New Release: Paul

There are always going to be the optimal audience members for a given film.  Sometimes movie makers make that group so specific that it's possible no one will know they were supposed to be part of it.  I'm a little afraid Paul will be part of that group of movies, with no one aware that this movie was made for them.  Going in, I had no idea this movie was made for me.  **No spoilers if you've seen the trailer or cast list**

Paul reteams the stars of Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg - Clive and Graham respectively.  This time, they're more laid back, but in a naive way, with longer hair, a bit more fluff around the middle, and a more happy go lucky attitude.  They have arrived at Comic-Con, the Mecca for geeks, nerds, dweebs and movie-fans alike.  Clive has even written a science fiction novel (about a woman with three tits - apparently that extra tit is a source of endless amusement) and they get their hero's signature.  After Comic-con they set off on a road trip adventure in an RV to visit all of the UFO/alien sites across the US.  I'll admit, these went a little beyond my personal nerd knowledge, but it's really enough to know they have something to do with a sighting/abduction/landing.  Then they witness a car crash and getting out to help, they meet Paul.  About 4' tall, large head, no shirt (just pants - like Mickey Mouse), and a Seth Rogan mouth - literally and figuratively, he does the voice.  Paul is on the run and needs help (the exact reasons are explained slowly).  After Clive (Frost) faints, Graham agrees to help Paul get away.

This is where the I'll try not to spoil the rest - but you can assume, since Paul is on the run, someone must be out to get him.  We get to watch two of the most bumbling agents (Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio) try to figure out what they're looking for and where it is after tough guy, Jason Batemen yells at them at every turn.  Batemen is being controlled by "the Big Guy" who isn't revealed until the end (though the voice is pretty recognizable).  Our troublesome trio (Clive, Graham and Paul) spend the night at a trailer park and kidnap Bible-thumper, Ruth (Kristin Wiig) because she saw Paul.  All along, we get glimpses of Paul's story - how he got to earth, why he's been locked up, what special skills he posseses, and how he'll get back home.

Greg Mottola directed Superbad and Adventureland, and if you've seen those, you know what you're in for with Paul, and it more than lives up to the other two (one of which I did NOT like).  It's more for a grown up group of sci-fi nerds.  There are homages to every single franchise (some more direct than others), and a guest voice appearance when we learn the real source of E.T..  Twilight Zone, The X-files, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. make an entrance.  I'm sure there were more (Doctor Who, comic books) but that was the extent of my knowledge and I laughed my ass off.  Pegg and Frost are their always winning buddy-duo with many recurring jokes and nods to their other work together.  Terrific fun - if you fall into any of the demographics to find elements of this funny.  If you have a nerdy bone in your body, this movie is for you.  3.5 of 5 stars/lambs

Avatar: Review (minor spoilers)

This is a very upfront movie, so I'll be upfront, I LOVED Avatar. I have to say the marketing of Avatar didn't do much to explain what the heck the movie is about - all I really understood was that it had blue people and flying dinosaur-like creatures, and from interviews on TV I knew that Sigourney Weaver and Sam Worthington were in it. But that's about all I understood. I saw the 3D version, which is spectacular, but just given the amazing visuals, I bet the 2D version is just as beautiful and entrancing. Here's a little explanation of what it's actually about: Marine Worthington arrives at a planet called Pandora (around the year 2150) where he's replacing his brother as the operator of an avatar (a Mii for the Wii crowd, or basically a physical representation of yourself that operates under your control but separate from your body) to integrate himself into the indigenous people so he can 1) learn more about them for Weaver's scientist, and 2) persuade them to abandon their homes so a company can extract a valuable ore from beneath it. Because he's replacing his brother, Worthington has no experience with either the language or customs of Pandora or the Navi (the tall blue people with tails). This works to his advantage and he begins to learn about them. He's pulled between his military commanders and the science and sociology people trying to learn as much as they can. He meets Neytiri (voiced and acted thanks to James Cameron's amazing new techniques of motion capture by Zoe Saldana) the daughter of the chief of the local Navi clan, and ultimately, his instructor in what it means to be Navi. He goes through the rites and rituals of becoming a Navi, riding an indigenous horse, flying on a raptor-type animal, and understanding the Navi's deep connection with their planet. Ultimately a huge fight goes down between the company and Navi (and you can guess what happens).

James Cameron has truly changed the art of movie-making in many ways. The ability to actually capture an actor's performance and then morph that performance into a different species with different shapes and environments is amazing. The sci-fi genre may never be the same (or many others either, given the imagination of Hollywood). However, he's still James Cameron, and wrote the movie too, so the inspiration of other movies in the past kept hitting me. The one that keeps sticking is that Avatar is what might have happened if Dances with Wolves had ended differently. However, the movie-making skill and futuristic (rather than historic) story gave Cameron the chance to tell a story without stooping to basic cliches. He only spends moments (in a very long 160 minute movie) describing how avatars work, or Worthington learning the language, or basic information about the Navi. But the collective whole of the movie gives you all the information you need to understand a beautiful story. Much of the back story is told through voice-overs from Worthington's video diaries. I went in knowing how long the movie would be, so I was conscious of when trimming might have been done, and honestly there were few moments even a couple of seconds could be cut, and definitely never an entire scene.

The acting throughout was superb. Weaver is excellent at playing a ball-busting scientist, pissed off at the conditions she's constantly fighting to get the best possible science done. The incursions the military has had with the Navi stopped her school (an easy explanation for why some Navi can speak English) and she's constantly fighting to get better things done. Her fascination with Pandora is infectious. Zoe Saldana (pictured above, left) as the only main character who is NEVER shown as human (most of the others appear in their avatars as well as human) is terrific. She's funny, tough, smart, and tries very hard to help her people work with the humans again even though it hasn't gone well in the past. And finally Sam Worthington is terrific. For a newcomer he carries the whole movie really well. I'm guessing he'll have trouble getting recognized for it since he spends at least half the movie as a giant blue man, rather than himself. His struggles with learning about the Navi and triumphs when he masters new skills are powerful to watch, while never stooping to over the top acting option. I really really liked Avatar as did the people I went with, so I give it 5 of 5 stars/lambs.

