Aylmer to Zazzoo and Beyond: Josh Peck

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Friday, November 23, 2012

Red Dawn - Review

Red Dawn
(2012 - November 21 )
Action
1 hr. 33 min.

Rated: PG-13 Sequences of intense war violence and action, and language
Grade: D+

Director: Dan Bradley
Writers: Carl Ellsworth (screenplay), Jeremy Passmore (screenplay),
Kevin Reynolds (1984 screenplay and story) John Milius (1984 screenplay)
Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Isabel Lucas and Josh Hutcherson | See full cast and crew

American city awakens to the surreal sight of foreign paratroopers dropping from the sky – shockingly, the U.S. has been invaded and their hometown is the initial target. Quickly and without warning, the citizens find themselves prisoners and their town under enemy occupation. Determined to fight back, a group of young patriots seek refuge in the surrounding woods, training and reorganizing themselves into a guerilla group of fighters. Taking inspiration from their high school mascot, they call themselves the Wolverines, banding together to protect one another, liberate their town from its captors, and take back their freedom.

This is a remake no one was asking for and no one needed. It takes a mediocre film, Red Dawn (1984) and remakes it into an even worse film, it does nothing to improve the original, except for the quality of the explosions. It fails on multiple levels; the nauseating hand held camera technique, the horrendously flawed new screenplay, awful directing and the generally abysmal acting.

This updated take on Red Dawn completed filming more than two years before its release, quite some time before Hemsworth became a god wielding his mighty hammer in Thor or before Hutcherson competed in The Hunger Games.

Originally scheduled to be released on November 24, 2010, the film was shelved due to MGM's financial problems. While in post-production, the invading army was changed from Chinese to North Koreans in order to maintain access to China's huge and growing box office. In May of this year the Chinese Government (via front company, Dalian Wanda Group, China's biggest movie theater operator) bought AMC Entertainment, America's second largest theater chain, for $2.6 Billion. This is China's biggest takeover of an American company yet and makes Dalian Wanda the world's largest theater group. AMC's day-to-day operations will remain unchanged and Wanda will invest an additional $500 million to fund AMC's development. AMC's American management will remain in place and headquartered in the Kansas City area. The company employs some 18,500 people. It would be a gross understatement to imply that China is aware of the value that cinema can play in the world of propaganda. With Wanda's vast resources there is no question that this positions China to wield influence in what Hollywood produces in the future due to this new dominance in global film distribution. Perhaps the first incidence being the changing of the antagonists in Red Dawn from Chinese to North Koreans.

Anyway, back to Red Dawn. As I was saying these two, Hemsworth and Hutcherson, have a great deal of screen presence and their box-office appeal should draw in audiences of a particular age who will pay to see either of these men in anything, who will want to cheer for them in this patriotic pep rally, who might want to see them as a very different type of 'young warrior'. This remake might be passable for those excited by eye candy holding guns and clucking patriotic cheers, and explosions, but it is inferior to the original in virtually every aspect.

It is all too clear that neither Hemsworth's Thor like charm nor Hutcherson's wholesome boy next door attractiveness is able to rescue this lame, feeble, clumsy material and directing. The performances are underwhelming including the particularly egregious acting by Isabel Lucas as Erica, Matt's attractive yet personality-free girlfriend, but she certainly isn't the sole offender. Josh Peck is entirely unconvincing as the high school football hero quarterback. Jeffrey Dean Morgan and two other 40-something actors, show up for the final act as the Wolverines' experienced soldier backup, bringing a little weight to the cast but it is far too little and far too late.

Most remakes try to offer an inventive twist or a realistic updating or modernization from the original. This film, not so much, here the filmmakers decided it was a good idea to digitally alter the invading army's nationality from Chinese to North Korean (as if they're saying all East Asians look alike), and then they, not-so-subtly, kill off every cast member of color like in a stereotypical horror movie -- every black and Hispanic teen meets his or her demise, while most of the white kids survive. Then there were the added clips of Obama, Biden and Clinton which were absolutely nauseating, I caught myself hissing at the screen, but I digress. Anyway, in the typical liberal social relativism, so prevalent in Hollywood, we are to view 'The Wolverines' a.k.a. The People's Liberation Army as comparable to the Iraqi insurgents or the Viet Cong 'liberators' and 'freedom fighters'.

