Eighties teen comedies are right up there with sex and ice cream as things that I will enjoy till the day I die. Movies like Revenge of the Nerds, Just One of the Guys, Sixteen Candles and Ferris Bueller's Day Off made me who I am today. However, I've never been that big of a fan of the Porky's series, most likely because I didn't see any of them till I was over 18, they weren't part of my formative years. The first one is a decent example of an 80's teen comedy, it's full of sex, nudity and grotesque jokes. But I never connected with the characters, they never seemed real to me, nothing more than stock characters. That had a lot to do with their limited development, but another problems was all the actors are all in their late 20's, early 30's, trying to play teenagers. It never worked for me.

It had been quite a while since I'd seen part 2 and 3, and I believe I'd only seen both of them once each during my college years. They were both playing on the Fox Movie Channel in widescreen, so I figured I'd check them out again, as they're easy and brainless to watch late at night. But now that it's been a month since I watched them, I'm having a very hard time separating the two. I believe that in The Next Day, they're trying to put together a Shakespeare production, but are getting resistance from the local church for indecency and the KKK because a Seminole Indian is playing Romeo. Pee Wee, the boys and Wendy Williams decide to fight back. In Revenge, Porky has rebuilt his club, and is forcing the boys basketball team to throw the championship game.

One of the problems with the films is there are too many characters, not letting any of them really stand out, the only two guys that stuck with me were Pee Wee, because he's the lead, and Meat, because he's big and has a memorable name. The four or five other guys always kind of blend in together as soon as the movie ends. Overall they're pretty funny, but you never feel like you get to actually know any of them, as they're always together in a group, bagging on each other in the same way. Pee Wee is the only character that has any sort of growth, and it's not much. Wendy, the lead girl, has a couple of good moments, especially at the end of the second film, when she's dressed up as an elaborate showgirl, trashing a local politician's reputation at a fancy restaurant. That scene and the scene where the boys take a prostitute to the cemetery, to double cross one another, and Pee Wee ends up running down the highway nude are the highlights of the film. The Romeo & Juliet stuff doesn't work well, it feels like writer/director Bob Clark trying to cram ideals about censorship and racism into a lighthearted film.

Porky's Revenge is the slightly better film of the two. They get back to basics, they're not trying to ram any messages down our throats, Porky is back as the main villain and Pee Wee and Wendy are no longer a couple. In The Next Day, they get a bit mushy with their relationship. In part 3, Pee Wee's back to being the horny bastard, chasing after the Swedish exchange student, with Wendy and the boys busting his balls. The Porky's universe has returned to normal. These very filled out teenagers, with receding hairlines are about to graduate, they play basketball in some of the most awkwardly filmed sports scenes in history, and try to scam girls into taking their clothes off. The film opens with a fun dream sequence where Pee Wee gets flashed by the Swedish girl and then his robed is ripped off, exposing his erection to the entire crowd. It seems all the best scenes in these films end with Pee Wee naked.

Both these films are pretty sub-par compared to the original Porky's, and I've already stated that I don't hold the first film in very high regard. So as 80's teen-sex comedies go, they rank pretty low on the scale. But if you're desperate for a laugh, you could do worse, as the films are at least fairly well produced, with a 1950's setting, and decent photography and acting. The actors, despite being 10 - 15 years beyond their teens, have good comic timing, keep the film entertaining. I probably won't bother with these sequels again, beyond maybe catching a scene or two on cable. If I want to see some 80's boobs and hear some 80's jokes, I'll check out the far superior Revenge of the Nerds. - Grade: C

This was a film that The Sports Guy wrote about as one best sports movies of all time, but I'd never seen till now. It wasn't on HBO when I was a kid, and I never heard anything about it till I was a grown-up film geek. Which I'm surprised by, because Breaking Away is a classic sports film, with all the clichéd scenes right out of screenplay 101, while also being a touching coming-of-age dramedy. It has great performances by the four lead actors; Dennis Christopher in the lead role of Dave Stoller, Dennis Quaid as his best friend Mike, their two good buddies, the reliably funny Daniel Stern is Cyril, and Moocher played by Jackie Earle Haley in his youth-prime, right after he played Kelly Leak in the Bad News Bears films.

