November 2011

The Muppets

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Muppets
  • IMDB: link

the-muppets-posterIt’s time to play the music. It’s time to light the lights. It’s been a long time since the The Muppets took Manhattan, had a great caper, or set their sites on an original movie. Sure there was that attempt to give Gonzo his own film, and the series of movies adapted from literature to star The Muppets over the years, but for the first time in a long time, with no small part to Jason Segel, The Muppets are back.

The story begins with brothers Walter (Peter Linz) and Gary (Segel) traveling to Los Angeles with Gary’s longtime girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams). Although the trip was initially set as an anniversary getaway for the lovers, Gary brings Walter along to let him realize one of his dreams by visiting Muppet Studios.

Walter is crushed to find the studio in disrepair and horrified to learn that an oil tycoon (Chris Cooper) is set to take ownership of the property and destroy it. The Muppets have only one chance, the contract leaves a clause that they can buy back the studio before the deadline if they can raise $10,000,000.

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Hugo

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Hugo
  • IMDB: link

hugo-posterFor the first half-hour or so of Hugo you’re wondering to yourself why is Martin Scorcese directing a children’s story about an orphan who lives in a train station with a broken robot?

Don’t get me wrong, the characters are engaging and the look of the film (especially in 3D where the effects bring to mind a child’s pop-up book) are terrific, but the question still remains. And then this film about an orphan and his automaton becomes a story about a famous filmmaker and the celebration and preservation of old films, and you know exactly what struck the director’s fancy.

When we first meet Hugo Cabaret (Asa Butterfield) he’s living in the walls of the Paris train station. The son of clockmaker (Jude Law), Hugo was orphaned when his father died in a museum fire. Now all Hugo has to remember him is a notebook and a broken automaton his father was attempting to fix before his death.

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The Descendants

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Decendants
  • IMDB: link

the-descendants-posterOn the beautiful islands of Hawaii, Matt King’s (George Clooney) world crashes down when the real estate lawyer is hit with two bombshells at once. First, he learns that his wife (Patricia Hastie), who suffered a boating accident and has languished in a coma for weeks, isn’t going to get better. Her living will makes it obvious what will happen next, even if Matt and his two daughters aren’t ready for inevitable.

Things only get more complicated when breaking the news to his oldest daughter Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) Matt learns his wife has been having an affair and it’s this, not the daughter’s recently troubling behavior, which was the cause of the friction between mother and daughter in recent months.

Through his anger and grief Matt tries to keep his dysfunctional family together, deal with the outbursts of his younger daughter (Amara Miller) in school, and put up with Alexandra’s moron of a boyfriend Sid (Nick Krause), all while managing a complicated land sale that means millions of dollars for his extended family.

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Morning Glories #14

/ / Comics

morning-glories-14-coverIt looks like we’ll have to wait at least a month to find out what exactly has happened with Casey and Miss Hodge. In the latest issue we see the fallout from Hunter‘s blow-up with Zoe from her point of view, intermixed with the beginning of Woodrun, and odd flashbacks to Pilgrims torturing a man to get information out of girl who bears a resemblace to Jade in the year 1653.

In a nice move, writer Nick Spencer chooses to give Zoe a moment to actually feel the hurt of Hunter’s comments, and the overheard gossiping of the other girls before returning to full bitch mode and deciding on a slow revenge.

For an issue centered around arguably the series most unlikable character, this one turns out to be pretty good. I liked how the Pilgrim story eventually worked itself around to the main tale. We see a little of Woodrun from Zoe, Hunter and Jun‘s point of view but (not surprisingly) things turn ominous just as the comic comes to a close.

The mystery remains two-steps out of reach for the characters and audience alike, but I’m so enjoying the ride that (at least for now) I’m not too worried on the destination. Worth a look.

[Image, $2.99]

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