Teenagers Cannot Save No Strings Attached!

The Good: One or two charming moments, One or two acting moments
The Bad: Stale plot, Terribly stiff acting, Utterly unlikable characters
The Basics: No Strings Attached fails to land the premise before delving into it fully, making for a terrible romantic comedy that is utterly unromantic and seldom funny.


Ever since I saw and praised Friends With Benefits (reviewed here!), I've been told that the movie - whose plot I admitted was nothing terribly new - was just a rehash of No Strings Attached which came out about six months prior. So, today, I figured it was about time to watch No Strings Attached. Now, as the movie finishes up and I start my review, I am astonished that anyone has ever compared No Strings Attached with Friends With Benefits. While the Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis vehicle is funny, charming and surprisingly well-acted, No Strings Attached is none of those things.

No Strings Attached has such a predictable plot as to be almost not worth mentioning, but what truly sinks the movie is that the characters are monolithic and unlikable. And the worst element of No Strings Attached is that the two leads, Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman, have absolutely no chemistry on screen. None. Zippo. Zilch. The acting is so stiff that Dylan Hayes and Stefanie Scott who open the movie as the young versions of Adam and Emma have so much more chemistry than the adult actors that they pretty much gut any surprise the movie might have had.

Starting at a summer camp, fifteen years before the primary action, Adam laments that his father is getting divorced to camp friend Emma, then asks is he can finger her. Ten years later, Emma is visiting a friend's frat party and runs into Adam. Having no one else she knows in the area, she invites Adam to her father's funeral the next day and he obliges. Four years later Emma and Adam run into one another when their friends run into each other and then a year later, they reconnect again. At that time, Adam is working on a television show (like Glee) and Emma is working at a local hospital. The morning after Adam gets super drunk after finding his father and ex-girlfriend are now together, Adam and Emma begin a "friends who have sex" relationship.

Soon, the pair is by all appearances a functioning couple who are trying to restrain their own feelings. Emma insists Adam see other women, despite getting jealous when he does and Adam begins to advance his professional career, which earns him the attention of one of the producers on the show he is working on. As the two have lots of sex, they struggle with both the perception and reality that they are developing real emotional bonds, bonds which Emma is afraid to acknowledge.

No Strings Attached is such a simple movie that it is hard to find more to write about it. Writers Elizabeth Meriwether and Michael Samonek try to give their characters some depth, but the fail in that they tell far more than they show. So, for example, Emma is supposed to be characterized as a woman who doesn't want a relationship - her mother asserts because her father died and she took it hard - but she is initially characterized as a nihilist and that's fine. The problem is, instantly upon getting into the faux-relationship with Adam, she is invested in it as if it is a real relationship. In other words, the writers are all talk on Emma not wanting a relationship, so the "conflict" she feels late in the film is exceptionally forced.

Moreover, none of the characters are particularly interested or compelling. Adam's father, ably enough played by Kevin Kline, is utterly impossible to empathize with as he consorts with Vanessa, Adam's ex. The subplot with Emma's sister, Katie finding love and getting married feels like just what it is, a subplot and it leads to plot-predictable moments that bring the movie back to Emma and Adam.

As for the acting, I want to be thorough, but there were no extraordinary performances on any front. Ludacris, who was vibrant in Crash (reviewed here!) is restrained in a supporting role in No Strings Attached. Cary Elwes is restrained and unrecognizable with his beard as Dr. Metzner. Lake Bell seems like a poor director's Amanda Peet. And, the two most viewers will care about - Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher are uncharacteristically stiff as Emma and Adam. The acting is pretty boring and the principles seem bored with their lines and performances.

On DVD, No Strings Attached comes with a tiresome commentary track in which Ivan Reitman tries to fool the viewer into believing they are watching a movie that is in any way significant or unique. There are four deleted scenes, two alternate scenes and two featurettes, none of which make the primary programming actually worth watching.

For other works with Natalie Portman, please check out my reviews of:
Thor
Black Swan
The Star Wars Saga

2.5/10

For other movie reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Another Long Thinking-Persons Movie! Cradle Will Rock

The Good: Acting, Casting, Tapestry of plots, Ambiguity of message
The Bad: Moments of pacing (density)
The Basics: Another film that ought to have been contending for greater things in 1999, Cradle Will Rock is a character-driven tapestry of 1930s U.S.


