Movie Review: Zombieland

Zombieland (2009) 

Directed by Ruben Fleischer

Written by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick

Starring Woody Harrelson Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Bill Murray 

Release Date October 2nd, 2009 

Published October 1st, 2009

I don't like zombie movies. There is an inherent undercurrent of nihilism that runs through most zombie movies that I find unappealing. I may be a cynic but I could not live in a world without hope, the world of the zombie movie. I will admit that elements of Romero's use of subtext in his Living Dead movies are appealing. I will also admit to admiring Danny Boyle's skilled technique in 28 Days Later. But, zombie movies remain for me an ugly, unwelcome chore to sit through.

Thus, I was not looking forward to the new zombie horror comedy Zombieland. Starring Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg, Zombieland deftly flips its tone from horror to comedy and somehow loses nothing in the transition. As much as I hate zombie movies, I must admit, I liked this one.

Columbus (Eisenberg) was not the most likely survivor of the zombie apocalypse. He's scrawny and skittish and carries a shotgun so big you may have a hard time believing he could fire it and remain standing. He has survived because his years of isolation, he was a videogame loving shut in before the apocalypse, taught him to run from people even before they were trying to eat him.

He has a series of rules that have guided him as well. Rule 1: Cardio. He has trained like an olympic sprinter so that he can stay ahead of the horde. Rule 2: Double Tap. Never just shoot a zombie, shoot it twice. The other rules make cameos throughout the film as computer added interstitials. The comic effect is strong and reminds one of Max Brooks's very funny book "The Zombie Survival Guide".

Columbus has traveled alone for a while but for the first time has begun to crave a little company. He's lucky enough to meet up with Tallahassee (Harrelson) who happens to be one of the best zombie killers in the country. He doesn't just run and hide from the zombie hordes, he runs at them guns blazing, bat swinging, hedge clippers... clipping.

The two form an unlikely alliance that grows to four when they happen upon Wichita and Little Rock (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin). (The names correlate to the cities where everyone is from. You don't want to get to attached to someone you might have to shoot in the head). Wichita and Little Rock are headed to California where they are hoping rumors of a human enlave in an amusement park is for real.

Whether their hopes are well founded I will leave you to discover. Zombieland comes from first time feature director and show stunning skill. Fleischer's directorial experience is limited to shorts and episodes of Jimmy Kimmel's talk show, yet he shows remarkable skill and control for such a relative novice.

Most impressive is how he balances the tone. The laughs in Zombieland come in buckets and yet, so does the horror. Zombieland makes you fear the zombies but still has the energy and wit to make you laugh louder than you have at most any comedy this year. It's a balance that a number of veteran directors could not achieve.

Keep an eye out for what will no doubt be the years best cameo. The actor involved is so unexpected and yet so very, very game for it all you will not be able to control the gales of laughter from this inspired bit of casting.

I still don't like zombie movies. This time however, because of a game cast and some surprisingly skilled direction, I can look past my issues with the genre and recommend Zombieland.

Movie Review Rango

Rango (2011) 

Directed by Gore Verbinski 

Written by John Logan 

Starring Johnny Depp, Bill Nighy, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Timothy Olyphant 

Release Date March 4th, 2011

Published March 3rd, 2011 

2011 has seen very great movies. For me, the best film of the year, before the Oscar bait stuff arrives in October, November and December, is the animated Johnny Depp comedy "Rango." This endlessly inventive animated feature stunned me back in March of this year and has lingered in the back of my mind ever since.

"Rango '' stars Johnny Depp as the title character, a movie loving pet chameleon who gets lost in the desert after falling out of the back of a car. After meeting a Possum named Roadkill (Alfred Molina) Rango wanders off into the desert in search of the spirit of the west.

Eventually, after being chased by a hawk and passing out from the heat, Rango meets Beans (Isla Fisher), an iguana from a western town called Dirt. Through a series of mishaps Rango becomes the sheriff of Dirt and is tasked to stare down Rattlesnake Jake (Bill Nighy) while uncovering a scam to steal the city's water supply.

"Rango" was directed by Gore Verbinski, best known for the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise, and written by John Logan, writer of "Gladiator" and "The Aviator." Together, Verbinski and Logan have cooked up an animated western that gathers influence not merely from the obvious sources, the westerns of Clint Eastwood and Gary Cooper, but also the HBO series "Deadwood" (Timothy Olyphant voices a mysterious character known as the Spirit of the West) and even the forgotten Lee Marvin classic "Cat Ballou" and the epic "Once Upon a Time in the West."

