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   Viewed 60 times - Published on Jun 13, 2010

Reviews: Top Picks From American Profile

Check out these picks for top entertainment releases, Neil Pond of American Profile details the "must haves" and offers his insightful reviews:



Valentine's Day
Blu-ray, $35.99

Nearly 20 stars (including Jessica Roberts, Bradley Cooper, George Lopez, Jennifer Garner, Taylor Swift and Anne Hathaway) swirl around each other in this romantic comedy about the intersecting lives of a diverse group of Californians during one sunrise-to-sundown day in the life of love. Extras include Valentine's Day stories from the actors, commentary from director Garry Marshall and some hilarious crack-ups and bloopers. -Neil Pond, American Profile






Curtains: Adventures of an Undertaker-In-Training
By Tom Jokinen
Softcover, 280 pages ($15.95)

In is mid-40s, Jokinen quit his radio job and became an apprentice undertaker. His first-person account of his new job's learning curve is an entertaining, engrossing and morbidly humorous guided tour that lifts the veil of secrecy on the modern funeral industry---and makes "icky" interesting in ways you probably never imagined. -Neil Pond, American Profile






The Sundance Kid
By Donna B. Ernst
Softcover, 264 pages ($19.95)

Robert Redford made him a household name in the 1969 movie about his exploits with partner-in-crime Butch Cassidy. But how much do you really know about Harry Alonzo Longbaugh, who found infamy as a bank and train robber in the late 1800s? Old West buffs and cowboy-lore connoisseurs will enjoy this well-researched chronicle, which goes deep behind the faAade of Hollywood and the fuzzy, often fanciful details of history. -Neil Pond, American Profile








NOW That's What I Call the USA: The Patriotic Country Collection
CD ($26)

Country chart-toppers from Brooks & Dunn ("Only in America"), Billy Ray Cyrus ("Some Gave All"), Chely Wright ("Bumper Of My SUV") and 13 others provide the perfect soundtrack for a flag-waving 4th of July hoedown. A portion of proceeds from every purchase benefits troops and military families, and a bonus-track rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" introduces you to 4Troops, a talented new group made up of U.S. military veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. -Neil Pond, American Profile





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<img border=0 src=../article-photos/iron1.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br>Starting the summer off with a big, bright blast of wit, whoosh and wallop, "Iron Man 2" features Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow reprising their original roles as the dura-shelled do-gooder and his gorgeous gal Friday. <br><br>The sequel to the 2008 blockbuster that retooled yet another Marvel Comics superhero for the big screen, it opens with Tony Stark (Downey), the playboy industrialist genius behind the metal mask, strutting in the now out-of-the-closet glow of his crime-fighting celebrity. He's a cocky media darling showered with kudos for ushering in a new era of global tranquility.<br><br>But there's big trouble brewing. A bitter Russian mad scientist, Ivan Valko (Mickey Rourke, looking like his character from "The Wrestler" marinated in vodka) wants to turn Iron Man into scrap metal---and may have just the fearsome, high-voltage get-up to do it. A competing weapons manufacturer (Sam Rockwell) has his own sinister reasons for wanting to put Stark out of the wrong-righting business.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/iron2.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>And Stark's ticker, the glowing, nuclear-reactor plug-n-play heart keeping him alive, is starting to show signs of meltdown. <br><br>Downey is in top wisecracking, ladies-lovin', party-hardy form, and his high-tech Iron Man suit is even cooler this time around. You know it's mostly computer-generated, but that doesn't make it any less impressive as it engulfs him out of an "emergency" briefcase in the middle of a melee on the Grand Prix racetrack.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/iron3.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>As Pepper Potts, now the CEO of Stark's company, Paltrow is the brains (and beauty) behind Iron Man's brawn, and her scenes with Downey have a crisp, crackling chemistry that gives the movie some real emotional stakes when the elements conspiring to undo Stark begin to converge. <br><br>Director Jon Favreau (who also appears in the role of Happy Hogan, Stark's top aide) keeps things moving fast and gets the fun flowing early, juggling multiple subplots and a cavalcade of colorful supporting characters. A smarmy senator (Larry Sanders) hounds Stark to turn over his weapons technology to the government. Stark's new assistant (Scarlett Johanssen) has a secret side that comes in handy outside the office. His old military friend Lt. Col. "Rhoddy" Rhodes (Don Cheadle) becomes both a foe and an ally. One-eyed Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) wants to recruit Iron Man for his elite crime-fighting collective.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/iron4.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>While acknowledging its comic-book roots, "Iron Man 2" never overplays to the fan-boy crowd, keeping things close to the crowd-pleasing mainstream. Jackson and Johanssen's characters, both sprung from comics, seem like teasers for roles to be fleshed out further in a subsequent movie. <br><br>And if you're interested in a sneak peek on the next pen-and-ink figure to make the leap onto the big screen, stay until the credits are over---and ask any comic-book fan if you don't get it.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/iron5.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>There are a lot of options for your summer-movie dollar. But for some solid bang for your box-office buck, at least for the short-term, my advice: Invest in iron. <br><br><i>-Neil Pond, American Profile</i><br><br> Movie Review: Iron Man 2 A Blast Of Wit
   from Jun 13, 2010



<img border=0 src=../article-photos/shrek1.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br>After three previous movies, "Shrek Forever After" is reportedly the final big-screen outing for the lovably grumpy green guy, bringing to a close a nine-year run of Dreamworks studio's delightfully fractured fairy tale. <br><br>In the previous movies, Shrek has made the transition from feared, jeered outsider to husband, father and local hero. Movie number four finds him settled into domestic life in his beloved swamp, raising a set of little ogre triplets with his ogre wife, Fiona. <br><br>But Shrek, beset by a midlife crisis, begins to long for the old days and a time when he was a "real ogre" instead of "a jolly green joke." <br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/shrek2.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br><br>Making a deal with the devious Rumplestiltskin, a scheming, can't-be-trusted dwarf, he's able to return to just such a time. All he has to do is trade one day of his life in return. But Shrek is transported to a place that's not exactly how he remembered it---because Rumplestiltskin took away, in exchange, the day that Shrek was born.<br><br>So begins an "It's a Wonderful Life"-style odyssey, with Shrek discovering what his world would be like had he never been in it. It's a pretty grim place. No wife, no kids, no home. And the despotic king is none other than Rumplestiltskin, who capitalized on a series of events that transpired because Shrek wasn't around to prevent them. <br><br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/shrek3.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br><br>To reverse Rumplestiltskin's wretched re-do of history, Shrek has to marshal his old friends and get a true-love kiss from Fiona before the next sunrise---challenging tasks, since in this altered reality, his "friends" and his "wife" don't even know him. <br><br>The gang's all here for the final chapter, not just the characters but also the actors whose voices became integral to them: Mike Myers (Shrek) Eddie Murphy (Donkey), Cameron Diaz (Fiona) and Antonio Banderas (Puss 'n' Boots). Guest-star voices abound, including John Hamm (from TV's "Mad Men"), Craig Robinson (from "The Office), Jane Lynch (from "Glee"), Ryan Seacrest, Larry King, Meredith Vieira, Regis Philbin, Kathy Griffin, Julie Andrews and John Cleese.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/shrek4.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br> <br><br>But the star of this show turns out to be Rumplestiltskin, voiced by one of the movie's writers, Walt Dorn, who more than holds his own against the barrage of star power all around him. The little dwarf steals every scene in which he appears. <br><br>Clever pop-cultural references will keep adults entertained as the kids titter. The animation is top-notch---but not, however, dazzling enough to justify you spending the extra dollars on seeing it in 3-D. The story is a few crackles short of the gleeful, imaginative snap of its predecessors. The drama is a bit darker, somewhat denser and not quite as much wall-to-wall fun as you might have hoped.<br><br>But these are minor shortcomings in an otherwise strong finish for one of Hollywood's most successful family-movie franchises. After all the green-tinged grins and giggles they've brought audiences for nearly a decade, Shrek, Fiona, Donkey and the other memorable characters of the kingdom of Far, Far Away deserve to finally live happy forever after. <br><br><i>-Neil Pond, American Profile <br></i> Movie Review: Gang's All Here For Final Shrek
   from Jun 13, 2010



