COWBOYS & ALIENS.

Warning: This review has major spoilers. I try not to do that, but I couldn't help it for this one.

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Yes, there are cowboys. Yes, there are aliens. But how well do they play together? We're introduced to Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig), a former outlaw who can't remember anything--including his name. And he has a strange metal device attached to his wrist. He soon stumbles into a nearby town that's run with an iron fist by Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) and his good-for-nothing son, Percy (Paul Dano). He meets some of the other inhabitants, including Doc (Sam Rockwell), Meacham (Clancy Brown), Sheriff Taggart (Keith Carradine), and the sheriff's son, Emmett (Noah Ringer). He also runs into a mysterious young woman named Ella (Olivia Wilde) who is very interested in Jake's past. But just when things are rough enough as it is, them darn aliens have to show up and make things even more complicated by kidnapping half the town. Now those left are forced to team up and find the alien base so they can rescue their loved ones. But this is still the old west, so they also have outlaws and Indians to deal with, too.

When I first saw the trailer, I was surprised at how serious the movie seemed to be taking itself. You'd think a movie with such a title would appear to be a lot campier. But I (and others) held hope that maybe the trailer was a bit off and figured it would still be campier in the film. However, while there are a few goofy moments... the movie plays pretty straight faced. And maybe to its detriment, that makes it come off like two different movies shoved together.

On the one hand we have a pretty solid western. An outlaw with amnesia wakes up in the desert, strolls into town, and takes care of a thing or two before getting shown for who he is. They have to deal with the tyrannical ruling of the man who keeps the town alive and, thus, must put up with his son. Eventually it becomes an adventure film and they must face other outlaws and angry Indians along the way. I'm not a huge fan of the genre, but I did like the normal aspect of this film quite a bit.

On the other hand, you have War of the Worlds mixed with Battlefield Earth. Aliens invade, take people prisoner to study them, and their reason for being here in the first place... is that they want gold. Yes, that's right. Gold. But you also have a decent alien abduction story with a man who was taken along with his lover, accidentally gets a super-weapon attached to his arm, escapes, and helps fight back and destroy the invaders. It's actually not quite as strong as the western element, and there are parts of it that don't feel like they meld well.

Fortunately, everybody seems to be having a good time in the film. Well, Daniel Craig is relatively stoic as always, but everybody else seems to be having a good time. Harrison Ford is really good as the gruff tyrant-esque businessman/cowboy. My only real complaint about him is that his character arc has a notch missing somewhere in the middle. He starts as... not a good person. By the end, he's good. But there's somewhere in the middle when this transition starts that feels as if it missed a beat, some drastic moment that begins his change (besides his son being taken). And speaking of Paul Dano, he was hilarious in this movie. He was probably my favorite part, at least his interactions with Daniel Craig, and it's sad that he's not in it a whole lot. Though Sam Rockwell is pretty good, too. The one that kinda bugged me the most was Olivia Wilde. As soon as she was introduced, I felt she was out of place. And then I was like "she's an alien," because she--well--looked like one. Her head was bulbous in this movie. And what do you know...

I think the best thing I can say about this movie is that I don't feel like I wasted my time or money. I was entertained while watching it (though it is a tad bit too long). But as others have said, there's not a whole lot that's very memorable about it. I think that's in large part due to how serious it took itself. It didn't allow for camp or cheesy one-liners or epic dialogue. Had it loosened up a bit, I think it could have been a lot more than what we got. But still, it was entertaining enough.


Stop Saying OK! OK.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE.

If I could summarize my feelings on this movie in 4 words, it would be: I blame Dave Eggers. To get it out of the way, I haven't read this beloved children's book, so I'm not familiar with the source material. That being said, let's get into the movie. Max (Max Records) has a crappy life with a mother (Catherine Keener) who loves him and a teenage sister who acts like a teenage sister with friends who apologize when they accidentally upset him. This, of course, is all reason for Max to go ape-s*** and be as rude as possible, including demanding fresh food, biting, and immediately running away when told he's acting out of control. Finding a strange boat, Max travels to a far-away island where he finds giant creatures, including the angry Carol (James Gandolfini); his partner, Douglas (Chris Cooper); the paranoid downer, Judith (Catherine O'Hara); her partner, Ira (Forest Whitaker); the bullied one, Alex (Paul Dano); the shy bull (Michael Berry Jr.); and the outcast, KW (Lauren Ambrose). Max pretends to be their king so they won't eat him, and, in the process, destroys their relationships further. Sounds like a grand time to me!

Before I can explain why I blame Dave Eggers, I must divulge the positive. The movie has wonderful visuals. Between the creatures (a mix of animatronics and CGI), the cinematography, the locations, and just anything to look at in general, it was gorgeous and gorgeously shot. Especially once Max gets to the island, it really does seem like a world unto itself.

There is also the great acting (and voice acting). Max Records does a brilliant job holding the whole movie on his shoulders. He's essentially the only human actor in the majority of the film. And for a child actor (hell, even in the realm of adult actors), he does one hell of a job. I also felt that the voice actors fit very well with their roles (the only awkward one was Lauren Ambrose as KW. I don't know why, but the voice seemed too young or light or something to me).

There's even the good soundtrack to match with the film. Now, outside the film, would I love the quirky soundtrack (like I did for, say, Juno)? I'm not sure. But it sure felt good and natural in the context of the film.