The references are literate and lively and will delight western fans to no end. But the mimicry in Rango doesn't end with the western. Rango includes nods to everything from "Star Wars" to "Raising Arizona" to "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," the last two, of course, starring Johnny Depp.

The plot of Rango turns on the same premise of the film classic "Chinatown," a corrupt man taking control of a town's water supply. Most kids won't get the reference but the key to Rango's charm is the way it keeps both kids and parents wildly entertained. While parents are cataloging the numerous references to classic and newer movies, the kids will love the cleverness of the story as well as the marvelous color and the energetic voice performances from Johnny Depp, Ned Beatty, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin and more.

Unlike most animated films where the voice actors are recorded over several months, often one voice at a time, the cast of Rango recorded vocals all at the same time with the cast often acting out the action of the animated characters. The lively interaction of the cast and the way the animators worked to capture the emotions of the actors in their animated characters gives Rango its unique energy.

The animation of Rango is phenomenal with bright colors, visual nods to the work of Sergio Leone, the legendary Italian master of the Spaghetti Western, and an almost Dali-esque sense of the absurd, captured especially by a dream sequence involving a floating, wind-up fish.

Rango is entertaining on multiple levels from the film encyclopedia level of movie references to the extraordinary animation and the lively, boisterous, and wildly talented voice cast led by the brilliant Johnny Depp. With these elements combined, there is no question that Rango is, thus far, the best movie of 2011.

Movie Review No Reservations

No Reservations (2007)

Directed by Scott Hicks 

Written by Carol Fuchs 

Starring Catherine Zeta Jones, Aaron Eckhart, Abigail Breslin

Release Date July 27th, 2007

Published July 26th, 2007

Mostly Martha was a dull, by the numbers, German romance that is memorable only for the delectable foods on display. All of the cakes with gleaming frosting and the lovingly prepared German dishes leapt off the screen and tantalized the taste buds. The romantic plot, the family plot, failed to be more interesting than the food.

Now that American filmmakers have gotten their hands on it, Mostly Martha has become No Reservations. Missing is the loving attention to the food. Left in place, unfortunately, is the dull romance and and a somehow even more dull family drama.

Kate (Catherine Zeta Jones) lives a regimented existence, she lives for her work as a chef at a top notch New York eatery and nothing more. Her routine often includes a minor tantrum, such as when a customer complains about her food. Kate has no compunction about forcefully confronting customers, a habit that has her in therapy on a regular basis, at the urging of her boss Paula (Patricia Clarkson).

Kate's tightly controlled life is upended when a planned visit by her sister ends tragically before it begins. On her way to see Kate with her daughter Zoe (Abigail Breslin), Kate's sister is killed in a car accident. Zoe survives with minor cuts and bruises. Now it is left to Kate to try and care for this girl who is her biological relation but may as well be an alien to Kate.

Things are also difficult at work where Kate's sous chef has left and the boss hired a new guy without speaking to Kate first. His name is Nick (Aaron Eckhart) and he has a different way of doing things than Kate is used to. Nick quickly disrupts Kate's kitchen and could be after her job. The tension naturally leads to romance but with a number of major obstacles, not the least of which is Kate herself.

Scott Hicks (Shine) directs No Reservations with flair and professionalism. However, no scenarist, no matter his talent, could make this mundane story any more than it is. No Reservations is a simple romance in which obvious roadblocks are thrown in front of destined lovers. Without the will they/won't they suspense, what is left is to find one unique element that separates this movie from others of the same genre.

For No Reservations the unique element might be the food. However, the food barely registers in No Reservations. Unlike another 2007 food movie, the wonderful Ratatouille, No Reservations does not leave one hungering for the tasty delights. The restaurant in No Reservations is just an active background and the food is just a prop. That leaves the predictable story and dull romantic comedy conventions to carry the movie.

The one thing that No Reservations has going for it is the appealing cast. Catherine Zeta Jones is a vision even when hampered with such a derivative role. Aaron Eckhardt continues to carry that charismatic glint in his eye that has long promised stardom but has yet to pay off. And finally, Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin remains a sweetheart even in a role that seems a bit beneath her talents.

Catherine Zeta Jones and Aaron Eckhardt do spark quite a bit in the romantic moments of No Reservations. Unfortunately, both are undone by their mediocre surroundings. No Reservations is simply too predictable, too rote and too familiar to be anything more than admirable. Likable actors, a pro director all unfortunately tied to an overly familiar plot.

Worst of all, No Reservations isn't funny enough.

Catherine Zeta Jones is a fine actress and a welcome film presence. No Reservations, unfortunately, is beneath her talent. This rote, formula romance pushes her and her co-stars from one scene to the next on an inexhaustible wave of clichés and scenes dictated by romantic comedy formulas. This is why so many critics say that the romantic comedy is dead, even the audiences that love them are tired of this formula.