<img border=0 src=../article-photos/rh1.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br>The Olde English folk icon Robin Hood has been romanticized in song, dramatized in print and depicted by some of Hollywood's most dashing leading men throughout the years, including Errol Flynn, Sean Connery and Kevin Costner. <br><br>Russell Crowe is the latest actor to step into the big-screen boots of the Prince of Thieves, fabled since medieval times for robbing from the rich to give to the poor. <br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/rh2.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br>Was there was ever a real-life person with that name, or even resembling the character? That's debatable. But the new "Robin Hood" posits him in the historical context of England circa 1100 for this back-story tale about how Robin became a heroic hood.<br><br>We meet Robin, aka Robert Locksley, as an archer in the service of King Richard the Lionheart, now driving his tired and tattered army home after spending 10 years and most of his homeland's resources on the Crusades.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/rh3.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>The king's death during an attempted castle siege begins Locksley's transformation into a crusading woodland warrior with a quiver full of bad news for bad guys, which in this case includes a prissy British tyrant, a traitorous plotter, various murderous minions and a beach full of pesky invading Frenchmen. <br><br>Yes, this Robin Hood has his hands full---even moreso after he comes across a damsel in distress, the resourceful maiden Marion Loxley (Cate Blanchett). <br><br>Ten years ago, Crowe made another big-budget blockbuster about a former soldier who squared off with a monarch, and that movie made him a household name and a superstar. The long shadow of "Gladiator" looms large over "Robin Hood," not just because both depict brawling, brawny lead characters in historical settings, one with a broadsword and the other with a bow and arrow. Both movies share the same director, Ridley Scott, who seems like he's trying to out-"Gladiator" himself here, with more of practically everything: more plot, more characters, more star power (award-winning actors Max von Sydow and William Hurt bring a somber "Masterpiece Theater" vibe) and more action.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/rh4.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5> <br><br><br>But sometimes more is less, and "Robin Hood" sags from its bloat. It's overly long, overly complicated, overly staged and, in far too many scenes, awash with British-burr grunts, whispers and growls as part of a bombastic sound mix that over-amps every whisking arrow, every crackling fire, every horse clop. It's a strain just trying to follow what's happening, who's who and what's being said. <br><br>The grand vistas of lush British Isles scenery, and Scott's knack for showing the muddy, messy details of life in the 12th century, make it a handsome enough spectacle. But it all comes across as a heavy-handed hodgepodge, too weighted down with its blockbuster pedigree to be as much pure fun as it might have been.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/rh5.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>Hollywood sometimes forgets that a good, solid story doesn't have to be a spectacle that takes itself so seriously. Walt Disney certainly got it. Just look at his 1973 adaptation of Robin Hood. It was a cartoon, Robin was a fox, and you could understand him when he talked.<br><br><i>-Neil Pond, American Profile</i> <br><br>::::third:::: Movie Review: More is less in new `Robin Hood'
   from Jun 13, 2010



Check out these picks for top entertainment releases, Neil Pond of American Profile details the "must haves" and offers his insightful reviews:<br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/valentine610.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><b>Valentine's Day</b><br>Blu-ray, $35.99<br><br>Nearly 20 stars (including Jessica Roberts, Bradley Cooper, George Lopez, Jennifer Garner, Taylor Swift and Anne Hathaway) swirl around each other in this romantic comedy about the intersecting lives of a diverse group of Californians during one sunrise-to-sundown day in the life of love. Extras include Valentine's Day stories from the actors, commentary from director Garry Marshall and some hilarious crack-ups and bloopers. <i>-Neil Pond, American Profile</i> <br><br><br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/curtains610.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><b>Curtains: Adventures of an Undertaker-In-Training</b><br>By Tom Jokinen<br>Softcover, 280 pages ($15.95)<br><br>In is mid-40s, Jokinen quit his radio job and became an apprentice undertaker. His first-person account of his new job's learning curve is an entertaining, engrossing and morbidly humorous guided tour that lifts the veil of secrecy on the modern funeral industry---and makes "icky" interesting in ways you probably never imagined. <i>-Neil Pond, American Profile</i><br><br><br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/sundance610.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><b>The Sundance Kid</b><br>By Donna B. Ernst<br>Softcover, 264 pages ($19.95)<br><br>Robert Redford made him a household name in the 1969 movie about his exploits with partner-in-crime Butch Cassidy. But how much do you really know about Harry Alonzo Longbaugh, who found infamy as a bank and train robber in the late 1800s? Old West buffs and cowboy-lore connoisseurs will enjoy this well-researched chronicle, which goes deep behind the faAade of Hollywood and the fuzzy, often fanciful details of history. <i>-Neil Pond, American Profile</i><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/usa610.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><b>NOW That's What I Call the USA: The Patriotic Country Collection</b><br>CD ($26)<br><br>Country chart-toppers from Brooks & Dunn ("Only in America"), Billy Ray Cyrus ("Some Gave All"), Chely Wright ("Bumper Of My SUV") and 13 others provide the perfect soundtrack for a flag-waving 4th of July hoedown. A portion of proceeds from every purchase benefits troops and military families, and a bonus-track rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" introduces you to 4Troops, a talented new group made up of U.S. military veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. <i>-Neil Pond, American Profile</i><br><br>::::second:::: Reviews: Top Picks From American Profile
   from Jun 13, 2010



