Review: Rango

Paramount Pictures

Rango is a kids movie. I hate to say it; I was hoping for a crossover experience. But while the story makes an effort to appeal to adults, and has some references to classic films – in the case of Chinatown, it’s less a reference than blinking neon sign announcing “Check it out! We’re referencing Chinatown!!” – it mostly relies on Road Runner type humor to get the audience going. That works really well if you’re ten, but it’s less compelling if you no longer spend your Saturday mornings watching cartoons.

Rango, voiced by Johnny Depp, is a pet chameleon who is accidentally thrown out of the family car when the driver swerves to avoid a passing armadillo. He lands in a desolate stretch of desert, and the armadillo, a philosophical fellow, sends him off to a nearby town to find his destiny, and some water. (Yup, water; right away we’re getting that Chinatown feeling.) Along the way he meets up with Beans (Isla Fisher), a tough lizard woman with curls and a long blue prairie dress. Beans is trying to hold on to her Daddy’s ranch but it’s tough since the water supply dried up. She’s appropriately suspicious of Rango (she all but calls him a city slicker) but she gives him a lift into town, where he waltzes into the saloon and cons the locals into believing he’s a tough guy. They send him off to meet the mayor, who appoints him sheriff (not a plum job in this town, most of the sheriffs have short life expectancies) and then things start to get complicated, because the folks want their new sheriff to find out where the water’s gone, and Rango suspects the answer lies with the mayor.

All this leads to predictable silliness, posses and chases with lizard cowboys riding birds in and out of canyons (sometimes it’s as much Raiders of the Lost Ark as Destry Rides Again). But it’s mostly flash and superficial excitement, there are no moments where the story transcends its animated silliness to touch something real, in the way that Up and Toy Story did. Still, if you’re looking for a film to see with a bunch of elementary school kids, this will work. Playing everywhere, won the box office crown on a sluggish movie weekend. C

Review: The Adjustment Bureau

 Universal Pictures

The Adjustment Bureau is a cool sci-fi love story. Matt Damon plays David Norris, an up and coming New York congressman making a big play for the US Senate. Everything is on track until the New York Post publishes some old pictures of him engaging in youthful indiscretion, specifically, pulling his pants down at a party. This is enough to crush his campaign, and on election night, glum and full of self recrimination, he practices his concession speech in a swanky hotel bathroom. Then, a ray of hope: Elise (Emily Blunt) emerges quite unexpectedly from one of the stalls, where she had been hiding from hotel security, caught in the act of crashing a wedding. Carrying a half empty bottle of what is probably very good champagne, the irreverent Elise immediately recognizes David (“Aren’t you that guy who’s running for Senate?”) and proceeds to tease, flirt and cajole him out of his mood and back into fighting form. He is instantly smitten, so is she, but then security shows up and she has to run, the girl of David’s dreams disappearing down a hotel staircase. But, inspired by his brief encounter, David tosses his index cards and gives a stirring speech to his supporters. His political fortunes, though delayed, are back on track. 

But the path of true love, and Matt Damon characters, never runs smooth.  On a sunny New York morning, when David has just set out for work (his between campaigns gig) it appears that two men are tracking him. “He needs to spill coffee on his shirt by 7:05,” Richardson (John Slattery) tells Harry (Anthony Mackie) and Harry wearily agrees but then he dozes off on a park bench, missing the cue. Meanwhile, David hops a bus and miraculously, spots Elise. Sparks fly, and this time he gets her number, but then the day takes an ominous turn. David arrives at work to discover strange doings: his co-workers are frozen in time, and his friend and colleague Charlie is getting zapped by a mysterious light beam; the Adjustment Bureau is busily making changes to the fabric of fate that spilled coffee was supposed to prevent David from seeing. Richardson corrals him and then tells him the truth: his future is not his own to plan. And, incidentally, he’s not supposed to be with Elise.

Since Matt Damon has made a career of playing stubborn rogue tough guys, we all know he’s not going to let Elise slip away just because John Slattery tells him to. And so the adventure takes off, with lots of twists and turns and elaborate foot chases through Manhattan. Along the way we are asked to speculate on what choices we would make if we knew in advance what the outcomes would be: White picket fence in the suburbs? Fame and fortune, but no satisfying personal life?

Based on a Philip K. Dick short story (it's like screenwriter and director George Nolfi read the story and decided to write another chapter of his own)The Adjustment Bureau is a fun film, and a great night out in the midst of late winter movie doldrums. Damon and Blunt have crackling chemistry, Slattery’s usual ironic light touch provides welcome amusement, and Anthony Mackie is terrific as the Adjustment Bureau “caseworker” who isn't certain that the team is making the right decisions.  Playing everywhere. B

New Movies: March 4, 2011

Oscar excitement has left town, and along with it the glut of nominated films that dominate movie theaters this time of year. So welcome to the new arrivals! There are many, if you count obscure foreign and Sundance type films that are only playing in big cities. Not counting those, here’s what we got:


Now Playing in a Theater Near You

RANGO Johnny Depp plays a lizard in this live action animated tale of a pet store chameleon who gets lost in the Wild West. Depp based the character of Rango on Hunter Thompson, which is edgy, to say the least, and may be why so many critics caution that this film is probably not going to appeal to the pre-school set. It’s the first animated film to come out of Industrial Light and Magic, George Lucas’ special effects company, and that makes it worth seeing ; but wait, there’s more: director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) upped the realism by having his cast act out the story as though it were a live action shoot, instead of the usual thing of calling the actors in to record their lines individually. Most of the big name critics are big time fans.

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU Matt Damon and Emily Blunt play star-crossed lovers in a sci-fi world that is determined to control their destinies; in order to be together, they must outmaneuver the mysterious Adjustment Bureau. Terrance Stamp and John Slattery play the mysterious evil puppetmasters. Based on a Philip K. Dick short story and directed by George Nofi (Bourne Ultimatum), The Adjustment Bureau is supposed to be a pretty good thriller and an even better love story. Generally good reviews.

TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT Topher Grace takes another stab at stardom in this story about an aimless college graduate whose life is upended when his high school crush invites him to an “epic” end of summer party. It’s sort of like American graffiti, if John Hughes had directed it in the eighties. Most critics love Topher and don’t love this film.

BEASTLY Aimed at the Twilight set, this modern take on the Beauty and the Beast fable features Alex Pettyfer (I Am Number 4) as the Beast, Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical) as Beauty and Mary Kate Olsen as the witch. Cool. It’s all set in New York and has a Gossip Girl kind of vibe. Lukewarm reception by critics, who mostly seem to think it could have been a lot better. Well, we all know the story works.

Hall Pass and Drive Angry are also still around, even though they could barely scrape together an audience last weekend; theater owners seem to think they deserve a second chance. Oscar winner The King's Speech is in wide release and worth checking out if you haven’t seen it yet, and i f you’re in the mood for a fun thriller, Unknown is probably at a multiplex near you.