Movie Review Nim's Island

Nim's Island (2008) 

Directed by Jennifer Flackett

Written by Joseph Kwong, three other screenwriters

Starring Jodie Foster, Abigail Breslin, Gerard Butler 

Release Date April 4th, 2008

Published April 3rd, 2008

Jodie Foster hasn’t been known as a comedian since her mischievous youth as a Disney star. Her career changed forever with Taxi Driver and since that time, her comic roles have been few and far between. The surprise of her comic talents, lying dormant since her sassy performance in Maverick more than a decade ago, makes her slapstick heavy comic performance in the family flick Nim’s Island something of a delight. Though the film overall is a slight, messy mixture of Home Alone crossed with Fantasy Island, Foster makes it tolerable and occasionally delightful with her constantly surprising performance.

Alex Rider is an Indiana Jones like character and a hero to young Nim (Abigail Breslin) who lives for his adventures like some kids live for the next American Idol. Living on a deserted island in the south pacific with her dad Jack (Gerard Butler), Nim doesn’t have a TV or video games like most kids so her Alex Rider novels and her many animal friends are her entertainment. When her marine biologist father has to go away for a few days, Nim is left to care for an animal friend about to give birth. That is when an email arrives from her hero Alex Rider asking her about the wonders of her island, he’s researching his next big adventure.

Or should I say, her next big adventure. You see, Alex Rider is actually Alexandra Rider (Jodie Foster) an agoraphobic writer who, despite imagining some amazing adventures, has not left her home in years. When she hits on a bout of writer's block she turns to the writing of Jack, Nim’s dad, who wrote an article about volcanoes that Alex thinks could make an exciting adventure. Her email finds Nim and the two begin a friendly correspondence. However, when Nim reveals that her father has gone missing there is only one thing for Alexandra to do, she must find the courage to leave her home for the first time in years and find some way to get to Nim.

Directed by newcomers Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin, Nim’s Island is a sweet, safe bit of disposable family entertainment. Abigail Breslin, the Little Miss Sunshine Oscar nominee, is her usual cute self but it is Jodie Foster who steals the movie with her wildly offbeat performance. Chatting often out loud to her fictional character Alex Rider (Gerard Butler again), she goes all out allowing herself to look completely nutzo and somehow it works. Her chemistry with Breslin is motherly and very sweet, this is a very different Jodie Foster from the hard bitten New Yorker of The Brave One.

If only Nim’s Island were more focused on Foster and Breslin’s chemistry. Unfortunately, the film diverts with a subplot about a ship called Buccaneer, a group of ugly tourists and Nim pulling a Macauley Culkin to keep bad guys from turning her home into a tourist trap. This subplot is distracting and meant only as very obvious filler material. More time with Foster and Breslin and less time with goofball subplots and Nim’s Island could be so much more than just merely distracting.

Good, not great, Nim’s Island is above par family entertainment that should be much better than it is.

Movie Review: The Ultimate Gift

The Ultimate Gift (2007) 

Directed by Michael Sajbel

Written by Cheryl McKay 

Starring Abigail Breslin, Drew Fuller, Bill Cobbs, James Garner

Release Date March 9th, 2007 

Published March 10th, 2007 

Cynically trading on the Oscar nomination of young Abigail Breslin is the religious themed drama The Ultimate Gift. This film from the newly minted Fox Faith distribution company is Fox's even more cynical attempt to turn a profit on religion. In the wake of Passion of the Christ we have seen more and more of these religious dramas and with their low budgets and relative returns; they aren't likely to improve in quality anytime soon.

Jason (Drew Fuller) has drifted through life on his mom's money for many years. Naturally, with privilege paying for his high class New York apartment and expensive car, Drew values nothing above vanity. However, his life is changed forever by the death of his grandfather Red (James Garner). It's not that Jason was close with his grandfather, indeed grandpa wasn't close to anyone in his family. No, it's just that grandpa decided on his death to use his money to teach his wayward grandson a lesson.

With the help of his lawyer (Bill Cobbs) Red has set up a series of challenges for Jason. First, he forces Jason's mom to cut off his money. This costs Jason his apartment and his beloved car. Jason must prove that without his money he still has friends. This is much harder than he would have imagined. This is when Jason meets Emily (Abigail Breslin). Sleeping on a park bench, Jason is thought to be a homeless man.