Mel Gibson returns in revenge thriller `Edge of Darkness' <br><br>In Hollywood, there's no such thing as an un-sinister conspiracy.<br><br>The deeper, the darker, the more deceptive and devilish, the better. And Mel Gibson burrows down into a murky rabbit hole indeed in "Edge of Darkness," a revenge thriller based on an award-winning British TV series from the 1980s. <br><br>Gibson plays Tom Craven, a Boston homicide detective devastated when his visiting daughter is killed by a drive-by shooting. His fellow cops think the shotgun blast was meant for their veteran co-worker, but Craven's not so sure. A little digging around uncovers his daughter's involvement in an activist group trying to bring attention to the misdeeds of an energy corporation with some sinister, extremely troubling, and high-level ties to the U.S. government.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/edge1.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br>Could the government be involved in the assassination of Craven's daughter?<br><br>That's what mad Mel spends most of the movie trying to ferret out. You won't be surprised, as he dives into this big can o' conspiracy worms, to find sleazy corporate honchos, shady government operatives, rotten cops, corrupt politicians and some justifiably paranoid people who are terrified to share what they know.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/edge2.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br>There's no direct link to the title "Edge of Darkness." No character says, for instance, "We're definitely on the edge of darkness now, man." But the movie spends a good deal of time (and dialogue) pondering death as inevitable and unavoidable, a veil of unknown darkness on the other side of life. Gibson's character knows he walking on that edge as he tracks his daughter's killers on his dangerous mission of vigilante justice.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/edge3.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>British actor Ray Winstone, who still bears the imposing, tough-guy frame of the boxer he used to be before taking off the gloves and taking up drama, plays a character that might even be regarded as a sort of angel of death. His covert, government-sanctioned "fixer" makes problems disappear by whatever means necessary. At one point, Gibson's character tells him he doesn't want to "walk into the dark" with him, knowing what would likely befall him if he did.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/edge4.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>But don't mistake this for a deep cinematic chat-fest about the mortal coil and what happens when it gets shuffled off. The filmmakers know what audiences will come to see, and they give it to them: Mel Gibson in full get-even mode, orchestrated to a bloody crescendo of pulpy revenge that cuts a final swath through a pileup of confusing details, tough-guy one-liners, predictable plot turns and only-in-the-movies coincidence.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/edge5.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>It's been eight years since Gibson's last starring movie role (in the alien-invasion thriller "Signs"). He might have chosen a better, and brighter, vehicle for his return trip to the big screen. But watching his character's slow-burn anger unfurl into full, get-even grandeur keeps the crowd-pleasing juice stirring in this compound-conspiracy cocktail.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/edge6.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br><i>-Neil Pond, American Profile</i> <br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br> Movie Review: Edge Of Darkness
   from Mar 8, 2010



<b>Amy Adams shines in otherwise boggy `Leap Year'</b> <br><br>::::start::::When a matrimonially impatient New York woman wants to light a fire under her reluctant-to-pop-the-question boyfriend, she pursues him to Ireland, where a leap year tradition puts the proposal ball in her court. <br><br>According to Irish lore, women are allowed to propose marriage to men once every four years as February's extra day rolls around.<br><br>But, as you might expect, her road to romance takes an unexpected detour.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/leapyear1.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>Amy Adams plays Anna, a successful Manhattan decorator with a high-dollar lifestyle and a workaholic cardiologist boyfriend (Adam Scott) who doesn't quite share her itch to hitch. When her noncommittal doc drops the ball on a perfect opp to pop the question---then ducks out to Dublin for a medical conference---Anna heeds the old-school advice of her Irish dad (John Lithgow). She rolls the dice on a fabled Emerald Isle custom and hops a trans-Atlantic flight to surprise him on Feb. 28. <br><br>Should we read anything into Anna's bumpy airplane ride? Oh, yes!<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/leapyear2.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>Diverted to Wales due to story weather, she must somehow make her way to Dublin. A chartered boat, beset by the storm, dumps her ashore in a quaint little village called Dingle. That's how she encounters a scruffy young Irish rogue, Declan (British actor Matthew Goode), who agrees to drive her the rest of the way. <br><br>Declan and Anna get off to a chilly start, but you won't be surprised as they begin to warm up to each other. In fact, you won't be surprised by much of anything in this wee, weak and wisp-thin romantic comedy, which uses just about every tired convention and shopworn clich‚ in the rom-com playbook.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/leapyear3.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>The on-location photography is, however, quite splendid, with vistas of Ireland's natural splendor filling the screen. But why doesn't late February on the British Isles look colder? No one so much as shivers, even when drenched by a downpour. And what kind of vegetable garden, anywhere in the North Atlantic, produces bountiful carrots and leafy lettuce just a couple of weeks after Valentine's Day? <br><br>And why in the world would a modern-day, successful and savvy woman, like Anna, fall for such a crock of Lucky Charms malarkey? You never believe for a minute that a real female, under her circumstances, would entertain even the itty-bittiest inkling of interest in such a silly shamrock scheme. This IS the 21st century, right?<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/leapyear4.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>The bright spot in this boggy botched mess is Amy Adams, a fine and always interesting actress who sparkles and shines here despite the stilted storyline, preposterous improbabilities and an artificially sweetened storybook ending. The feisty, quippy sparks between her character and Goode's are the only things that keep this movie from sinking like a 100-pound blarney stone. <br><br><i>- Neil Pond, American Profile</i><br> Move Review: Leap Year
   from Jan 29, 2010



The new special-effects blockbuster from director James Cameron takes place on the moon of a distant planet some 150 years from now. Human expeditions into space have sniffed out something special underneath the lush, primal surface of Pandora---something that can solve all of Earth's energy woes. <br><br>The only problem: The indigenous inhabitants of Pandora, the slender, 12-feet-tall, blue-hued Na'vi, live right on top of it. <br><br>As the movie opens, we're introduced to an American base on Pandora, a coalition of mighty military force and iron-fisted industrial might that's there for one reason: to mine the coveted, obscenely expensive element, appropriately dubbed "Unobtainium." If this can be accomplished without unnecessarily agitating the natives, wonderful. If it can't, no one intends to let a few thousand "primitive," tree-hugging Na'vi stand in the way of an extra-terrestrial gravy train. <br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/avatar1.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br>But before the gargantuan bulldozers roll, a small group of scientists on Pandora has been allowed to work on a diplomatic project involving avatars, genetically engineered Na'vi bodies "inhabited" by human personalities. When the humans go to sleep, their avatars wake up and interact with the natives. <br><br>The Na'vi are accustomed to the presence of the avatars, who've even helped them build schools for their little blue kids. But mostly they don't trust them. They refer to them dismissively as "dreamwalkers."<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/avatar2.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br>When one of the dreamwalkers, an ex-Marine named Jake (Sam Worthington), defects to the blue side, falls in love and aligns himself with the Na'vi to warn them about the real intent of the American interlopers, it sets in motion an all-out war. <br><br>It's both wildly original and hauntingly familiar, like "Dances With Wolves" in a galaxy far, far away. The Na'vi will remind you of Native American Indians, in both culture and name, and the rapacious, capitalistic, militaristic humans are like.well, greedy, rapacious, capitalistic, militaristic humans. Jake notes that whenever we find something we want, we declare whoever's sitting on it an enemy and fight them off.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/avatar3.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br>The special effects are groundbreaking, intoxicating and totally immersive. They transport you to another world of wonder, beauty, danger and movie magic at its most colorful, convincing and compelling. <br><br>Don't dismiss "Avatar" as just another sci-fi fantasy. The spectacular, frequently breathtaking visuals serve a much deeper story, an epic fable about love, loyalty, spirituality and stewardship of whatever place it is you call home. Cameron, the director of the "Terminator" movies as well as "Aliens," "The Abyss" and "Titanic," has created a big-screen marvel that sets a new benchmark for technical achievement but also goes deep into the heart.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/avatar4.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br>Sure, you can wait for the DVD. But to truly experience this blue, beautiful wonder, you need to see "Avatar" on the biggest screen you can find. Then sit back, hold on and prepare to be blown away. <br><br><i>-Neil Pond, American Profile</i> <br><br>::::third::::<br> Movie Review: "Avatar" WIll Blow You Away
   from Jan 23, 2010



