Est Très Bien!

     Gil (Owen Wilson), the spacey Hollywood screenwriter in Midnight in Paris, dreams of two things -- publishing a novel involving Paris in the '20s and living in 1920s Paris while he does it.  However, his fiancé Inez (Rachel McAdams, as selfish and bossy as she was in Mean Girls) finds his obsessions pointless and annoying, which she makes increasingly clear while she and Gil, along with her parents, vacation in Paris.  When Gil and Inez run into Inez's old friend Paul (Michael Sheen) and his wife, and Gil finds himself unwillingly thrust into a trip for the four of them, full of Parisian tours dominated by Paul's "expertise" on every subject.  Preferring to write or walk the streets, Gil opts out of many of these activities and doesn't recognize Inez drifting away from him and closer to Paul.
     Lost on a midnight stroll, Gil accepts a ride from drunk strangers in a antique car and is promptly escorted into the 1920s, where he soon meets Ernest Hemingway.  Hemingway agrees to have his publisher, Gertrude Stein look over Gil's book.  Gil returns with his novel the next night, he takes it to Ms. Stein's house.  There he encounters Pablo Picasso and his mistress Adriana.  Charming and beautiful, Adriana captures Gil's heart as he returns night after night to this past fantasy.
     Through music, still pictures, and subtle filming, director Woody Allen depicts a Paris that is sentimental and nostalgic, cozy and cosmopolitan, fun-loving and romantic, graceful and elegant.  I loved how there were credits at the beginning of the movie on a black screen, giving the film an old-fashioned vibe.  After the credits were finished, the screen was just black, and you heard Gil and Inez talking for a little bit before the picture appeared, leaving your imagination to wonder and wander.  The result of this beautifully represented image of Paris?  An original and lighthearted comedy that's almost as good as the city itself.
                                                            

Needs No Help

     The year is 1962.  The place?  Jackson, Mississippi.  Based on Kathryn Stockett's best-selling novel, The Help deals with the racial tensions of the South during the Civil Rights movement.

     In the movie, a young writer named Skeeter returns home from college to her friends Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard), the stereotypical queen bee of the Women's Junior League and town racist, and Elizabeth (Ahna O'Reilly), Hilly's loyal follower.  Skeeter is played by Emma Stone, who does a great job representing Skeeter's personality, but is, in my opinion, too pretty to be the tall, gangly, frizzy-haired girl descriped in the book.  Skeeter gets a job as an advice columnist for the Jackson journal while working on a bigger writing idea -- a book of autobiographies, stories of black maids told from their perspective.  At first, no one would agree to work on the book, but soon Elizabeth's servent Aibileen (Viola Davis) and her friend Minny (Octavia Spencer) sign up, later followed by serveral other women.  They work in secret, especially avioding Hilly, who knows Skeeter is up to something and is determined to find out what.

     Meanwhile, Skeeter gets serious with her first-ever boyfriend.  Aibileen works for Elizabeth in a house where the mother has no love for her children.  Minny gets a job twenty minutes outside Jackson as a maid for crazy lady Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain), whom Hilly, and therefore the whole town, hates with a burning passion.        
     While by no means an action movie, the film moves forward at a steady pace, with lots happening.  The plot switches among the lives of Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter.  However, unlike the novel, which had each of their stories told in first person, the movie is narrated solely in the soft, gentle voice of Aibileen.    
     One aspect of The Help that I loved was the costume design, which captured the time period quite well.  I felt the same way about the hairstyles, and the cozy diner and colored church, each of which is the setting for a few scenes. 
     When Skeeter's book finally gets published, there is little climax, but that was fine with me.  it worked for Stockett's novel, and it works for this movie.  At times, The Help made me laugh, and at other times, it moved me to tears (especially with Viola Davis' acting).  A movie like that is a rare and beautiful thing.
                                                                          
                                                    

Crazy, Stupefying, Lovely.

