Beasts of the Southern Wild

First Hit:  Strangely powerful and well-acted.

I was fascinated by the strength and embodiment of the character Hushpuppy as played by Quvenzhane Wallis. This alone is reason to see this film.

The self-absorbed characters of her dad Wink (played Dwight Henry), Jean Battiste (played by Levy Easterly), Walrus (played by Lowell Landes) and Little Jo (played by Pamela Harper) was both sad and reflective of people who check out of general society.

This film is about Armageddon and/or the breakdown of society and/or survival. Hushpuppy is more or less growing up alone. She attends a school of sorts but the teaching is a mix of truth and illusionary stories. Her dad, Wink, calls out from his separate shack “feeding time” and Hushpuppy gets her food.

Hushpuppy is spiritually connected to the universe and hears the heartbeat of the planet through everything she sees or touches. She is in-touch with the all.

Wallis gives the performance of the year – she was phenomenal. Henry is also powerfully strong as the slightly touched and alcoholic father. Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin wrote a powerful and almost overly convoluted script. Benh Zeitlin did a great job of getting incredibly powerful acting performances from non-professional actors.

Overall:  A moving and powerful film that will stay with you days after you see it.

Ted

First Hit:  At times funny, crude, stupid, and interesting.

Ted, a CG teddy bear, is alive because he was wished life by a young John (played by Bretton Manley) who was a friendless boy.

Ted becomes famous and is even shown on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. The Carson segment was pieced together really well. As John becomes an adult (played by Mark Wahlberg) at age 35 he’s living a stoner life with Ted. He’s got a clerk job with a rental car agency, gets high with Ted as often as possible and has a great girlfriend Lori (played by Mila Kunis).

One of the things missing from their relationship is an understanding for its existence. I didn’t sense/feel any chemistry between them. The jokes and language were crude almost to the detriment of the film. Some of the jokes went over the head of the normal audience that will see this film (“I went Joan Crawford on him”). 

There aren’t that many people who know of Joan Crawford’s antics on her children. But on the other end, there was a moment where John tries to guess the name of Ted’s girlfriend which was very amusing. The acting with the CG Ted was seamlessly wonderful.

This was the technical and acting high point of the film. The overall question this film tries to resolve is; whether John will grow up enough to be an adult in his relationship with Lori? Or, will his friendship with Ted keep his life stuck as an adolescent?

Wahlberg is great at interacting with the CG Ted. Kunis is mediocre in this somewhat lifeless and pivotal role. Giovanni Ribisi (as Donny) was good as the jealous guy who wanted a Ted for himself. Jessica Barth was very good as Ted’s girlfriend Tami-Lynn. Seth MacFarlane wrote and directed this film (he’s also the voice of Ted). It is obvious that this was a pet project and partially worked and partially didn’t.

Overall:  This film was all over the place and in the end forgettable.

The Amazing Spider-Man

First Hit:  This was a fun-filled action fantasy film.

Sometimes a franchise film finds new legs and sets a new mark on what might become a new base for a new set of movies. This film does this.

Not taking away from Tobey Maguire and Kristen Dunst but Andrew Garfield (as Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man) and Emma Stone (as Gwen Stone) have a great start on creating a new set of adventures with the Spider-Man franchise.

In this film we go back to the beginning and discover the more about how Peter’s father and mother died, how he was raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben (played by Sally Field and Martin Sheen respectively). We learn how Peter’s father Richard (played by Campbell Scott) worked with Dr. Curt Connors (played by Rhys Ifans) to discover how to mix species for the betterment of humankind.

Parker in his curiosity of Connors’ lab gets bitten by a spider and we all know what happens from here. It is the way Parker discovers his talents that make this film fresh and fun; and this film is fun.

Even in the darkness of what will happen; while Parker is being hunted by the police or the Lizard (Connors’ alter ego) this film is enjoyable in all ways.

Garfield is very good as Parker/Spider-Man, my only criticism is that he’s just a little old to be playing a high school student. Outside of this small criticism, he’s great in this role and I know he’ll be wonderful for this franchise. Stone is very good and this film is about Spider-Man. Ifans is creepy enough to carry the transition between Connors and the Lizard. Field is good as the mostly fretting Aunt. Sheen is excellent as Parker’s caring uncle. James Vanderbilt and Alvin Sargent wrote a great script. Marc Webb did an excellent job of bringing new life to this wonderful story.

