I Am Number 4 Movie Review

Surprisingly, I am Number Four is a well-crafted action thriller, based on a popular young adult novel, and a film that's strong-willed enough for adults to enjoy, but still works well to identify with its core audience, the teenagers.

Alex Pettyfer plays a teen with some extraordinary powers. Going by the name John Smith to keep a low profile, he is on the run from some type of enemy that is sent to destroy him. The enemies are some weird looking folks, with what looks like gills on their faces, and very vampiric features on their face. And with some massive amounts of sharp teeth. they aren't looking for playtime. John Smith and his guardian Henri (played by Justified's Timothy Olyphant) have moved to Paradise, Ohio, because Henri has some matters to attend to. John meets his first love, Sarah (played by Glee's Dianna Agron), and struggles with letting her in and falling for her while at the same time dealing with the crises around him, the very real threat to the world that only he can the rest of those like him can stop.

It balances itself as a coming-of-age tale for John, but it's centered around some much more dramatic issues besides his first love and some school bullies. Those that are coming after him are looking to kill him, and they've Already killed Number 1, 2, and 3. They are known as the Mogadorians, and their commander is played by Kevin Durand.

There's a lot of action here, which I guess isn't too surprising considering Michael Bay produced it. It's well thought-out, strongly-choreographed and fits in very seamlessly with the movie, the fantastical images never looking to out of place. There are some very neat creatures, or shall I say frightening creatures, that the Mogadorians carry along with them, and the weapons used, a sort of laser-like gun, makes it look like some futuristic, deadly laser tag.

The sub-plot between John and Sarah serves its purpose and never feels too forced, fitting in nicely with all the possible-world-ending drama around them. Both Pettyfer and Agron give good performances, and Timothy Olyphant is solid as always as John's guardian. Olyphant is at his best when he's got a chip on his shoulder and a bit of an attitude, and Henri certainly had that. My favorite performance goes to Kevin Durand, who looks like he had the time of his life playing the Commander. The Commander works as that evil, but humorous bad guy you can feel free to laugh at because he's just on a movie screen, and not right in your face like with the characters you're watching.

I Am Number Four does a good job of setting up the series and introducing the characters, and we never feel like this movie was simply just an introduction to something else. I Am Number Four stands strong on its own as a very capable teen action flick.

 http://www.suite101.com/content/i-am-number-4-review-a351942

Burlesque - Film Review

It has to be one of the oldest stories in the Hollywood playbook: Ingenue comes to Tinseltown and becomes an overnight sensation, which inspires romance, conflicts and animosities.

But this tale gets a vibrant makeover in writer-director Steve Antin's toe-tapping, flamboyantly skin-deep musical Burlesque. Yes, it's only skin-deep, and so what? Perhaps because they're so rarely attempted these days, recent musicals have felt a self-conscious need to dig for significance, whether it be artistic malaise (Nine), racial inequality (Dreamgirls) or media manipulation (Chicago). Burlesque stays aggressively on the surface, reveling in its artificiality.

It was a risky bet by this first-time feature director to cast songstress Christina Aguilera, a singer who had never acted in a film. The stroke of genius here is to pair her with pop-music icon Cher. Although Aguilera is in nearly every scene and Cher appears irregularly, they nicely balance each other as they play single-minded characters passionate about their work as cabaret performers.

One is at wits' end about a possibly dying art and the other too fresh and enthused to notice. One singer-actress is an old pro and the other a superb entertainer exploring a new avenue for her talent. (Note to Cher: In this instance, "old" is a good thing and a compliment. You still look fabulous.)

Another successful gamble was to make a musical, traditionally a mating ritual, into a female-centric extravaganza. The movie backgrounds its male characters as best it can -- Love Interest, Best (Gay) Friend, Frantic Ex-Husband, Ravenous Real Estate Developer -- so the beautiful, fabulous women are front and center.

Women will love this, and men won't mind the eye candy either, so it looks like this Screen Gems release can't help becoming a hit. News stories about conflicts on the set and reshoots will only fuel the curiosity factor. Besides, burlesque itself -- a stage-show tradition dating to late-19th century British music halls -- with its risque humor and ample flesh (without full exposure), is making a comeback. Burlesque should seal the deal.

