HANCOCK • KIT KITTREDGE: AN AMERICAN GIRL •
WANTED • WALL*E

Ratings range from "0" (watch TV instead) to "5" (a must-see).

Hancock
Reviewed by Deborah Young

Every superhero worth his salt has some emotional issues. Spiderman’s alter ego is a wimp with a grudge. Daredevil is blind. The X-Men’s Storm suffers from claustrophobia. Iron Man has struggled with alcoholism.

What makes Hancock unique is that he’s more destructive than helpful, and unlike most superheroes, the public hates him.

The first time we glimpse Hancock (played by Will Smith) he’s laying on a park bench. A little kid has to wake him to tell him that the police are chasing some bad guys on the freeway and that they might need his help.

Hancock’s obviously been drinking, a lot; he’s disheveled, and he wears a grimace on his stubbly face. But he flies to the criminals’ car, terrorizes them, and then spears the car on the Capitol Records building. He leaves the car there.

Word of his latest adventure is broadcast on television news. The reports make it clear that Hancock’s ruining the city, making rubble of streets with his sliding landings, and on top of that he’s rude and crude.

Fortunately for Hancock, the next person he saves is an image consultant (Justin Bateman as Ray). Ray wants to repay Hancock by gussying up the hated superhero’s image, which will be no easy task. Ray’s wife, Mary (played by Charlize Theron), is reluctant to have her husband involved with Hancock, but their son, Aaron (Jae Head), quickly takes to the superhero.

The first half of this 92-minute film is a bit of a snoozer, with Hancock destroying things and assaulting people, but after he decides to try to be a better hero the filmmakers treat us to some stunning visual effects.

In one sequence Hancock battles with someone whose powers are similar to or stronger than his powers, and it’s on. The other fighter creates a storm reminiscent of Jean’s eruption in the most recent X-Men movie. The two battle in the air, things get broken and it’s visually magnificent.

But when they return to the ground, and the plot progresses, one thing becomes painfully obvious: This plot makes no sense.

At least the last half is fun to watch, and most viewers will probably get a kick out of Theron and Smith. (PG-13) Rating: 2.5 (Posted 07/03/08)

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
Reviewed by Michael Simpson

Abigail Breslin stars as Kit Kittredge in a film meant for young girls, but will surprisingly be enjoyed by adults. The story takes place in Cincinnati during the Great Depression, and its lost jobs and foreclosures ironically coincide with the economy today. (Julia Roberts and her co-producers couldn't have guessed that when the movie was in development.)

Kit is ten years old and desperately wants to be a printed journalist. She frequents the newspaper to prove to editor Gibson (Wallace Shawn) that she is indeed a qualified reporter. The themes of the movie are typical: If you don't succeed then try again; honesty is the best virtue; and don't let obstacles "beat you," as said many times to Kit by Mr. Kittredge (Chris O'Donnell) before he leaves for Chicago to find work and send money back home. Kit is embarrassed at first that her family is forced to find extra work to survive, and her transformation is one of the film's warmest aspects.

Mrs. Kittredge (Julia Ormond) turns their large home into a boarding house, where colorful characters like Mrs. Howard (Glenne Headly), Mrs. Bond (Joan Cusack), and Mrs. Dooley (Jane Krakowski) fill the screen with their own unique voices. Jefferson Berk (Stanley Tucci) is a magician who amuses with levitation tricks. Especially strong are performances from Max Thieriot as Will and Willow Smith as the hobos.

Director Patricia Rozema made certain this movie was not meant for product placement (as the American Girl company probably intended). Kit Kittredge is an American movie with an American heart and a credit to those who brought this project to the big screen.

"Sometimes you've got to dance the tune your audience wants to sing to," said a reporter scoffing to Kit that her stories were not rich enough for an audience to read. Thankfully, she didn't listen and in this charming and un-Hollywood-like movie, neither did American Girl . (G) Rating: 3 (Posted 07/03/08)

Wanted
Reviewed by Deborah Young

Cross the moral of Office Space with the visual trickery of The Matrix and you’d get Wanted, the cinematic adaptation of the “Wanted” comic book series by writer Mark Millar and artist J. G. Jones. This flick should create some excitement inside theatres this summer. Even moviegoers who don’t typically fancy action films will probably get heart palpitations at the sight of the abundant camera tricks and athletic stunts in this antihero story.