Whimsical delights abound in `Fantastic Mr. Fox'. Using old-school, stop-motion animation, director Wes Anderson brings to "Fantastic Mr. Fox" the cool hipster wit that became his trademark in live-action indie favorites like "Rushmore," "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "The Darjeeling Limited." He takes Roald Dahl's 1970 storybook tale, about a chicken-stealing fox, and expands it with eccentric characters, fantastic miniature sets and superstar Hollywood voices.<br><br>Sly, suave Mr. Fox (George Clooney) vows to give up his risky, thieving ways when he finds out Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep) is pregnant. But a move into a new above-ground home, with its enticing vista of three farms ripe for plunder, triggers his return to a life of crime.<br><br>When his operation hits a snag, it imperils his family and the entire animal community. Can the smooth-talking, quick-thinking Mr. Fox figure a way out for everyone before the vigilante farmers blast them all to kingdom come?<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/fox1.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br><br>As Mr. Fox and his woodland neighbors hatch their daring counter scheme, you'll probably be reminded of another George Clooney "caper" movie, "Ocean's 11," as it might look played out with poseable-puppet animals. Just substitute a hen house for the Las Vegas hotel. <br><br>The world of Mr. Fox teems with color and detail. Don't take your eyes off the screen, or you might miss something small, subtle and sensational. The witty script spins off many delightful surprises.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/fox2.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br>The vocal actors, which also include Bill Murray as a lawyerly badger, Jason Schwartzman as Mr. Fox's mopey son and Willem Dafoe as a switchblade-swishing rat, make their characters seem more like real people who happen to look like animals than animals who talk like people. Several of them, including Murray, Schwartzman and Owen Wilson, are part of the director's stock pool of go-to actors, and they sync perfectly with Anderson's moseying rhythm and offbeat style.<br><br>Whimsical touches abound, from an interlude featuring a zany game called Whack Bat to a recurring sight gag about a mole that repeatedly zones out when listening to Mr. Fox and his detailed plans. When the gentlemanly Mr. Fox swears, he uses the all-purpose substitute word "cuss," as in "What the cuss?" or "Don't cuss with me!"<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/fox3.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>The vibrant, wildly eclectic soundtrack includes the theme from TV's "Davy Crockett" alongside tunes from the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones and even Burl Ives, and Jarvis Cocker, lead singer of the rock band Pulp, "appears" in a cameo as a folk singer improvising a ditty about Mr. Fox and his exploits. <br><br>It all adds up to a movie mix of mischief and merriment for both kids and grownups. As Mr. Fox makes a toast and breaks into a joyous dance at the end, you'll want to raise an imaginary goblet and kick up your heels, too. Everything about this sly fox, his friends and this funky, far-out, farm-raiding adventure is simply.fantastic. <br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/fox4.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br><i>-Neil Pond, American Profile</i> <br><br><br> Movie Review: Fantastic Mr. Fox
   from Dec 19, 2009



Jim Carrey plays multiple roles in this big-budget Disney take on the familiar fable of miserly Ebineezer Scrooge and his classic Christmas day of reckoning. In this storytelling, special effects overrun `Disney's - A Christmas Carol' <br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/carol1.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>Through a process called "motion capture," where sensors combine actors' real movements and expressions with all sorts of computer-animated wizardry, Carrey is Scrooge old and young, as well as all three ghosts that visit him that fateful Christmas Eve.<br><br>Director Robert Zemeckis marries his hi-tech, modern-age embellishment to the authentic Victorian roots of the tale. Characters speak many lines verbatim from the 1843 Charles Dickens classic. <br><br>The tale has been told and re-told many times on TV and in the movies, in versions starring everyone from Lionel Barrymore to Mr. Magoo: Scrooge, a penny-pinching grouch, is transformed after being shown the error of his greedy, selfish ways by ghosts of Christmases past, present and future.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/carol2.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>Dickens' tale is best remembered for its God-bless-us-everyone Christmas coziness. But it's also a supernatural parable of terrifying, chain-rattling spirits and mind-warping time travel, with a theme of social responsibility that extends far beyond seasonal cheer. In one chilling scene, Scrooge is confronted with the specters of two cowering, feral children representing "ignorance" and "want." Before his horrified eyes, they transform into a knife-wielding criminal and a shrieking woman in a straightjacket. Today, as in Victorian England, it's a pointed, politically charged warning: A society that ignores its disadvantaged risks a descent into chaos. <br><br>The whole movie looks terrific. The ghostly visits are things of eye-popping wonder, with the computer animation allowing for all sorts of fantastic manipulations of bodies, faces and settings that wouldn't have been possible otherwise.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/carol3.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>But director Zemeckis lets the special effects run wild in the last half, and all the razzle-dazzle overshadows much of the evergreen emotional resonance at the core of Dickens' story. Scrooge's transformation from miser to merrymaker seems more a result of being harassed, mortified and worn down than due to an uplift of life-altering goodwill. <br><br>And for a movie starring funnyman Jim Carrey, one that puts him in a variety of roles calling on his gifts for broad comedic physicality, it's surprisingly humorless. The meager laughs come from a barrage of special-effect slapstick. <br><br>Young children will be frightened, if not downright freaked, by some of the harrowing sights encountered by Scrooge, like the nightmarish cemetery finale in which Ebineezer falls, headfirst and screaming, into a seemingly bottomless grave. <br><br>Everyone knows Scrooge is going to be scared straight. But most people will probably see "Disney's A Christmas Carol" expecting something with a little more heart and a bit more humor.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/carol4.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br><i>-Neil Pond, American Profile</i> Movie Review: Disney's - A Christmas Carol (PG)
   from Nov 29, 2009



<b>'The Fourth Kind' - Believe it or not!<br>PG-13</b><br><br>::::start::::Something weird is going on in Nome, Alaska. Unsolved murders. suicidal freak-outs. a bunch of people having eerie, similar nightmares. and a spooky white owl. Ukranian-born former supermodel Mila Jovovich plays psychotherapist Abbey Tyler, who's got a personal stake in getting to the bottom of the mystery.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/fourth1.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5> <br> <br><br>The title, like the doctor's conclusion, refers to the "fourth kind" of encounter with alien life forms. The first kind is a sighting. The second is evidence. The third is an actual alien meet-and-greet, as in "E.T." or "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." The fourth is abduction---you go bye-bye into the sky, against your will. <br><br>Sometimes, as Abbey discovers, abductees get to come back. But they're damaged goods, both mentally and physically, with their memories erased about the horrors they experienced. <br><br>In an unorthodox opening, Jovovich, as herself instead of the character she's about to portray, approaches the camera, much like the star of a play greeting the audience before curtain rises. She explains that what you're about to see is "based on actual events" that occurred in Nome several years ago.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/fourth2.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5> <br> <br><br>What's more, she says, the movie incorporates "real footage"---sessions Dr. Tyler videotaped with her patients, police dashboard cams, cable-TV interviews. Some of the footage, Jovovich warns, is disturbing. <br><br>But is it real? As the movie unfolds, it often runs a split screen with "actual" footage on one side and the reenacted scene on the other. Though we never see any aliens, we hear chilling recordings and see people supposedly under their control, contorting, levitating, making strange noises and looking like they're about to pop out of their skins.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/fourth3.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5> <br> <br><br>Most viewers are going to have a hard time believing their chain isn't being yanked. Internet debunkers offer compelling evidence that "The Fourth Kind" is one big hoax, one loosely based on a factual missing-person investigation in Nome a few years ago that actually had nothing to do with close encounters of any kind. <br><br>The truth, as they used to say on "The X Files," is out there. But don't go looking for it in "The Fourth Kind." Craftily blurring the lines between fact and fiction, it leaves you with more questions than answers---and a couple of genuinely creepy scenes that, even if you dismiss them as so much Hollywood hoo-hah, may very well show up again in your nightmares.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/fourth4.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5> <br> <br><br><i>- Neil Pond, American Profile</i><br><br><br> <br> Movie Review: The Fourth Kind (PG-13)
   from Nov 22, 2009



