DVD Movie Reviews: Feb 08

Courtesy of Fatso.

SURF’S UP

***1/2

Adopting the mockumentary format popularised by Christopher Guest, this Sony Pictures Animation movie probably would’ve been pitched as “Endless Summer with CGI penguins”. Cody Maverick (Shia LeBeouf) is a young, aspiring surfer dreaming of competing in the world championships, the title of which is currently held by the arrogant, bullying Tank Evans (Deidrich Bader). Intermittently fun without being overwhelmingly inventive, Surf’s Up never really gets beyond being just “nice”. Definitely no Happy Feet, it’s perhaps too predictable: from the casting of Jeff Bridges to voice Big Lebowski-like washed-up surfer Geek/Big Z to the whole underdog/protege schtick we’ve seen countless times before. And what’s with the dull, dated alterna-rock songs on the soundtrack (Incubus? Green Day?). On the plus side, directors Ash Brannon (Toy Story 2) and Chris Buck produce some visually stunning rendering, especially of the waves, and the voicework is energetic and snappy. I got a kick out of the old scratched-up footage of the penguin surfing history, and the final shot is so beautifully conceived one wishes the film had the same kinda oomph all the way through.

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THE BRAVE ONE

*1/2

The Brave One is a major disappointment coming from director Neil Jordan (The Butcher Boy). It’s another misguided, facile Death Wish variant which sees Jodie Foster reprising the kind of woman-in-peril role she’s already mastered in previous films (Panic Room, Flightplan, The Accused). She plays a radio host who goes on a vengeful, triggy-happy rampage when her soon-to-be-hubbie (Lost’s Naveen Andrews) is beaten to death by a trio of Hispanic hoods. Being set in New York, The Brave One predictably traffics in 9/11 anxieties - mostly supplied by Jordan’s swooping, oh-so-dizzying canted camerawork - and it’s just this kind of arty pretension to be something greater that makes it such a turgid experience. It doesn’t want to be an exploitation thriller, diffusing the action to the point of dullness, yet its take on vigilante justice is too rote and simplistic to shed any new light on the matter.

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THE SIMPSONS MOVIE

***1/2

TV’s favourite animated family finally get the big screen treatment nearly 20 years after its debut, and it’s a more-than-adequate translation that should please the fans. Homer, at his most bumbling, befriends a pig and pollutes the lake with pig dung to such an extent that the Environmental Protection Agency is forced to seal Springfield off from the rest of the world in a giant dome. Subplots involve Bart finding a better father figure in Flanders and Lisa crushing on Colin, a musically gifted Irish kid with similar concerns for the environment. If The Simpsons Movie doesn’t have the same consistent bite as the best TV episodes (it’s scripted by an arsenal of ELEVEN writers!), it’s still rife with the gag-a-minute potshots that satirize our current global concerns of pollution (a la An Inconvenient Truth) and dodgy US leadership (President Schwarznegger standing in for Bush’s ineptitude). The focus is mainly on the family of four, so smaller bit parts are missed - understandably so, since it’d be impossible to give all characters decent screen time for a feature. But everyone makes an appearance - Burns, Smithers, Moe, Ralph, Millhouse, etc. - it’s just a matter of playing spot-your-favourite. Okay, so it’s not terribly different from watching it on TV, but the action is more elaborate, and the animation given more depth by the widescreen framing.

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SICKO

****

In spite of all the questions surrounding his integrity (fabrication of truth, sneaky editorial sleight-of-hand), Michael Moore actually does good with Sicko, his attack on the frankly screwed-up health care system of the United States. On the whole it’s a lot more cohesive than Fahrenheit 9/11 - where Moore’s anti-Bush mudslinging became wearying - but no less critical. Sicko’s catalogue of galling indignities is shocking, from patients being denied treatment to those can’t pay being dumped on the streets. The prime offenders are insurance companies, who, as Moore suggests, seem to be more interested in maximising profits than the livelihood of their clients. Meanwhile, when Moore travels abroad, he discovers, with his signature sarcastic humour, that places like Canada, Britain, Cuba and France offer free, unconditional health care. There are occasions where Moore is still unable to resist the temptation to skewer Bush, and there’s no indication he’s preaching to anyone other than the choir, but in the humanistic spirit of saving lives, Sicko is a crusade worth taking, especially when he diverts the attention away from himself to those that matter: the sick and needy crushed by an appallingly faulty system.

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NEXT

***

Another Philip K. Dick story gets Hollywoodized into a totally stupid but trashily entertaining thriller. Nicolas Cage doesn’t surprise me anymore in any role he plays, and in Next, he’s Chris Johnson, a Las Vegas magician who can see two minutes into the future. This special ability makes him useful to FBI agent Julianne Moore (phoning in), who wants to use him to help her track down Russian terrorists in possession of a nuclear warhead. Somewhere in this time-filler is Jessica Biel, who for some reason that’s never made clear, can make Cage see longer than two minutes into the future. Or something. Yes they hook up, but what she sees in a balding weirdo like Johnson other than fancy magic tricks is another one of the film’s mysteries. But never mind that, the fun of Next lies in watching Cage become the Feds’ super-intel source and outsmarting everyone around him (it’s a wonder his head hasn’t exploded yet what with all that pre-visualizing he has to do before making any moves). The material continually forces us to suspend disbelief, but Lee Tamahori’s slick, fast-paced direction helps us switch off for an hour-and-a-half.

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Published 29th Jan 2008

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