FANTASTIC MR. FOX

Animated drama

PRINCIPAL VOICES
George Clooney: Mr. Fox
Meryl Streep: his wife Felicity, an artist
Jason Schwartzman: their son Ash
Eric Anderson: his cousin Kristofferson
Owen Wilson: Coach Skip
Bill Murray: Mr. Fox’s badger lawyer
Wally Wolodarsky: Mr. Fox’s faithful sidekick, Kylie the opossum
Robin Hurlstone: chicken farmer Walter Boggis (and Jacques Parizeau look- alike)
Hugh Guinness: Nathan Bunce who raises ducks and geese
Michael Gambon: Franklin Bean, manufacturer of alcoholic hard cider
Willem Dafoe: Rat, the security boss

REVIEW
The title says it all: it is a fantastic movie with all the right elements. The smart, funny, grown-up script seems to have been written more with adults and older kids in mind than for children. The voice work is superlative with just the right nuance and phrasing.

The inter-titles (aka title cards) which are a throwback to the era of silent movies are a clever touch, reminiscent as I recall of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? In any event like that film this one is full of witty dialogue that often provokes smiles and sometimes outright laughter. And like Sundance there are exciting action sequences to keep things moving along at a good clip.

The soundtrack is a delight as are the close-up expressions. This is a fun outing.

CLASSIFICATION
for action, smoking and slang humor.

P.S.
The writers have gone to great length making sure there are no naughty words and keeping it family-friendly by employing the more socially acceptable “what the cuss” instead of the usual “what the @*!#”. How refreshing.

P.S.S.
Like other members of the Canidae biological family (that also includes wolves, jackals, coyotes and the domestic dog) the offspring of foxes are called pups.

THE ARMY OF CRIME

War drama
Original title: L’Armée du crime

BACKGROUND
In June 1940 German forces outflanked the Maginot Line and with their Italian allies overcame the French forces offering little resistance. On June 25 an armistice was signed between France and Germany. The terms of the agreement divided France into occupied and unoccupied zones, with a rigid line of demarcation between them. The Germans would directly control three-fifths of the country, an area that included northern and western France and the entire Atlantic coast. The remaining section of the country would be administered by the French government at Vichy under Marshal Henri-Philippe Petain.

Other provisions of the armistice included the surrender to the Germans of all Jews living in France. The French Army was to be disbanded except for a force of 100,000 men to maintain domestic order. The 1.5 million French soldiers captured by the Germans were to remain prisoners of war. The French government also agreed to stop members of its armed forces from leaving the country and instructed its citizens not to fight against the Germans.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Virginie Ledoyen: Mélinée
Simon Abkarian: Missak Manouchian her husband and leader of the group
Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet: the team’s explosives expert Thomas Elek
Ariane Ascaride: Tomas’ mother Madame Elek
Robinson Stévenin: another member of the group Marcel Rayman
Léoplod Szabatura: his younger 14-year-old brother Simon
Lola Naymark: Monique Stern, the sole female in the group
Yann Trégouet: Nazi collaborator Commissaire David
Jean-Pierre Darroussin: another collaborator Inspecteur Pujol

REVIEW
This film about the Parisian-based branch of the French Resistance (the so-called Army of Resistance but not by the Nazis and their collaborators) never really gets going.

Each new recruit gets to tell “their story” seeming compelled for some obscure reason having to justify their becoming a member of the gang. This lack of focus, devoting so much time exploring the motives of the twenty-one in the group serves no useful purpose except to make the story convoluted, confusing and overlong at 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Instead of action, we get flashbacks and a lot of words with surprising little tension despite what they are up to.

CLASSIFICATION
for brief nudity and one particularly gruesome torture scene.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Prior to the repercussions following the July 20 attempt at Hitler’s life, a Nazi army officer saluted with the right hand palm facing forwards and the fingers almost touching the eye. When his subordinate approaches the commandant he mistakenly gives him the naval salute, with palm of the hand facing downward.

P.S.
Yid is a derogatory slang word for a Jew.

P.S.S.
Although generally regarded as war heroes fighting a losing battle, most of the population just wanted to survive the war and disliked the résistants, who provoked dangerous and deadly German retaliation.

INSIDE HANA’S SUITCASE

Documentarty

REVIEW
As Director of the Tokyo Holocaust Education and Resource Centre, Fumiko Ishioka wanted to have some artefacts on display. So she contacted the Auschwitz Museum and they lent her a number of items including the suitcase of one of the millions of Jewish children who died in concentration camps during World War II.