<b>Kid-friendly `Astro Boy' has lots of swoosh and spectacle<br><br>Astro Boy / PG</b><br><br>Look! Up in the air! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a movie based on a 1950s Japanese comic book that later became an international TV cartoon!<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/astro1.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br>Now zipping onto the big screen, "Astro Boy" is the futuristic tale of a robotic youngster with some pretty impressive superpowers, including rocket-powered feet, x-ray vision and the ability to take quite a lickin' and still keep on tickin'. <br><br>In the new computer-animated movie, we learn how Astro Boy came to be-and about a childhood tragically lost in the process. We watch as the young hero tries out his new tricks, putting him on a collision course with a corrupt military general and a gigantic, destructive cyborg dubbed (ironically) "Peacekeeper." <br><br>Freddie Highmore, who played Charlie in 2005's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," provides the voice of Astro Boy, and Kristen Bell (from the recent live-action hit comedy "Couple's Retreat" and TV's "Gossip Girl") speaks for Cora, a spunky young female who befriends him after he crash-lands in a junkyard fiefdom ruled by a flamboyant robot tinkerer (Nathan Lane).<br><br>Donald Sutherland has a hammy turn as hawkish Gen. Stone, but Nicholas Cage sounds like he's sleepwalking through his lines as AB's conflicted scientist father. Wake up, Nic, and earn that paycheck!<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/astro2.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>This is a movie straight-down-the-middle for kids, with lots of swoosh and spectacle.<br>As is the case with most movies made for younger audiences, the filmmakers throw in a handful of gags meant to make grownups smile-like a robot's face-monitor status display that transitions from "! ! !" (alarmed) to "RELEASING FLUIDS" (very alarmed). <br><br>After its run as a comic book, a TV series and a videogame, there's just not a lot of new, unturned ground left for "Astro Boy" to explore. It looks sleek and snazzy, but everything here seems recycled. There's not really a novel idea to be found in the stitched-together storyline, a hodgepodge of pop-cultural references to Pinocchio, Frankenstein, Superman, the Jetsons, Daredevil, "The Iron Giant," "District 9" and "Wall-E." Oliver Twist-like street urchins scavenge the junkyard where Astro becomes marooned, and he's forced to fight other robots in a scene that borrows heavily from "Gladiator."<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/astro3.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>So "Astro Boy" doesn't have much going for it in the realm of originality. But you have to give it credit for its positive messages of sacrifice, courage and loyalty, and its depiction of a character to which a lot of children can relate. Astro isn't sure of who, or what, he really is. He feels rejected by his father and unable to confide in his friends. And he ultimately makes a decision in which greater good outweighs his own outcome. <br><br>He may be a reconstituted robot, but this little cyber-kid's got some real heart. <br><br><i>-Neil Pond, American Profile</i> <br><br><br><br> <br><br><br> Movie Review: Astro Boy (PG)
   from Nov 6, 2009



<b>Deception pays off in `Invention of Lying'<br><br>The Invention of Lying<br>Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner & Rob Lowe<br>PG-13</b><br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/lying1.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br>Imagine a modern-day world in which everyone tells the truth all the time and people say exactly what they're thinking.<br><br>British funnyman Ricky Gervais co-wrote, co-directed and stars in this wickedly clever comedy about such a bluntly transparent society. In this movie's "alternate reality," life has evolved without any concept of dishonesty. Unattractive and dull people are told they're unattractive and dull; dating is often a brutal exercise in rejection. Movies are all unembellished narratives about documented historical incidents. Television commercials and politicians must always tell the truth-which often leaves them with nothing much to tell at all.<br><br>Gervais plays unlucky-in-love Mark Bellison, who stumbles upon a revolutionary new concept: making things up.<br><br>In this world, lying is so alien there isn't even a word for it-Mark describes it as saying "something that isn't." Trying out his new trick, he tells a couple of friends a series of increasingly outrageous lies about things he done and invented. To his amazement, they believe him!<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/lying2.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>Mark's lies grow, making him wealthy and wildly popular. And why not-he tells people exactly what they long to hear, even if it's completely false. Most exciting of all, his dexterity in deceit helps him win the heart of the lovely Anna McDoogles (Jennifer Garner), a former blind date who'd previously brushed him off. <br><br>But after Mark tries to ease the mind of his dying mother with what he thinks is just another harmless whopper, it puts him in the middle of a big predicament. Increasingly, he must perpetuate something he doesn't believe-but everyone else desperately wants to.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/lying3.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>Gervais, the British funnyman behind the original BBC version of the hit TV comedy "The Office," rounds up an impressive supporting cast-including Rob Lowe, Tina Fey, Jeffrey Tambor, Jonah Hill, Christopher Guest and Philip Seymour Hoffman-to help deliver his barbs on religion, beauty, disillusionment and the basic human need for hope. His satiric arrows aim for our comfort zones, and they all hit home. <br><br>Gervais' premise-that falsehoods serve a purpose in the real world-will make you think. A comedic parable that depicts the extremes of both honesty and fabrication, "The Truth About Lying" is a great discussion starter once the chuckles subside.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/lying4.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br><i>- Neil Pond, American Profile</i> <br><br> Movie Review: The Invention Of Lying (PG-13)
   from Nov 6, 2009



