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“THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN”: What you see is all you get

December 21, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

“THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN” My rating: B- (Opening wide on Dec. 21)

107 minutes | MPAA rating: PG

Steven Spielberg’s “The Adventures of Tintin” has so many jaw-dropping moments of visual splendor that it takes a while to realize that there’s really nothing much of interest here except the jaw-dropping visual splendor.

Employing the motion-capture animation techniques employed in films like “The Polar Express” and the Jim Carrey “Christmas Carol,” this screen adaptation of the late Herge’s universally popular comic book hero should please long-time fans. But it’s hard to imagine it winning many new converts to the Tintin brand.

Tintin (voiced by Jamie Bell of “Billy Elliott” fame) is a perpetually boyish, carrot-topped newspaper reporter who goes nowhere without a tan trench coat, brown knickers and a white pooch named Snowy.

He’s sort of like a junior Sherlock Holmes who’s always up to his neck in one mystery or another.

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“THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO”: As good the second time around

December 20, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

“THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO” My rating: B (Opens wide Dec. 21)

158 minutes | MPAA rating: R

Like a lot of movie fans, I greeted with a big dose of cynicism the news that Hollywood was remaking the Swedish thriller “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”

That film, which introduced to the world actress Nomi Rapace as the gloriously twisted investigator/hacker Lisbeth Salander, was more than adequate. Why remake it for a bunch of ignoramuses too thick to read subtitles?

Well, I was wrong. The American “Girl…” is the equal of the Swedish version in most regards, and in its technical production vastly superior. That’s because it was directed by David Fincher (“Fight Club,” “The Social Network,” “Zodiac”), an exacting filmmaker who composes and lights every scene for maximum visual impact. (Don’t forget, the three Swedish films based on Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy were made for television and suffered somewhat from limited production values.)

The tale remains essentially the same (with some minor variations) and the overall effect — a queasy blend of serial killer thriller, unrepentant male piggishness and offbeat relationship flick — very similar to the original. Continue Reading »

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“SHERLOCK HOLMES: GAME OF SHADOWS”: St. Vitus Dance

December 16, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

Downey as Sherlock...man of 1,000 disguises

“SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS”  My rating: C 

129 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

The Robert Downey Jr.-powered “Sherlock Holmes” franchise, like the “Transformers” franchise, makes me feel very, very old.

Both series are hugely successful. Apparently they make other moviegoers terribly happy.

But they leave me feeling…empty. For all their visual razzle dazzle, there’s no there there. I might as well be beating myself over the head with an inflated pig bladder for all the pleasure these movies provide.

I know, I know. What a disagreeable old man I have become.

It’s not that I cannot appreciate superficial charm.  But these movies aren’t charming. Just superficial.

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“MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL”: The further adventures of Wile E. Coyote

December 16, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

“MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL” My rating: B

133 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

If “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol”  feels like a live-action version of a cartoon, it only stands to reason.

The man behind the camera is animator Brad Bird, who gave us “The Iron Giant,” “Ratatouille” and “The Incredibles,” three of the smartest and most ambitious animated features of recent years. And he brings to the “M:I” franchise the same breathless pacing, eye for action and sly humor that has marked his animated work. Continue Reading »

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“YOUNG ADULT”: Comedy of selfishness

December 16, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

Charlize Theron...sizing up the competition

“YOUNG ADULT” My rating: B

94 minutes | MPAA rating: R

“Young Adult” doesn’t always work. But it takes enough chances to be kind of endearing…sort of like a Christmas package with a bomb inside.

For their sophomore effort director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody — who hit indy film gold a couple of years back with their teen pregnancy laugher “Juno” — deliver another comedy, albeit one from a considerably darker place.

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“BLACK POWER MIXTAPE”: How far we’ve come

December 16, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

“THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975” My rating : B 

96 minutes | No MPAA rating

I’m not sure how members of other generations will view it, but for this boomer “Black Power Mixtape” was a sort of wonderful time machine to a not-so-wonderful time.

Goran Hugo Olsson’s documentary has been fashioned primarily out of footage shot by crews from Swedish television who in the late ‘60s and ‘70s reported on social upheaval in the U.S.

The Scandinavians were particularly intrigued with race relations in this country, especially the rise of the Black Power movement, the backlash from the powers that be and the arrival of charismatic new voices like Angela Davis, Stokely Carmichael and Bobby Seale.

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“EAMES: THE ARCHITECT & THE PAINTER”: Designing couple

December 9, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

“EAMES: THE ARCHITECT & THE PAINTER” My rating: B 

83 minutes | No MPAA rating

Charles Eames will forever be associated with the chair that bears his name — sturdy, lightweight and cheap while somehow embodying the essence of post-war modernism.

But as “Eames: The Architect & the Painter” makes abundantly clear, that was only the tip of the man’s iceberg.

Directed by Jason Cohn and Bill Jersery for PBS’ American Masters series, this documentary (narrated by James Franco) makes the case that Eames (1907-1978) may have been the 20th century’s most important designer.

Working for 40 years out of an office/studio in Venice CA (visitors described it not so much as a place of business as a never-ending circus), Eames cast a wide net. Though he made his initial mark with furniture, Continue Reading »

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“REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR”: Righteous indignation is more fun

December 9, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

"Gadget" with his retrofitted electric car

“REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR”  My rating: C+ 

90 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

Few things are as compelling as righteous indignation.

That’s one reason why Chris Paine’s 2008 documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?”    became something of a sleeper hit.

That film dissected the rise and fall of GM’s all-electric EV1, which was leased to hugely satisfied customers (mostly in California), then withdrawn and scrapped when company bigwigs concluded there was no profit in electric vehicles.

“Who Killed…” was ideal for getting people riled up about electric vehicles, fossil fuel pollution, corporate malfeasance and especially the idea of a petroleum-based conspiracy to suppress electric car technology.

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“SAINT”: Bah. Humbug.

December 9, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

“SAINT” My rating: C

85 minutes | No MPAA rating

Those who prefer their holiday cheer with a bracing dose of bad temper have an ally in Patrick Matthews, operator of the Screenland Crossroads.

Recognizing his establishment as the home of young, hip, thoroughly unsentimental moviegoers, he has in recent years made a point of booking anti-Christmas movies in December.

Last year it was the Finnish “Rare Exports,” a very black comedy which postulated that Santa Claus was actually an ancient demon with a voracious appetite for the flesh of young humans.

This year the Crossroads brings us “Saint,” which through a dark glass views Danish images of old St. Nick.

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“KLITSCHKO”: Brotherly love

December 9, 2011 by butlerscinemascene

Wladimir Klitschko on the job“KLITSCHKO” My rating: B

117 minutes | No MPAA rating

My criteria for a sports movie is pretty simple. If you don’t really care about the sport in question, can the movie still hold up?

In the case of “Klitschko,” Sebastian Dehnhardt’s documentary about Ukrainian boxing brothers Vitali and Wladamir Klitschko, the answer is a resounding “yes.”

Born of a Soviet military officer, reared in abysmal base housing (at one point they resided in the shadow of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster), the two look-alike brothers managed to develop an impressive work ethic while still finding time to get into trouble. (One great story involves Vitali finding an armed antitank mine and hiding it beneath his father’s bed.)

Inspired by the kung fu movies that until the late ‘80s were banned in the U.S.S.R., the pair got their start in kickboxing, then moved into boxing. Continue Reading »

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