Faithful readers of TAM (aren’t all of you faithful readers…?) will remember from last year’s review of Die Hard that celebrating my birthday involves going to a movie.  Well this year was no different.  This year, Cynthia got me an AMC card (I can see Spaldy smiling in approval) to celebrate my arrival to this planet.  So it seemed only fitting to use it to see my birthday movie.  Cynthia joined me and we tried to get our friend, Mo, to join us, but she was unable to join the merriment.

Now, it’s true that I have not been a big fan of what Pixar has released lately — that is due to me feeling like they were “phoning it in” with Cars, Finding Nemo, and Monsters, Inc.  Now before you get into an uproar, I found enjoyment in each one, but not like I had with Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and The Incredibles.  I can’t even comment on Ratatouille since I still have not seen it.  Usually I am fairly up-to-date on movies coming out, particularly Disney/Pixar, but WALL-E snuck up on me.  I did not hear anything about it until one of my friends started talking about it in March.  As time got closer I noticed more trailers and was impressed with what I saw.

WALL-E is the story of a robot that has one extraordinary day after centuries of the same routine.  Left to clean up the mess left behind by humans, WALL-E spends his day compacting trash into small cubes.  Over the years, he has developed a personality and a curiosity about things we take for granted: ladies underwear, ring boxes, and fire extinguishers.  He has also picked up an interest in watching one musical over and over, “Hello, Dolly”.

Then Eve arrives.

In Eve, he finds what he has watched over and over again on tape.  What follows is a sweet story of first love and the lengths one will go to for that other person.  There are increasing obstacles and a predictable, yet satisfying, ending.  Many side characters pop up to add color — my favorite was MO, the cleaner.

One of the big features of this movie is the lack of dialog.  For about the first hour, you just hear music and computer noises, with a slight snippet of a song from the video tape.  I loved this; it forced the animators to make the robots be more expressive physically.  I noticed that the kids enjoyed it too; it was the adults that got fidgety and frustrated.  I personally fell that the movie could have eliminated all dialog and not really suffered.

In other reviews, I have complained how learning improv has made me a harsher critic of movies.  If I wanted to pick a movie to show a budding improviser how to craft a simple story with stake-raising and a clear desire, it would be WALL-E.

My advice: see it at full price — recline back and let WALL-E’s world engulf you…

There are few entertainers that have been able to transcend different forms of entertainment and excel at each of them.   Will Smith is one of those entertainers.  Starting as a rapper that appealed to all listeners, his fanbase grew and gave him an opportunity to try TV.  Finding that to be relatively easy, Smith moved onto movies.  His first movie was Six Degrees of Separation, which garnered him many accolades and set the stage for what was to come.  Following that with the trio of July 4th hits of Bad Boys, Independence Day, and Men In Black, Smith declared the July 4th box office weekend as his to rule.  He even made fun of this in a promo for Wild, Wild West by pointing out he was taking 1998 off.  Yet WWW bombed and some of his invulnerability faded.  Yet, Smith has produced more hits than misses, so I would not bet against him.

That leads us to Hancock, the latest entry in the Will Smith library.

The story is a twist on the usual superhero outline:  Smith plays a hero that people hate.  Jason Bateman provides a good counter to Smith’s character as a PR guy saved by Hancock.

Then the story goes awry.

Rather than follow the simple path established, the director decides to go in many directions and what results is not very satisfying.  I want to know more of Smith’s backstory, backstory sacrificed to throw in fights that do not make sense.  I wanted to like this movie, but came out feeling “blah”.

My advice: see it at the dollar theater; to really see a story about a guy struggling with superpowers, check out Unbreakable with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson.

Hard to believe it has been over a month since I said I would review this movie — time flies…

So I found myself with some time to kill and near the Seminole Town Center theater, I decided to go check out Baby Mama.  Now, as Spaldy can attest to, there is something I just love about seeing Tina Fey or Amy Poehler on screen — combining them?!?!?!?! You know I am going to check it out…

The story centers on Fey’s character, a career woman trying to have a baby but unable to.  Choosing to go with surrogacy, she is paired up with Poehler, who agrees to carry her baby.  I wish at this point I could say a smart, funny movie unfolded…

Unfortunately, wishes do not always come true.

What ends up unfolding on the screen is a predictable mess — something that should have aired on ABC Family and not wasted the talents of Fey, Poehler, Greg Kinnear, or Sigourney Weaver.  I love all of these actors and enjoy much of what they produce onscreen.  Maybe that is why I am so disappointed in this movie.  In reviewing the credits at the end, I noted that there were four writers credited, none of them Fey.  That makes me feel a little better, but looking at this publicity shot, I get the feeling that Fey knew it wasn’t going to be good.

My advice: see it on cable, but don’t get your hopes up….