Emily offers him food and soon Jason is scheming to have the girl and her mother Alexia (Ali Hillis) pretend to be his friends. Unfortunately, that still isn't enough for Jason to get his money. There are more challenges, including working on the ranch owned by Gus (Brian Dennehy) one of Red's best friends, to teach him hard work. Of course all of these valuable less are meant to make Jason a better person and wouldn't you it, the little girl and her mom have a secret that will also influence Jason's becoming a better person.

Directed by Michael O'Sajbel, The Ultimate Gift is like an unfunny version of the Richard Pryor comedy Brewster's Millions. Both films are about learning the value of a dollar and how money, having it and not having, teaches a valuable lesson. Brewster's Millions thankfully, isn't weighed down by biblical piety and dull melodrama as The Ultimate Gift is.

Director Michael O'Sajbel has been rather indignant about his film being treated as or marketed as a faith movie. He might want to look at the distributor shingle hanging on the front of the film. It's a new division of the Fox movie company called Fox Faith. A reaction what marketers had hoped was a new niche in the wake of The Passion Of the Christ.

Unfortunately, that niche has proven unreliable and movies like The Ultimate Gift, Amazing Grace and September Dawn have been made for an audience that may not even exist. Certainly, there was a vocal group of people who went to see the Passion and talked openly of how they rarely go to the movies because of their negative impression of Hollywood filmmakers.

In reality, most churchgoers are just average moviegoers who would rather watch swashbuckling pirates, spider based heroes and big green ogres rather than some self serving pseudo religious drama. Churchgoers, even the evangelicals, are as starstruck as any other audience and would rather watch Johnny Depp in a bad movie than some guy named Drew Fuller in a movie that allegedly appeals to their values.

The failure of The Ultimate Gift is simply a question of quality. The film isn't very good. The acting is subpar, the aesthetic is amateur and the underlying ideals are a cynical attempt at niche marketing. There really is nothing good about this movie and that is why audiences rejected it in droves when it was released in theaters and continue to reject it on DVD.

This will no doubt be the fate of most if not all films that follow the same path. Assuming that churchgoers are not savvy movie fans or that they are somehow entirely different from average moviegoers is a failed premise.

Movie Review My Sister's Keeper

My Sister's Keeper (2009) 

Directed by Nick Cassavetes 

Written by Jeremy Leven, Nick Cassavetes 

Starring Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Jason Patric, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack

Release Date June 26th, 2009

Published June 25th, 2009 

There is a serviceable Lifetime Movie somewhere in the dark morass of My Sister's Keeper. This weepie about a teen with terminal cancer and the familial strife surrounding that diagnosis is quite the tear puller. At times I actually felt as if the movie was attempting to extract the fluids from eyes by any means necessary but the tears never came.

Instead, there is a feeling of vast indifference tinged with the irritation at the varying attempts at manipulation. All movies are manipulative. The better movies hide their manipulations behind great drama, comedy, tragedy and various other implements of storytelling manipulation. My Sister's Keeper is much more naked in its pushy nature and that makes it off-putting.

Abigail Breslin, best known as the wonderful little pageant contestant from Little Miss Sunshine, stars in My Sister's Keeper as 11 year old Anna. Where most kids were the result of an accident or surprise, Anna was planned. Her parents, Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian (Jason Patric) had Anna as a way of saving the life of their cancer stricken daughter Kate (Sofia Vassilieva).

If you're overly movie literate you might start thinking about This Island Earth or The Island, sci-fi movies about people born in labs to be used as spare parts for rich counterparts. This is not science fiction. My Sister's Keeper is based in some real science. Through gene manipulation Anna was designed specifically with elements that could be helpful to Kate.

Now, with Kate nearing the end and needing a kidney transplant to buy a few more months, Anna says no. She hires an attorney she saw on TV, Campbell Alexander (Alec Baldwin) and sues for medical emancipation. Though she says it is her decision it's clear to us there is more to it. It's also clear that mom and dad are clueless as a function of the plot.

The pushy melodramatics of My Sister's Keeper serve to, at the very least, keep the melancholy at a distance. Take away all of the forced drama and what you are left with is a movie of a teenager dying of cancer. Not an unworthy story but not something that fits into the neat Hollywood box of melodramatic story manipulation.

Cancer seems too serious and too real for something as facile and tedious as the melodrama of My Sister's Keeper. Sofia Vassilieva does a tremendous job of making us feel for Kate but she is betrayed by a story and style that renders her a plot point in her own story.

Director Nick Cassavetes knows a little something about manipulative melodrama, he directed The Notebook. That film however hid the strings it pulled to get you to feel what it wanted you to feel. Was it pushy? Yes, but the sights and the romance hid that to a point and made tolerable the obvious contrivance of the story.