<img border=0 src=../article-photos/angels11.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br><b>Spectacular `Wild Things' a royal rumpus of soaring, roaring fancy!</b><br><br>How do you make a full-length movie about a children's story that consists of a mere nine sentences?<br><br>Director Spike Jonze tackles that task in "Where The Wild Things Are," which stretches to spectacular, big-screen proportions the soaring, roaring fancy of Maurice Sendak's classic 1963 bedtime tale.<br><br>Fresh-faced Max Records plays Max, a precocious 12-year-old with a "wild" imagination. After a spat with his mom one evening, he runs away and ends up on an island populated by large, fantastical beasts. <br><br>Max brazenly declares himself the king and leads the wild things in a "royal rumpus," which includes an epic play battle with dirt clods and the construction of an enormous, sprawling fortress out of tree trunks and rocks.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/angels12.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>Like Dorothy's trip to Oz, Max's journey is all in his head-isn't it? Jonze brings the story's characters vividly to life with a marvelous combination of looming, lumbering, foam-rubber-suit puppets (with operators inside) and computer-generated wizardry, melding both seamlessly. You really believe, as Max does, in these giant, hairy, feathered and horned beasties, which have distinct personalities, talk in human voices (provided by James Gandolfini, Catherine O'Hara and Forrest Whitaker, among others) and feel real emotions with which Max can relate.<br><br>Jonze, who made his mark directing edgy music videos for the Beastie Boys before transitioning into quirky mainstream movies like "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation," has sculpted a splendidly textured visual masterpiece, with poignant, sometimes heavy emotional overtones. The fact that it's based on a children's book might lead you to think it's a kiddie flick, but it's not. It seems intended more for a grownup audience that fondly remembers the story from childhood, not today's generation of multiplex moppets cinematically conditioned to farting hamsters, crime-fighting cartoon canines and other zippy, colorful, quip-firing critters.<br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/angels13.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br>In fleshing out the bare bones of the book's sparse narrative, Jonze takes the movie into areas of deep, moody melancholy that will likely not hold the attention of younger viewers. And little eyes may not know how to process the disturbing scenes where one of the wild things brings down two birds by hitting them with stones, or when one wild thing rips off another's appendage in an outburst of temper. <br><br>Sendak's book has been beloved for generations because so many kids can relate to Max and his yearning to find a place, real or imaginary, where he can run, romp, scream, make things, break things and belong. Jonze's movie takes that simple idea and pumps it up to something strange, wonderful and weirdly fascinating for anyone who knows-or remembers-what those "wild" longings are like.<br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/angels14.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br><i>-Neil Pond, American Profile</i><br><br> Movie Review: Where The Wild Things Are (PG)
   from Oct 29, 2009



<b>`Zombieland' a funhouse of gross giggles<br><br>Zombieland / Starring Woody Harrelson, Jessie Eisenberg, Emma Stone & Abigail Breslin / Rated R</b><br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/zombieland1.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br>Zombies-you know, those ravenous, re-animated corpses with the insatiable munchies for human-body bits-have been chewing up the big screen for more than 50 years. Their latest appearance, in this big-budget horror spoof that which mixes equal parts carnage and comedy, has become a bona fide box-office hit. <br><br>It's no surprise. "Zombieland" is a wild funhouse ride of grossness and giggles that should coast into Halloween as a must-see for fright-flick fans who agree that laughter makes any zombie popcorn apocalypse easier to digest.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/zombieland2.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>In a decimated, dead-zone America with rabid flesh-eaters springing from every nook and cranny, Woody Harrelson is Tallahassee, a good ol' boy survivalist with a fetish for weapons and a sweet tooth for Twinkies. Jessie Eisenberg plays Columbus, a lovelorn nebbish with irritable bowel syndrome who outfoxes zombies by adhering to a long list of precautionary, common-sense rules-like "Check the back seat" and "Beware of bathrooms."<br><br>When Tallahassee and Columbus come across two wily young damsels in faux distress (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin), they eventually join forces and head to the comedic centerpiece-an audaciously out-of-left-field encounter in the Hollywood home of a movie icon. To say more would spoil the surprise, and it's a whopper.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/zombieland3.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>The splattery conclusion is staged in an amusement park, which provides several opportunities for inventive, zombie-fied interludes on the midway. If you thought the Drop Zone was dangerous under normal circumstances, just try it with a horde of hungry zombies drooling for you to come back down. And if you've ever thought clowns were creepy, wait until you come face-to-face with one that wants to slurp your brain through your skullcap. Yikes!<br><br>The dialogue is fast, funny and full-on R-rated, and Harrelson is a hoot as the drawly daredevil at the epicenter of all the merry, macabre mayhem, nursing a secret hurt inside the tender heart of his hard shell. "Mama always said I'd be good at something," he notes at one point. "Who woulda known it'd be zombie killing?" <br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/zombieland4.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br>Sociologists and pop-culture pundits say that various social, political and economic situations are represented by movie zombies, from the lumbering graveyard ghouls in George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" to the turbo-charged carnivorous sprinters in Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later." But all that's just so much blah-blah-blah when it comes to the experience of sitting in a dark theater, surrounded by a bunch of other giddy moviegoers, everyone primed for goosebumps.<br><br>If you've outgrown Halloween's little-kid-stuff sugar rush, "Zombieland" can help put some chewy, gooey, scary, grown-up fun back into fright night.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/zombieland5.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5> <br><br><br><br>-Neil Pond, American Profile <br><br> Movie Review: Zombieland (R)
   from Oct 23, 2009



<b>`Meatballs' a treat the whole family can savor!</b><br><br>Based on a beloved children's book of the same name, this new animated comedy tells the tall tale of a town with the world's most unique weather. In the fabled land of Chewandswallow, precipitation comes down as food. <br><br>Of course, the kids love it when the clouds unleash showers of pizza, hot dogs or hamburgers. But children aren't the only beneficiaries of the freakish weather. The entire town is reborn when the skies begin raining edibles, sparking a food-related business boom (bibs, dental floss, roofless restaurants) and attracting curious tourists. <br><br>But, as the citizens of Chewandswallow discover, sometimes too much of a good thing can be a bad thing-especially when the food ominously starts getting bigger.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/meatballs1.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br>The movie marks the directorial debut of Chris Miller and Phil Lord, two young filmmakers who likely grew up on the 1978 book by Judi Barrett. Their big-screen treatment expands the story, originally a quickie bedtime tale, with an explanation of how the strange weather began, and goosing things to feature-length with a couple of feel-good subplots, a dramatic final act and a slew of colorful new characters.<br><br>"Saturday Night Live"'s Bill Hader provides the voice of Flint Lockwood, the young inventor who fills the skies with food. Anna Farris ("The House Bunny") is the greenhorn weather reporter, Sam Sparks, dispatched to cover the unusual story.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/meatballs3.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br>Flint's man-of-few-words father (James Caan) wants to his son to hang up the lab coat, and former "A-Team"er Mr. T. is hilarious as an overzealous, hyper-athletic policeman. Listen closely and you'll also hear NBC weathercaster Al Roker, Bruce Campbell (Sam Axe from TV's "Burn Notice") and another "Saturday Night Live" star, Andy Samberg. <br><br>It's all great fun, and kids will enjoy the sheer, messy spectacle of all sorts of yummies falling from the sky-especially when the food reaches gargantuan proportions. "No school!" gleeful tykes squeal as they watch their classroom building completely disappear underneath an enormous pancake, a downpour of gooey syrup and a pat of butter the size of a basketball court.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/meatballs4.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>Grownups will enjoy the witty dialog and zippy script, especially when it makes playful nods to big sci-fi popcorn romps like "Twister," "The Day After Tomorrow," "Armageddon" and "Star Wars." There's a scene that plays out the wing of a hybridized airplane-automobile involving a malicious group of Gummi bears that will make fans of "The Twilight Zone" smile-at least the ones who fondly remember the classic episode about gremlins at 20,000 feet. <br><br>The animation and special effects are lively and look wonderful. See it in 3D, if you can; it's well worth the couple of extra dollars for a movie that's truly enhanced by the process instead of cluttered by its gimmicky. With an original story, dazzling effects and clever gags (verbal as well as visual) that both kids and grownups will appreciate, "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" is a feast for the eyes and a treat the entire family can savor.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/meatballs5.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br> <br><i>-Neil Pond, American Profile</i><br><br><br><br> Movie Review: Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (PG)
   from Oct 23, 2009