All that being said, with my liking of just about everything of the movie... why does the film leave me so... blah? I figured it out as soon as the credits started rolling and I saw the film was co-written by one Dave Eggers. And then it all clicked. I pondered the tone early on in the film, but I was sure of the issue as soon as I saw the name. You see, a while back, I attempted to read Eggers' memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. With a promising title like that, plus ecstatic reviews talking about the humor, plus a really promising introduction in the book, I expected a lot from it. Then I started reading chapter one. It was one of the most depressing things ever. Sure, he tried to mix in some humor here and there, and sometimes it worked, but for the most part, it was just uncomfortable and awkward. There were some major tonal problems that made it hard to keep reading (which I didn't).

I feel the same issues followed him here. Again, I'm not sure how the original source was, but this didn't feel like any beloved children's book to me. It was too dark and adult to be for kids, but too--how can I put this--crazy and adolescent for adults. It's hard to describe. In particular the crumbling relationships between the "wild things" made it very adult with some deep undertones. Not to mention the beginning of the third act is essentially a horror movie.

It doesn't help that I was never sure who to root for or who to hate. There is no good guy or bad guy, essentially. But it was really hard to buy Max's dilemmas and empathize with him, because he mainly came off like a selfish brat. And Carol wasn't much better (granted, I'm aware they're mirrored characters... actually, I'm aware all the Wild Things are mirrors to Max's emotions, but still). When you don't really have any full-out likable characters, it's hard to enjoy a movie. And that's even worse for a supposedly children's movie.

There's also a strange transition between worlds. The beginning (which takes almost too long to get going) tries to set everything up as reality. Then it's just like BAM, we're in the boat heading for the island. Is it a dream? Is it real? Who knows? Then, when the ending comes (which isn't nearly happy enough for a children's movie), it isn't much better.

Overall, the visuals (in every aspect, including creature effects)? Oscar-worthy. The acting? Brilliant. The music? Good. So I blame the writing, mostly. The tone is too out of whack. I didn't really care about much, and I found myself constantly looking at my watch. I've read reviews saying that the magic of the book has been removed, and I could see how that's possible. I've also seen reviews saying themes from the book have been ignored, which I can also see possible. For such a beloved children's book, I know something had to be lost in translation. Because on all the technical levels, the film works outstandingly. But on a story/writing level, it really needed some polish. At least that's my opinion.

I Am McLovin! 

(P.S. Confused by my scoring? Don't be. While the review was a bit negative, I did enjoy things about it. It's just that the two sides balance out and bring it down to this level).

THERE WILL BE BLOOD.

This movie finally decided to come to my little town, so I went and saw it ASAP. I know I’m a little late into the game with this movie, but here I go anyway. I pray nobody decides to burn me alive over this review, because I’m not giving it a ‘perfect’ or ‘best film of the year’ like basically everybody else. Granted, it’ll be close, but not the best. Anywho, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I can get into the review. The movie is about Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his quest for Oil. He’s brought to a small California town by Paul Sunday (Paul Dano). There he stays, at first, with the Sunday family, including Paul’s brother, Eli (also Paul Dano). And he finds oil. That’s about the gist of it.

Just to get it out of the way first, the acting in this movie was phenomenal. I can totally see why Daniel Day-Lewis was nominated for an Oscar. The character of Daniel was breath-takingly acted. However, everybody gushes over Day-Lewis, but not many people focus on who I thought was the guy who stole every scene he was in, Paul Dano. He played his character(s) with such subtlety (at least when he wasn’t doing the preaching thing) that you just wanted to strangle him. It was that good. I actually realized that the parts I disliked most about the movie were the parts that Paul Dano weren’t in. And that brings us to the movie’s first strike.

There were some really confusing parts in this movie. Two parts strike me the most. First, the opening 10 minutes (AKA the stuff where nobody says a damn thing). The first 10 minutes bugged me for a few reasons. And no, it wasn’t because nothing was being said. I thought that was fine. It’s just I had a hard time understanding what the heck was going on. First he’s digging for silver, and then he’s hunting oil? Where was the transition? How did he go from one to the other? And why? If the point was the oil, then why start the movie with the silver mine? I just completely did not follow that. Another thing about the first 10 minutes was the music, but I’ll get to that in a moment. The second part of the movie that struck most to me was the entire chunk of the movie involving Daniel’s ‘brother’. Now it wasn’t his actual brother that bothered me. That was fine. I just mean the entire portion of the movie starting when he shows up and ending at the portion when he… goes away. Everything that happens during that period of time makes little sense, especially why Daniel’s son seemed to be so pissed off at his dad, and why he sets the cabin on fire. There were some other things in that part of the movie, but I can’t remember specifics. It just felt like that whole section brought the movie down a notch for me (and, coincidentally, this entire section was void of Paul Dano, as were the first 10 minutes. I smell conspiracy!).

Now I mentioned the music. Again, the music was great, for the most part, and was really fitting for most of the scenes. But there were two or three scenes in which the music felt so badly placed that it took me out of the movie. For instance, the first 10 minutes of the movie… nothing exciting is really happening, yet the movie is playing this really tense and scary music like you’d find in a killer-chasing-victim scene of a thriller. It was just completely out of place. And there were at least one or two other times in the movie this happened.

However, those are the only faults I found with the movie. Everything else was spectacular, from the acting to the visuals (Though I still maintain what I said for the LAMB posting that it’s great, but probably won’t win Art Direction. But what do I know?).

So now, for the first time using my new rating system, I give There Will Be Blood…

A Keanu 'Whoa'

(P.S. I drink your milkshake! I drink it up! *slurp* - If there were a ‘Best Line in a Movie’ Oscar, that would take it.)

(P.P.S. It took me a large chunk of the movie to realize it, but I realized that there were quite a few times when Daniel Day-Lewis' voice reminded me of Sean Connery.)