Wanted tells the story of a timid office burnout (James McAvoy as Wesley Gibson) who gets recruited into an international assassin’s organization known as the Fraternity. His first encounter with the group comes when he meets Fox (played by Angelina Jolie) in a grocery store. A gun battle ensues, and she assumes the role of his protector. The gunfight goes from the store to the street for one of the film’s most thrilling sequences.

Fox swoops Wesley up in a red Dodge Viper and flees. A whimpering Wesley slinks down in the passenger seat as she drives against oncoming traffic, flips the Viper over other cars, and at one point, climbs out onto the hood to get a better shot at their pursuer.

In short order Wesley goes from office cubicle to textile factory. The Fraternity operates out of the factory and trains Wesley there. A team led by a fatherly and philosophical Sloan (Morgan Freeman) teaches Wesley how to handle knives and guns, how to fight and how to run atop trains.

Camera tricks and stunts have these characters flying through the air, leaping from building to building, and shooting around objects and people. The cast, particularly Jolie and McAvoy are believable citizens of a fictional world.

But beneath the eye-candy and adrenaline-inducing action lies an old-school story about a man opting to rise above the mediocre existence of a working drone and about the trials of his transformation. Wanted is basically the Tiger Woods story, but bullets have replaced golf balls, and F-bombs have replaced G-rated language.

This story is never mundane and rarely predictable. Screenwriters Michael Brandt, Derek Haas and Chris Morgan have juxtaposed voiceovers with disparate action to create some very funny moments, particularly in the first 45 minutes of the film when Wesley is working in a cubicle for a tyrannical woman who’s constantly clicking her stapler in his face.

Sometimes Wanted doesn’t make much sense, but who cares. It gets the heart racing and ignites a desire to live vicariously through these charming and fearless characters. (R) 3.5 (Posted 06/27/08)

WALL*E
Reviewed by Russ Simmons

Make it nine for nine for Pixar, giving the renowned animation studio a perfect record.

The folks behind Toy Story and The Incredibles have redefined what a feature length cartoon can be and raised the bar for everyone else. Their latest effort is called Wall*E and it offers a gentle message about environmentalism disguised as an eye-popping futuristic comedy.

Writer/director Andrew Stanton had been tinkering with the story idea for many years and thanks to the success he enjoyed with Finding Nemo, he got the green light to bring his cautionary tale to the big screen.

The movie takes place a few hundred years in the future and focuses on a small, lone robot named Wall*E, who is basically a mobile trash compactor.

When the story begins, we learn that Earth was rendered uninhabitable by humanity’s rampant consumerism and disregard for the environment. In their haste to get away, someone forgot to turn off Wall*E who, for 700 years, has dutifully followed his “directive” to clean up the mess.

Compacting and stacking humanity’s garbage into structures that dwarf skyscrapers, Wall*E spends his down time watching an old video of Hello, Dolly and dreaming of romance. His lone companion is a tiny cockroach who seems content to watch Wall*E as he goes about his daily duties.

Things change dramatically for our hero when a probe droid named Eve returns to Earth to see whether or not any vegetation has managed to regenerate in Earth’s harsh atmosphere. Wall*E becomes infatuated with Eve and stows away on her rocket when she finds a sapling to take back to the mother ship.

The computer-generated visuals are stunning and the story is inventive and touching. Wall*E is imaginative in every aspect of its execution and manages to clearly tell most of its story without dialogue.

Unlike most of the other Pixar films, Wall*E doesn’t rely on much voice talent. Although Ben Burtt and Elissa Knight are credited with providing the voices of Wall*E and Eve, their “dialogue” consists mostly of computer-enhanced bleeps and beeps.

Once humans come into the picture, we hear the voice of Pixar’s good luck charm, John Ratzenberger, as well as those of Sigorney Weaver and Kathy Najimy and John Garlin. Fred Williard appears as the CEO of BNL, the corporation that took over Earth’s government.

While Wall*E may be a bit too sophisticated for very young kids, it is a satisfying family flick that manages to entertain while taking a sly poke at rampant consumerism. (G) Rating: 4.5 (Posted 06/27/08)