Dave Stoller is the best bicyclist in a small mill town in Indiana. Which is like saying he's the fastest goldfish in a tank of goldfish. He wants to compete with the big fish, specifically the Italians. He even likes to pretend he's Italian, wearing their clothing and speaking non-stop with an Italian accent, which drives his blue collar father batty. The relationship with his parents feels very realistic, you can understand why the father is upset that after graduating all his son wants to do is ride bikes and talk funny, while his mother, a romantic at heart, sticks up for her only son and his dreams. His father tries to squash them by making him work at his used car shop, but is annoyed that his son is still happy. "You're supposed to be miserable by the end of the day," he yells at him.

Dave's friends are happy to waste away their youth at the quarry, where they swim and try to show off for the college girls. One of whom, Dave impresses by pretending to be an Italian exchange student. Dennis Quaid's character Mike, likes to think he's the best athlete in town, but when he's shown up by a college kid, he's raging mad and brings his friends in on some juvenile ways of getting revenge. Their true chance comes in the form of a bike race, which Dave will anchor. But his focus is on the Italians, who are coming into town for a long distance event, where he'll finally get a chance to show his worth. His confidence is shattered when the Italians do something nasty to him, leaving his friends to pump him back up to get back on his bike.

Breaking Away is utterly predictable in all the right ways. The boys are outcasts because they're "cutters", sons of the mill workers, that don't go to college. Dave's relationship with his parents and the way he teaches his father a thing or two. Dave's love interest, and the way he lies to get her to like him. Dave's rise to the top of his bicycling world, before crashing down and rising up again. There are training sequences and music montages. It's one of those films where you know exactly where it's going at all times, but that's why you love it. The film is well made, it's genuinely funny and moving, with great acting from all the characters, good guys to love and bad guys to hate, beautiful wide-screen photography that wonderfully captures the bike races, where you know exactly what's going on at all times. It's the rare film, where everything feels just right, nothing is out place and there are no bad surprises. - Grade: B+ (Seen on 7/7/08)

I have great memories from the early to mid-eighties of my dad taking me to our little hometown theater to see anything remotely kid friendly, mostly fantasy or sci-fi films, stuff like Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, Flash Gordon and Conan the Destroyer. I have great affection for these sub-par films because of the good memories attached to them. The Ice Pirates was one of those films, and I've revisited it quite a few times over the years, but it had been at least 10 years since I'd seen it. I wasn't sure it would hold up.

What I didn't realize the last time I saw it was how damn funny it is. As a kid I saw it as a fun swashbuckling, space adventure, which it still is, but I didn't get half the jokes till now. It's a great spoof of Star Wars and pirate films, while having its own unique spirit and remaining a fully cohesive film. You genuinely care for these characters as they fight the good fight against the evil conglomerate-Empire that holds the Universe's limited water supply hostage.

There's Jason, the ship's Captain and womanizer, not necessarily in that order; played with great pizazz by Robert Urich. His sidekick and second in command is Roscoe, who's an expert in robotics, they have a great comedic chemistry together. Princess Karina, is your typical damsel in distress, but she's not too annoying. Two of the ship's crew are filled out by some actors who went on to much bigger and better things, Ron Perlman and Anjelica Huston, and the film feels that much better for their involvement. The whole cast is really great, they don't treat the film like a lark, their dedication to their characters makes the film feel better than it is.