We are also asked to believe that a group of teenagers from Spokane, Washington can achieve what the entire US military can not, that the North Korean invaders are so invincible that they could occupy the USA, yet they are so easily defeated by one marine and the cast of Scooby-Doo which he has trained to be SEAL Team 6 in a matter of a few days, but let's not get into all the plot holes, it would take way too long to enumerate them all.

Is Red Dawn an apocalyptic story — not really, it's more a story about the fall of America, how 'her chickens have come home to roost'. Our current political leadership is dedicated to seeing America knocked down a few pegs, to seeing our sovereignty relinquished to some kinder and gentler, wiser global entity like the United Nations.

So, America is getting what it deserves for being a big bad bully, for growing greedy, soft and complacent from our ungodliness, liberalism and political correctness or from too much soy in our diet or whatever. Me, I place the blame on the ungodliness, liberalism and political correctness (although soy is also nasty, tofurkey for thanks giving diner or a big glass of soy milk with your pumpkin pie...I don't think so).

But back again once more to the movie, the fact still remains that there is no authenticity in this badly flawed film, just one example, a few minutes after their friends and comrades are killed in battle big bad principled marine Jed and his wannabe girlfriend drinking beer and flirting.

In the original Red Dawn staring Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen there was an emotional connection that included actual conversations, but in this version the brotherly talks between Peck and Hemsworth are forced, disingenuous and virtually forgettable, in fact forgettable is an accurate descriptor for this absurd and regrettable remake.

Cast

Chris Hemsworth Josh Peck
Jed Eckert Matt Eckert

Josh Hutcherson Edwin Hodge

Robert Danny

Isabel Lucas Adrianne Palicki
Erica Toni

Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Col. Andy Tanner

Friday, July 13, 2012

Ice Age: Continental Drift

(2012)
Animation | Adventure | Comedy

94 min.

Rated: PG

Rating: C+

Directors:
Steve Martino, Mike Thurmeier

Writers:
Michael Berg (screenplay),
Jason Fuchs (screenplay)

Stars:
Ray Romano, Denis Leary and John Leguizamo

A cataclysm of continental proportions is set into play by Scrat's nutty pursuit of the cursed acorn that he’s been after since the dawn of time. He triggers the greatest adventure of all for Manny, Diego and Sid. Manny leads the herd and Sid is reunited with his cantankerous Granny, as they encounter a ragtag menagerie of seafaring pirates using an iceberg as a ship who are determined to stop them from returning home.

I saw Ice Age 4 in the no-3D format. I am not a big fan of all these recent animated films, 'The Pirates! Band of Misfits' for example was appallingly tedious and humorless.It's not that I can't enjoy an animated film it's more that they seem that those of late are being churned out on a conveyor belt, extremely formulaic. Ice Age: Continental Drift (also known as Ice Age 4: Continental Drift or simply as Ice Age 4) is no exception. This is the only one of the Ice Age series I had previously seen Ice Age 2 (I think it was during a flight to Europe).

The entire premise is about as credible, fresh and believable as Al Gore's global warming hoax. If you are a big fan of the previous films you will probably like this one too, kids will likely enjoy it. It is full of sixth-grade humor, puns and wisecracks. The pacing was good, the story seemed to move along pretty fast but it still felt like more than 94 minutes. Sid (John Leguizamo) is the saving grace for the film. His enthusiasm makes even old, previously used jokes work, but that is the biggest problem for the film, the old jokes. Everything seems like it's a rehash of the earlier film(s), nothing felt fresh or new. A little Wanda Sykes who voices Granny, goes a very long way. I found Jennifer Lopez particularly irritating but maybe that's just me. I did enjoy the Maggie Simpson cartoon 'The Longest Daycare' that played before the movie.

The Plot

As in the previous films, the main protagonists are the mammoth Manny, the sloth Sid, sabre-toothed cat Diego, and, in a parallel storyline, the saber-toothed squirrel Scrat. Scrat's hunt for acorns triggers the break-up of the Pangaea continent into the continents as we know them today. In the meantime, Manny and his wife Ellie deal with their 19-year-old daughter Peaches who has a crush on Ethan. Peaches' best friend, a molehog named Louis, also appears to have a crush on her. When Manny catches Peaches hanging with Ethan after he told her not to, Manny and Peaches have a falling out. Soon after, the breakup of the continent separates Manny from his family. Manny gets stuck on a floating ice raft together with Sid, Diego, and Sid's annoying grandmother Granny. A large moving landmass drives Ellie, Peaches, Crash and Eddie, Louis, Ethan, and a herd of other animals towards a land bridge, where they hope to reunite with Manny.