No such hiding in My Sister's Keeper. The movie exploits the teen with cancer conceit to score easy sympathy points as it pushes the audience from one emotional response to the next. That the film avoids becoming smarmy in its exploitation is a tribute to a talented if undermined cast.

My Sister's Keeper is an obvious, naked attempt at audience manipulation. Weak melodrama hidden behind the veil of disease of the week cynicism. It would be shameful if this talented cast weren't capable of making some of the material rise above the exploitation. In the end, My Sister's Keeper is merely a bad movie, just short of despicable.

Movie Review: Definitely, Maybe

Definitely, Maybe (2008) 

Directed by Adam Brooks

Written by Adam Brooks 

Starring Ryan Reynolds, Elizabeth Banks, Rachel Weisz, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Derek Luke, Kevin Kline

Release Date February 14th, 2008 

Published February 13th, 2008 

In his first mature leading man performance Ryan Reynolds becomes a star before our eyes in the terrific romance Definitely, Maybe. Call it his Sleepless In Seattle moment, Reynolds becomes the new millennium answer to Tom Hanks as he establishes his romantic leading man street cred opposite not a single Meg Ryan but three tremendous young actresses on three completely different star tracks.

There is the capital A actress Rachel Weisz, already a hairs breath away from Oscar. Elizabeth Banks, the comic character actress. And then there is Isla Fisher, who is still too young to know where her career is headed. Reynolds sparks with each and makes you believe that indeed one man could get that lucky in his life.

Definitely, Maybe stars Reynolds as Will Hayes an ad exec who has just received his divorce papers. He's been headed for divorce for awhile it seems. Will see's his daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin) on Wednesdays and Fridays and is on his way to pick her up as the opening credits wrap. On this particular Friday Maya's school is abuzz. Today the kids took a surprise sex education course and all are bursting with questions. All of this talk of sex has Maya wondering where she came from, not necessarily the technical details, she learned all too much of that, rather about how mom and dad met and how they are where they are today.

Dad is not so hot on telling the tale and thus devises the story as a romantic mystery, leaving Maya to guess which of three women from his past is her mother. There is Emily (Elizabeth Banks) not her real name, who was his college sweetheart. They split up when he went to New York. It's more complicated and messy than that but that comes later. Then there is the copy girl aka April (Isla Fisher). She makes copies for a living in the Bill Clinton for President campaign office where Will has come all the way from Wisconsin to work. Politics of the early to late 90's play a big part in Definitely, Maybe.

And finally there is Summer Heartley (Rachel Weisz), a woman from Emily's past who Will meets when he delivers a present to her from Emily. What that present is has all sorts of surprises attached. Summer is an aspiring journalist sleeping with her esteemed professor (Kevin Kline) when she meets Will. They bounce around each other a little before the girly crush on the professor passes and Summer wants to get serious. She and Will share a relationship with many twists and moments you will not see coming.

So which girl is really mommy? Which girl is also the ex? That is the mystery and the secret charm of Definitely, Maybe.

Writer-director Allan Brooks isn't teasing the audience or screwing with us just to keep us off track. What he devises, structurally and with these terrifically charming and smart characters, is a romantic mystery that in-trances and enchants.This seemingly typical romantic comedy defies convention by mixing three different romances and allowing us to guess, take sides, and hope for our favorite to win out. Leading the guessing game is 12 year old Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin. In yet another devastatingly cute performance, Breslin charms us into a romantic journey that would be lonely and a little dreary without her hopeful, doe eyed presence.

The humor of Definitely, Maybe is warm and comfortable. It emanates naturally from these characters without the force of set ups and punchlines. The skill of Brooks' script may not occur to you until much later when you realize just how invested you are in the outcome of this mystery. Listen for the subtle ways Brooks uses politics as an undercurrent of Will's emotional state. His optimistic investment in President Clinton's promise of hope in 1992 juxtaposed against his disillusionment with his love life and the scandal that engulfs Clinton's presidency. This sets up a final moment in the movie so subtle; blink and you'll miss it. It's a minor scene but it means so much if you follow the context of the film as a whole.

Definitely, Maybe doesn't necessarily break the mold of the traditional romantic comedy. Rather, like the best of the gentrified genre lot, it takes the typical and improves upon it. The formula is familiar, it's just better performed, filmed and crafted in Definitely, Maybe. Rather than limiting himself to what is expected of the romance genre, Adam Brooks goes in slightly off kilter directions. He tweaks the formula, changes the expectations and, by creating wonderful characters with just the right actors, he changes the dynamics of the formula romantic comedy, bends it to the will of his story and creates something special.

Indeed, Definitely, Maybe is something special in the romantic comedy genre.