The film has quite a few inspired moments; just a few minutes into the film, there's a hilarious scene where robots fight kung fu style. The one that scarred me for life, is where Jason and Roscoe have been captured and are about to get their balls cut off, to be turned into unich-slaves, they float down a conveyor belt, getting their clothes cut off along the way, when a large metal mouth drops down at crotch level and is about to bite off their junk, before their saved at the last second. Even at a very young age it freaked me out, and I remembered it for years. Another classic scene towards the end of the film, happens when the ship goes through a time-warp and everybody starts aging rapidly. By the end, the pirates are all fighting with long gray beards and Jason's grown son comes to save the day.

The Ice Pirates, might be a bit too cheesy for today's average viewer, but those with an appreciation for fine cheese should really enjoy this film. Despite the low budget 80's special effects, the space travel stuff holds up pretty well. The robots are obviously just guys in suits, but they're fun to watch, as they give them a lot of personality. The characters are all pretty memorable, while the story is classic good-guy underdogs vs. all-powerful bad-guy stuff. I think that the young ones would really enjoy the film as well. A very fun, forgotten 80's cult-classic. - Grade: B+ (Seen on 7/6/08)

Way behind on my reviews, I want to offer up some quick thoughts on the big summer films I saw. Writing the 10,000th review of these films seems like a waste of time, I'd rather focus on something you may not have seen or even heard of yet. But it's my compulsion to write about every movie I watch, so I have to say something. Overall I thought this was the best summer movie season of the decade. I didn't see anything truly terrible, which was a surprise, and there were a couple of near masterpieces. I enjoyed to loved all the following films: Wall-E, Speed Racer, Kung Fu Panda, Iron Man and Forgetting Sarah Marshall


The Dark Knight

Without a doubt the best film of the summer, which is obvious from the reviews and the box office. Writer/Director Christopher Nolan crafted an epic crime film, that just happens to be about Batman. I loved Heath Ledger's wonderfully calculated over-the-top performance as the Joker. I love how they crafted him to be unbelievably evil for no real reason, we don't get the whole back-story, he just is. Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent & Two Face, is almost equally as good, his switch from white knight to villain is really the heart of the film. If I had any complaint, is that they didn't focus enough on Batman, he seems secondary at times. And the whole cell phone bit, acting as a world-wide sonar, seemed too far fetched. But this is a nearly perfect film, even at two and a half hours, it flies by. I made the rare second trip to the theater to see it again. - Grade: A (Seen on 7/18/08 & 8/10/08)


Wanted

As much as I like to see Angelina Jolie kick ass, I mainly wanted to see this film because of director Timur Bekmambetov. His Russian film Nightwatch is one of the most visually inventive films I've ever seen. With a relatively low-budget, he created some of the most superb action sequences ever put to film. I couldn't wait to see what he did with a Hollywood budget, and the film didn't disappoint on the action side. I like that they immediately set-up that this is a world where the fantastic can happen. Within the first 5 minutes, there is a guy jumping out a skyscraper window, taking out snipers with his handgun as he flies between buildings. Setting up the rest of the film, so we can believe that people can bend bullets and flip cars willy-nilly like. I liked James McAvoy, even though his American accent kept slipping, as the everyday schlep, who learns he comes from a long line of super-assassins. It's definitely a turn-your-brain-off-and-enjoy-the-ride kind of film, and I had fun with it as that. - Grade: B (Seen on 7/5/08)


Hancock

Will Smith has always been hit or miss for me. Sometimes I think he's great, his smart-ass attitude really made the Men in Black films, but those same characteristics completely ruined I, Robot. In the past few years I think he's shown a bit more range, he showed good range in Pursuit of Happyness, and I thought he did a good job with I Am Legend, not ruining it with horribly out of place jokes.