The movie takes place in a Sunset Boulevard theater called the Burlesque Lounge that's on its last legs, no matter how curvy and luscious those legs may be. In walks the naive heroine from Iowa, Aguilera's Ali Rose. She's hooked the minute she sees Cher's Tess, the club's co-owner and resident diva, belt out "Welcome to Burlesque," backed by a chorus line in fishnet stockings and eye-popping bustiers.

No one will give her a job, so with the help of a handsome bartender (Cam Gigandet) -- Love Interest -- she creates one out of thin air. She grabs a tray and is now a cocktail waitress only one urgent plea/conniving manipulation/sensational audition away from that glorious stage.

She gets that shot, of course, and later gets to display that big Aguilera voice, which rocks the theater. A star may be born, but "nothing's what it seems" -- one of the many cliche lines that Antin's screenplay indulges in with glee.

The Burlesque Lounge teeters on bankruptcy. Tess' Frantic Ex-Husband (Peter Gallagher) pleads her to sell to the Real Estate Developer (Eric Dane), while her Best (Gay) Friend (Stanley Tucci) assures her that things somehow will work out. The film's romantic melodrama centers on Ali's tentative flirtation with the bartender. They end up circumstantial roommates in his Hollywood apartment, but he has a "fiancee" back in New York, a nightly long-distance phone call that does nothing to warm his bed.

Back at the theater, a good girl (Julianne Hough) is pregnant and a bad girl (Kristen Bell) insanely jealous of Ali's popularity. And so the various plot lines go, serving mostly to inspire song-and-dance numbers from the female performers. Occasionally, a number takes place in the mind of its heroine. Perhaps the entire movie actually takes place there.

The songs tip their hats to various showbiz traditions. "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" is a nod to '50s showstoppers, "Wagon Wheel Watusi" leans toward '60s pop, and "Something's Got a Hold on Me" and blues pieces add a touch of soul.

Dances choreographed by Denise Faye and Joey Pizzi aren't conventional displays of happy feet and athletic agility. Instead, numbers are a series of poses built around a prop, like a chair. Hair flies this way, buttocks thrust that way, and arms strike out at abrupt angles. Virginia Katz's editing is swift as Bojan Bazelli's camera moves fluidly in front of the stage.

Antin is in his element here. His sister Robin founded mischievous burlesque troupe the Pussycat Dolls, and he has directed a couple of their videos. He clearly loves this world. The numbers would make Ziegfeld proud; they glorify the American girl with only a little PG-13 naughtiness. Antin knows what you came to see, and he delivers.

So does Aguilera. Her role is kept deliberately nondescript so she can fill it with her own personality and big voice. She does bring beguiling innocence to the part, along with a single-minded determination and a hellacious amount of performing talent.

Cher gets only one other number, "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me," which might become her anthem just as "My Way" belonged to Sinatra.

Tucci has his moments as the stage manager and Tess' right-hand man to lighten the melodrama, but the other roles tend toward blandness. The worst served is Alan Cumming. If ever a performer should have been at home in this milieu, it's Cumming -- who, after all, has done Cabaret onstage. Did his role wind up on the cutting-room floor?

Nonetheless, credit Antin with pulling the film musical back to its roots. With Moulin Rouge and Chicago, the musical was beginning to look like long-playing videos. Burlesque is a smart and sassy expedition back to MGM musicals under Arthur Freed, by way of Bob Fosse's jazz-style song-and-dance movies. Indeed, the film musical it most closely resembles is Fosse's Sweet Charity.

So Burlesque celebrates its talented stars and the renaissance of burlesque's cheeky fun. The only disappointment is that no Burlesque Lounge actually exists on Sunset Boulevard. On film, it's such a rockin' joint.

Rio Movie Review

Animated flick starring Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway is enjoyable enough

It may be considered infantile by some, and can be held to a lower standard than its alternative, but in general, the animated movie is hard to hate or resist. Like the appeal of fantasy and science fiction is providing a magical world more intriguing than the mundane one, animation can, for an hour or two, replace worries of politics and finance with ecstatic images of intelligent animals and unknown creatures. Even the weaker ones can have a touch of liveliness and colour.

Rio, released on the 8th April 2011, may not be a fantastic film, with its tendency to plop annoying clichés onto its script and a lack of interesting characters, but it still manages to entertain and has its heart in the right place.

Prepare for Carnivale

Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) is a blue macaw that has spent a blissful life with the bookish Linda (Leslie Mann), but thanks to bird scientist Tulio (Rodrigo Santaro), he learns he is the last male of his kind and thus must go to Rio to mate with the female macaw Jewel (Anne Hathaway). The two birds have little in common but are forced to bond when captured by poachers and chained together. They plan to escape and reunite Blu with Linda, but this is complicated by the fact Blu cannot fly.

