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Radar love: Surprisingly, 'Wall-E'--a movie about a robot that doesn't speak--is one of the nicest films in ages, says our reviewer. Pixar does it again!
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Top guns: James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie star in 'Wanted.' |
'WALL-E' (G) HHH
Pixar has made perhaps the first cartoon that parents may well like more than their youngsters.
With nothing more to work with than a garbage-gathering robot, a cockroach and a planet that's a waste dump, the studio known for bringing a new look to animation has created the sweetest tale on the big screen in quite a while.
That's saying something, because the main character, known as Wall-E, can't do much more than whistle, squelch and emit an occasional high-pitched word or two.
But with articulating eyes, a body that moves like a front-end loader on steroids and a heart of heavyweight alloy gold, this character longs for company, feelings and--dare we say it?--romance.
That comes to pass when a survey robot lands one day, a white little wisp of a droid that can fly, blow holes in boulders, and is made with interesting eye shapes with two blue spots where her eyes should be.
She's Eve, or as Wall-E calls her, Eve-A.
It sounds a little strange, but it works onscreen.
Things take a more rapid turn when Wall-E and Eve-A head off to find the ship humans took when they abandoned Earth, which had filled up with trash from a greedy, stuff-obsessed society.
That point is more than made when we see what mankind has come to on its escape ship: fat, lazy people who don't do anything but consume.
The side point works, but even more fun are some rogue robots that link up with Wall-E as he tries to save mankind from itself.
Though a few big stars lend their voices or images to the project (Fred Willard, Sigourney Weaver), little-known stars bring the main characters to life in a way that makes this a true film treasure.
Rated G. 119 min. [RF, RA, M]
'WANTED' (R) HH
RUNNING TIME: 126 MIN.
I really wanted to like "Wanted."
But all the wanting in the world can't overcome this overdone mess of a movie.
The first hint should have been the four or five exploding heads--bullet goes in, big red splash comes out--that happen before we even have any idea who's doing all the shooting.
The next should have been the absolutely silly chase scenes that happen soon after that, in which cars not only fly off one another, but spin around in the air to pick up passengers, shoot targets and do whatever other impossible deeds need to be accomplished at the moment.
It's all a shame, because James McAvoy is a compelling lead, and Angelina Jolie is still, well, Angelina Jolie.
And the premise itself isn't all that bad. Seems there's this fraternity of assassins that operates above the law, to take care of the really bad people that the ordinary good guys can't get to.
But one day one of these assassins goes rogue, and starts popping off his former buddies one by one.
Into all this comes Wesley (McAvoy), who's not doing so well in his ordinary life. His girlfriend's sleeping with his best friend, his boss is screaming at him and he has to keep popping pills to take care of a heart that seems to beat five times too fast.
Suddenly, however, Fox (Jolie, and that's really her character's name) grabs him in a grocery store where the rogue has suddenly appeared and started shooting.
Before Wesley knows it, he's training hard to be the newest assassin, to take the place of his father, gunned down at the outset.
Or so it all seems.
All of that might have made a decent special-effects thriller if they hadn't taken everything to the extreme extreme: All the cars flying, bullets getting bent around corners and even rats that guzzle explosives and then get used as the ultimate in crawling bombs.
While the story gets set up in an interesting way, it goes nowhere, which will be where this film is headed with better movies coming down the pipe.
Ones that really will be wanted.
Rated R for strong bloody violence throughout, pervasive language and some sexuality. 126 min. [RF, RA, M]