Hancock looked interesting to me, mainly because it was a superhero film, that didn't have a comic behind it, a totally fresh character. I also liked that he was reluctant about his powers, that he really only uses them for good when he has too. And I would imagine that somebody so powerful would feel alone in this world. In the end I liked that the explanation for his powers was so different than any other superhero story, no radioactive cockroach or nuclear testing gone wrong. The film moves along quickly and is fairly entertaining, but it wasn't good enough for me to want to see Hancock 2. - Grade: B- (Seen on 7/5/08)


Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Visually, Guillermo del Toro is one of the best directors around. He creates absolutely breathtaking scenes. And Hellboy II is full of them. I especially loved the scene were Hellboy and crew visit the Troll market. It's like the Star Wars cantina on acid. There are literally hundreds of fantastically out-there creatures to gawk at, most of them walking around in the background. I can't wait to get the DVD, just so I can pause it and get a better look. I also fell in love with the opening scene where Hellboy's adoptive father is telling him the story about the Golden Army. Guillermo uses what looks like Tim Burton stop-motion animation, but is probably computer generated, to show the story of how the magical world came to an end.

I liked the story of how this Elf Prince wants to bring back the magical world to what it once was, show the humans whose boss. It's interesting to see Hellboy struggle with his conscience about whether he should join the Elf, because most humans have shunned him and he clearly belongs to the magical side. With him ultimately deciding to fight for humanity. The film kind of grinds to a halt anytime there's a love scene, either between Hellboy and Liz or Abe Sabien and the Elf Princess. But Overall I dug Hellboy II, much more than the first film, it felt more well rounded, and is a rip-roaring adventure. - Grade: B (Seen on 7/10/08)


Tropical Thunder

Ben Stiller is a very underrated director. His films Zoolander and The Cable Guy, both rate as great comedies in my book. So I was very excited to see him at the helm of this action-comedy, with him, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. in front of the camera. A real comedy dream team. I enjoyed the film, but didn't think it was as funny as advertised. It was almost like Stiller was more concerned about the action scenes.

Although it may be one of those comedies you have to see a few times to truly appreciate. Thinking about it now, brings a lot of laughs to mind. Everybody was raving about Tom Cruise's appearance as the extremely angry, fat-balding studio boss, which I definitely give him props for. It's great to see him out of his usual role. But I think Danny McBride's role as the film crew's explosive expert got more laughs per line. Between this and the following film, the guy shows some serious comedic chops. And I can't forget about the brilliantly hilarious fake trailers at the beginning of the film, that perfectly set-up each of the main characters roles. I guess it was funnier than I originally remembered, and I'm looking forward to sitting down with some friends and watching it again. - Grade: B (Seen on 8/23/08)

Pineapple Express

This wrapped up the summer of 2008 films, at least those that were worth seeing. Seth Rogen has built himself a nice career as the shlubby stoner type that appears in Judd Apatow films, and his role as Dale in Pineapple Express is probably the pinnacle of said type-casting. He's a lovable loser, a wastoid and an action star all in one. I've always thought that James Franco had a lot of potential as an actor, but he's been stuck in pretty-boy roles for a while. He's hilarious here as Saul, an obvious take-off on Brad Pitt in True Romance, the drug dealer who gets into deep trouble with Dale.

I really had a lot of fun following these two stoners around as numerous people get beat-up and killed around them. Again Danny McBride nearly steals the show, or at least every scene he's in. Towards the end the three make the most unlikely group of action heroes in the history of film, taking on a gang of drug dealers and the Yakuza at the same time. Perhaps the most surprising thing about this film is that it was directed by David Gordon Green, who's known for intimate and talky indie films. This was so far outside his style, but he brings a great kinetic energy to the whole thing. It'd probably be more enjoyable toking up some Pineapple Express first, but even sober, it's a fun ride. - Grade: B (Seen on 9/6/08)

If you've read this blog at all, you know I'm a huge zombie fan. Of course it all started with Night of the Living Dead, zombie movies I mean, not my obsession. Although I do remember a childhood viewing of Night that freaked the hell out of me. My zombie fetish actually started with Return of the Living Dead, I must have watched it 20 times when I was younger, and it's still my all-time-favorite. It's the film that should be credited with the first "fast-zombies", not 28 Days Later, as everyone wrongly says.

