Any misconceptions about Happy Feet – namely, that it’s a saccharine-heavy money grab living on the tuxedo tails of March of the Penguins – should be checked at the refreshments stand on the way into the movie. In production for four years, starting about the same time that March began filming, George Miller’s CGI flick is about more than just exploiting America’s newfound love for the curious cold-weather birds. Nor is it about throwing in a few adult themes into a kid’s movie so that parents can tolerate an hour and a half in uncomfortable theatre seats surrounded by squirming children. Indeed, for all of its cute moments – and there are plenty to be had – Happy Feet asks you to reconsider your position on the power of animated films and challenges you to take notice of the way we are treating our world.
Archive for November, 2006
Tiny Dancer
Wednesday, November 29th, 2006Because, Y’know, “Race”
Tuesday, November 28th, 2006
In the ten-season history of The Amazing Race, no team has been reviled more than Rob and Amber, the conniving couple who appeared on two versions of Survivor before racing all the way to second place in TAR 7. Maybe they’re deserving of the vitriol; after all, they conned teams into taking a time penalty instead of finishing a Roadblock that even Rob couldn’t handle. Even so, racers regularly blast each other for the way they play the game; most recently, single mothers Lyn and Karlyn have taken a “holier than thou” attitude towards beauty queens Dustin and Kandice, especially when the models exercised their Yield option after arriving to the appropriate mat seconds before LynLyn. At home, viewers call that kind of behavior deplorable. For example, my grandmother would be broken up if the models were to win the competition after their “nasty” yielding tactics, and she’ll likely refuse to watch the all-star incarnation of the Race if Rob and Amber take another run at the million. The important thing I keep trying to stress when defending the beauty queens is that the show’s title, though goofily simple, is The Amazing Race, not The Amazing Campaign to Show Your Moral Superiority.
Guitar Heroes
Monday, November 27th, 2006
The best way to Carnegie Hall, the old saying goes, is practice. If the supernatural plot of Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny is to be believed, one can pass right on by Carnegie Hall and start filling stadiums if he or she secures a possessed guitar pick sculpted from the chipped tooth of Satan. The Pick of Destiny is the final frontier for Tenacious D, the portly comedy metal duo comprising of Jack Black and Kyle Gass, having already conquered television in an HBO special, stereo in their self-titled 2001 debut album, and the stage in their countless tours supporting said album. And while the final product is a fine addition to the Tenacious D canon, what you think of it will depend entirely on how much you buy into the proposition that Black and Gass are the greatest band in the world and that, by extension, their movie should be top tier.
Higher and Higher
Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006
Okay, so maybe I don’t read as many new books as I should, and maybe the last book I read was the bastardized American cousin of High Fidelity, but I couldn’t help but revisit Nick Hornby’s debut work of fiction. What I recalled while reading the book was that it is absolutely one of my desert island, all-time top five favorite books (and the film version probably gets the same distinction).
I’ll not bore you with details of plot, because I’m fairly certain I’ve already reviewed the book. But the gift in re-reading a novel is that you already know what happens and you can more fully become immersed in the writing style. Hornby packs High Fidelity with humorous, touching, relatable prose that makes you want to never stop reading. And once it’s in you’re head, it becomes like the addictive pop single that you can’t stop repeating. You want to stick it in your CD player and put it on repeat, just so you can find new layers of it to love. I’m happy to report that High Fidelity only gets better the second time around.
Rating: * * * * *
Strange Love
Monday, November 20th, 2006
Everyone has had that moment in their life when they feel like they feel like they’re living in a movie. Sure, belief in cosmic and/or spiritual forces explains the feeling for a majority of folks, but sometimes it seems like a day’s events are put together by a mind much too twisted to be a benevolent higher power. In Stranger than Fiction, Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) can’t shake that feeling when, in the middle of his boring, by-the-numbers life, he begins to hear a female voice in his head. And it’s not the kind of voice that tells him what to do or predicts his next move. The voice is very eloquently narrating his life. It sounds like a can’t-miss premise, but there are plenty of places where Stranger than Fiction could misstep. The most satisfying part about watching it, then, is that it’s executed with such poise that, almost everywhere it could go wrong, it doesn’t.
