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pbartholomew
Reviews
Cars (2006)
Disney steals another one
Looks like Disney's habit of "borrowing" from other, original sources has infected Pixar. The anthropomorphic vehicles are cute--until you remember animator Tex Avery's delightful "One Cab's Family" and "Little Johnny Jet" for MGM 54 years ago. Unfortunately, anyone in a position to fully appreciate this movie (who remembers the American highway between the end of World War II and the start of the Interstates) is probably going to remember them. My family DID have a Hudson. And I have to agree with Roger Ebert: Whereinhell is the Studebaker (they were made less that forty miles away)? Definitely several cuts below "The Incredibles," and can we please lose the self-reflexive humor (the Pixar self-parodies at the end)? All of P's previous efforts were able to stand on their own without showcasing pop-culture references, especially obsolete ones from the fifties. I doubt anyone will get the Cozy Cone joke unless they've visited the Teich Postcard Museum in Wauconda, Illinois.
War of the Worlds (2005)
Unsurpassed effects overcomes fatal plot hole
(POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR ANYONE WHO HAS NOT READ THE BOOK) You won't be disappointed shelling out nine dollars for this one. Looks great, sounds great, hews to the spirit of Wells' book, does homage to every previous version, radio broadcast, Gorge Pal film, and LP with Riuchard Burton. All the elements of Wells story are there, the stranger in the farmhouse, the Thunder Child, and the red weed.
An obvious attempt to stand "CE3K" on its head, and equally obvious to use Dakota Fanning to make you think of Drew Barrymore in "E.T." A very good addition not found in any other version to the original story comes late in the movie.
(DEFINITE SPOILER) But a warning for hardcore science fiction fans: Spielberg adds an element to the Martian invasion that renders the movie what Roger Ebert has called the Idiot Plot. We learn that the Martians prepared for their invasion by burying their Tripods on earth long ago. If that's the case, then WHY INVADE NOW? And why didn't earth's germs get them while they were burying the machines? (Never mind the guy at ground zero with the working video camera.)
It would appear that, due to the characteristics of the medium and the anti-visual bias of science fiction storytelling, Spielberg has proved again that it is impossible to make a good science fiction film. Two points off for the gigantic plot hole.
Duck Soup (1933)
Apples for patriots
Ditto to all the positive comments, but in these days of Homeland Security II (how many people know that "PATRIOT" Act is an acronym?), I must call special attention to the very end of the movie, after the leaders have led the citizens of Fredonia in the satirical call-and-response that has the common crowd following the jackass-kicks of their president. As Margaret Dumont begins to sing the national anthem after the country's entirely accidental, the Marxes pelt her with apples, a fitting fate for any knee-jerk patriot. This was one of the more extreme expressions of the American stage and screen that saw the Gershwins taking the United States into war against Switzerland over cheese in "Strike up the Band" and setting the Vice President up for execution in "Of Thee I Sing." It's a wonder that the FBI didn't seize the film during World War II as they did copies of the Almanac Singers' "Songs for John Doe." (Recall that Abraham Lincoln had Septimus Winner, composer or "Listen to the Mockingbird" and "Ten Little Indians" jailed as a subversive under his suspension of habeas corpus for writing a song criticizing the firing of Gen. George McClellan, who was popular enough to pose a threat to Lincoln in the 1864 election.) Let's hope that the current administration never notices that this was one of the first movies to make the National Film Registry.