But I should be talking about the old, lumbering, shoot-em-in-the-head zombies, that George A. Romero invented and made famous in Night, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead. Each of which, I've seen numerous times and love for different reasons. I love how Night sets up the new zombie invasion, we're just learning about and dealing with them for the first time. In Dawn, humanity is fighting and losing the war against the zombies. In Day, the zombies have won, and we're stuck with one of humanities last outcrops, trying to figure out a way to turn back the tide.

I saw Land of the Dead in theaters a few years back and wasn't totally impressed. Mostly because I didn't totally understand where the film fit into the series. Running across the film in the DVD discount bin, I couldn't pass up completing my collection. Watching it a second time, I actually appreciated the film much more. It's still nowhere near perfect, but it continues the story much better than I first believed, and Romero's idea of having the zombies learn and organize made sense. It's the next step in their evolution, and they're ending the war with the living for good.

Romero has never been a filmmaker that's impressed me with his style. He has a classic technique, letting story dictate the pace, the shots, and the look of the film. It's just enough to bring you into his messed-up-world. With Land of the Dead he really lets the actors carry the film, something which most horror films don't do, and they're mostly up to the challenge, offering up some fully realized characters. Simon Baker as Riley, wants to make a life outside of the city, away from the corruption that has overtaken what's left of society. John Leguizamo, as Cholo, is out for himself, always looking for a score, and wants to join the elite. Dennis Hopper, has some fun as the evil leader Kaufman, he gets a chance to chew some cheesy zombie dialog. The always entertaining Asia Argento, is a girl, who is simply trying to survive in this dog-eat-dog world.

I've always liked how Romero focuses on a few main characters among the world's chaos, it brings it to a much more personal level. With Land, he also focuses on a hero-zombie, the one that's smarter than the rest, that leads them into battle, that can figure out problems and seems to have feelings. It's a new wrinkle to the zombie genre; something he started with Bub in Day, but here you get a much better sense of where this world is headed. Although I enjoyed Land of the Dead more this time around, I'd still consider it the weakest entry into his zombie series. (I haven't seen Diary of the Dead yet.) But it's an interesting take on the genre, that probably won't be appreciated beyond anyone that enjoys zombie films. - Grade: C+ (Seen on 7/5/08)

Michael Gondry is a filmmaker I've had my eye on for quite sometime. In 2001 he made an extremely offbeat comedy, Human Nature, that didn't totally work, but it had such outrageous ideas that it caught my attention. He started out as a commercial and music video director, making my all time favorite video in 2003, The Hardest Button to Button by The White Stripes. In 2004, from a script by the brilliantly-demented Charlie Kaufman, he directed one of the greatest romantic comedies ever, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. His next film, The Science of Sleep, was again a bit uneven, but presented a bunch of way out there moments, that made it definitely worth seeing.

When I heard about the plot for Be Kind Rewind I thought it would be the perfect vehicle for him to explore his tendency to incorporates different film aesthetics and animation styles into his films. Including stop-motion effects, which is a favorite of mine. What better way to get into all these different styles than to "remake" a bunch of Hollywood classics with Jack Black and Mos Def at the helm? And those scenes, especially the classic Ghostbusters remake, are the highlight of the film.

It's the rest of the film which takes place in the "real world", that lacks luster, isn't completely cohesive, and most disappointing of all, boring. I haven't been bored by a Gondry film yet, sure I've been put off by things that didn't work, but there was always something strange enough going on to keep it interesting. But the story about Danny Glover losing his video store to corporate developers wasn't fresh, there wasn't enough drama built to make me care. (And honestly it's not surprising he's losing the store, renting out VHS tapes, in a DVD/Netflix age.)

