Madagascar 3: Three Is Enough

Last week (before Hurricane Sandy took away my electricity), I watched the third entry in the animated Madagascar series. For those unfamiliar with the movies, they feature four main animals - Alex the lion (voiced by Ben Stiller), Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), and Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett-Smith) who escape from the Central Park Zoo and wind up in their ancestral home of Africa. Of course, having been born and raised in a zoo, they are thoroughly unequipped to deal with their natural habitat, which makes for much of the comedy in the first two movies.

Unfortunately, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted features the animals traveling to Europe and joining a circus to make their way back across the Atlantic to New York City. The animation is spot-on and the locales of Monte Carlo, Rome, and London look lovely, but the story is fairly lacking. Our four leads have to come up with their own circus acts as well as encourage the other circus animals who have lost their zest for performing. Once the acts are organized, the audience is subjected to a colorful, bewildering, acid trip of a circus act set to Katy Perry's "Firework," which should really feature a warning for anyone prone to photoepileptic seizures.

The movie is big on spectacle, small on story, and signals that it's time to call it quits on this franchise. However, as far as I can remember, it was #1 at the box office this summer, so undoubtedly further sequels will be in the works. Like always, the voice acting is great, and Chris Rock's circus jingle is an earworm that I keep humming at odd intervals. I just hope that the story lines keep up with the voice talent and gorgeous animation. After all the movies are titled, "Madagascar" so you can't really move the action to other continents. And every studio executive knows that there's no need to re-invent the wheel if you have a winning formula. Stick to the African antics and you have a hit on your hands.

Prometheus: The Origin of Mankind

Not being a devotee of Ridley Scott's Alien series, I didn't have much invested in Prometheus, Scott's return to sci-fi moviemaking that is a sort-of prequel to the Alien franchise. I finally watched it on my flight back home and while it was a fun foray into the future, I can see why the more rabid fans were disappointed.

Prometheus is the name of a spaceship that has set off on a mission to a distant moon that may explain where human beings came from (apparently Darwin had it wrong). The lead investigator, Elizabeth Shaw (played by the fantastic Noomi Rapace who is the new Sigourney Weaver), fervently believes that aliens came to planet Earth and served as the forebears of humanity. She and her partner, Charlie Holloway (played by Logan Marshall-Green), have found pictograms from disparate early human civilizations that all feature the same pattern suggesting alien activity. So obtaining financing from the Weyland Corporation, they set off on Prometheus with a crew of scientists, a corporate supervisor (the stone-cold Meredith Vickers, played by Charlize Theron), and David, an incredibly lifelike android that is trained to take care of the spaceship while the rest of the crew are in stasis during the four-year journey. David is played by the always fascinating Michael Fassbender, who makes it impossible to figure out the android's motivations. Robots are always unpredictable in any sci-fi setting and David is no exception.

 Once the crew reaches the alien moon, they are faced with apparent desolation. All the aliens have been wiped out but there are a series of caves and tunnels that have surprisingly ambient conditions to support human life. Of course, these tunnels also contain clues about how our supposed ancestors were killed, and the human scientists might be in danger of following suit. One by one, members of the Prometheus crew fall victim to bizarre creatures that have been lurking in the shadows. Of note, Noomi Rapace is featured in a brilliant sequence that is an ode to Alien's most famous scene (you know the one).

The world of Prometheus is fully realized and makes for a thrilling action movie. But if you also require a good story, you're out of luck. The ending doesn't offer any answers, only more questions, which appeals to philosophers but not moviegoers. It's half popcorn movie, half serious treatise, and those are genres that don't mesh well. Watch Prometheus with moderate expectations and you will be entertained. Expect anything more and you will be frustrated. 

To Rome With Love: Farce and Fantasy in Italy

Woody Allen's romp through Europe has now brought him to The Eternal City, with an all-star cast of Americans and Italians stumbling through a series of ridiculous and comic mishaps in Roma.

