Up and Monsters, Inc., the two Pixar favorites that made their Disney Blu-ray debuts
The Unlikely Hero: Is there anything more unlikely for a film’s protagonist than a big blue monster by the name of Sulley who jumps out of closets to scare children for a living? Well, Up one-ups Monsters with its geriatric leading man, Carl Fredricksen, who through the course of his adventures becomes an octogenarian action hero to rival John McClane.
The Precocious Child: Both Boo (the little moppet who “invades” Monstropolis) and Russell (the chirpy Wilderness Explorer who stows away on Carl’s floating house) prove to be more than just obstacles in the main character’s lives … they help them discover new ones.
The Scene-Stealing Sidekick: What could be funnier than a walking eyeball? How about a talking dog? “Squirrel!”
Click here to continue reading my Toon Talk review of the new Up and Monsters, Inc. Blu-rays at LaughingPlace.com.
In one corner, at the Pantages Theatre, is a nasty-wasty, green-furred creature intent on stealing holiday joy. In the other corner, better known as the Ahmanson Theatre, is a practically perfect if wind-dependent British nanny with magical powers. Their battle for theatre-goers’ dollars erupted this past weekend as Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas: The Musical and Mary Poppins opened, both making their Los Angeles debuts.
Saturday’s premiere of The Grinch was a suitably festive affair, the Pantages’ exterior beautifully festooned with Christmas trees and white lights. The show, originally conceived and directed by Broadway’s Jack O’Brien for the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, is an utter delight. Its briskly-paced, intermission-less 90 minutes are a perfect start to any family’s holiday season.
John Larroquette kicks the musical off as Old Max, the senior version of the Grinch’s put-upon pet. While Larroquette — saddled with a bulky dog costume and Seussian rhyming exposition — didn’t always seem to have his heart in the role, he displayed good humor and a fine singing voice. Fortunately, James Royce Edwards balanced Larroquette nicely as Max’s rowdy younger incarnation. The entire supporting cast, consisting of both stage veterans and a gaggle of locally recruited kids as the various citizens of Whoville, was great.
Of course, the star of the show is the Grinch. Christopher Lloyd was initially cast but, rumor has it, wasn’t up to the part’s vocal demands, so in rode Stefan Karl to the rescue! Karl is a younger, attractive man but you wouldn’t know it, swaddled head to toe as he is in green hair and make-up. While his interpretation of the character owes more than a bit to Jim Carrey’s over-the-top performance as the Grinch in the garish 2000 movie adaptation, Karl succeeds by the final curtain in making the role hilariously and touchingly his own. His solo number “One of a Kind,” performed in front of a shimmering green curtain, is a showstopper in the best sense.
The score, by Timothy Mason and Mel Marvin, is entirely serviceable if not particularly memorable apart from the two songs — “Welcome, Christmas” and “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” — carried over from the original TV telling of Seuss’ story. John Lee Beatty’s snow-covered but colorful scenic design is excellent, and some wonderful special effects are utilized that make it appear Max and the Grinch’s sleigh are really flying. One would have to be a Grinch him- or herself to not enjoy How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It runs at the Pantages through January 3 and shouldn’t be missed.
When it comes to flying, though, Disney’s and Cameron Mackintosh’s Mary Poppins (playing at the Ahmanson through February 7) actually goes Grinch one better. Faithful in this regard to author P.L. Travers’ source material as well as to Julie Andrews’ immortal, Oscar-winning portrayal in the 1964 film, Mary flies. She flies across the stage not once but twice during the course of the stage version. However, the best effect is saved for last, as Mary flies not only across the stage but out from the proscenium and over the audience up to the balcony! I gasped. My partner gasped. Dick Van Dyke, who was sitting three rows ahead of us, gasped. And then the audience burst, appropriately, into raucous applause.
The show’s special effects are consistently dazzling and, combined with the marvelous Tony Award-winning sets by Bob Crowley and Howard Harrison’s lighting, create an aura of true and sustained magic. Ashley Brown’s lovely, funny performance as Mary, which she re-creates from the original New York cast, is also a vital contribution in this regard.
But the stage version isn’t as easy to love as the movie for several reasons. First, in re-structuring the script from the well-known film and adding new songs (by the Honk! team of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe) to the now-classics composed by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, Mary Poppins has become a more meandering, overly long (at nearly three hours) production. I left the opening night performance more appreciative than ever of the Sherman brothers’ simple lyrics and wordplay. None of the new songs are as instantly memorable or hummable as “A Spoonful of Sugar” or “Chim Chim Cher-ee,” although “Anything Can Happen” comes closest and Mary’s self-intro, “Practically Perfect,” is nice and enjoyably staged.
Second, Matthew Bourne’s choreography is often overly frenetic. I love Bourne’s adult-oriented dance pieces that include his all-male Swan Lake, the homoerotic The Car Man, and Edward Scissorhands. When Bourne stages isolated dances rather than dance-through pieces, as in Mary Poppins, his high-energy moves can seem odd and disjointed. This is especially evident in his letter-by-letter take on “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” Obviously demanding on the cast, it is impressive the first time around but becomes excessive by the second, curtain-call reprise. Bourne’s choreography for “Step in Time” is, to the contrary, masterful.
Finally, this Mary Poppins is a darker work than the Disney film and some scenes (notably those involving Mary’s brimstone and treacle-bearing “holy terror” replacement) may be too intense for children ages 7 and under. The potential unemployment of George Banks (a well-modulated turn by Karl Kenzler) and subsequent pending homelessness of his family is a lengthier threat on the stage than it is in the movie as well.
It takes more than spectacle and impressive special effects to make a modern musical work. Still, I recommend Mary Poppins despite its artistic shortcomings for the one thing it has in spades: magic.
Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.
If Old Joy mated with I Love You, Man, the spawn would be Humpday, the Sundance Festival Special Jury prize-winning film written and directed by Lynn Shelton making its debut on DVD
Shelton stages the film in an almost documentary-style intimacy, and she gives one of the best performances in the film. Does Humpday live up to the hype? Maybe not, but it is an intriguing character piece that delves into the straight male psyche in a way few films do.
Ben (Mark Duplass) and his wife Anna (Alycia Delmore) are a happily married Seattle couple ready to have a baby, when Ben’s old pal Andrew (The Blair Witch Project’s Joshua Leonard) shows up on their doorstep after wandering the globe. He wants to reconnect with his old friend, but the next night he hooks up with the free-spirited (and bisexual) Monica (Shelton), and he invites Ben over to her artist’s commune. The uptight Ben is at first taken aback by all the overt sexuality, but soon he and Andrew are drunk and high and discussing the Seattle Film contest called Humpfest (a real festival started by Dan Savage where people submit their amateur porn films).
Almost as a dare, the two guys decide that the ultimate taboo would be to have two straight men have sex together, and each man wants to see it through to prove that they are not as inhibited as they fear they are. As filming night approaches, Ben neglects to tell Anna his plan and Andrew can’t quite handle a sexual encounter with Monica and her lover Lily.
Shelton captures the dynamic between friends who are subconsciously envious of each other and the utter terror straight men feel when out of their sexual comfort zone. Duplass’ Ben is let off the hook too easily in his scenes with Anna, but Leonard manages to embody the kind of aimless guy who passes off lack of direction as “Kerouac” coolness. Duplass also has a nice moment when he describes an encounter he had with a video store clerk. The ending isn’t satisfying, but Shelton nails her Seattle milieu perfectly.
More an anatomy of a bromance than a sexual adventure, Humpday is still worth a tumble.
Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.
Forget the hyped-up artificiality of the Saw films. The real horror show is the home life endured by the title character in Lee Daniels’ bleak but ultimately hopeful drama Precious, based on Sapphire’s 1996 novel Push.
Clareece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe, in a true breakout performance) is an illiterate and obese teenager in 1987 Harlem. Pregnant with her second child and hated by her vicious mother (Mo’Nique, who should receive an Oscar nomination), Precious is given one last chance to make her vivid dreams come true when she is sent to an alternative school housed in an old hotel.
Her teacher, Ms. Rain (the gorgeous and elegant Paula Patton), works hard to break through Precious’ defenses and inadvertently teaches her a lesson in gay tolerance when Precious realizes that her mentor is a lesbian. The other person reaching out to Precious is her social worker Mrs. Weiss (well played by an unrecognizable Mariah Carey), who goads her into revealing the father of her two children.
The grittiness that out director Daniels evokes is hard to watch at times, especially Mo’Nique’s explosive abuse, but it’s necessary to allow us the happiness of seeing Precious become her own person. Sidibe is an utterly natural talent, hard to warm up to at first until she reveals the life that’s inside her imposing frame.
Mo’Nique plumbs depths of rage and violence few name actresses would ever reveal. Patton, who looks like a young Debbie Allen and possesses the same kind authority, is utterly lovely as the idealistic teacher. Carey, Lenny Kravitz (as Nurse John) and Sherri Shepherd (as school secretary Cornrows) are all great and let go of any vanity in favor of total commitment to their roles.
If you can stand the heat in Precious’ pressure-cooker kitchen, you’ll be rewarded with one of the best cinematic experiences of the year with Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire.
UPDATE: Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire is now available on DVD
Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)
Cast:
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Leo Howard, Karolina Kurkova
Director:
Stephen Sommers
Release Date:
August 7th, 2009
Genre:
Action/Adventure and War
Description:
From the Egyptian desert to deep below the polar ice caps, the elite G.I. JOE team uses the latest in next-generation spy and military equipment to fight the corrupt arms dealer Destro and the growing threat of the mysterious Cobra organization to prevent them from plunging the world into chaos.
Trailer -G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
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Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Cast:
Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Mike Myers, Michael Fassbenderr, Diane Kruger, Daniel Bruhl, Til Schweiger, Melanie Laurent, B.J. Novak and Samm Levine
Director:
Quentin Tarantino
Release Date:
August 21st, 2009
Genre:
Action/Adventure, Adaptation, Drama and War
Description:
In German-occupied France, Shosanna Dreyfus witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa. Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema. Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution. Known to their enemy as "The Basterds," Raine's squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquee, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own...
Trailer - Inglourious Basterds
District 9 (2009)
Cast:
Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, Nathalie Boltt, Sylvaine Strike, John Sumner
Director:
Neill Blomkamp
Release Date:
August 14th, 2009
Genre:
Science Fiction/Fantasy
Description:
Thirty years ago, aliens made first contact with Earth. Humans waited for the hostile attack, or the giant advances in technology. Neither came. Instead, the aliens were refugees, the last survivors of their home world. The creatures were set up in a makeshift home in South Africa's District 9 as the world's nations argued over what to do with them.
Now, patience over the alien situation has run out. Control over the aliens has been contracted out to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company uninterested in the aliens' welfare -- they will receive tremendous profits if they can make the aliens' awesome weaponry work. So far, they have failed; activation of the weaponry requires alien DNA.
The tension between the aliens and the humans comes to a head when an MNU field operative, Wikus van der Merwe, contracts a mysterious virus that begins changing his DNA. Wikus quickly becomes the most hunted man in the world, as well as the most valuable -- he is the key to unlocking the secrets of alien technology. Ostracized and friendless, there is only one place left for him to hide: District 9.
Trailer - District 9
