Larry Crowne

Wow!  This is a great movie.  Not perfect...but very, very good.  Larry Crowne (played by Tom Hanks) is a Navy veteran who served as a cook during his 20 year stint.  Now, after divorce and loss of his job at U Mart he enrolls in a community college and takes a course on informal speech and another course on economics.  He ditches his gas guzzling SUV and buys a motor scooter from his neighbor Lamar (played by Cedric the Entertainer) and befriends and is befriended by a group of motor scooter rebels (really!) with a young lady who tries to update his home and his hair style and clothes.

His speech teacher, Mercedes Tainot (played by Julia Roberts) is a burned out frustrated teacher with a husband addicted to laziness, porn and general disrespect.  The ten people in the speech class are interesting characters who seem to learn and bond.  The huge economics class is taught by Dr. Matsutani (played by George Takei) and Larry learns much from him, including his need to allow the bank to foreclose on his home.

There are many sweet moments in the movie with real teaching and learning going on.  The Tainot character probably needs more development (it was difficult to understand why she was so burned out) and we’re so used to negative Hispanic characters in movies and on TV that we’re probably a little surprised about their sincerity as depicted in this movie. 

Larry and Mercedes have a very chaste relationship and real love (appropriately) does not blossom until after Larry completes her course with a great grade.  The ending is simple and rewarding.  It was a very sweet and nice movie.  Take the time to see it.

Cars 2

I waited a week to review this movie...partly because Alice was concerned about my impending negative review.  She liked the movie.  I’m not sure why, though she saw helpful themes about loyalty, friendship and dedication.  Yes, it was a buddy movie.

On the other hand, I just couldn’t get into this movie at all.  I think it probably was/is a fairly good movie at some level.  The dialogue was crisp.  The animation seemed superb.  There was lots of action.  The row of boys 6-12 behind us were on the edge, biting their fingernails and cheering their favorite cars in the various races.  They jumped up and down about the action going on.  They were excited, but, as I said, I just couldn’t get into it.

I can’t remember whether or not we saw Cars 1.  I think we did but I really couldn’t remember that movie at all.  For some reason I thought the first movie had people driving the cars.  The next day I even asked someone if the cars were replacing human beings as characters.  She looked at me as if I was crazy and her droll answer was, “Yes, of course.  That’s the point.” 

This second movie was, in essence, a spy thriller with cars replacing 007 and other secret agents and the tow truck Mater becoming very useful to the government in dealing with a group of “lemon” automobiles trying to take over the earth while battling “green” technology which is trying to replace gas guzzling engines.  The inside joke was that cars such as Gremlins and similar specific brands are visible to the viewer and are part of the lemon “gang.”  I found that there were lots of inside jokes that seemed difficult to understand without some extensive history about cars and lemons and previous spy movies.  By, the way, Mater (voiced by Larry the Cable Guy) is really the only character whom I remember in the movie. 

Should you go?  Well, if you like cars and racing there is no question—go.  If you like careful and detailed spoofs of things like spy movies—go.  If you want to have some harmless fun—go.  However, I think I’ll stay home and skip the sequel.

Kung Fu Panda 2

Alice and I saw Kung Fu Panda 2 today.  We had enjoyed the first movie and this movie was somewhat different.  There was less emphasis on the things that the Po could not do and was instead a focus on his surprise that he was adopted as a child by his father who happens to be a goose.  Later in the movie when Po reveals his surprise the tiger character says, “You didn’t know this?”

The point, however, is not so much on the adoption as it is on the fact that he loves the father who raised him.  The evil Peacock (!!!) has a plan to conquer China and Po and his Kung Fu friends are left with the task of thwarting this plan.  It involves cornering all the metal possible to construct an evil and deadly gun.  Despite the excessive fighting and fight scenes, it is interesting that there is no blood and I’m not sure more than two “people” die.  That, I suppose would make the movie too heavy.

The ending with Po telling his father he discovered the answer to his question, “Who am I?”  He answered, “I am your son.”  That little revelation was worth the price of the movie.  One shameless anticlimactic scene after that poignant scene was Po’s biological Panda father realizing that his son was still alive.  It sets up the sequel.  It didn’t have to do this.

Hey, we loved the part about the relationship between Po and his father and that was a nice close to this sweet movie.  Forget the last 20 seconds of the movie.

Mr. Popper's Penguins

After seeing this movie, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, as I was getting ready for this review I checked a couple of review and found them scathing and mean spirited.  I was surprised that many people just can’t stand Jim Carrey.  I must confess that he’s not always my cup of tea but I couldn’t believe how nasty some of the reviews were.