To Rome with Love features four separate stories, with no connecting thread apart from the fact that they're all based in Rome. In one tale, Allen and Judy Davis play an American couple who are meeting their daughter's Italian fiance for the first time. Allen, a former opera director, hears his daughter's prospective father-in-law singing a glorious aria in the shower and decides that he must showcase this man's talent, even against the wishes of his horrified family. In another story, Roberto Benigni plays an ordinary family man who works as a clerk but wakes up one day to discover that he has become inexplicably famous and is dogged everywhere by the paparazzi. What follows is an amusing treatise on the culture of being famous for being famous, and the fleeting nature of this undeserved fame.

A third story features a naive Italian couple who have arrived in Rome for their honeymoon and are promptly separated due to unforseen circumstances. The new bride faces temptation when she arrives at a film set featuring some of her favorite Italian actors, including a particularly amorous leading man, while the new groom has to deal with a prostitute (played by Allen's latest muse, Penelope Cruz) who mistakenly arrives in his hotel room and has to pretend to be his wife when his relatives see them in a compromising position. The fourth and final story follows Alec Baldwin, playing an architect named John who is vacationing in Rome and runs into Jack (Jesse Eisenberg), a student who lives in the same house where John lived as a student 30 years ago. Jack invites him home, and John proceeds to become a mentor to the hapless Jack, who is living with his girlfriend Sally (Greta Gerwig), but is fascinated with her visiting best friend, Monica (played by Ellen Page, in a hysterical role as an extremely pretentious and narcissistic actress).

These disparate anecdotes are equally funny and inane. Each story has its own neurotic Woody Allen character, whether it's Jesse Eisenberg, Alessandro Tiberi as the worried Italian newlywed, Roberto Benigni, or Allen himself. And each tale features a series of observations about life, people, and the complexities of human relationships. It's a hodgepodge of observations made throughout Allen's movies, but they're still universal and hysterical. There's also a nice helping of farce and over-the-top screwball antics that keep you in stitches even as you consider the absurdity of what you're watching.

Unlike Allen's other European movies, To Rome With Love doesn't evoke the same fascination with the film's locale. Match Point was a classy British enterprise, Midnight in Paris was laced with French attitudes, Vicky Cristina Barcelona had a distinctly Spanish sensibility. Almost one-half of the dialogue in To Rome With Love is conducted in Italian, but it feels like a movie that could have taken place anywhere. Rome has nothing to do with the plot apart from supplying the language. But perhaps that is Allen's greatest observation about humanity. Whether you're in Rome, Paris, or the Upper East Side, people are still having the same ridiculous conversations and getting into ridiculous situations.

The Amazing Spider-Man: Spidey's Back!

When The Amazing Spider-Man came out this summer, everyone had something to say about how unnecessary it was. Rebooting the franchise when the last Spider-Man movie (Spider-Man 3) came out a mere 5 years ago in 2007 certainly seemed silly. But people forget that Batman Begins came out just 8 years after the last Batman & Robin movie, and that worked out just fine for Christopher Nolan and Christan Bale. The Amazing Spider-Man is no Batman Begins, but it's a serviceable reboot nonetheless.

The best thing about any reboot is getting a brand new cast that brings a fresh perspective to an aging franchise. By the time Spider-Man 3 came around, Tobey Maguire was no longer embodying the best of Peter Parker. So it is refreshing to have Andrew Garfield step in as Spidey. He brings a different energy to the character of Peter Parker - he's still a bullied nerd, but rather than silently putting up with it, this incarnation puts up more of a fight. Even before he's bitten by that infamous spider, Peter is standing up to bullies and trying to fight his own battles, albeit unsuccessfully. The old Spider-Man was a bit of a schlub who only became heroic once he had superpowers. This Spider-Man is already a hero - he just needs the superpowers to get stuff done.

Another difference from prior movies is the love interest. Instead of red-headed Mary Jane Watson, we get blonde Gwen Stacy, whose father happens to be a NYPD police captain. Gwen is played by the always-delightful Emma Stone, who gives us a 21st century version of a superhero's girlfriend. Gwen and Peter share a witty and delightful chemistry that makes it clear that they're a couple on an equal footing. Interestingly, Peter reveals his identity to Gwen pretty early on in their relationship, thereby lightening the traditional superhero burden of being the only one harboring a massive secret. For her part, Gwen is no hapless heroine just waiting to be rescued every five minutes. Instead, she works with Peter, trying to help him chase down the villainous Dr. Connors, and illustrates that she can be intelligent and resourceful even if she lacks a superpower.

