Midnight in Paris

In this charming romantic comedy, legendary director Woody Allen focuses his lens on an engaged young couple whose experiences traveling together in Paris make them begin to question the kind of life they want to live.

Matt
Rating: 8 out of 10

There are few scribes like Woody Allen. And while you can point to his typical formula in this film — his constant scratching at the subject of love and finding happiness — there is a wealth of imagination and creativity. He certainly hasn’t lost his touch.

Allen wrangles an immensely talented cast with a script that weaves time travel, humor, romance, and beautiful cinematography of Paris. It’s absolutely sublime.  Owen Wilson plays a typical Allen character, a writer in a relationship he’s not really satisfied with in search of a deeper existence. Rachel McAdams plays his fiancee, a tart who doesn’t really like Wilson’s artsy, eyes-open-wide view of the world. At midnight, Wilson takes a stroll and is somehow transported back to the ’30s. While he’s there, he meets the legends of the time in writing and music, along with Adriana, a flapper girl played by the enchanting Marion Cotillard.

What follows is a series of Wilson popping back and forth between decades, trying to figure out his relationship, pursue Adriana, all while working on a novel and dealing with his crazy, annoying future in-laws. And in the background, that constant yearning for a greater, more meaningful life. This is a wonderful script by Allen, who won the Academy Award for his efforts. “Midnight in Paris” stands tall in Allen’s collection of incredible films.

Splice

Ignoring instructions from the pharmaceutical company that funds their research, groundbreaking genetic scientists Elsa (Sarah Polley) and Clive (Adrien Brody) continue with an unorthodox experiment to create a human-animal hybrid, a new life form they dub “Dren” (Delphine Chanéac). When they see their fantastical creation, Clive warns that it should be destroyed, but Elsa refuses — a decision she’ll regret when Dren makes deadly plans of her own.

Brian
Rating: 7 out of 10

I’ll be the first to admit that I had very low expectations going into this film. I saw the trailer and it looked like another Alien rip-off. Creature stalks human prey until they turn the tables and outsmart the physically superior opponent. It has been done to death. So, I have to admit I was very pleasantly surprised by Splice. It’s a much darker and more disturbing experience than I expected. The film essentially has 3 parts to it:

1. The genetic testing part: This is the first portion of the film where the characters go through trial and error of figuring how to splice together different animal DNA to create a new being entirely created by man. It asks a lot of questions that I found interesting in terms of scientific versus moral decisions. Is it our place to clone and create new forms of life? If it all goes wrong and the new created being either doesn’t survive or has to be destroyed, is it immoral? The mere fact that I’m even thinking about this shows that it’s more than a monster movie.

2. Dren’s confinement: This is the best part of the film. Dren (the creature created by the 2 main characters that is part animal and part human) has to be hidden away from everyone. The 2 scientists (played very well by Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley) begin to make decisions that are violent and lustful while the creature begins to exhibit an almost innocent nature at times. I started to feel sympathy for Dren and hate towards the human characters that all seemed to want to take advantage of her in one way or another. It was fascinating to watch until…….

3. Evil mean creature goes through metamorphosis and kills: Why? I mean you had me wrapped into the story and then you do this. There were so many ways to end it but you just spoiled it during the last 20 minutes! I won’t reveal it but if you’ve seen it you’ll know what I’m talking about.

So, I recommend Splice, a good film that had the potential to be great.

Predators

Rugged mercenary Royce (Adrien Brody) inherits command of an elite team of human fighters — including dorky-but-dangerous Edwin (Topher Grace) and tough-but-beautiful Isabelle (Alice Braga) — as they are hunted by a race of ruthless alien trackers known as Predators. Director Nimród Antal’s sci-fi action explosion, which also stars Laurence Fishburne and an uzi-toting Danny Trejo, is a direct sequel to the 1987 blockbuster Predator. Directed by Nimród Antal (Vacancy).

Matt
Rating: 5 out of 10

This could have been a whole lot better, given the strength of the source material and cast, along with the fact that Robert Rodriguez (Machete) produced the film.

It wasn’t a total disaster. There were some interesting characters, which ended up being the film’s weakness. There were just too many of them. All of the characters had to be cookie-cutter stereotypes because that’s all you can develop when you have seven primary cast member in a 90 minute movie. You’ve got the ninja (who still calls themself a ninja?), a tough girl assassin, the anti-hero war vet, the surly Russian, and so on. They tried to throw in some new predator arch to the story. They use these crazy alien hunting dogs, which I liked, but they also tried to wedge in a back story about two types of predators that are warring. The only difference between them that we get to see is that one is taller than the other. Not very compelling stuff. I did like the concept of all these varied soldiers getting dropped off in the jungle and hunted by predators, though. It made for some good action.

This is not a very good movie, but it’s certainly the best Predator movie since the original, which was very good.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

It is the story of one Mr. Fox (George Clooney) and his wild-ways of hen heckling, turkey taking and cider sipping, nocturnal, instinctive adventures. He has to put his wild days behind him and do what fathers are supposed to do best: be responsible. He is too rebellious, too wild, and he’s going to try one more big score on the three nastiest, greediest farmers in the county. It is a tale of crossing the line of family responsibilities and midnight adventure, the friendships and awakenings of this country life that is inhabited by Fantastic Mr. Fox and his friends, and ripping off the man. Directed by Wes Anderson (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Rushmore).

Matt
Rating: 8 out of 10

The great English actor Peter Ustinov (who won Academy Awards for his roles in Spartacus and Topkapi) once said good characters have contradiction. Every villain has to have a heart and every hero has to be a sinner.

Mr. Fox is a thief at heart. He tries to be a newspaper man after giving up his life of crime for his pregnant wife, but the itch never goes away. But at the same time, we root for him, and this is where Wes Anderson succeeds.

Anderson put together a great cast — George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, and Adrien Brody — who bring a brevity about being the voices of animals while not selling the characters short of being charming, villainous, or even sad.

This is a movie that children will enjoy — there’s no foul language or overt violence — but adults will be far more entertained by the subtle and not-so-subtle character development, jokes and gags that only we can get. This is a light-hearted story that is very enjoyable, stylish and witty beyond it’s simplistic stop-motion animation. This is a very smart film and I give Anderson a great deal of credit.