Cradle Will Rock is potentially one of the greatest robberies in film history. No, it does not steal from other people's works or such, but in the races to win awards and receive recognition and an audience, it most certainly was robbed. It's ironic, considering the film is often about people standing up and acknowledging truths and greatness, that so few people stand up to praise the movie.

The film has a large scope and as such it often loses people, especially those who wish to see a movie without having to concentrate on it. The plots and characters weave around and play off each other. Nelson Rockefeller has chosen to have Diego Rivera paint the mural in the lobby of Rockefeller Center, which becomes problematic as the leftist artist incorporates images such as Lenin and syphilis into the work. WPA worker Hazel Huffman has rallied several anti-Communist artists to aid her in testifying against the WPA. One such artist is vaudeville ventriloquist Tommy Crickshaw, whose character arc is quite gripping. Largely the film plays around with Aldo Silvano and Olive Stanton, who are playing in a WPA play called "Cradle Will Rock," which is on the importance of Unions in America. Set against the play is a whole plot of steel tycoon Gray Mathers who is supplying Mussolini with steel.

The film is truly a tapestry and without knowing - or being able to appreciate - that, the viewer is lost. It's a complex film, especially as it says one thing and does another. For example, the play Cradle Will Rock is attempting to show the benefits of a union while the events surrounding the play lead to the Actor's Guild refusing to let the play be performed. If anything, the film is making the most potent argument about Unions ever: that they have their time and place, but their application is not universally beneficial to those who are a part of it. It's a story set in the 1930s, illustrating a concept that took much longer to be realized.

The acting is wonderful. All of the players get into their parts and portray the people they represent. Hank Azaria is wonderful as the delusional Marc Blitzstein, who writes Cradle Will Rock in the film. Harris Yulin gives a great performance and the briefly-seen Congressman Dies. All of the usual suspects: John Cusak, Joan Cusak, Philip Baker Hall, Vanessa Redgrave, Ruben Blades, John Turturro, and Emily Watson give their high caliber performance meeting or exceeding our expectations for their work. The true acting genius comes in the unlikely package of Bill Murray. In the surprise of the film, Bill Murray plays Tommy Crickshaw with a wonderful mix of self-loathing, abandonment and neediness. His character has surprising depth and I never thought I'd be saying he's the man to watch in a film with such talented actors as this.

While the film is not perfect, Cradle Will Rock comes quite close. Outside some historical references that are obscure, the film has moments where its purpose is unclear and it slows the pace. There are much worse uses of your time than this film and if you have children, I highly recommend this as an intelligent, engaging film. There are too few these days.

I must say, I'm impressed by the caliber of work Tim Robbins puts forth writing and directing Cradle Will Rock. This film was vastly underrated in a year of great films, most of which were overlooked.

For other powerful dramas, please visit my reviews of:
Magnolia
The Social Network
The Mission

8.5/10

For other film reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2002 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Charming When It’s Not Excruciating, Ella Enchanted Illustrates How Anne Hathaway Got To Be A Superstar!

The Good: Funny, Charming, Good acting
The Bad: Agonizing tone for much of the first half, Terrible special effects
The Basics: Ella Enchanted is an early Anne Hathaway film that illustrates her talent for picking plucky characters with moxy while still creating something surprisingly enduring.


Last weekend was a pretty good one for me in many regards. My wife and I had time together and we had just enough money to do some fun things, like go out to dinner together and take in a movie. The rest of the weekend, we stayed home and watched new (to us) DVDs and as a fan of Anne Hathaway’s work, it was a good weekend for me. Our Friday night date night was an opportunity for us to see One Day and the next day, we got out Ella Enchanted, which is one of Hathaway’s early works I had not yet seen.

Ella Enchanted is another “fairy tale rework” story, in a vein similar to Ever After (reviewed here!) or Shrek (reviewed here!). The fundamental difference for the Shrek analogy is that the references to non-fairy tale aspects tend to be lampoons of modern culture as opposed to general pop culture jokes. Like so many movies I am encountering this month, Ella Enchanted is based upon a novel that I have not read. Thus, this is a rather pure review of just the film with no comparative analysis.