Overall:  This was a very well made and enjoyable film.

Dark Shadows

First Hit:  This film was a study in what Tim Burton likes to create, however it wasn’t very entertaining to the audience.

When there are very few laughs in a film that is labeled a comedy there is a problem.

This was a somewhat convoluted story where a witch (how did she become one?) is more powerful than a vampire but not more powerful than a ghost. What was this film about?

Was it a film about long lost love, trying to tie together across 200 years? Or was it was about fishing, fish canning and how one family wanted to control it in a small town in Maine? Or was it was about great sex between a witch and a mortal but it wasn't enough to create a lasting relationship?

Heck, I really don't know but it might have been about Tim Burton plying his trade of creating fun off kilter spooky characters which have little basis in reality with no plot. Barnabas Collins (played by Johnny Depp) is the soul who doesn’t want to love a witch so he is turned into a vampire and is dug up from his grave 200 years later. He returns to his family home now run by Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (played by Michelle Pfeiffer).

She is the matriarch of the now crumbling fishing and canning Collins Empire. Dr. Julia Hoffman (played by Helena Bonham Carter) comes to try and heal the vampire Barnabas. But how and why they found this person is completely left off the script. Which indicated that this was a totally unneeded and unwarranted part, but a way to get Carter, Burton’s wife, some work.

Roger Collins (Jonny Lee Miller) was another useless part as Elizabeth’s son. Eva Green played the witch Angelique Bouchard, who was one of two major protagonists in this story.

The third wheel was Victoria Winters/Josette DePres (played by Bella Heathcote) who was loved by and was in love with Barnabas but was killed centuries ago by Witch Angelique. Again, like Barnabas, she comes back to fulfill her love/dream.

This whole film is convoluted and didn’t make a good story worth telling. There was little intrigue but it did have Burton’s trademark ghoulishness.

Depp was OK as his character but the film was so poor it felt like he was re-treading past Burton work. Pfeiffer was lost and very miscast in this film and she simply doesn’t do ghoul well. She’s better off in a dynamic part. Bonham Carter as she has done lately, try to be over the top (see her stuff in Harry Potter films) as oppose to acting. The part was unneeded for this story and therefore her value was minimal. Miller was a wasted character and I had no idea why it was part of the film. Green was the most interesting of characters in the film. Her gazes and temperament were excellent for this part. Heathcote, was beautiful but in a role which was not fully utilized. There could have been more depth to this part. Jackie Earle Haley has a small part in this film as the Collins mansion handy man and unfortunately there was little Haley could do with this part. Seth Grahame-Smith and John August wrote a wasteful script which had a very flimsy storyline and dialogue was of little use. Burton does great visuals (bright red car, lipstick and dress for Angelique), but overall this story lacked something worth watching. It is a far cry from Edward Scissorhands and, my favorite, Beetlejuice.

Overall:  Don’t waste your time. This film isn’t funny nor is it an interesting story.

John Carter

First Hit:  This was a painfully dreadful film.

It starts off with a confusing story which segues to a battle between 1 or 2 or 3 societies living on Mars – right.

Then jumps back to some guy hunting gold in Arizona but who comes from Virginia. Oh, the guy in Arizona, its John Carter (played Taylor Kitsch).

Then we’re in some mansion, then we’re back to Mars, then were in Arizona, then were…. The acting was stiff, the story made little sense and direction made it overly confusing.

The trick the filmmakers used to make the film language move from Martian to English was really stupid – he drinks some liquid?

There were a couple of funny moments with the Mars “dog” character but overall it was basically they film makers wasted a lot of money making this.

Kitsch was, at times, watchable but mostly it was just him doing some big jumping around which amazed the Martians. Lynn Collins played the Princess Dejah Thoris and it was truly wasteful. Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote a story on which Andrew Stanton and Mark Andrews wrote a fully flawed and mindless script. Andrew Stanton had no clear vision in his direction and therefore there was a lot of wasted money in visual effects supporting a story that just didn’t work.

Overall: This film has little value and shared no new story or visual technology.