Oh, Disney... a hetero male confessional

I freely admit it. I love Disney movies. Always have. Since I was a wee bairn. My parents were "early adopters" and got a VCR long before the video rental market was born. A neighbor used to rent videos out of her garage; she had a single shelf with about 20 videos for rent. I remember wishing we had a Beta VCR because her copy of Annie was in Beta. But fortunately the Disney movies she carried -- Pete's Dragon, The Rescuers, and Pollyanna -- were in VHS, and we soon wore them out with repeated viewings. Of course, I see now that my appreciation of Disney was mere childsplay compared to others; my closeted cousin insisted we watch The Parent Trap every time we hung out, and some friends even have "DisneyWorld cast member" on their resumes. But now as an adult, I still believe in Disney. Sure, I've been burned before. I curse the day I first heard "Colors of the Wind." I watch with horror as the "Princess" phenomenon slowly, carefully engulfs my nieces. Liz makes me watch Disney Channel garbage. ("Oh, I just need something on in the background." Uh-huh. Sounds of chainsaws mutilating puppies would be preferable in the background.) But despite these missteps, Disney still has a "vault" of quality art.

The complicated morality of Walt Disney Co. has been discussed often. Disney purports to represent all things wholesome and cheerful, but there are cracks in the edifice. South Park mercilessly skewered Disney in its "Jonas Brothers" episode, wherein the Brothers whip their preteen girl fans into a sexual frenzy but loudly proclaim their chastity and show off their promise rings, and Mickey Mouse has to go medieval on them to remind them they are his cash cows. But for the most part, Disney content is harmless, fun and at times genuinely touching and beautiful (Beauty & the Beast, The Little Mermaid). Indeed, the animated features made during the 90's is known as the Disney Renaissance. (Although I would argue that the era ended with The Lion King. Hunchback of Notre Dame looked great but bears no resemblance to the Victor Hugo novel whatsoever, and no one really likes Tarzan.)

So why, in the midst of such a renaissance, raking in billions (The Lion King made almost $800 million by itself) and critical accolades, would Disney intentionally gut its animation studio in 2000? Wikipedia, that oracle of all truth, states that "competition from other studios drove animator salaries to a high level, making traditional animated features a costly proposition." Please. Every single Renaissance movie made healthy profits; even Tarzan, which at $130 million was the most expensive to produce, made $450 million. The real reason was Pixar; its critical and financial success led Disney execs to believe that traditional animation was yesterday's news, and CG animation was the Future!!! Thus, the rash announcement in 2004 that Home on the Range would be its last traditional animated film. They never stopped to consider that trad and CG could live happily ever after, side by side.

Thankfully, Disney decided to give tradition one more chance, and the result, The Princess and the Frog, is a winner in my book. I loved the New Orleans setting, the strong, ambitious yet worry-prone heroine, and the supporting comedic characters. If they had replaced Randy Newman for the songs, it would've been perfect.

So why I am blogging about a movie that came out four months ago? Well, in my lust for an iPad, I tried one of those Facebook "test an iPad and keep it, FREE" scams. One of the 9 offers I had to purchase was the Disney Movie Club. I figured, why not, my DVD collection lacks several of my Disney faves, and I can cancel after 5 purchases. I can even get Condorman! What was not included in the small print was the utter decrepitude of the Disney Movie Club website. It is seriously awful. It has glacially slow load times. If you have 2 hours to kill, just log on and browse around. Don't say I didn't warn you. The sheer craptastic nature of the site implies that it is a third-party outfit, because Disney is usually better than that. But why would Disney even partner with such lowlifes? Was this another short-sighted decision? Oh, Disney...

Love Happens...

Rated PG-13
Directed by Brandon Camp

but not in this movie. A bit dreary and uninspired. No chemistry. And very tedious. The story was formulaic at best. Eckhart plays a self-help guru coming to terms with his own bereavement while Aniston plays a florist who writes random high point words on hotel walls (the reason for this still baffles me. Maybe it's a quirk that says "Hey, I'm just like you.") How or when they fall in love totally escaped me. I know it's being advertised as a rom-com, but trust me, it's not. It's barely a drama. Honestly, the best part of the movie was John Carroll Lynch, as a grieving father. Oh. And this poster. All in all, it was a disappointing movie night.

Julie & Julia

Rated PG-13
Directed by Nora Ephron

Oh, this was just lovely. Charming, bright, and delicious. This was a true feel-good movie. Meryl Streep as Julia Child was effervescent! She just glowed. Her enthusiasm for cooking as well as for life, was so infectious, I couldn't help but smile whenever she came on screen. And Amy Adams was just a sweetheart. As she always is. She had you rooting for her in all her endeavors, yet she never stopped being a real woman with real problems. You identified with both of these women. And you loved the men in these women's lives. They stood by them at their craziest, and loved them even more for it. They were true partners. Needles to say, I was hungry after seeing this movie. I went right out and purchased Julia's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." This movie has given me a feeling of optimism and inspiration. I can't wait to try it all. Bon Appetit!