The movie's plot is pretty standard, and the origin story isn't revamped in any particularly ingenious way. We get a little more of Peter's family history, and there's some mystery surrounding his father's experiments, but otherwise we all know the story about how Peter Parker became Spider-Man. Rhys Ifans plays a serviceable villain with some complexity to him since he isn't completely evil. And I imagine the movie looked pretty stunning on the big screen. Spider-Man's flights through the city are exhilarating and fun, and even though I saw it on a small screen, I could appreciate the grand scale of the action. Garfield's movements are expertly choreographed and there are many shots that feel like a page right out of the comic books.

The Amazing Spider-Man is a typical superhero movie, but it is elevated by the excellence of its cast. Andrew Garfield has successfully put a new spin on a classic character and turned him into a hero in the true sense of the word.

Safety Not Guaranteed: Time Traveling, Indie Style

One of the perks of a trip to Europe is that all the summer movies you missed are available as in-flight entertainment. Therefore, this week the blog will cover a bunch of movies I watched on planes, most of which are now available on DVD so you won't have to wait to check them out for yourself.

First up, Safety Not Guaranteed. The movie stars Aubrey Plaza (from the ever-joyful Parks & Recreation), Jake Johnson (from New Girl), and Mark Duplass (one half of the Duplass brothers who wrote and directed the brilliant Jeff, Who Lives At Home). It is a small indie comedy, heavy emphasis on "small" and "indie." Plaza plays Darius Britt, a bored intern at a Seattle magazine who teams up with Jeff Schwensen (Johnson), one of the magazine's writers, to do an investigative piece about a weird classified ad in the newspaper. The ad reads as follows:
 
"Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. Safety not guaranteed."

Intrigued by this oddball advertisement, Darius, Jeff, and nerdy Indian intern, Arnau (Karan Soni), set off to track down the writer of the ad. He turns out to be Kenneth Calloway (Duplass), a man who works in a grocery store and seems just as weird as his ad would suggest. After Jeff unsuccessfully attempts to interview him, Darius taps into her inner weirdo and establishes a rapport with this paranoid time traveler. Eventually, Kenneth decides that she would be a worthy companion for his time traveling mission. He has no idea Darius works for a newspaper, so Jeff and Arnau have to keep out of the way while Darius worms her way into Kenneth's life and attempts to figure out what is wrong with him. I can't go into much more detail because this is a short movie and anything further would just give the whole thing away. Suffice to say, there are a few amusing sideplots featuring Jeff and Arnau's exploits, a burgeoning love story between Darius and Kenneth, and increasing confusion about whether Kenneth actually is crazy.

Despite the outlandish plot, Safety Not Guaranteed is a very quiet movie. There are some funny moments, some sweet moments, some exciting moments, but mostly it's just a strange 80-minute exercise in storytelling. The tone is vague and unpredictable and I certainly didn't anticipate the final scene. For the most part, you have no idea where this movie is going, and then when you get there, you don't know what to think. Like most indies, the ending is ambiguous and rather unfulfilling, because after devoting so much time to character development, you have no idea what happened to the characters.

This is a so-so movie, neither a masterpiece nor a dud, and in fact, perfect for watching on a plane. Watch it if you need a distraction for an hour and a half, but if you're looking for something genuinely meaningful, look elsewhere.

The Woman Who Died A Lot: Let the Literary Hijinks Ensue

The moment I started reading The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, I knew I had found my new favorite author. I later discovered he won the Wodehouse Prize for comic literature in 2004; given my love for P.G. Wodehouse, that was just the icing on the cake. The Woman Who Died A Lot is the seventh book in the Thursday Next series that began with The Eyre Affair. Given the sprawling and inventive nature of the plot, there is nothing I can tell you about this book without telling you to start from the beginning with The Eyre Affair.