Scrat's Continental Crack-up

Meanwhile, Scrat, lost at sea also, finds an acorn-shaped map, which leads to a mysterious acorn-filled island. Scrat decides to follow the map and find the island, but as he begins his journey, he is suddenly captured by a gang of animal pirates on an large ship-shaped iceberg, who are sailing the oceans.

Ice Age: Continental Drift - Official Trailer #2

Manny and his friends are captured also by the pirate gang, led by a giant ape named Gutt. Gutt and the pirate gang attempt to persuade Manny to leave family life and join the pirates, but he refuses. Gutt takes this as an insult, and attempts to make the herd walk the plank, but they (along with Scrat, who continues his journey) manage to escape, in the process destroying the pirate ship, and again float on the oceans on a small ice raft. They rescue the female pirate saber-toothed cat Shira, who had been left behind by the pirates. She reluctantly joins the group, though states that the pirates will come back for her. She and Diego slowly begin to fall in love with each other during the adventure.

The group reaches an island and encounters a group of hyraxes, as well as the pirates, who are building a new ice ship elsewhere on the same island. The herd plan to steal the ship and use it to get back home. The next morning, as the herd is preparing their plan, Shira escapes and rejoins the pirates, but gets reprimanded by Gutt instead of being welcomed back, after Gutt realized that she had been with the herd, but had not attacked them.
The herd, along with the hyraxes, overtake the new ice ship and, with some help from Shira, who changed her mind after being reprimanded by Gutt, sail away. Gutt, in anger, quickly turns a new iceberg into a ship, propelled by narwhals, and chases Manny's gang, determined to get revenge.

Meanwhile, Peaches has been still hanging with Ethan and a group of teenage mammoths, but after realizing that they don't care about the danger and thinking that being a best friend with a molehog is ridiculous, she leaves them and returns to Louis. When Ellie, Peaches, Louis, Crash and Eddie reach the land bridge, they find it to be destroyed. Meanwhile, Manny, Sid, Granny and Diego encounter sirens, depicted as sharp-toothed creatures who take the shape of loved ones and attempt to lure the sailors. Fortunately, Manny realizes this and manages to steer the ship away from the sirens. Later, Scrat meets a siren, which uses the shape of his former girlfriend from the third film, Scratte, to attempt to lure him. When this fails, the siren takes the shape of an acorn, causing Scrat to run up and hug it. The siren changes back and attacks Scrat, but he gets away.

The next morning, Manny, Sid, Diego and Granny finally reach home, but, much to their horror, find out that Gutt and his pirate gang had beaten them to it and captured Ellie and Peaches. Manny attempts to turn himself in to Gutt in exchange for releasing his family, but Gutt doesn't keep his side of the bargain and prepares to kill the family. However, Louis, Ethan and the teenage mammoths come to rescue, starting a battle, during which Shira rescues Diego, and Granny's presumed imaginary pet Precious, a large sperm whale (a Livyatan melvillei), appears, defeating the pirates. Peaches rescues Manny, but as they are about to escape, Gutt attacks him again.

Gutt and Manny engage in a final fight, but Manny manages to defeat him. Manny arrives in time to pick up Ellie and Peaches, who are caught between the moving landmass and the ocean at the location where the land bridge once existed. Meanwhile, Gutt is killed when he ends up being devoured by a siren, taking on the shape of a female of his species. After sailing over the ocean, the herd and all the animals find the hyrax island which they accept as their new home. Manny and Peaches reconcile, Manny finally admits that Sid is not the screw-up after all, but a hero, Diego and Shira become boyfriend and girlfriend, while Louis is finally allowed to still be with Peaches whenever she hangs out with Ethan's gang.

The film ends with Scrat finally reaching the island on the map, Scratlantis (a Scrat version of Atlantis), a floating city filled with other sabre-toothed squirrels and nuts. However, Scrat, due to his nut obsession, grabs many nuts in a frenzy and eventually attempts to grab a giant one blocking a hole. He grabs it, despite the sabre-toothed squirrel leader's warnings, causing the city to sink to the bottom of the ocean, leaving Scrat in the middle of a newly-created land: the desert. Scrat's eyes burn, and he screams in pain and frustration.