Hey, folks!  I'm glad to report that Eric and I went to the movies together for the first time this week; he really seemed to enjoy it quite a lot.  We saw Shark Tale, which is reviewed below.  By the way, I am still adding mini-reviews of movies to the "Unreviewed" page on the web site (which is http://www.geocities.com/museumcataloging/unreviewed.htm); I recently added The Incredibles (which is still in theaters), Down in the Delta, and Islands in the Stream to that page.  Jill wrote an excellent review of the indie movie The Station Agent, but since I reviewed that movie in a recent newsletter, I am going to include her take on it in the next issue, which should come right on the heels of this one.

ON SCREEN:

SHARK TALE: A movie about funny talking fishes?  Yeah, I know, it sounds like an underwater version of Shrek, and that's basically what it is--but what's wrong with that?  While it's a tall order living up to the earlier ogre film, Shark Tale almost achieves the same level of humor and entertainment, with a similarly digestible moral.  It all revolves around Oscar (voiced by Will Smith), a young whale-washer (yeah, that's his job--it's kind of like being a car-washer) who wants to move up the "reef," never quite appreciating the good counsel of his would-be girlfriend Angie (Renee Zellweger).  Meanwhile, the don of the mafia-like family of local sharks (Robert De Niro) wonders what's wrong with his son Lenny (Jack Black, cast brilliantly against type), who doesn't seem eager to hunt fish in the sea like a good shark.  The cast are all hilarious, especially Smith, and the animation is incredibly well done; I was really impressed by the facial expressions of most of the animated characters, many of whom were more expressive than some live-action actors I know (maybe Kevin Costner should see this movie).  The real surprise is the mature nature of some of the themes--loss of a sibling, parental acceptance, and "selling out" versus remaining true to yourself.  Fortunately, all of these are handled well without too much beating-over-the-head, mostly because the script and cast are so entertaining.  The only real problem I had with the film is that it's so noisy and brash, the way too many kid-oriented movies are these days.  It's the kind of thing that makes me appreciate a low-key-but-still-aimed-at-children work like Thomas the Tank Engine (and, for all that matter, Shrek) that much more. In addition, while most of the pop-culture references are funny, I'd be surprised if many kids would understand them, although I suppose they're there mostly to entertain the adults in the audience.  All that said, I still recommend this one.  (By the way, those of you who have ever read the Roger Zelazny short story "The George Business" will recognize some resemblance to the plot of this movie.  Also, I strongly recommend not leaving until after the credits are over.)  RATING: 8.

THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES: Can someone please explain to me why so many people are so damn nostalgic about Che Guevara?  I mean, come on--this is a guy who, among other things, predicted and wished for a violent race war here in America, one that would have killed hundreds of thousands of people of every color.  Needless to say, a movie with a sympathetic portrayal of Che is a tall order for me; that said, I was surprised at how close this movie came to sealing the deal.  It's set in 1952, the year that young Ernesto Guevara (he hadn't gotten his nickname or his radicalism yet) and his best friend and fellow medical student Alberto (Rodrigo de la Serna) took a motorcycle trip across South America from their home in Argentina to a job opportunity in Venezuela.  As the two men discover the awesome beauty and horrible poverty of their home continent, the movie does quite a job contrasting their personalities--Ernesto, troubled by the injustice he sees and by his own problem (a bad case of asthma), is guileless, honest, and dignified; Alberto comes across more as funny, worldly and practical, and not surprisingly ends up as the audience character.  I'm oversimplifying a bit here--both men are a bit more complicated than you end up expecting, and what Ernesto eventually became is hinted at here and there--but the characterization is definitely the movie's main strength.  I still had mixed feelings about the actor playing Ernesto, Gael Garcia Bernal from the Mexican film Y Tu Mama Tambien.  He strikes me as the Mexican Tom Cruise--great-looking and not a horrible actor, but outclassed by those around him, and a bit too willing to coast on his star power.  Luckily, he's in a role that more or less suits him, just as Cruise was in Rain Man (which this movie somewhat resembles), so his performance ends up not stellar, but not too bad, either.  That, combined with the great performance of de la Serna, meant that I still enjoyed the whole thing a lot more than I expected to, so I have to be generous rating it.  (I also can't close without mentioning the INCREDIBLE photography of South America included throughout the film; anyone who thinks that that continent is all or mostly rainforest is in for a surprise.  As shown in this movie, large parts of Argentina look much more like Colorado than they do the jungle, and the Atacama Desert in northern Chile is as starkly beautiful as any similar place in Utah or New Mexico. My favorite place shown in the film is the city of Cuzco in Peru, which Jill and I are now hoping to visit someday.  Valparaiso, in Chile, looks intriguing as well, partly because it has high hills and inclined planes that go to the top of them, like Pittsburgh and Johnstown, Pennsylvania.  Director of Photography Eric Gautier deserves as much credit as the actors and director for this movie's amazing look and feel.)  RATING: 7.

ON TAPE:

FORGET PARIS:  Wisecracking professional basketball coach Mickey (Billy Crystal) goes to France to buy his World War II-vet father, only to find that the airline lost his Dad's body.  Airline employee Ellen (Debra Winger) is charged with finding the body, and sincerely wants to help Mickey.  You know what happens from here... or do you?  The great thing about this comedy (which Crystal directed and co-wrote with his frequent collaborators, Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel) is that it's a more mature version of When Harry Met Sally.  It goes out of its way to explore the adult side of romance, especially marriage and its toughest aspect--ensuring that both husband and wife actually DO live happily ever after.  This is only one part of adult life that the movie appreciates; it also celebrates adult friendship, and the close ties that old friends, and especially couples, can have.  All of this is a rare blessing in a culture that worships youth as much as ours does.  The movie isn't perfect by any means--there are too many one-liners, and Crystal is really just playing an older version of his When Harry... character.  The way that the story is told--in flashbacks related by Mickey and Ellen's friends, with the "friend" stories eventually paralleling the main one--comes off as clunky at first, although it works well by the end of the film.  In any event, the presence of Crystal makes this film easy to compare with When Harry..., but the truth is that Forget Paris is the more mature film, and arguably the better film.  RATING:  8.

Until next time (which will be very soon), have a great holiday season and a great 2005...
 
 

Tony