Putting the “Hell” in Helsinki
Friday, November 17th, 2006
Welcome to Helsinki, Finland. Known for its lush countryside, rich culture, and….aw, screw it. Here’s why Finland is by far the coolest destination the Race has ever seen:
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Its president, Tarja Halonen, looks like Conan O’Brien. Conan even visited the country and had a sit-down with her.
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Helsinki is the home of Artur Surov.
Finland was…hmm, how do I phrase this without ruining the end of this recap? Okay, let’s try this: Finland was yet another destination…in a racearoundtheworld. Last week, we learned that alliances are incredibly stupid, as evidenced by the fact that the Intersection, a new twist in the Race, forced WinWin to work with the Beauty Queens after the rest of the six pack arrived at the Intersection and teamed up before they got there. The result? WinWin finished fourth, after the Barbies and the Slow Forward teams, while the six pack lost two members. David and Mary, sorry, but you could only be non-eliminated so many times.
The Blues Are Still Blue
Monday, November 13th, 2006
John Mayer has earned himself a sort of bad name in pop music. Because of his soft, well-produced music and sweet lyrics, Mayer has been exiled to adult-alternative stations like Philadelphia’s B101. No serious music fan in possession of all his mental faculties would admit to listening to B101 outside of an elevator. But beyond his radio hits, Mayer has always been capable of putting out satisfying pop infused with blues and R&B flavors. Mayer puts those influences at center stage in his newest release, Continuum. And while the 12-track offering may not convert any new listeners, especially from those who see his name and are tempted to quote a sight gag in Family Guy that says “That’s enough, John Mayer,” Continuum should be recognized as a mature and accomplished album.
Four Bottles of Morons on the Wall
Friday, November 10th, 2006
Welcome to Madagascar. Madagascar borders on the Adriatic, and its chief export is chrome. No, wait, that’s Albania. Let me check my Google Earth. Ah, there it is. Madagascar is a huge island located off the coast of Africa, and if I remember my elementary school education correctly, its chief export is vanilla. Yum. Anyway, big ol’ island was the eighth pit stop…in a racearoundtheworld. Last week…well, last week was rather pointless, as David and Mary flexed all their stupidity muscles and finished last, only to be saved by the second non-Philimination in three weeks. Who will see the edge of Phil’s axe…next?
Painfully Funny
Tuesday, November 7th, 2006
In discussions of whether or not I was going to see Borat!: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, most people I talked to seemed insulted that I didn’t want to be insulted. Sacha Baron Cohen’s sweet, dimwitted, anti-Semitic, misogynist Kazakh TV journalist is like the unholy hybrid of Punk’d and Jackass, before either existed: he combines outrageous physical gags with the “man on the street” interviews that he forces upon unsuspecting American bystanders. Serves them right for being accommodating, I suppose. The hook that Cohen puts on his character is that, along the way, he exposes the ugly underbelly of American society; the Borat movie was supposed to be the ultimate manifestation of this breed of comedy, and I wanted nothing to do with it. After seeing the film, I’d love to say that I fall in line with the critics and can praise Borat as one of the best comedies of the year, but the theme, the approach, and, indeed, a lot of the jokes, seem too tired to stick.
Crazy Old Mauritius
Friday, November 3rd, 2006
Welcome to Mauritius. Yeah, we never heard of it until this episode either. But get this, when the Portuguese discovered the island in the 17th Century, they came upon a new species of bird that they nicknamed the dodo. Teams should feel pretty at home here, then. But, anyway, Mauritius is, uh…French, and stuff. It’s really pretty boring, as far as I can see. That’s the problem when you go to paradise: there’s nothing to make fun of. At least until television stars start driving drunk around your island. Then it gets a little bit annoying. Mauritius, for all its inability to be funny to me, was the seventh pit stop…in a racearoundtheworld . Teams raced here from Kuwait City, where we learned last week…well, we didn’t learn much, per se. It was reconfirmed for us, though, that Peter was a gigantic toolbag, as he and Sarah were uncerimoniously Philiminated, and I mourned for not being able to fit in a The Fugitive joke their entire time on the race. Who will be eliminated…next?