Born to a family that includes a house fairy – one with very limited powers – the baby Ella is introduced to Lucinda, a powerful fairy who is known for giving terrible gifts, and she starts to cry. Offended, Lucinda gives Ella the gift of obedience and from that point forth, she is unable to resist any direction from anyone at any time. Her mother, after years of trying to undo the curse, dies and Ella, her father and Mandy the house fairy do their best to get on. Ella, for her part, has a best friend at school and – despite a few altercations – has grown up not particularly maladjusted and liberal. Her work to stop the enslavement of the giants, however, grinds to a halt when she gets two new stepsisters.

Hattie and Olive are cruel to Ella, with Hattie quickly realizing that Ella has to do anything she says. Hattie also has a pretty big crush on Prince Char, who is soon-to-ascend to the throne. Char visits Frell and runs into Ella while running away from Hattie and other fangirls. When Ella decides she absolutely must get the curse broken, she sets off to find Lucinda in the company of Slannen the elf who wants to be a lawyer and Mandy’s boyfriend/book Benny. When ogres capture the group, they are rescued by none other than Char and they journey together to the land of the giants with Ella challenging all Char thinks he knows.

Ella Enchanted starts fine, then has a pretty gruesome middle, but works well in the latter half, making it easy to recommend. Some might disagree with my assessment of the film as somewhat excruciating in the middle, but I have a high level of empathy. As such, it is exceptionally difficult for me to watch people being tormented and Hattie soon realizes just how easy it is to torment Ella and get her to do things the otherwise kind and obedient Ella would never do. Those scenes, where Ella is forced to steal, tell off her best friend and do other things very much outside her control are in many ways harder to watch than the later scenes wherein Char’s uncle Edward realizes Ella’s vulnerability.

Outside the tone becoming especially oppressive in the middle, Ella Enchanted is hampered some by the special effects. Edgar is accompanied by a snake, Heston, and the CG never quite looks right. Director Tommy O’Haver ought to be applauded for the attempts at visual grandeur, but in the same age as The Lord Of The Rings, it is hard to believe so many shots could look exactly like what they were; obvious bluescreen compositions.

That said, much of Ella Enchanted works. The movie is entertaining and Ella is an endearing character. I’m not much of a fan of voiceovers, but Eric Idle’s position in the film as the narrator actually works in this modernized fairy tale. Similarly, O’Haver picks decent musical choices, so Ella singing Queen’s “Somebody To Love” fits remarkably well as do the dances from the giants. Ella Enchanted is fun and it has a decent theme, which makes one wonder why it did not resonate more at the time of its release. Ella Enchanted is a reasonable treatise on the importance of free will and it stands as a pretty safe tale for children to learn the lesson and a very entertaining reminder for adults.

Ella Enchanted employs a decent cast for the task. Cary Elwes gets farther away from his charming protagonist from The Princess Bride as Edgar, though anyone who saw his work in the final season of The X-Files will be unsurprised that he can pull it off here. Lucy Punch is perfectly hideous as Hattie, which means she lands every insult and snide gesture perfectly. Hugh Dancy is more than just good-looking as Char. As has become his habit, he starts the film with a character who appears to be just another pretty face before turning into someone serious and interesting. Dancy is decent at bringing realization into his characters’ eyes and in Ella Enchanted his moments of epiphany are believable because of Dancy’s performance.

As for Anne Hathaway, her acting in Ella Enchanted is less physically demanding of awkwardness than her role from The Princess Diaries, despite a lot of similarities in the character’s arcs. Hathaway is wonderful, as always, as Ella of Frell, but where she truly excels is in the singing. When Hathaway sings in Ella Enchanted it completely upstages her acting. One only hopes she never tries to become a pop star, but for a scene or two in Ella Enchanted, Hathaway radiates as if she already is a pop diva and it works.

Ultimately, Ella Enchanted is diverting, even if it takes a little time before it becomes fun.

For works featuring Anne Hathaway, please check out my reviews of:
Anne Hathaway For Wonder Woman!
One Day
Love And Other Drugs
Family Guy Presents: It's A Trap!
Alice In Wonderland
Valentine's Day
Twelfth Night Soundtrack
Bride Wars
Rachel Getting Married
Passengers
Get Smart
The Devil Wears Prada
Hoodwinked!
Brokeback Mountain
The Princess Diaries

6.5/10

For other film reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Not As Bad As I Remembered It, The X-Files Season Nine Still Underwhelms!