The series follows Thursday Next, a woman who works as a Literary Detective in an alternate version of England where people are obsessed with literature to the point that gang warfare breaks out between Marlowe and Shakespeare enthusiasts. In The Eyre Affair, our intrepid heroine uses her uncle's invention of a Prose Portal to enter into books. She ends up chasing a criminal through the world of Jane Eyre, leading to unforeseen and hilarious consequences. The next book in the series, Lost in a Good Book, really gets the ball rolling once Thursday learns how to read herself into books and becomes a member of JurisFiction, the police force within the BookWorld that ensures books and readers are given their proper due. Trained by Great Expectations' Miss Havisham, Thursday has to figure out how things work in the BookWorld while simultaneously dealing with vengeful criminals and the shadowy Goliath Corporation.

Apart from all the literary allusions and cameos from beloved characters in classic literature, there are subplots involving the time-travelling ChronoGuard police force, Thursday's ever-complicated family life, genetically engineered dodos, and a myriad of other mind-bending notions that will keep you on your toes. Throughout, Fforde indulges in some of the wittiest wordplay you could hope to find in modern literature, and every page has a line that is destined to become your favorite. It can be something as simple as a hermit stating that his dinner tonight is a gruel sandwich without the bread, which just struck me as a gloriously silly throw-away line. Every chapter begins with an excerpt from a fake book, like Thursday Next's biography or a treatise on some aspect of the BookWorld, and all these elements mesh together to create a fully-realized and utterly three-dimensional fantasy world that is a sheer delight for any literature lover.

The Woman Who Died A Lot is a wonderful addition to the series, featuring a more battle-worn Thursday who is nearing retirement but still has to deal with the machinations of the scheming mnemonomorph (i.e. memory manipulator), Aornis Hades, as well as an impending smiting from a newly-revealed deity, and a series of fake Thursdays who have to be killed repeatedly. Although the novel concerns itself almost exclusively with Thursday's world than the BookWorld, it is still just as brilliant and funny as any other book in the series. The series is slated to be an octology, so the next book will signal the end of Thursday Next. Until then, however, you have seven glorious books to catch up on. 

English Vinglish: A Housewife On A Mission

The day after I watched Barfi!, I watched English Vinglish and was reminded that Bollywood can still make fantastic movies. The movie is written and directed by a woman, Gauri Shinde, and stars Sridevi in her first movie since 1997. Clearly Bollywood is answering my pleas for more women in cinema, and doing so with panache.

Sridevi plays Shashi, a Maharashtrian housewife who runs a small business selling ladoos (Indian sweets) to people in her neighborhood. Her kids and husband all speak English, but she doesn't since she was educated at a Hindi-medium school. Various incidents make her feel less-respected and ridiculed by her family - her daughter is clearly embarrassed that she can't speak English, and her husband doesn't think her ladoo business is particularly praiseworthy. Then her sister calls from New York and asks her to help with preparations for her niece's wedding. After much cajoling, Shashi is persuaded to make the terrifying trip to America all by herself.

Once she lands in New York, Shashi feels further overwhelmed and unhappy that she doesn't know the language. A brutal incident in a coffee shop leads her to make a call to the NY Language Center, which promises English fluency in 4 weeks. Keeping the secret from her family, Shashi successfully makes the trek into Manhattan and enrolls in the class that will change her life.

Obviously her fellow students represent an amusing cast of characters, including a Mexican nanny, a Pakistani cab driver, a South Indian IT guy, a French chef, a Chinese hairstylist, and a quiet African man. Their teacher is the flamboyant David, who quickly gets them to delve right into the language, and Shashi proves to be an adept pupil. Her ladoo business, so quickly dismissed by her family, earns her the title of "entrepreneur" from David, and for the first time in her life she feels like she has achievements to boast about. Her younger niece spots her getting out of class one day but promises to keep her secret and supplies her with DVDs to further her English progress. And meanwhile, the French chef, Laurent (played by French actor Mehdi Nebbou, who gives a marvellously understated performance) is falling in love with Shashi, who remains oblivious to his tentative overtures. 

English Vinglish is incredibly funny and zips along its two-hour runtime. Shashi's transformation from mousy housewife to a woman brimming with self-confidence is a wonder to behold and Sridevi delivers a very moving and affecting performance. The cast of characters in the English class are hilarious - they initially fall into certain foreign stereotypes but are so good-natured and charming that they really come into their own. The movie embraces everyone, and no one is deemed the villain of the piece. Instead, it's just a funny, warm tale about human foibles and the importance of loving yourself. I can't recommend it highly enough.