All Together Now

Oscar season is in full swing, and as a result, I've seen a lot of movies, but if I am going to blog about every movie I see before Oscar nominations in January, I have a lot of work to do. Even though these films deserve more than a paragraph long analysis, that's all they're going to get.

Avatar: James Cameron knows spectacle. Twelve years after Titantic became King of the (box office) World, Cameron is back with a jaw-dropping 3-D thrill ride. The premise of Avatar is simple -- it's the story of humans attempting to take over the world of Pandora, currently inhabited by 10-foot-tall fluorescent blue natives. Basically, it's Dances with Wolves meets Fern Gully. The story may not be revolutionary, but the images and action sequences are so mind-blowing that similarities to any other story are bowled aside. Grade: A

Fantastic Mr. Fox: George Clooney and Meryl Streep are two of the biggest stars in the business, but not even their voices (as Mr. and Mrs. Fox) can outshine the clever and detailed animation in the Fantastic Mr. Fox. The animation combined with a wry script (adapted from Roald Dahl's children's book) written by Hollywood's oddball, Wes Anderson, make the Fantastic Mr. Fox an exuberant celebration of film-making. Grade: A-

Invictus: The biggest disappoint of the year. Clint Eastwood made a living this decade by releasing last-minute films that took the box office and/or the Academy Awards by storm (see: Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino, and Letters from Iwo Jima). Invictus isn't a bad film, but it doesn't live up to Eastwood's previous work. The story of Nelson Mandela and the South African rugby team after the fall of apartheid is buoyed by Morgan Freeman's best performance in years and a impressively subtle turn from Matt Damon. However, the dialogue is preachy and Eastwood, who usually uses music to perfection in his films, allows his son to create a score that is sappy and heavy-handed. Better luck next time Clint. Grade: B

The Princess & the Frog: This year is a banner year for animation. With great films like Up, Fantastic Mr. Fox, 9, Coraline, and now The Princess & the Frog, 2009 has more than one film that could be considered one of the year's 10 best. With Disney returning to it's 2-D roots, The Princess & the Frog came with a lot of expectations, and (almost) lives up to them. The movie has all the ingredients for success: an endearing heroine, wonderful music, impeccable animation, but there's just not enough of it. The film would be an instant classic if had more character development and plot. The Princess & the Frog doesn't live up to the brilliance of The Beauty & the Beast or The Lion King, but it more than holds its own with Disney musicals like Mulan and Tarzan. Grade: B+