The Good: A few imaginative stories, Moments of character development, Supersoldier plotline is decent, Finale.
The Bad: Light on DVD bonus features, Some terribly repetitive plots, Absence of Mulder.
The Basics: The X-Files Season Nine is not bad, but the best episodes are available elsewhere for less money and this is a far cry from the show at its peak.


It is time for my grand confession as a fan of The X-Files. I was one of the many, many fans who jumped ship on the show in its ninth season and started watching Alias. For me, it wasn't so much the absence of Mulder which drove me away - the prior season, I found myself caring less and less about Mulder as they tried to fill in stories from the seventh season in the eighth season and Mulder's character began to make less overall sense - but rather the plotlines that no longer resonated with me. While Alias started off with a bang with an intriguing serialized plot, the ninth and final season of The X-Files was declining with repetitive "freak of the week" episodes and the serialized plots of the Supersoldiers resonated with me less because the villains we cared most about were all gone and the heroes who remained were not as interesting as the ones who preceded them.

Or so I thought. After rewatching The X-Files Season Nine on DVD the last few weeks, I began to remember why I liked the show to begin with. The Supersoldier episodes were more intriguing than I remembered them being and even the new agent, Reyes, had some interesting-enough plotlines to keep me happy. I finally caught "Improbable," the episode which featured Burt Reynolds as God, and I respected Chris Carter's creativity and moments of the execution with that story. But the biggest thrill for me, sadly, was when Michael Emerson - who took on a regular role of Ben Linus beginning with the third season of Lost (reviewed here!) - appeared in the penultimate episode, "Sunshine Days." More than anything, though, watching the ninth season of The X-Files on DVD is an uncomfortable exercise in watching the endurance of humans be tested as almost every other episode involves Doggett or Reyes ending up in a coma, shot or having their brain messed with. Seeing the episodes so closely, there is the feeling that these people must be superhuman!

The ninth season of The X-Files finds Scully off the x-files and Mulder on the run to parts unknown, both in attempts to protect their baby, William. Agents Doggett and Reyes are running the x-files and they find themselves hampered by two powerful leaders within the FBI, Deputy Director Kersch and Assistant Director Follmer. As Doggett investigates Kersch in relation to the incident where Knowle infiltrated the FBI building, Follmer extorts Reyes with a video of Skinner killing Krycek. The investigations seek to expose the powers within the FBI which have been covering up the Supersoldiers - former Marines who are now part of the intelligence community, all of whom were experimented upon and now are indestructible warriors who have the ability to return even from the most traumatic of wounds.

With the investigation ongoing, Reyes and Doggett take time to investigate other x-files, like a boy who apparently kills others by marshaling vast forces of flies, a serial killer who appears to kill as part of a blood vengeance from multiple past lives, and a killer who may be the evil manifestation of an otherwise innocent man. The agents are wounded by a killer from an alternate reality and a car accident which puts Reyes in a netherregion between life and death where her only hope is to stay alive inside a dollhouse replica of the hospital. God shows up to encourage a serial killer to change his ways and a kid torments everyone with his uninhibited mental powers. And Scully, Doggett, Skinner and Reyes find hope in a man whose abilities may be empirically illustrated, which would once and for all prove the existence of paranormal phenomenon.

Throughout the season, there are bits peppered in about Mulder being on the run, rumors that he has been killed and conspiracies to try to get him to surface. And Mulder does surface for the series finale, the double-length episode "The Truth," which has Mulder put on trial for the murder of Knowle and he works to establish a defense based upon information collected throughout the years on the x-files. This leaves the series open enough such that years later the film The X-Files: I Want To Believe could be released.

What is nice about the ninth season is that Agents Doggett and Reyes have enough of a backstory and chemistry to make their near misses on a romantic relationship interesting to watch. While Mulder and Scully kept things chaste for most of their years together, Doggett and Reyes have overt sexual chemistry and it works for them as well as the writers let them run with it.

