Egon & Donci is a free for download CG animated movie. It’s about a an amateur astronomer, Egon and his pet cat, who discover a “map” to Earth.
The animation is pretty good. There are some nice shots and good use of the medium. The scenes in space are beautiful, full of color and atmosphere. Unfortunately, that’s really all that’s good about it.
There are so many times where the film feels like a really long tech demo. The camera flies around a little too much. The plot is mainly just a vehicle to show off the environments and animation. It takes too long to start and by the time any tension or drama comes in, you’re kind of bored.
To download it for free, you have to sit through a short ad before the link is served.
One thing I really have to give to the filmmakers is their willingness to put almost everything online for download. I haven’t had a chance to go through it, but they made all the sound effects they used in the film online. There are also texture maps and cloud sequences.
The best thing going for Sweeney Todd is the art direction. There are times when it feels too dark, but Burton does a good job of setting the tone and doing all the costumes. Unfortunately, that’s also the only thing going for it.
The music, though interesting, would’ve been better served by a pair who can actually sing. Depp and Carter do a fair job, but their diction made it difficult to understand what they were saying at times. Not that there was a lot of plot or narrative in the songs, but trying to understand what they’re saying really takes you out of the moment.
Still, without the music, the entire narrative is really predictable. Granted, that may be a function of just having seen a lot of movies or understanding storytelling.
The first two acts of I Am Sam are pretty good. You’re drawn into these characters and you want them to be together even if you question Sam’s capacity to raise Lucy.
Where the film falls apart is in the 3rd act. **Spoiler alert** After the court decides that Sam shouldn’t get custody of Lucy, he sits in his room with self pity. Then Rita (Michelle Pfieffer) comes in full of self pity and we lose that connection. What follows, is a descent into the saccharine and the artificial.
Some would say Sean Penn does a great job. But as I watched it, Dakota Fanning consistently outshines him. Everything Penn does feels like he’s trying. Fanning is so natural and effortless.
The Nines is the directorial debut of John August. I’m a huge fan of his blog where he provides a wealth of writing tips and a glimpse inside the workings of the biz. It’s also hard to talk about what it’s about without giving away too much of the movie.
Ryan Reynolds does a good job. He brings confusion and uncertainty to the party and does it well. Considering the material, August does an adequate job at directing. There’s just enough there to kind of bring you along until the final reveal.
That’s where we run into problems. The movie is pretty conceptual. Not that that’s a bad thing. It just means that when the pieces come together, it needs to be huge. And, while in a sense, it is huge, it doesn’t have that wow factor. It’s almost like, that’s it? It almost feels like a cop out. Really, that’s the only thing wrong with it. But when you’re whole movie is built on that, that one wrong is pretty big.
I really wanted to like it, but it’s hard for me to recommend it.
Day Zero is a about three friends who get drafted by the US Army. Each one is in a different place in life and has different reactions to the call. They have 30 days to get everything sorted out before they’re shipped out.
I went into this not knowing anything about it. From the way it opened, I expected at least half of the film to show them actually in the field. But none of that happens. Instead, there’s a lot of talking between the three characters that doesn’t really go anywhere. I’m all for character dramas, but none of these characters are really that interesting. None of the characters go through an arc. They’re the same people at the end of the story as they were when they began.
And that’s the problem. It’s just not interesting. They set up the conflict as the draft, but we don’t care about the characters enough to not want them to go and fight. That would’ve been much more interesting. To be conscripted and not wanting to fight, but forced to. Or if they didn’t have the budget, for them to come back, completely changed. As it is, it’s just boring.
Wristcutters: A Love Story is about Zia (Patrick Fugit) who kills himself, wakes up in the afterlife, and goes searching for his girlfriend, Desiree (Leslie Bibb) when he finds out she also killed herself.
Ninja had read the comic of the story and was really impressed by the story and premise. When she told me about it, I thought it could be a great movie. Then we found out they were already working on it and were excited to see it. When we finally did, we were both disappointed.
Most of the movie is the three characters, Zia, Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon, A Knight’s Tale), and Eugene (Shea Whigham) driving around in a car. But nothing interesting happens. Although the title says it’s a love story, it’s really a road movie. As with good road movies, you need to run into interesting characters or events along the way. None of that happens.
The characters are also one dimensional. Zia’s single mindedness about finding his girlfriend, Mikal’s whining to find the people in charge, and Mikal about his broken headlight. Boring.
Maybe the message is that suicide is boring. Whatever it’s about, it’s not worth your time.
Okay, I may get lynched for this, but, I didn’t really like Ratatouille. Sometimes, I feel like Pixar gets the benefit of the doubt and people just throw praise at them just because. Now, I love the Pixar philosophy: “Make a movie you want to see and hope others will want to see it too.” But that doesn’t mean that everthing that they produce is gold.
My main complaint was that it was long and felt long. At the same time, I can’t really see what I would cut to tighten it up. Maybe it was the idea of a rat cooking. Maybe it was the contrived love story that popped out of nowhere. But it was probably the lack of tension. There were like three different villains, and none of them had any bite.
The animation is gorgeous. Like the scene with the cheese, grapes and bread? Amazing. But just like other Apple products, once you get past the shiny exterior, there’s nothing much there.
The Incredibles > Monsters Inc > Finding Nemo > Toy Story 2 > Toy Story > Ratatouille