Inglorious Bastards

Rated R
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
He did it again.
Clever, witty, and gory: true Tarantino fashion.
Now, I may not like him as an actor and he annoys me as a person, but the man can direct. Beautiful shots and fabulous soundtrack. How does he do it? Remember the whistle song and "Bang Bang" from Kill Bill? The soundtrack is integral it the body of a movie. It connects us to the movie as much as the story and characters do. Most of the songs were taken from spaghetti westerns as this movie is Tarantino's homage to the genre. The theme of "Inglorious Bastards" is revenge, as simple as that. We have a motley crew of American-Jewish boys making up the Bastards and, along with Diane Kruger's Bridget von Hammersmack, trying to assassinate Hitler. We also have Shoshanna, a Jewish girl who witnessed the killing of her family at the hands of Landa, aka The Jew Hunter, who is now living under the name of Emmanuelle and is the owner of a cinema. She has her own plot to kill those who are responsible for the death of her family. You see, it is this cinema in which the new propaganda movie, "A Nation's Pride," will be revealed. And we will have Hitler and Goebbels in the same room. Trust Tarantino to take a shot at rewriting history. And I accept it all, even the inconsistencies and the unbelievable. Now I didn't think "Bastards" was as gory as his other movies, but maybe I just closed my eyes and didn't see all of it. All in all, I loved it. No apologies.

District 9

Rating: 4.5
Rated R: explicit violence and language
Directed by Niell Blomkamp

Wow. That's how I have to start it. Just a big ol' plain Wow. This movie was fantastic. Sci-fi at its best. It was a true mirror held up to society. Let me explain. This allegoric tale led me on road that was unknown to me. And I willingly let it. But it made me cringe with the grossness that humanity can portray. It made me sick to see ourselves in that purposefully harsh light. The premise of the movie is an alien ship that is far more technologically advanced than anything seen on this Earth prior, has arrived and no move has been made by the ship or its inhabitants. After months of no movement, we force ourselves onto the ship, where we find the inhabitants to be sick and unhealthy. We bring them down to Earth and feed them and shelter them. These shelters later turn into a slum under military control and these aliens turn into refugees. We see the aliens scavenger and fight and degrade themselves for things like raw meat and cat food. They are given the slur of "Prawn" because, "it looks like a prawn." They aren't allowed to own weapons or computers and they even need a permit to have a child. They are basically ostracized from human culture, considered a sub-species. It's been like this for 20 years. Now we are introduced to our central character, Wikus Van de Merwe, an obtuse and thoughtless man. He is the head of the alien relocation effort brought forth by the MNU, a corporation that is really after the alien technology. We know that the alien weapons can cause serious harm, but we have yet to unlock them, as they are dependent on alien DNA. We are taken on a cinematic journey that displays the lack of humanity we really have and the fear we portray when we are faced with the unknown. Just look at our history, from the beginning of time. This movie holds up a mirror and forces us to see ourselves in an unforgiving light. This compelling and blunt movie brings new elements to the Sci-fi genre. It makes us question the ethics involved and the morality, or lack there of. And like any good Sci-fi, it brings forth the question "What makes us human?" and truly makes us feel ashamed when we can't find the answer.

Star Trek... again

Liz, yes your post was good but I merely wanted to interject. This movie set the bar mighty high for this summers movie selection. But with some of the great films that are coming out over this summer lineup there might be potential to beat it, but i doubt it. Its probably been 3 years since I walked out of a film as excited as I was on the way out of this one. In the first 10 minutes I had already begun crying, with no emotional connection to the characters. As far as films go, this is the ultimate action movie. This is a new classic. Action movies are funny because there is no other genre where you can be as corny as you want and still get away with it. This wasnt trying to get away with anything. Everything about it flowed. The actors were great, perfectly cast, and fantastic connections. The writing and story line was probably one of the best Ive ever seen in an action movie. There isnt a thing i would change about this film which is extremely difficult to come to terms with. And the directing, unlike most new age action films, doesnt make me sick with too much camera motion. The color saturation was great everything about the setup was perfect. As far as this film goes, you wont find much better so go and see this now, maybe twice, or thrice in my case. 

Star Trek

Matt would be so proud! This was, to me, the best movie this Summer, so far. It was great story-telling on behalf of J.J. Abrams and the rest of the cast and crew. One of the best things about this origin story is just that, the origin of how it came to be that we have the USS Enterprise and all its crew. Even for those of us with limited knowledge of this cult classic would be hard pressed to find fault in it. The whole cast was a stroke of genius! Chris Pine as Capt. Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Lt. Spock were sensational, in my opinion. They played well off each other, one's Yin to the other's Yang. Simon Pegg, brilliant as Scottie; Zoe Saldana, sexy as all get out as Uhura; Karl Urban, testy manner providing some good laughs as "Bones"; John Cho and Anton Yelchin, as Sulu and Chekov, fabulous! It was exciting fun all around. I recommend this movie to all who enjoy a good story. I seriously would pay to see it again. In fact, I may just do that.