Unfortunately, that is far less frequently than most viewers will be satisfied with. While Reyes and Doggett flirt and make conscious choices not to get romantically involved, this is often pushed aside as quickly as possible and as fans had been jerked around for years with the denial of the Mulder and Scully chemistry, this may seem problematic and annoying to most viewers. As a result, Reyes and Doggett take professional and personal risks for one another - like Doggett refusing to pull the plug on Reyes in "Audrey Pauley" and Reyes going to Mexico in search of the brain-altered Doggett in "John Doe" - without them ever getting the romantic benefits that come with their obvious love and respect for one another.

As well, the stories oscillate from the familiar to the troubling. Stories like "Lord Of The Flies" and "Daemonicus" are basically freak-of-the-week and serial killer stories which seem like they have been done before by The X-Files. "Scary Monsters" is almost entirely self-referential about that with the FBI's beancounter returning with her almost constant refrain of "That's not how Mulder and Scully would do it . . ." This, sadly, works poorly in an episode that already seems familiar to most fans of the show.

Finally, the show is weakened by the loss of Mulder and the teased references to him being underground. Episodes like "Trust No 1" go so far as to have a fleeing Mulder shown just long enough to annoy viewers who can see clearly on DVD that it was not David Duchovny. And when "The Truth" comes, the result is less spectacular than most fans would like because there is so much to wrap up and so much left unclear.

Even so, the season is not as weak as I remembered it being. The Supersoldier episodes (anthologized on DVD separately) was a stronger plotline than I remembered it being before and Doggett becomes a much more likable and interesting character through his experiences on the x-files. So, unlike Scully, who took years to believe things which were right before her eyes, Doggett begins to understand things - most notably about the indestructible nature of the Supersoldiers - quickly and he begins to accept them because the evidence is right before him.

Scully is, unfortunately, diminished by much of the ninth season. She takes on a supporting role as she works to keep William safe. Sadly, some of her most interesting moments in the season actually have her openly pining for the absent Mulder. Outside that, she seldom is in the field in these episodes, which makes "The Truth" fairly incongruent with the rest of the season.

The essential characters in the ninth season of The X-Files are:

Dr. Dana Scully - Having had her baby, William, who begins to exhibit supernatural powers like the ability to move objects with his thoughts, she works to keep the baby safe. In addition to taking a teaching job at the FBI training facility, she spends more time doing things like working from home and advising Doggett and Reyes. She gets terribly lonely with Mulder's absence and when a man from her past resurfaces, she comes to understand that while William is a great gift, he is also a tremendous liability to her and her work,

Special Agent John Doggett - After investigating Deputy Director Kersch on how the supersoldiers have gained influence within the FBI, he becomes an unconditional believer in the existence of the supersoldiers when Knowle resurfaces, as does one of the other members of Doggett's former company. Influenced by the female supersoldier, Doggett comes to understand the threat level they represent and he works to expose the conspiracy surrounding them. While he begins to have feelings for Reyes, he also has the opportunity to put the murder of his son to rest,

Special Agent Monica Reyes - A believer in the supernatural, she tends to investigate satanic rituals and practices. She quickly leaps to conclusions about the nature of reality and parallel universes when Doggett is shot across town moments after being with her in her new apartment and she discovers her own past life history. She tends to let her heart guide her, despite being exceptionally smart,

Assistant Director Walter Skinner - Continues to support the x-files as a leader within the FBI, but he finds his support diminished and himself having to cover his tracks after killing Krycek,

Fox Mulder - No longer an FBI agent, he is on the run from the sinister government conspiracy which threatens to undermine everything he believes and menaces every freedom loving person on the planet. He misses his infant son and Scully even more.

In terms of performances, the ninth season of The X-Files is a study more in stagnation than anything spectacular. While Robert Patrick continues grow in his performances as Agent Doggett, Annabeth Gish is given very little to work with as Agent Reyes. While she does shine in "Audrey Pauley," this is sadly the exception to the rule for her on the show. More often than not, she is treated as an uncomfortable appendage as opposed to a vital member of the ensemble.

Gillian Anderson, however, continues to come out strong as Dana Scully. She is given some greater emotional range to work with in this season as she now has opened up to loving - and thus, missing - Mulder. Anderson plays mopey extraordinarily well and that makes many of her scenes alone work better than one might expect.