<b>Corporate Greed Meets Craziness In `The Informant</b><br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/informant1.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br><b>The Informant!<br>Matt Damon & Scott Bakula</b><br><br>::::start::::A globetrotting executive with the Illinois-based food-processing giant Archer Daniel Midland, Mark Whitacre snitched about an international price-fixing conspiracy and ultimately took down the management of his company in the 1990s. <br><br>There's definitely Hollywood juice in this true tale of high-level corporate malfeasance (based on a well-researched book by "New York Times" reporter Kurt Eichenwald), especially as Whitacre's increasingly bizarre behavior leads the F.B.I. down a rabbit hole of lies, surprises and shocks-and the revelation that the whistle-blower was himself a crook with his hand deep, deep, deep in the corporate cookie jar.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/informant2.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5> <br><br><br>Acclaimed director Stephen Soderbergh takes Eichenwald's book, adds a punchy exclamation mark to the title and drills away into the dark humor of a white-collar tattletale, his ever-widening web of deceit and a scrambled criminal mind with a couple of screws loose. <br><br>Matt Damon put on 30 pounds and a toupee to play Whitacre, whom Soderbergh depicts as a doughy corporate go-getter whose loony thoughts (which we hear as voiceovers) reveal a troubling detachment from reality. When his inner voice prattles on, about such banalities as neckties or indoor swimming-pool steam, we chuckle.then come to realize that Whitacre has some bona fide mental problems. (A psychiatrist in the film suggests he's bipolar.)<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/informant3.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br>Whitacre really gets into the cloak-and-dagger business of being an informant for the F.B.I., wearing a "wire" to record meetings and reporting to a couple of agents (Scott Bakula and Joel McHale from TV's "The Soup" and the new NBC series "Community") who sense they're onto something big. He sees himself living out scenes from a Tom Clancy spy novel or a James Bond movie, even calling himself "double-O fourteen" because he thinks he's twice as good as 007.<br><br>Movie composer Marvin Hamlisch provides the soundtrack for the movie's spreading shades of crazy, punctuating the humor with jaunty, perky instrumental snippets that put a jovial spin on top of whatever we're seeing unfold onscreen (even when it doesn't otherwise seem funny).<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/informant4.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br> <br>Watch closely for appearances by Tom and Dick Smothers, suggesting a nod from the movie to the wicked, wacky wit of the brothers' groundbreaking '60s TV comedy series. Melanie Lynskey (Rose from TV's "Two and a Half Men") does a wonderful job as Whitacre's supportive wife, whose eventual breakdown under the crushing weight of her husband's self-delusion finally helps bring closure to his cycle of lies.<br> <br>But the movie belongs to Damon, who crawls inside his role and doesn't come up for air. He's not playing a hero, by any stretch, but you can't help but be fascinated by his portrayal of Whitacre, the highest-ranking whistle-blower in the history of corporate America. His story isn't exactly a barrel of laughs, but "The Informant" makes this true tale of craziness and corporate greed go down with a corrosive chuckle.<br><br>-Neil Pond, American Profile<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/informant5.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5> <br> Movie Review: The Informant Starring Matt Damon (R)
   from Oct 9, 2009



<b>`Whiteout' more like `CSI: South Pole'</b><br><br><i>Whiteout<br>Starring Kate Beckinsale</i><br><br>::::start::::In the coldest place on Earth, a deadly snowstorm is closing in and the sun's about to go down for six months. And a killer is on the loose. Kate Beckinsale plays a U.S. marshal assigned to an American research base in Antarctica. When a frozen corpse turns up in the middle of icy nowhere, she stumbles into a situation that puts her life in danger. <br><br>The movie opens with a shootout and a lot of shouting aboard a Russian airplane some 50 years earlier. The plane crashes into the Antarctic wasteland.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/movieW.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5> <br><br><br>Cut to present-day Marshal Carrie Stetko (Beckinsale) peeling off her clothes and stepping into a steamy shower. Gratuitous, exploitational cheesecake, or just a friendly reminder that there's a woman underneath the bulky parkas Beckinsale will wear for the rest of the movie? <br><br>Tom Skerritt plays Stetko's pal and confidant, Dr. John Fury (whose name hints at the movie's comic-book roots), a mild-mannered veteran of many seasons at the ice station. Everyone's buzzing about a brutal storm, a "whiteout," barreling their way. When it's clear that the base will be hit, the decision is made to close up shop early for the winter and get out of there.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/movieWW.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5> <br><br><br>Then the marshal finds that frozen, mutilated body, falls into a sinkhole that leads her to the Russian airplane and gets chased by an angry masked man with a pickax. She discovers some fishy things back at the base. Even on ice, she begins to smell a rat. Who can she trust? <br><br>The movie's setting is both a blessing and a curse. The forbidding, sub-freezing icescape is moodily exotic, dangerous and potentially deadly. But when the snow starts blowing, it's impossible to tell who's who and what's what. Maybe parkas should be color-coded.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/movieWWW.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5> <br><br><br><br>And maybe the movie should have been a lot shorter. Despite its "race against time" countdown as Beckinsale tries to beat the storm, corral the killer and solve the mystery of the crashed airplane, "Whiteout" drips along at the pace of a melting snowman. It would have been much tighter and tauter as a 50-minute TV episode instead of a feature-length movie. <br><br>In fact, it actually looks and feels like a TV show. The camera work, the flashbacks, the "let me explain this for the viewer" dialogue, the dirty double-crosses and cutthroat conspiracies...call it "CSI South Pole" or "Law and Order: Frozen Victims Unit." Throw in some commercials, and you've got a prime-time television pilot.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/movieWWWW.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5> <br><br> <br>If you're a fan of all those crime-solving TV procedurals, you might like this. But I suggest you wait for the DVD and watch it on the small screen-because for your hard-earned entertainment dollar, this "Whiteout" isn't worth a night out.<br><br><i>- Neil Pond, American Profile</i><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br> Movie Review: Whiteout (R)
   from Oct 1, 2009