New Release: Surrogates

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** If you haven't seen commercials for this, there will be spoilers, however, I'm not revealing anything that isn't obvious from the trailer. **

Bruce Willis' new movie, Surrogates, follows a police detective trying to figure out who and what could have started killing humans, by killing their synthetic surrogates. The future is "peopled" with machines that aren't sentient, but can do everything their human operators are thinking, and relay back all the images they are seeing. So, humans can stay in their home forever, while a better version of themselves, physically, can walk the world. The machines were designed for people with disabilities, so they could more normally experience the world. However, the rest of the world became addicted to never having to wash their hair, or exercise, or get dressed, instead sending their surrogate out in the world to represent them while they operated it from the safety of their home. But someone has made a weapon that will kill a human by destroying their surrogate. Bruce Willis and his partner,Radha Mitchell, investigate leads that bring them to one of the "reservations" of people who refuse to use surrogates, no machines allowed. Lots of complicated ethical questions prevail, but none are developed too deeply, so the movie stays at a light level throughout, though the fight scenes are pretty fun given that machines are doing a lot of the fighting. I think if Bruce Willis' character had been written more like his Die Hard or The Fifth Element characters, this movie would have been more fun along the same lines as those movies. Instead Willis is flat, and none of his dialogue is memorable, which is disappointing given his skill at sarcasm and grouchy cop banter. It's a pretty good movie, and fits well into it's futuristic, sci-fi genre, arguing that to be fully human, you need to experience the world yourself, much like the better Matrix and I, Robot argue convincingly. 3.5 stars/lambs

Star Trek: Revew

I freely admit to being a Trekker (by which I mean, I've seen all the movies with Star Trek in the title and all the episodes of "The Next Generation" series, though I've never been to a convention nor dressed up in any sort of costume). This is to say I was excited to see the new Star Trek movie, but more in the way of reading the next book in a series you love, it doesn't matter how unique or special it is, just as long as it provides familiar comfort. However, the new delivers on BOTH fronts of unique and familiar. If you've never seen a single moment of previous Trek video, you'd still be in for a great story with excellent action, terrific acting and wonderful special effects. However, if you're already a fan, there's an even greater level of terrific familiarity, filling in the gaps of previous stories and fully creating characters. It is what Wolverine should have (could have) been. Here's what I think the story was about (time travel usually confuses me, so I've thought about it, but could be wrong). *Spoiler Alert* (though given that it's a prequel you know who survives). James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) is at the Star Fleet Academy, where Spock (Zachary Quinto) has been an instructor. A great problem arrives that necessitates the cadets to help on star ships. Basically, far into the future the planet Romulus is destroyed by a super nova. A Romulan, Nero (an unrecognizable Eric Bana) who feels it was Spock's fault manages to come back in time with a super-future awesome ship and manages to destroy Vulcan and is on the path to destroy Earth (given that Spock is half human, he has two home worlds). Star Fleet has to figure out a way to stop him. With the help of the people we'll all recognize as the future Enterprise crew (Uhura, "Bones", Chekov, Sulu, and eventually Scotty - a terrific Simon Pegg). With each character there's a little bit of the original character, but not a parody or exact duplicate, just a recognizably familiar character. Overall, it's a great movie, with really terrific acting and directing from a new set of actors and directors. My one pet peeve was the "red matter" (something that can create a black hole) appears as a large, unexplained red ball remarkably similar to the bad stuff in "Alias" (another J.J. Abrams creation). Great film, will probably see it again in theaters. 4 lambs/stars

Great new TV - "Fringe"

If you know me at all or read this blog regularly, you know I'm pretty much addicted to TV. I look forward to the start of the new seasons and particularly new shows. I've also learned that there is usually a HUGE difference between a "pilot" and the series they create later, so judging a show solely on its pilot is rarely a good idea. The "pilot" is usually created to sell to the network and the advertisers rather than the audience they want to attract. That said, I LOVED the pilot for J.J. Abrams new show on Fox "Fringe". It's sort of like "Bones" meets "The X-Files" with a little bit of the conspiracy mystery of "Alias". Here's what I learned from the premiere, not that it will hold up as the series goes on. Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) is an FBI liaison officer investigating a freaky incident on a plane from Hamburg. Basically everyone on the plane liquefied and left only their skeletons. To cover up the really freaky terrorism, they burn the plane, but continue investigating. John Scott (Mark Valley - I went to high school with his youngest sister!) is another FBI agent helping her find the people responsible for the technology/chemistry that caused the terror. He gets blown up when they find the lair of some people possibly responsible. However, he doesn't die, but his skin become see-through (VERY cool effects all the way through the show). Our innocent Agent Dunham does some ruthless things to find the cure - and blackmails Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) into returning to Boston to free his "fringe" scientist father (John Noble) from a mental institution so he can figure out how to save Agent Scott. Lots of action, excitment and all kinds of weird implausible science (that Jackson comments on to hilarious effect). There's a great moment when Dr. Bishop is asking for various things to supply his lab, and one of them is a cow, and he says "The only thing better than a cow is a human. Unless you want milk, then you pretty much need a cow." While it's not a comedic show, Joshua Jackson does a great job being the super-smart ne'erdowell son making fun of his father and the FBI. I really liked it and can't wait for the real season to start!