     Stupid, Crazy, Love is a movie more silly and complex than any other romantic comedy, where the writing always catches you by surprise.  The plot gets off to a slow start after Emily (Julianne Moore) tells her husband Cal (Steve Carrol) that she wants a divorce due to an affair with a coworker.  When Cal goes to a nearby pick-up bar to nurse his fresh wound, he meets a mysterious ladies' man (Ryan Gosling) who wants to teach him how to "recover his manhood".  So Cal tries to distract himself and move on with life by buying new clothes and new drinks and hooking up with new women.        
     But love is in the air.  Cal can't give up hope of his ex and secretly does her gardening at night; Emily finds herself missing him when her new relationship amounts to nothing.  Their thirteen-year-old son (Jonah Bobo, who's too-long hair bugged me through the entire movie) is obsessed with his babysitter and "soulmate" (Analeigh Tipton) and tries to strip himself of the "little kid" label for her benefit, while she attempts the same thing for her older crush, his father.  Even the Gosling character player can't help falling for his latest girl (an lively, convincing performance by Emma Stone).  All the character's life crash together into one in a shocking, hysterical climax.  The end is a bit over-the-top ridiculous, and the very end comes quite suddenly, leaving the movie unfinished and not at all correctly predicted.

A New Pooh

     Silly old bear!  Winnie the Pooh and friends made a hit come-back with this latest movie, simply titled Winnie the Pooh.  It consists of two well-known stories.  Eyore has loses his tail, and a contest is held for the person (or animal) who can find the best replacement.  Meanwhile, Christopher Robin has goes missing, and the only clue he leaves for the animals is a note saying that he was captured by a Backson; everyone sets out to rescue him.  Maybe these narratives are a little too well known; more than once throughout the movie I thought, Isn't there already a Winnie the Pooh movie that tells this story?  But the film puts enough of a fresh spin on the tales to leave movie-goers more than satisfied.  

     The flick switches between the pages of a storybook and the real-life story, with the narrator talking to the characters every once in a while to keep them on track.  The tale falls off the book pages and into the Hundred Acre Wood (sometimes quite literally).  There's lots of comedy, too.  Tigger, showing off some good slapstick humor, sneakily stalks his prey, a balloon, pounces, and then starts freaking out when it sticks to his fur.  Later on, after a flurry of jokes accidentally made by Pooh, Tigger attempts to train Eyore to be his Tigger Number Two, with a lot of paint and injuries, but no success.  Has Winnie the Pooh always been this hilarious?

     At 70 minutes long, the film's biggest, and arguably only, flaw is lack of length.  But Winnie the Pooh is really just a short, entertaining snippet.  It's good at what it does, which isn't something you can say for every movie.

                                                                

Farewell, Harry.

     So far, it's been a summer of sequels, and now, finally, we have the sequel.  The grand finale to a project spanning over thirteen years, seven books, eight movies (Despite my wishing they had made one long movie for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows instead of two short ones.  I mean, look at long and successful movies like Lord of the Rings and Avatar.), and a theme park.
     Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II begins right where Part 1 left off, with Harry, Ron, and Hermione finding and destroying Horcruxes (little bits of dark wizard Voldemort's soul).  You can tell that this movie is a continuation; there really isn't much of a beginning at all.  The rest of the film unfolds at a breakneck pace perfect for the film's action plot.  Harry, Ron, and Hermione break into Gringotts Wizard Bank (one of the movie's best scenes, involving Hermione's comical attempt at being Bellatrix Lestrange, scary multiplying fake treasure, and a breathtaking escape on a dragon), destroy the Horcruxes, and kill Voldemort -- boom, boom, boom.  This action is intensified by the soundtrack, a thrilling combination of old and new.  There are no pauses for breath, save a few for romance -- between Ron and Hermione, Harry and Ginny, Neville and Luna.
     This latest sequel also really showed off the talent of supporting actors we haven't seen since Half Blood Prince.  Brave Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis) defends Hogwarts fiercely during the final battle; Seamus Finnigan (Devon Murray) returns as the funny character we saw and loved in the first film.  In addition, the Harry Potter world in Deathly Hallows Part II has lived up to the high expectations set by the previous installments.  The Gringotts set was especially captivating -- the treasure, the architecture, the roller-coaster ride that led to the vaults.

