Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (2011)

Yes, I did see this. Disclaimer: I watched it because my sister basically forced me too. At the same time, I went in willingly as I was actually kind of curious about the movie - and, not being truly familiar with Mr. Bieber or his music, I thought it would be at least fair to give the kid a chance. Color me pleasantly surprised - it turns out that Justin Bieber is actually extremely talented! Behind all the frighteningly obsessed fans and the glamorous production value, Justin is just a regular Canadian kid who worked really hard and got really lucky. The story is interesting enough, but as far as filmmaking goes the movie is acceptable at best. For its target audience I think it's obviously is a 10/10 - the director completely caters to the fanbase and that's fine. But for the rest of us it's a bit of sensory overload. Though the film touches on the more serious (and more interesting) aspects of Justin Bieber's career (such as the loss of childhood that all prodigies face or the pressures from fans) it never delves into the depth that it could, and that would create legitimately compelling cinema (not that it was going for that in the first place). It's no masterpiece, and I haven't been quite caught Bieber fever (*heh*) but it was interesting enough and its 1.3 on IMDb really is uncalled for.

5/10

Rango (2011)

With Pixar releasing the rather unpromising "Cars 2" later this year it seems necessary to keep an eye on the rest of the animated crop. Having not yet seen a new movie this year yet, I couldn't wait to start everything off with "Rango", which looked extremely promising and was being critically lauded. Unfortunately, though "Rango" had quite a lot going for it, it ended up being an overall disappointment.

The film tells the story of an unnamed pet chameleon (voiced, of course, by Johnny Depp) with a propensity for the theater, who becomes stranded in the desert after his owners nearly get into a car accident. The chameleon soon finds himself in the drought-ridden city of Dirt, where he meets the sassy lizard Beans (Isla Fisher), and the rest of the town's rodent and reptile inhabitants, all of whom are struggling due to the drought. Seizing an opportunity, the chameleon takes on the name of Rango and becomes the sheriff of the town, where he soon discovers that the town's mayor has an evil plot that is keeping the town dry.

Visually, "Rango" is really quite stunning. Besides the fact that the animation is realistic to a fault, the film's "cinematography" is really fantastic - the design of each shot is full of gorgeous lighting and coloring, while the camera's own movements are some of the most advanced and interesting out I've seen in a CGI animated film (and that does include "Avatar". heh). It comes as no surprise that Roger Deakins was the visual consultant - his cinematographic brilliance really shows. Soundwise the film succeeds as well. Johnny Depp's voice is pretty much perfect for the role and the score was great as well (for Hans Zimmer, anyway. heh heh).

Unfortunately, as seems to always be the case, the screenplay was unable to live up to the film's visual scheme - so much so that it detracted from the overall success of the film (which is not always the case. Sometimes an animated film can get by on looks alone). Though I admire the fact that the film was able to avoid tripping over the big religious and environmental issues it tackled, that was about the only thing it did right. So many of the film's "jokes", which it obviously thought were hysterical, failed miserably. And though the film's first scene is littered with sharp dialogue and laughs, the film loses its steam not shortly after, with incongruities that are impossible to overlook, even through the lens of what I like to call the "family film forgiveness factor".

"Rango" is almost a surefire nominee for Best Animated Film next year at the Oscars, and I imagine it'll be this year's animated critical favorite unless there's a foreign entry. And while its writing was rather disappointing, its visuals are certainly something to applaud. Not a bad start to 2011, by any means, but definitely not what I would have hoped for.

See it: If you're disappointed by the lameness of the rest of what's in theaters, and you don't mind forgoing good writing for unbelievable animated visuals.

Skip it: If you didn't get a good night of sleep the evening before, and if you feel like laughing a lot.

6/10

Catch Me if You Can (2002)

As usual, Amy Adams steals the show. But seriously, this movie was pretty okay...it had a lot of strong moments and the benefit of having a really interesting subject. Actually, I really want to read the book by Frank Abagnale himself now because it's such a fascinating story. However, the movie does drag and it's your conventional biopic. Out of sequence stuff! Troubled childhood! Etcetera. Even if it is based on a true story, you've got to be a little bit more original than that. Christopher Walken and Leo were both quite great but Tom Hanks was really underwhelming and his parts were the worst. It is bolstered by a pretty cool score by John Williams that is a nice departure from his usual stuff. Really, this should have been a documentary.

6/10

Now Playing: Date Night

First of all, Steve Carell and Tina Fey are an amazing duo! Their chemistry is fantastic and they work off each other so, so well. But the movie is working against their comedic chops - it had its hysterical moments but the chase scenes and um, the rest of the plot got in the way. Celebrity cameos from Kristen Wiig, Mark Ruffalo, etcetera made me happy, and Taraji P. Henson proves once again that she has the gift for making unimportant characters so special. Overall enjoyable and optimistic, but not as funny as it could have been.

6/10

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

"Mutiny on the Bounty" is a grandiose, Best-Picture-Winning epic from the golden age of cinema. It tells the (true!) story of the British ship The Bounty, which was on its way to Tahiti. On the ship is the dashing and confident Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable), the naive but charming Byam (Franchot Tone), their evil captain Bligh (Charles Laughton) and then a whole lot of swabbies. When Bligh gets out of hand in his soul-crushing discipline, it is up to Christian to lead a mutiny! Thus the title of the film.

The technical aspects of "Bounty" are quite brilliant. The epic shots of the boat rocking through the stormy weather, and the crew dealing with it, are unbelievable. There are also some extremely exciting and invigorating sequences, like right at the beginning of the movie when they're preparing to set sail. It's tightly edited and it's quite amazing, especially for 1935!

However, I had a really hard time truly enjoying this film. The three main characters, while perfectly likable, are irritatingly one-dimensional. Gable just has to be charming, and Laughton just has to be evil. They both do their jobs brilliantly, but the screenplay never gives them a chance to shine. I do feel like Tone transcended what he was given though and gave the most interesting performance of the three.

Also, once the Bounty gets to Tahiti...I don't know, I just wasn't feeling it! Tahiti was so shallow, all the islanders do is party all day, and then the Bounty guys lead on these lovely island women, who just totally fall head over heels for these random sailors who are just going to leave eventually anyway! I was absolutely not interested whatsoever in the unbearably long "romantic interlude". It was convincing, but a total waste of time and completely unrelated.

Oh and this is a petty comment, because it was obviously an audience/studio thing, but why did all the British people sound American? Haha.

But don't get me wrong, "Mutiny on the Bounty" is definitely not a bad film. I'm just being super harsh. Besides the ridiculous island scenes, it's actually pretty okay, and definitely worth seeing at least once in your life.

All in all, I really appreciated and enjoyed the technical aspects of this film, but the one-dimensional characters and unnecessarily emphasized romantic subplot made it hard to enjoy.

6/10