This prompted Ishioka to find out more about the owner. This film documents her research with recreations, interviews and family photos without dwelling on the Holocaust itself. Perhaps most poignant of all are the comments from the schoolchildren who tell us what they've learned about Hana and the contents of her suitcase.

CLASSIFICATION
for some disturbing images.

THE BLIND SIDE

Drama
Based on a true story

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Ray McKinnon: Coach Cotton
Quentin Aaron: 17-year-old Michael “Big Mike” Oher
Kim Dickens: science teacher Mrs. Boswell
Jae Head: Big Mike’s friend S.J. Tuohy
Sandra Bullock: S.J.’s mother Leigh Anne
Tim McGraw: her husband Sean, Taco Bell franchise owner
Lily Collins: their daughter Collins
Kathy Bates: private tutor Miss Sue
Adriane Lenox: Michael’s mother

REVIEW
An African-American from the projects being taken in by a well-to-do white family is unusual in itself. What is not unusual is Hollywood’s treatment of the story which poses some credibility issues. But leaving that aside, the film has a lot going for it: quite a few humorous incidents (of the laugh-out-loud type too), some fine acting, a great soundtrack and emotional moments that are not too maudlin which would spoil the effect.

Non-sport fans will be pleased that there is not too much time devoted to the game of football. However there is a tad too much time in the last reel devoted to Michael and Leigh Ann talking seriously about things. A bit of editing would fix that up nicely and keep the running time to less than 2 hours.

CLASSIFICATION
for one scene involving brief violence, drug and sexual references.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• While reviewing Big Mike’s school grades the teacher on the left hand side of the table has her hands on her lap and a closed pink folder in front of her. When the camera angle shifts the folder has opened itself and we can see the papers inside.
• A percentile by definition is “the value of a variable below which a certain percent of observations fall.” For example the 20th percentile is the value (or score) below which 20% of the observations are found. While discussing Big Mike’s intelligence quotient one of the teachers says his I.Q. “falls in the 6% percentile”. There is no such thing as a percent of a percentile.
• Big Mike chooses a desk in the middle row of the classroom and sits down. At the end of the test he has magically relocated to the adjacent row of desks (which makes for a much better camera angle when he leaves).
• While dining in an upscale restaurant one of Leigh Ann’s lunch friends points with her knife to emphasize what she is saying. Cultured ladies would never make such a faux-pas. With their upbringing they would know that proper table etiquette states that “the knife is never pointed at anyone.”
• The rear view mirror is missing in the truck Big Mike and S.J. are riding in which is a clear violation of the state’s motor-vehicle laws.
• When Sean and Leigh Ann greet the university coach in the foyer, she demurely pulls her long sweater together leaving only a small gap in front. The camera angle shifts to see her in profile and the sweater is back where it started before she pulled it over herself.

P.S.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA or sometimes referred to as the NC double A) is a voluntary association of about 1,300 organizations that oversees the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. Member schools pledge to follow the rules promulgated by the NCAA which prohibits underhanded methods to get an athlete to join their varsity team.

MARY AND MAX

Animated story

F.Y.I.
One of the many forms of stop-motion animation is clay animation. Each object is sculpted in clay or a similarly pliable material such as Plasticine, usually around a wire skeleton called an armature. For feature-length productions the use of clay has generally been supplanted by rubber silicone and resin-cast components. Regardless of the medium used, the object is arranged on the set, a film frame is exposed, the object is moved slightly by hand then another frame is taken. This cycle is repeated until the animator has achieved the desired amount of film. It is an extremely laborious process.
Normal film runs at 24 frames per second. With the standard practice of double-framing (exposing 2 frames for each shot), there are 12 changes made for one second of film movement. For a full-length 90-minute movie, there would be approximately 64,800 stops to change the figures for the frames. Great care must be taken to ensure that the object is not altered by accident, by even slight smudges, dirt, hair, or even dust. This technique is not for everyone.

PRINCIPAL VOICES
Bethany Whitmore: Mary Daisy Dinkle, 8-year-old Australian girl
Renée Geyer: her mother Vera
Philip Seymour Hoffman: 44-year-old New Yorker Max Jerry Horowitz
Eric Bana: Mary's Greek neighbour Damion
Toni Collette: Mary as an adult
Narration by Barry Humphries

REVIEW
A simple well told tale of two lonely people reaching out to find understanding from someone. With time given to each, the characters are fleshed out well enough that you can really get to know them. The story spans twenty years and is a mix of the serious with many laugh-out-loud moments. The voice work is terrific, the expressions and images well done and I just loved the soundtrack.

