mbmiller-o Reviews

Mars Needs Moms (2011)

**** not a good movie for children, especially not small children

[18 September 2011]

This was quite a surprise: A Disney family movie rated PG with creepy animation, lots of dark scary scenes, aliens, homicides and attempted homicides and more! Why make a movie about children's mothers being abducted by aliens and murdered in some kind of giant laser machine? I guess it will grab kids' attention, but it will also scare them to death.

Aside from the crazy story line, which is not child-friendly, we have a new kind of animation that makes computerized characters look very much like real people. So, for example, the supposed 11-year old boy was modeled by a 35-year-old man, so that the kid looks like a cross between a kid and a middle-aged man. The forehead is expressive, but in a 35- year-old-man kind of way. You have to see this to understand. It is weird and a little scary.

Frightening, realistic aliens and robots chase a child while shooting at him with their ray guns, trying to kill him. They also try to kill his mother. They attempt to execute his friend in a firing squad. This all takes place in a dark and scary world where people run through long tunnels and dive into dirty chutes to spend some time in a giant fiery trash dump. The dump is inhabited by a monkey-like species of "stupid" creatures who wear primarily yellow, red and green clothing and have their hair in dreadlocks. I'm not kidding.

The character called Gribble, played by Dan Fogler, was an exception to the general drudgery of this film. He had a strange part to play in a weird script, but he brought a lot of energy and enthusiasm and a really unique style. It wasn't enough to save the movie, but he added at least two stars to my rating. The animation quality is good, but these days it's hard to count that for much. The story is just terrible and that's what really matters. Sorry, Disney, but I know you will overcome this setback.

The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! (2010–2018)

********* educational and great fun

[9/10 · 21 December 2010]

I'm writing this review partly because I've been watching the show with my daughter and partly because I read a negative review and thought it was very misleading. I want to set the record straight.

I just finished one adorable episode where the kids traveled to visit reindeer and learn what they eat and how the find it. Next they befriended a spider and learned how a web is made. I didn't know some of the web-making details (I'm a 52-year-old scientist) but it was presented in a fun and entertaining way that anyone could understand. My daughter is 3 years old and I'm sure she doesn't get all of it, but she loves to watch and it certainly isn't too simple for her. It is for children, but Martin Short is doing the Cat-In-The-Hat voice and he is a huge talent and always funny. I think it is very amusing both for children and adults.

I'm watching it in high def on a 1080p HDTV and it looks fantastic. I have no idea what the other reviewer is talking about. The animation is pleasant to watch and I don't see any problems with shading -- I don't think there is any shading.

Anyway, it's a great new show. It is educational and fun. We'll definitely be watching it for a few years.

The Incredibles (2004)

********* family fun with superheros, very funny, great for adults too

[9/10 · 25 April 2010]

The animation is excellent, the story is great, but the best thing of all is that it is really funny in many scenes. Not just family or kid funny, but funny for everyone, often specifically for the grown-ups. Of all the American animated films I've seen, which might be almost all of them, this is my favorite (I like some of Miyazaki's films even better, but he is bringing magic and wonderment in a surreal world instead of pure entertainment). You'll want to see this one even if you have no kids to watch it with. There's a lot of funny stuff, but Brad Bird's Edna character is the best. My daughter liked it well enough at 2 1/2 years of age that she asked to see it several times -- she gets some of the sight gags but she'll like it even better when she gets older. The robot is a little scary, but the rest of the movie is so much fun that kids instinctively know that nothing bad can happen.

Finding Nemo (2003)

******** kid flick, with fish, amazing animation, lots of laughs

[8/10 · 9 April 2010]

All children and families will want to watch this beautifully-animated film. It's all colorful 3-d graphics and a joy to watch. There are a few opportunities to learn things about fishes, but it's mostly about the journey to reunite father and son and about the laughs. There are lots of funny lines delivered by comedic geniuses Albert Brooks and Ellen DeGeneres. Some small children will be frightened in two parts: The scenes with the sharks from about 19:15 to 24:30, and the part with the deep-sea angler fish from 33:00 to 35:15. The bit in the beginning with the barracuda would be scary but it's over very quickly.

Like nearly all popular children's movies, this one follows the formula where the child is separated from the parents early in the film. In this one the mother dies and the child (OK, a clown fish, not a child) is separated from his father. Reunion would seem impossible if not for the interventions of a series of colorful characters with remarkable abilities and unimaginable good luck.

Public Enemies (2009)

******* colorful, violent, 1930s gangsters with machine guns

[7/10 · 9 April 2010]

It's all about attitude and machine guns. What was John Dillinger really like? I don't know the history or the man well enough to tell you if this film captures him and his time, but it seems to do that. It feels like you are there seeing his life and understanding how he lives and thinks. You are the most wanted man in America, maybe in the history of America, and your life may end at any second. You'd like to get away from all of that and spend your days on a sunny beach somewhere, but that isn't how this story ends.

The film provides some incentive to read a little bit about Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, J. Edgar Hoover, Melvin Purvis and the FBI. I thought it was a lot of fun to watch despite the rather extreme machine-gun violence throughout the film.

Medicine for Melancholy (2008)

***** intimate, brilliant, boring, but with a nice soundtrack

[5/10 · 8 April 2010]

It was lucky that I had a computer nearby so that I could read email while watching this movie. There is a kind of quirky genius to it and I did feel an intimate connection to the characters at times. It felt real and familiar, a little bit awkward to be seeing them so close and personal. In a way the extreme realness of the film was its downfall. Hitchcock once said something to the effect that films are like real life with the boring parts taken out. Too many of the boring parts were left in this film.

The cinematography is weak, but the use of muted colors matches the plodding dullness of the film, which may have been the intention. The music was a strong point, I thought -- it was different and original, fresh and creative.