<b>`Extract' a lightweight but enjoyable comedy</b><br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/extract1.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br><b>Extract<br>Starring Jason Bateman</b><br><br>Mike Judge, the subversively witty writer-director who created "Beavis and Butthead," "King of the Hill" and the cult-classic movie "Office Space," heads back to the workplace for this quirky, grown-up comedy about what happens when things go wrong inside-and outside-a small food-flavoring factory. <br><br>Ever-likable Jason Bateman stars as Joel Reynold, the founder, owner and manager of the extracting business. Things are going well at work, despite a rather dysfunctional group of employees down on the production floor. Profits are up and a big-brand company is sniffing around with rumors of a buyout, fueling Joel's dreams of early retirement. <br><br>But things at home aren't going too well. Wife Suzie ("Saturday Night Live" actress Kristen Wiig) has lost interest in the bedroom, leaving Joel frazzled and frustrated.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/extract2.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>When a worker is injured in a fluke assembly-line accident that leaves him with only one testicle, a sexy new temp, Cindy (Mila Kunis), comes aboard. She also comes on to Joel, who resists her advances-until convinced by his trippy bartender friend Dean (Ben Affleck) to go along with a wild scheme. It involves sneaking Joel a horse tranquilizer and convincing him, in his altered state, to hire a male gigolo to tempt Suzie into a roll in the hay. At that point, reasons Dean, his troubled buddy will be ethically free to cheat on his unfaithful wife. Viola! <br><br>By the time Joel is thinking clearly enough to back out, it's too late. Of course, everything goes awry. Then Joel discovers the seductive temp has a shady past-and a dastardly plan to take down Joel's business.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/extract3.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>Although everything revolves around Bateman's character, "Extract" features a solid supporting cast of other actors who all bring a fine comedy shine to their scenes. Affleck is a hoot as Joel's doper friend, who ushers in one of the movie's funniest settings, a late-night bong-smoking session that reminds Joel why he should stay away from drugs. The dependably splendid J.K. Simmons plays Joel's second-in-command at the factory, hampered little by his inability to remember any of his employee's names. <br><br>David Koechner gets the annoying details just right as Joel and Suzie's pesky, boring, butt-inski neighbor. KISS rocker Gene Simmons has a scene-stealing cameo as a sleazy attorney with a flair for the overly dramatic.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/extract4.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>It all adds up to a lightweight but enjoyable comedy, surprisingly free of the unbridled raunch and foul language that often accompany R-rated comedies aimed at adults. "Extract" doesn't have a memorable message, a moralizing mission or a satirical axe to grind. But if your life needs a little humorous flavoring, pour away. <br><br><i>-Neil Pond, American Profile</i><br><br><br><br><br> Movie Review: Extract (R)
   from Sep 25, 2009



<b>`Taking Woodstock' re-creates the magical, musical summer of '69</b><br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/woodstock.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br><b>Taking Woodstock / Rated R</b><br><br>::::start::::Based on the autobiographical memoir of the same title by Elliot Tiber, director Ang Lee's "Taking Woodstock" is a more-or-less factual, comically fanciful recreation of the events leading up to the Woodstock festival 40 years ago this summer.<br><br>In the movie, the character based on Tiber, Elliot Teichberg, is a young Jewish interior designer helping his parents maintain their seedy "resort" motel in the sleepy community of Bethel, N.Y. Elliott is also president of the local Chamber of Commerce, such as it is-there's just not a lot of commerce in Bethel. <br><br>When the big planned "Woodstock Music and Arts Festival" gets bumped at the last minute from the town of Woodstock-nervous about a bunch of longhairs roosting for three days-Elliott, wearing his Chamber of Commerce thinking cap, gets a bold idea. <br>He invites the festival to Bethel, where the event's organizers like what they see. They quickly go about setting up a command center at the motel.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/woodstock2.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5> <br><br><br>The storyline swirls around Elliot, the calm at the center the kaleidoscope of colorful characters either working frantically to get ready for the festival, drawn to Bethel to bask in its preparational vibes, or protesting against it. Emile Hirsch is a standout as Billy, one of Elliot's childhood friends emotionally fractured by his combat experiences in Vietnam. Leiv Schreiber has a hilarious role as Vilma, a burly cross-dressing ex-Marine who volunteers as the motel's head of security. Eugene Levy is Max Yasger, the hippie-friendly local farmer who agrees to lease out part of his cow pasture for the event. <br><br>Essentially a coming-of-age account of young Elliot's self-awakening on the cusp of an event that would go down in pop cultural history, "Taking Woodstock" stays away from depictions of the actual concert. Once it starts, we hear music, but it's always in the background, in the distance. We see Woodstock-and its communal cocktail of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll-as Elliott sees it. One particular scene, as he weaves his way on a motorcycle toward the concert, is a single long, remarkable camera shot, with a cast of hundreds lining the clogged roadway.<br><br>Later, as Elliot surveys the muddy, trash-strewn pasture after the fans have headed home after "three days of peace, love and music," he's still awestruck by what he's experienced. "It's beautiful," he says.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/woodstock3.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5> <br> <br><br>Nobody knew it at the time, but the beauty wouldn't last. The movie drops a hint of the dark days ahead, at a free concert by The Rolling Stones in Altamont, Calif., just a few months later, where out-of-control Hells Angels would stab a fan to death. There would never be another event like Woodstock.<br><br>"Taking Woodstock" does a great job of recreating the time, place and people that came together to make something magical in the middle of the summer of 1969. <br><br><i>- Neil Pond, American Profile</i> <br><br> Movie Review: Taking Woodstock (R)
   from Sep 18, 2009



<b>`Adam' -- a sweet, character-driven gem!<br><br>Starring Hugh Dancy & Rose Byrne<br>Rated PG-13</b><br><br>With all the noise, flash, slash and special-effect stomp of this summer's "big" movies, "Adam" is a small oasis of character-driven calm. <br><br>Hugh Dancy, a British actor who starred previously in "Confessions of a Shopaholic," plays Adam, a New York electrical engineer with Asperger syndrome, a form of autism. Although he's able to hold down a job, Adam finds social interaction with others difficult. He doesn't understand subtleties of conversation and he often says exactly what he's thinking. He doesn't understand why everyone else isn't as obsessed with astronomy as he is. <br><br>Not surprisingly, Adam doesn't have many friends.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/adam1.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br><br><br>As the movie opens, Adam's father has died, leaving him totally, achingly alone in the small Manhattan apartment they used to share. When an attractive new schoolteacher neighbor, Beth (Rose Byrne, from TV's "Damages'), moves into the building, Adam is smitten. But he doesn't know how to respond appropriately to what he's feeling.<br><br>As Beth warms to Adam and eventually learns why he's so "strange," she finds herself drawn to him and his idiosyncrasies. She, we learn, has some things of her own to work through, including daddy issues with her accountant father (Peter Gallagher, in a solid supporting performance), who tries to convince her she's too good for the childlike Adam. <br><br>Dancy carries the movie, making us feel his frustration and his struggle to cope with his affliction-without ever reminding us of the actor behind the role. Bryne makes Beth equally believable as a wary, emotionally wounded young woman cautiously guarding her heart as her feelings deepen-and her world is rocked by a turn of events involving her father.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/adam2.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>"Adam" is a sweet, melancholy love story that avoids sugarcoating its characters or its subject matter. Dancy's sensitive, never-showy portrayal of the autistic Adam reminds us that there's a real person behind every behavioral disorder, psychological condition and personality quirk that often comes off as "strange." <br><br>And Adam's interest in astronomy isn't just a random detail. As he explains to Beth, the stars in the cosmos are separated by unfathomable distances, and moving across spatial expanses that boggle the mind. As Adam and Beth work to connect across the seemingly great void that initially separates the two of them, the process prepares them for their own journeys of professional growth and emotional maturity.<br><br><br><img border=0 src=../article-photos/adam3.jpg hspace=8 vspace=5><br> <br><br>With an ending that will come as a surprise, "Adam" is a little gem of a movie that will leave you feeling good about life-and understanding that the heart, when it tries, can cross great divides. <br><br><i>-Neil Pond, American Profile</i> <br><br><br><br><br> Movie Review: Adam (PG-13)
   from Sep 10, 2009


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