It is an interesting enough story, if not somewhat similar to Alpha and Omega, but there are certainly hiccups along the way. There are some of the more annoying clichés of children’s movies – the streetwise orphan who wants a family, the bungling thieves who pose no real threat, the comic relief characters playing matchmaker toward the protagonists – and common pitfalls of latter-day animation, with a few jokes about posteriors, and monkey henchmen as annoyingly faux-adorable as Despicable Me’s minions, though not as prominent. Some moments even result in being embarrassing, most of them revolving around Tulio and Linda’s relationship; the pair spend a good part of the finale in flamboyant bird costumes, which lessens the emotional impact of Blu’s reunion.

Even with the script’s flaws, the story is still told with an abundance of energy and joy. It rarely takes itself seriously, instead opting to have fun with its setting. Blu flying is a predictable and rather contrived element, but that scene still manages to uplift. Rio’s biggest success is in being a ‘feel-good film’ with certain scenes reminding of a great family holiday, or even an especially good night at the pub with friends. One scene in particular is one set in a club for birds – with its fast-paced music and brightly-lit action, it may make the audience want to dance along with the characters.

Sadly, the main weakness of Rio is with its main character, who is barely sympathetic. He begins the movie delivering sarcastic remarks like an avian Garfield and is whiny and annoying when chained to Jewel. Like the title character of last month’s Rango, he is a pet forced to face the wider world but lacks Rango’s more endearing qualities. Rango may very well be Rio’s evil twin, exchanging bright beaches for depressing deserts and cute critters for curmudgeonly creatures. Rio may succeed in being more joyful and heartwarming than Rango, but it lacks the bonuses for adults that earlier release had.

Welcome to Brazil

The world of the film is beautifully realised and is worth watching at the cinema for the visuals alone. Rio de Janeiro itself is the film’s standout character, its cities and jungles brought to life with meticulous detail. The aforementioned club is bathed in a wide palette that accentuates its heart, and the Carnivale near the end is filled with spectacle.

The performances are generally average. Eisenberg does his best, but the neurotic voice he bestows Blu makes the character less endearing. Hathaway, however, craftily creates a fierce and independent character that still has some compassion. The poachers may be moronic villains of the Home Alone variety, but Jemaine Clement’s malicious cockatoo Nigel, aiming to be as sinisterly sophisticated as Disney’s Scar, is a decent antagonist.

http://www.suite101.com/content/rio-review-a364769

Cars 2 Agents on a Mission Tour Review

It's no secret that Cars 2 is likely to become the most lucrative animated film of 2011. Not only is it from CGI powerhouse Disney/Pixar, but it's a sequel to the beloved 2006 film. While Cars wasn't one of Pixar's bigger hits, it still earned $461 million worldwide and has become an absolute beast in merchandising. That fact alone appears to have overcome Pixar's reluctance toward sequels.

To get fans pumped for Cars 2, Disney/Pixar has teamed up with State Farm Insurance, Mack Trucks and Goodyear Tires to bring out the Cars 2: Agents on a Mission touring exhibition.

In addition to video kiosks, giveaways, a memory game – match the various Cars 2 characters in easy, medium or hard settings – there is also an online sweerstakes where ants can win 18,000 prizes, including a new car.

But it's three full-sized replicas of characters Lightning McQueen, Tow Mater and Finn McMissile that form the centerpiece of this exhibit.

"These cars were digitally recreated to be as close to the character designs as possible, using no off-the-shelf parts," explains Disney/Pixar spokesperson Christine Perez about the vehicles, which in fact were built on Model-T Ford replica chasses. "They have electric motors and a top speed of 10 miles per hour." The largest radio-controlled replica vehicles ever built, a 200-watt sound system under each car's hood provides the exhaust and engine noises. Visitors will be able to get their pictures taken with each character.

"Lightning McQueen's paint scheme is very different from the first film," says Perez. "It reflects the fact that he's now won 4 Piston Cups."

Perez complains that many visitors have confused Finn McMissile with Sally Carrera, Lightning's love interest from the original film. "But he's got a moustache and everything!" she exclaims.

McMissile (voiced by Michael Caine) is a top British secret agent who believes that Mater is a brilliantly disguised American spy. He's assisted by Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer), a younger agent who's just graduated from spy school.