On DVD, the ninth season comes with an entire disc of season retrospective featurettes and there are commentary tracks on three of the best episodes. But among the special effects featurettes and the retrospectives, there is a feeling that the show had run its course and even on DVD the producers were not excited about talking about the project.

Despite there being some decent episodes in this boxed set, the best truly are on the Mythology Volume 4 discs and that makes this final season of The X-Files entirely dispensable, even if it is not horrible. As well, fans who want the entire story would do much better to buy The X-Files Complete Collection, reviewed here! And even in that set, the ninth season is a weaker one, though arguably not as bad as the season which preceded it.


5/10

For other television reviews, please be sure to check out my index page here!

© 2011, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Mediocre Dickens: A Christmas Carol Underwhelms

The Good: Classic story with good moral
The Bad: No spice or sense of originality, Short, Obvious
The Basics: With animation that at times tries to mimic live-action and at others is clearly animated, the style of Robert Zemeckis's A Christmas Carol makes for a more erratic holiday film that is a very literal translation of Dickens' work.


I am not known for brevity, yet when I wrote for the other website, they would occasionally run a promotion based on keeping the reviews short and simple (which dumbed down a lot of complex reviews). Fortunately, some things truly are simple and easy to express with a minimal amount of verbiage. One such thing is Disney's A Christmas Carol. After all, given that the story is pretty well-known and it is animated, there wasn't a whole wealth of general information to give about the film. Given that I did not enjoy it, I figured this became an ideal short review for a film!

Starring Jim Carrey in a role that returns him to Christmas films following the blase special effects flick How The Grinch Stole Christmas, A Christmas Carol was presented in a disappointing Disney 3-D presentation last holiday season. Carrey provides the voice for Ebenezer Scrooge (as well as the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet-To-Come) and through much of the movie, it is pretty obviously Jim Carrey as he has the usual energetic and excited delivery, even in the trademark "Humbug" moments. Carrey never gets the voice as crotchety and mean as one might expect for the character, which pretty much undermines the character.

Ebenezer Scrooge is a pennypinching businessowner who hates the holidays and is unloving. He employs Bob Cratchit, whom he is cruel to and does not support well- enough to keep his children healthy (most notably the handicapped Tiny Tim). But one night, Scrooge is visited by his old business partner who warns him he will be visited by three ghosts and deny it as he might, he actually is. Over the course of the night, by witnessing how he has treated people, Scrooge comes to learn the consequences of his actions and the true meaning of Christmas.

Disney's A Christmas Carol is an animated film and that is where most of my beef with the movie comes in. Because the film is mostly known as far as plot and character development - this is a very family-friendly version of Dickens' social commentary - it is largely trading on style. Unfortunately, the style is quite erratic. By this, I mean it does not know which it wants to be, an animated film or an animated film mimicking a live-action film. There are moments when one forgets they are watching an animated movie because the detailing and coloring on Scrooge and the backgrounds are so realistic that they look amazing. Sadly, though, this is not at all consistent. Instead, there are points when the film becomes annoyingly blockish, like when the Ghost of Christmas Past pops up. Suddenly, the lighting and surroundings look more unreal than they did moments before! Outside the obvious moments - like when Scrooge is launched high into the sky - where the unreality of the situation calls for comic presentation, A Christmas Carol seems to devolve at awkward points where the movie just feels sloppy, especially considering how amazing the lighting and detailing is in most points. Pick a lane, Robert Zemeckis!

As well, A Christmas Carol was presented originally in Disney 3-D and it makes poor use of the medium. The three-dimensional effects are only impressive in one or two scenes and given the price of 3-D tickets in most markets, they effect is not so special as to wow most children and adults will likely feel cheated by shelling out more money on the more expensive tickets.

Outside the style, this is very much a typical morality tale and viewers know exactly what they are getting going in. This is a family-friendly film that tells the classic story in a very straightforward way. Unfortunately, it is inconsistent with the flare and the vocal presentations do not always pop with real character. At least it's better than Ghost Of Girlfriends Past!

For other Christmas movies, please check out my reviews of:
Four Christmases
Love Actually
The Muppet Christmas Carol

2.5/10

For other film reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.




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