Tom Popper (Jim Carrey) is a divorced realtor who while growing up regularly communicated with his father via short wave radio.  On his deathbed his father decides to send Tom a penguin and then through a series of miscommunications Tom ends up with six in his posh New York apartment.  Tom finds that his estranged wife and children like the penguins and he spends his time hiding them from snoopy tenants, a money grubbing doorman, and a zookeeper who wants to claim the penguins and advance his zoo “fortunes.”

The premise is scarcely profound but the bits with the penguins, their bathroom habits, and their growing loyalty to Tom keeps the viewer smiling.  One review said the movie was “predictable.”  That may well be but that doesn’t mean that it’s a bad movie.  Tom manages to “rescue” the penguins and reclaim a building and restaurant that his father used when Tom was a child.  It’s fun to see Angela Lansbury as the owner who likes and remembers Tom, despite Tom’s many faults.

When one of three eggs laid by the penguins does not hatch, it provides the belated “aha” moment for Tom.  It is sweet to see in the closing scene, the penguins back in their natural habitat rather than confined to the zoo.

Preachy?  Not really.  Sweet?  Yes, at times.  Funny?  It has its moments.  Worth seeing?  I think so.  You could do so much worse.

X-Men 4

I confess.  Alice and I do not follow the "X-Men Universe" and we weren't really too sure about the characters that we saw in this fourth X-Men movie which was, technically, a "prequel" to other X-Men movies.  We liked this movie very much and especially like the unique "handicaps" that the mutants had and how they dealt with them.  Though the movie was violent at times, it's message was one of care and concern in how these young characters learned to support and lean on each other.  Added to this was the scenario of the Cuban Missle Crisis.  Alice commented that both the Russians and Americans were acting the exact same way in how they were responding to this crisis.  There was no underlying evil intent on either side, it seemed.  That was quite refreshing.  We found it unusual that we could enjoy this movie even though we didn't know what these characters were capable of doing and how they became so-called super heroes.  Ultimately, it was not a movie about super powers but about dealing with being different.  It is definitely worth seeing.

Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides

Alice said I need to be positive about this movie that we saw on Sunday, May 22.  To do that I needed a couple of days of reflection.  Alice liked the movie.  So did Daniel.  I think that the movie was probably OK but I had trouble understanding the dialogue.  Like a lot of movies, everything (and especially the dialogue) just went so fast that I had trouble keeping up.  The point of the movie is that Jack Sparrow joins with his "buddy" (Barbossa) and an old girlfriend who happens to be the daughter of Blackbeard in searching for the Fountain of Youth.  The King is in on the intrigue in getting people in on the search and everyone races to the fountain while stopping for a major plot line of getting a tear from a mermaid that must be mixed with the fountain water for the water to "work."  When the protagonists get there they are stifled in their quest by a methodical group of Spanish soldiers (I think they were Spanish) who proceed to destroy the fountain.  Before the final destruction Jack "saves" his girlfriend while tricking Blackbeard.  And at the end the "buddies" sail off into the sunset for a proposed sequel.  Oh, there was a subplot of a sincere Christian who opposes the capture of the mermaid and ends up being "saved" by her.  He was a very positive character and rescues the movie from meaningless oblivion.  Daniel says that this was his favorite character.

Airplane, the Movie!

How about a mini-review of the 1980 movie, Airplane (The Movie)?  We rented two movies and when one didn't work properly the video store gave us a free one so we ended up watching three movies for $1.90.  Wow!  Big spenders!  I decided to get "Airplane" because I wanted some laughs.

I love this movie and love Striker's ridiculous stories (people are bored to tears and to suicide when they listen to details about his life) and Elaine's commentary on their relationship is laced with wry humor.  Highlights include the poor girl on intravenous medicine almost dying from a misplaced folk song, sweet Barbara Billingsley interpreting jive, the "Staying Alive" fight with the girl scouts and the swarthy sailor dancing, Leslie Nielsen's doctor character saying, "And don't call me Shirley," Robert Stack's double sunglasses bit, Lloyd Bridges' character McCroskey giving up more and more things, the endless cameos and bit parts and the unmentionable antics of Otto.  And, just maybe, it is ultimately a "buddy" movie between Striker (Robert Hays) and Elaine (Julie Hagerty) and that's what makes it good!

I'm not sure that you can get tired of this or of watching snippets of this tour de force.  Rent it once in a while or don't miss it on endless reruns.