"She's young so she does everything by the book," Perez explains, "while Finn is more experienced, breaks the rules and actually gets stuff done." She says Holley will not be a love interest for McQueen.

What's Cars 2 About?

The new movie follows Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) as he tours Japan, England and Italy in his quest to win the World Grand Prix. Accompanying him is Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), who commits various faux pas – such as when he tries to use a Japanese toilet – and gets caught up in a web of international espionage, courtesy of Finn.

Perez admits financial, not artistic, considerations fueled the Cars sequel. "Cars was such a huge hit for us," she says about the 2006 film. "Okay, it wasn't initially a blowout but it became even bigger over the years through DVD and merchandise sales." According to Perez, Cars is now Disney's fourth largest merchandising line after Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh and Disney Princesses.

The new film is meant to address concerns that the original Cars was too Yankee-centric for international fans. "(Director) John Lasseter was inspired to go global with this film, and not just keep it a North American phenomenon," Perez explains. Original director Brad Lewis was relegated to assistant status for this film.

While Cars 2 is primarily aimed at the kiddies, Perez promises that adults – especially "gearheads" – won't be bored. "There's a lot of multi-level humour," she says. "Jokes that adults, not just kids, will enjoy."

The Cars 2: Agents on a Mission tour will visit 30 cities in the next four months, visiting Los Angeles in time for the movie's premiere on June 24th.

http://www.suite101.com/content/cars-2-agents-on-a-mission-tour-review-a365293

Kungfu Panda 2

Setelah merilis trailer baru minggu lalu, kali ini DreamWorks Animation merilis 4 poster terbaru yang memperlihatkan karakter-karakter baru untuk sekuel Kung Fu Panda, yakni “Kung Fu Panda 2.” Film animasi ini akan dibintangi oleh pemain-pemain lamanya seperti Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen, Lucy Lui, David Cross, Jackie Chan dan Dustin Hoffman.

Film animasi yang juga menghadirkan suara-suara dari Gary Oldman, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Michelle Yeoh dan Victor Garber ini akan menceritakan Po yang telah mencapai impiannya menjadi Dragon Warrior. Sebagai Dragon Warrior dia pun punya tanggung jawab menjaga desanya, Valley of Peace, dibantu oleh teman-temannya dan sesama jago kungfu, "The Furious Five" – Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper dan Monkey.

Kehidupan Po yang damai pun mulai terusik dengan munculnya musuh baru, yang punya rencana untuk menggunakan senjata rahasia yang tidak terkalahkan dalam upayanya menguasai seluruh daratan China dan menghancurkan kungfu. Sudah menjadi tugas Po dan The Furious Five untuk menghentikannya, mereka pun akan melintasi China untuk menantang musuh baru ini dan mengalahkannya.

Tetapi bagaimana Po mampu mengalahkan senjata yang tidak terkalahkan tersebut? Po harus melihat kembali masa lalunya dan mengungkap rahasia dari misteri asal usulnya, jika berhasil barulah dia bisa membuka kekuatan yang selama ini tersembunyi. “Kung Fu Panda 2” dijadwalkan tayang pada 27 May 2011 dan disutradarai oleh Jennifer Yuh.

Berikut adalah tokoh baru dalam Kung Fu Panda 2 :

Soothsayer sudah lama menjadi penasehat untuk penguasa kota Gongmen, dia sangat bijaksana dan diberkahi dengan penglihatan ke masa depan.

Lord Shen sangat pintar, sangat berbahaya, dan juga dipenuhi dengan ambisi yang berapi-api. Ketiga kombinasi tersebut bersatu dan akhirnya membuat Shen ingin menghancurkan kungfu dan menguasai China, akhirnya dia akan berhadapan dengan Po dan kelima temannya.

The Wolf Bossdan pasukannya dulunya penjaga istana kota Gongmen. Sekarang dia adalah abdi paling setia yang dimiliki Lord Shen, tangan kanannya dan juga ahli dalam strategi militer.

Gorillas adalah yang terkuat di pasukan milik Lord Shen, jika ada pekerjaan berat yang diperlukan maka mereka lah yang akan berada dibarisan depan, pengawal pribadi Lord Shen juga terdiri dari para Gorilla ini yang sangat tunduk dengan masternya.

http://www.flickmagazine.net/news/707-four-new-kung-fu-panda-2-character-posters.html