But there's enough of Jack Black messing around in front of the camera, playing everyone from Miss Daisy to Jackie Chan in Rush Hour 2, to keep the film interesting. Gondry's filmmaking styles flourish when he's focusing on the oddball aspects of the film, but when they're trying to wring some drama out of the been-there, seen-it-before plot, it's too tired to work. Danny Glover and Mia Farrow, who I've always respected, drag down every scene they're in. Sigorney Weaver, makes an appearance towards the end of the film, brings some life to the losing the store plot, but it's way too late. The amateur movie moments are fun, but they're not cohesive; jumping back and forth between inspired movie-making scenes to boring drama. Be Kind Rewind is too uneven to truly work as a film. - Grade: C+ (Seen on 7/4/08)

I don't expect too much of Hollywood thrillers these days. They're too formulaic, too predictable, too tame, too Ashley Juddy and Morgan Freemany. Every time I watch one, it feels like I've already seen it. They have the same plots, the same twists, the same cops and bad guys. But I love the genre, so I keep going back.

I'd read a couple of good things about Mr. Brooks, but really didn't expect much from Mr. America 1988 aka Kevin Costner, the botoxed Demi Moore and pseudo-comedian turned hack-actor Dane Cook. Maybe it was my low expectations, but I thoroughly enjoyed this film. For a modern Hollywood thriller to keep me engaged, not ask me to switch my brain off every 3 minutes, and actually still make sense by the last twist; it's a minor miracle.

What worked best for me about this film was William Hurt playing Mr. Brooks evil-conscience. He sits in the back seat of the car, suggesting nasty things for them to do. Costner's Brooks wants to be a good upstanding man, and when we first meet him, he's receiving Man of the Year honors from the Portland Chamber of Commerce. He's a good husband and father, a successful business, and has been able to curb his murderous tendencies for the past few years. But apparently Hurt's Brooks has had his eye on a particular victim, the old urges win out, and the serial-murder known as the Finger Print Killer goes back to work. He's a little rusty though, and kills a young couple in front of a wide open window.

His sloppiness soon comes to haunt him in the form of Dane Cook's Mr. Smith, who blackmails Brooks with some photographs of the murder scene. But Smith doesn't want money, he wants a taste of murder and forces Brooks to take him out with him on his next kill. This is really the meat of the film, I love how Brooks takes Smith under his twisted wing and shows him how a professional serial killer works, all the while playing a sadistic cat and mouse game. Writer/Director Bruce Evans even manages to get a decent performance out of Cook. He has an important role, and if his Mr. Smith doesn't work, the film fails. There's also a decent subplot about Brooks' daughter possibly being a serial killer herself. The weakest link is Demi Moore's on-the-edge detective. (Is there any other kind?) She's not that bad, just cliche'd, and there's a fairly useless storyline about her bastard ex-husband, that slows down the film.

Overall the film really works; it's well made, nicely shot and edited, and competently directed and acted. Most importantly the screenplay works, it doesn't dumb things down, or have twists that come out of nowhere to ruin the film. William Hurt and Kevin Costner are great together as the two sides of Brooks' ego. Mr. Brooks is the rare, modern Hollywood thriller that doesn't make you feel stupider for watching. - Grade: B (Seen on 7/3/08)

There's a delicate art to creating movie gore. First the filmmakers have to decide what kind of tone they want to set; realistic, scary, gross, funny, or a combination. Then they have to decide how they want to use it, a little shown just right can be extremely effective ala Seven, you use too much, the audience can become numb too it, like by the time the girl's getting her eye blow-torched in Hostel, it's become humorous. Sometimes filmmakers want to go all out, and make a movie pretty much all about the gore, see how far they can push it, see how many ways they can come up with destroying the human body. The Italians relished in it during the 70's, now the Japanese hold the market. (Examples: Tokyo Gore Police, The Story of Ricky, or Ichi the Killer.) Machine Girl is one of the better and more original gore films I've seen.

Ami is a high school basketball star, who takes care of her younger brother Yu, because they're parents are dead. When Yu gets killed by the school bully, and son of the local Yakuza boss, Ami goes nuts and starts killing off everyone who was even slightly involved. She's captured by the Yakuza, gets tortured and her arm chopped off, but manages to escape with her life. She stumbles upon the doorstep of Yu's best-friend's parents house, whose son was killed along with Yu. The father, an ace mechanic builds Ami a machine gun arm, and soon the two mom's team up to take down the Yakuza in the bloodiest way possible.