One more thing: although an animated film it’s target audience is not children because it deals with subjects they would have no interest in nor would they get a lot of the humour. And there would be the problem of having to explain certain things like the manner of dog procreation which appears on screen several times. This and the frequent potty-type humour may not appeal to everyone: for that reason it loses a star.

CLASSIFICATION


FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Mary flips through the telephone book and spots the name M J A Horowitz. So when she addresses the envelope she would have no way of knowing his first name is Max.

P.S.
There's something special about stop-motion animation with its slightly jerky, less-than-perfect motion that cannot be matched by the more sophisticated, technically superior CGI method.

P.S.S.
I read somewhere that often they managed to shoot just four seconds in a day which is the main reason it took them over a year to film it.

THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS

Comedy

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Ewan McGregor: newspaper reporter Bob Wilton
Stephen Root: psychic Gus Lacey
George Clooney: ex-Special Ops officer Lyn Cassady
Jeff Bridges: Vietnam veteran Bill Django
Kevin Spacey: new recruit Larry Hooper
Stephen Lang: Gen. Dean Hopgood

REVIEW
When a film is promoted as a comedy it should be funny no? Well this one isn’t. The odd smirk maybe, perhaps a couple of amusing moments but nothing of the laugh-out-loud variety of humour. Given that the cast are mostly A-List actors and the title gives every indication that this is a bit of an oddball movie, well expectations are high.
Making use of flashbacks we learn of a program designed to develop the psychic powers of select recruits who will form a military unit of “mind warriors”. This potentially could lead to some wild and crazy stuff but it never does. Everyone is trying real hard to be funny, but it all falls flat. The story ambles along from one episode to another but these are of little interest and go nowhere. Maybe at some point you begin to wonder “why am I spending so much time sitting through this?”. I did.

CLASSIFICATION
for language, some drug content and brief nudity.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• The stripes, bars or stars worn on the shoulders of a military uniform denote the person's rank and are called "insignia." The insignia for a Brigadier General is one star but Hopgood, who we’re told is a Brigadier General, has incorrectly been given two stars.
• In 2003 desktop computers did not come with flat-panel LCD monitors as shown in the war room.
• Finding an oasis both Bob and Lyn drink lustily from their cupped hands. When they look up to see what the noise is, both their faces are completely dry.

PIRATE RADIO

Drama
aka The Boat That Rocked

F.Y.I.
Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. Fitting the most common perception of a pirate, often these radio stations are set up on sea vessels anchored in international waters. In some cases the stations are deemed legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are received—especially when the signals cross a national boundary.

In other cases, a broadcast may be considered "pirate" due to the nature of its content, or failing to transmit the station identification according to regulations, or the transmit power exceeds standards set down by some regulatory body.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Tom Sturridge: “Young” Carl
Bill Nighy: his godfather Captain Quentin, the station manager
Philip Seymour Hoffman: the station’s lead DJ, an American known as “The Count”
Rhys Ifans: star DJ, bad-boy Gavin
Nick Frost: another on-air personality "Doctor Dave"
Chris O'Dowd: Simon, the moring guy
Rhys Darby: scruffy recluse Angus
Tom Wisdom: DJ "Midnight" Mark
Ralph Brown: Bob "the Dawn Treader"
Tom Brooke: Carl’s roommate "Thick" Kevin
Katherine Parkinson: the ship’s cook Felicity
Talulah Riley: Quentin’s daughter Marianne
Kenneth Branagh: British Government Minister Sir Alistair Dormandy
Jack Davenport: his assistant Twatt
Emma Thompson: Carl's mom Charlotte

REVIEW
It’s not hard to imagine life aboard ship would be very much as depicted: sex, drugs and rock-and-roll. Lots of rock-and-roll. In just about every scene a classic rock song is played or at least a snippet of one.

The comedy for the most part does not “cross the line” although it comes mighty close a couple of times. Certainly a nice diversion although a tad too long at 2 hours.

CLASSIFICATION
for language and some sexual content, including brief nudity.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• When The Count threatens to say the f-word live on air despite Quentin’s objection, in some shots his left hand is holding the microphone while in others his hand is by his side.
• These events take place in 1966 but when Angus is first introduced he is wearing modern over-the-ear headphones that had not yet been invented.
• A call for help goes out giving the position in the North Sea as 53 degrees 17 minutes North, 2 degrees 15 minutes East. This is about 70 km from the nearest landfall, the seaside town of Cromer on the Lincolnshire coast. Gavin then pleads for anyone with a boat in Suffolk to come out to rescue them. Suffolk is twice as far away as Cromer.

P.S.
For reasons I can’t figure out there are no Beatles songs despite the fact Beatlemania was at its peak at the time.