Animated movies like “Arthur Christmas” or “The Polar Express” are designed to spark holiday cheer either through slapstick comedy or the marvels of the season. They have some tense moments to create drama — but never to the point of distraction.
After North Korean paratroopers invade his hometown in Washington state, high-school quarterback Matt (Josh Peck) says, “North Korea? That doesn’t make sense.” Neither does much else in this jerry-rigged remake, which has been idling for three years, a victim of MGM’s money troubles.
“Life of Pi,” Yann Martel’s fantastical folk parable about faith and spirituality, makes the journey to the big screen more or less intact, a meditative Ang Lee film with many of the same virtues and shortcomings of the novel.
The leading man’s too short, barely suggesting the height that his contemporaries said made him “tower o’er other men.” And his voice, researched and accurate as it may be, is not the Abe Lincoln that’s been inside our head for generations.
Whatever happens before it, the finale is a doozy, almost certain to be satisfying to fans and impressive even to the casual “Twilight” viewer.
Disney Animation takes a page out of Pixar’s well-worn playbook for “Wreck-It Ralph,” a screwball farce with a novel setting and more edge than your average Disney ’toon.
Whip Whitaker had an epic layover in Orlando — an all-nighter with a sexy stewardess and much imbibing. A little sniff-sniff bump to get him going in the morning? It just gets the day going.
Wichita’s 10th annual Tallgrass Film Festival last weekend was a great success, with a record number of films (180) and more than 30 visiting filmmakers in attendance.
Watch any surfing documentary, from “Whipped!” to “Riding Giants,” and you’ll hear the dudes speak — in hushed tones — about the treacherous and epic waves that show up off the coast of Northern California when the conditions are just right. The Mavericks break is legendary, and for years, was considered some sort of myth by those who surfed and had never seen it.
“Death by China” is a documentary with one undeniable goal: Make you hate China.
There is something new going on in 21st century movies — a strain of films attempting to convey the entire experience of life in a single movie. Alejandro Inarritu has tried this, with lesser (“Babel”) and greater (“Biutiful”) success, and so has Terrence Malick (“The Tree of Life”). “Cloud Atlas,” more successful than most, is the biggest effort yet in this new vein — enormous in length and scope, a film whose purpose doesn’t even begin to come into focus until two hours in.
“Alex Cross” is an interesting exercise in back-engineering, a prequel that takes us back to the days before the psychologist/police profiler was the sage, solemn and inscrutable sleuth Morgan Freeman ably brought to the screen in two films over a decade ago.
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” is set in 1991, in a small town where high school culture is a John Hughes movie, with all the confusion, ’80s music and hip ennui that implies. Everyone can’t wait to get out, and no one more than Charlie, a freshman counting down the days to graduation even before his first class.
Ben Affleck is closing in on the perfect thriller. “Argo” shows us how near the mark he has gotten in just three films.
The Sundance Film Festival award-winner “Robot & Frank” is set in the near future, where robots are part of everyday society and as common as toasters.
“Frankenweenie” is darned near an instant classic. Tim Burton has taken the animated short that launched his career and expanded it into a vivid and moving essay on science and love — the love a budding middle-school scientist, Victor Frankenstein, has for his dog Sparky.
Dracula is alive and well — and sounds like Adam Sandler with a Bulgarian accent.
Writer/director Rian Johnson’s smoldering debut “Brick” was a dark, noirish tale preoccupied with mobsters, double-crossing characters and lots of violence.
Wichita’s Tallgrass Film Festival, which takes place Oct. 18-21, has announced some highlights of this year’s 10th anniversary program.
In the movies, the old saying goes, some stars wear the hat. And sometimes, the hat wears them.
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