People are tortured, maimed and killed in just about every possible way you could think of, and quite a few ways you never would think of. Guys are sliced and diced with knives, swords and chainsaws, they're shot with Gatling guns inches from their face, Ninja stars fly furiously, at one point Ami gets her arm deep fried in tempura and then she's attacked later by a woman with a drill-bra. Yes, a bra, that has large drills covering each breast; I must say, it's one of the most inventive weapons I've ever seen. The filmmakers make sure to show every bloody detail of every single attack, ramping up the gore to the maximum effect. A small cut to the neck, will shoot off like a fire hose. When somebody's shot in the face, the entire skull is exposed, white eyes bugging out, while they scream in pain.

The Machine Girl is one of the bloodiest films I've ever seen, but I didn't get squeamish even once, none of it can be taken seriously in the least, it's all over-the-top cartoon violence. Writer/director Noboru Iguchi, doesn't want to get us sick, he wants to push the envelope and makes us laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. At times the gore is top-notch, but they also rely too much on cheap computer effects that don't sell the gooshy-red stuff in the same way. It's too bad that the rest of the film does't hold up, they try their damndest, but the rest of the film is a bit weak. It could have been shot with more style, the editing lags at moments, and even for a film this stylisticy goofy, the acting ranges from barely tolerable to painfully bad. But if you're into weird or violent films, you could do much worse, it's worth watching just for the hundreds of gory deaths. - Grade: C+ (Seen on 7/1/08)

Wow, am I behind in my reviews. It seems like I saw this an eternity ago, or at least while summer was still fresh, and after all the other summer films have come and gone, this remains my favorite film not about Batman. Pixar knocked one out of the park with Wall•E. The film is absolutely gorgeous, the animation is luscious, their attention to detail is second to none. Wall•E's rust alone, the photo-realism of it, makes me want to cream in my pants in digital bliss.

Besides the obvious superior animation skills of Pixar, they plain understand how to tell a story. Wall•E is at once, the most romantic movie and the best sci-fi film of the year. For the first 30 minutes of the film there are no human character, and no talking, but the love that grows between Wall•E and EVE is a beautiful thing. These two robots, brought to life by, Star Wars sound designer, Ben Burt's beeps and boops, have more humanity in them and present more well rounded characters than 99% of the films coming out of Hollywood.

It's easy to say that I fell in love with the character of Wall•E, he's an amazing little guy. After the world is long destroyed by the humans, and all his robot brothers have decayed into nothingness, Wall•E continues his mission of cleaning up the planet, one tiny, crushed cube at a time. After many millennium, Wall•E has developed a personality; possibly from processing all our leftover junk, he's relentlessly curious about what's been left behind. The moment he reveals his collection is geek heaven. When EVE arrives on Earth for her important mission, Wall•E is lovestruck by her beauty, fascinated by her advanced robotics, and down-right infatuated, simply because he has no one else to connect with. When he follows her off Earth, he discovers what has become of the human race.

I've never been much of a Colin Farrel fan. About eight years ago, he was touted as the next great movie star, then went on to appear in a bunch of completely underwhelming films, like The Recruit, Phone Booth and Daredevil. I did love the film The New World, but that had a thousand times more to do with the genius filmmaking of Terrance Malick, than Ferrel's role as Captain Smith. He simply did his quiet, brooding machismo thing, and Malick did the rest. That all changes with In Bruges.

I'd love to spend some time writing in detail about this beautiful film, but there has been enough dissections of this near masterpiece, that mine will only become another small piece of the noise. Instead I'll post a few of my favorite Persepolis clips in hopes that these tastes will be enough to convince anyone, that hasn't seen this film, to seek it out.