     Harry Potter book-lovers may have noticed that some scenes in the movie unwisely diverged from their corresponding parts in the book.  Such as the final battle against Voldemort at Hogwarts.  In J.K. Rowling's novel, Harry had killed Voldemot in front of a crowd of onlookers, who promptly started celebrating.  There hadn't been any fight between the two of them, just the one blow.  In the movie, Voldemort had chased Harry into some remote area of the castle, where they exchanged continuous spells before Harry uttered the pointless line, "Let's finish this the way we started it.  Together." grabbed Voldemort, and jumped with him out of the school from several stories up.  Then they hit the ground and went on fighting.  Huh?  While this scene may have been suspenseful for some to watch, let's not forget that Harry is a teenager facing the most powerful wizard alive.  Harry would never have been able to hold his own in a long duel against Voldemort.  And what was that with the jumping?
     Another part is when Harry told his old teacher, "I never wanted you to die, Remus, especially after you had your son."  What son?  Quite regrettably, the movie, unlike the book, didn't include the scene where Remus finds out he has a son and asks Harry to be the godfather.   And, though the movie's title is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the story of the Hallows remains unfinished with the movie's end.  Harry never realized, as he did in the book, that he owned the Invisibility Cloak from the legend.  Nor did he use the Elder Wand to fix his own broken wand.  Instead, he tore it in half, leaving himself wand-less.  These issues leave you with the feeling that the movie wasn't very well thought out.
     Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II concludes with an epilogue, taking place 19 years later.  The characters hardly look like married adults, but Ron and Hermione already have two kids, and Harry and Ginny have three.  The four of them are seeing their kids off to Hogwarts at Platform 9 3/4.  Here, in Harry Potter's final minutes, where the whole story began, is where the sentimentality and nostalgia lost after the first two films makes a rare appearance.  A good one, too; very fitting for this last good-bye.
                                         

Popper's Penguins is Pleasing

     Based on the book by Richard and Florence Atwater and starring Jim Carrey as Mr. Popper, Mr. Popper's Penguins is the story of a divorced, workaholic dad learning to love his family.  In this regard, it has more in common with Carrey's 1997 Liar, Liar than the book it was based on; in the book, Mr. Popper was an Antarctic-loving painter struggling to provide for a wife and two young children.

     In the new movie, Mr. Popper needs to buy Tavern on the Green in Central Park from its private owner (Angela Lansbury) for his company.  The only problem is, she says she'll only sell to someone with good character, and Mr. Popper is a bit lacking in that area.  Meanwhile, he receives a penguin from his recently deceased father.  Five more soon follow.  Before he can get rid of the birds, Mr. Popper's kids, and, gradually, Mr. Popper himself, become way too attached to them.

     But if Mr. Popper changed his mind about sending the penguins away, no one else has.  A local zookeeper (Clark Greg) has his eye on the birds -- and Mr. Popper.  Keeping the penguins hidden from his landlord is virtually impossible, even without having to worry about proving his good character to the owner of Tavern on the Green to secure the sale.

     Cute, unrealistic, and completely happy-go-lucky, Mr. Popper's Penguins is good for a few laughs, from both penguins and people. And it is refreshing to see Jim Carrey more subdued, playing a character who's not entirely crazy.  Though the movie is really a one-man act, the supporting cast, including Mr. Popper's daughter Janie (Madeline Carrol), is excellent.

     But how ironic that a movie teaching that money isn't as important as love would deviate from a classic, cherished story --  in order to make more money.

                                                             

Towing Mater

     In Cars II, Tow Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), Lightning McQueen's tow-truck best friend from Radiator Springs, takes center stage.  Mater joins Lightning (Owen Wilson) on his trip to Tokyo, Italy, and London to compete in three separate World Grand Prix races.  While in Tokyo, small town native, simple-minded Mater embarrasses his famous race car friend with antics such as mistaking wasabi for pistachio ice cream.  This ignorance and provincial mindset is the center of the flick's comedy.  The jokes were funny, though many young children would not pick up on them.
     Later on, Mater gets mistaken for a canny American spy by secret agent Finn McMissle (Michael Caine) and his partner, Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer).  So, Mater gets pulled into helping to dismantle a worldwide coalition of terrorist cars.  This latest Cars film's action adventure plot line is pleasantly surprising and amusing, but also somewhat confusing.
     Film composer Michael Giacchino's (Up, Ratatouille) soundtrack was ultimately disappointing.  The music towards the beginning of the movie was gripping or enchanting, depending on the mood of the scene, but after about the first two songs, the soundtrack pretty much just blended in with the rest of the movie.  It was  unnoticeable and definitely forgettable.
     Perhaps Cars II's best characteristic was its animation.  The cars are charming; the Japanese girls look the part, with flowers on both sides of their heads, and the queen of England looks utterly comical in her crown and powdered wig.
     Overall, the second Cars movie really showcases Mater's great personality.  It has a lot of humor, heart, and action.  There's something there for everyone.