Theoron

When I saw the trailers for this film, I was under whelmed, to say the least, and hoped my kids wouldn't ask me to go see it. Amazingly, neither of them were impressed with the trailers either, and so they didn't.

But as fate would have it, I received free tickets to a sneak preview, and having nothing to risk except gas and popcorn money, decided to take the kids to see "Chicken Little." In short: I found the movie surprisingly enjoyable, and liked it a little more than the Wallace & Gromit film we saw just a week earlier.

As one might expect, the movie "Chicken Little" takes the concept of the "sky is falling" to a whole new level for the 21st century, this time involving aliens from outer space, baseball, and high school nerds.

The film is computer animated, but not a Pixar film. The look of the film is very "cartooney" and all the characters are various anthromorphized farm and woodland animals. The plot is simple and straightforward: Chicken Little (voiced by Zach Braff) is a nerdy little high school chicken/kid (though very cute!) who just can't seem to do anything right. Like in so many children's films, one, if not both parents are missing, and in Chicken Little's case it is his mother. So poor Chicken Little is stuck being raised by his father Buck (voiced by Garry Marshall), a one-time high school baseball hero who is often finds himself disappointed by the antics of his nerdy (but cute!) little son, a disappointment Chicken Little feels all too acutely.

The event that really strained their relationship is when Chicken Little sounded the town alarm after being hit in the head by "a piece of the sky." Sadly, this mishap happened under one of the town's stately oak trees, and so when Chicken Little's father comes to the scene, he insists that his son was just hit in the head by one of the acorns laying on the ground, and mistook it for being a piece of the sky. In other words, dad does damage control, and lets his son, along with his son's credibility, dangle in the wind. I'm afraid this review would give away a bit too much in stating what the "piece of the sky" actually is...

Because the event is not forgotten, but instead becomes the ultimate "in" joke, (even becoming a Hollywood movie!) poor Chicken Little is forced to live under the shroud of shame that the false alarm brought upon him. He then decides to find some way, some means to show himself worthy to his father, so that he might erase the shame of "the sky is falling" incident. That's were the baseball and the space aliens come in.

Chicken Little also gets a little help from his friends: the ugly duckling Abby Mallard (Joan Cusack), a fat pig named 'Runt' Of The Litter (Steve Zahn), and a cute, voiceless 'Fish' Out Of Water , who wears a special diving mask to help him "breath" on land—think the opposite of Sponge Bob's Sandy Squirrel.

"Chicken Little" starts rather slow, and is very dialog heavy for an animated kid's flick. The set-up is slow and deliberate, and there isn't much in the way of the typical slapstick and one-liners to keep things light. However, the long slow setup really pays-off at the end of the film, which is gut-busting hilarious! As a matter of fact, it was one of the best endings of a film I've seen since "Napoleon Dynamite." They climaxed the fun and excitement at exactly the right moment, and kept the ending very sweet and enjoyable. Too often, Hollywood films fail to end convincingly, or draw out the ending far too long; this film deftly manages to avoid either extreme.

There is a downside to "Chicken Little" however, and that is the strange fact that it's really not a kids' film, though there's nothing in it that would jeopardize the well-earned "G" rating. The film's core message is a child's need for unconditional love and support from a parent, especially a father. This is quite a powerful and heavy issue, and one that is difficult for young children to fully comprehend, let alone many adults! (Think of "Field of Dreams" in cartoon format.) Also, there are a lot of jokes that depend one having a fairly good knowledge of 70's and 80's pop culture and pop music (especially disco), which most people under 40 simply do not have. That makes the movie rather fun for the adults, but goes right over the kiddies' heads. My own children found most of the film rather boring, and only liked the ending.

One thing I especially enjoyed is a bit of voice-over work done by none other than Adam West, who is famous for playing Batman on the 60's era TV show by the same name. I recognized the voice immediately, and it made me smile, but my children wouldn't know Adam West from Mae West, and the voice-over work meant nothing too them. Again, it plays far better to adults than it does to children! But my kids don't write reviews for IMDb, and I do. And I liked the film enough to seriously consider buying the DVD when it comes out, even if I have to watch it alone!

Rating: A solid 7 out of 10.

"…nonviolence implies a kind of bravery far different from violence. In the use of force, one simplifies the situation by assuming that the evil to be overcome is clear-cut, definite, and irreversible. Hence there remains but one thing: to eliminate it. Any dialogue with the sinner, any question of the irreversibility of his act, only means faltering and failure. Failure to eliminate evil is itself a defeat…The greatest of tyrannies are all therefore based on the postulate that there should never be any sin." (Thomas Merton)

"Serenity" has more laughs than the best comedy, more action than the action flicks, and more substance than all the films released this year combined. Does it sound like I'm gushing? If it does, I must say this is one film worth gushing over.

Take all the movies of 2005, roll them up into a ball, and you still wouldn't get from that big wad of celluloid an entertainment experience that Serenity effortlessly offers up in any random ten minutes of viewing. Yes, the film is THAT GOOD.

The setting is a system of terra-formed planets somewhere in the galaxy, at at time 500 years in the future. Bullet firing sidearms are still the weapon of choice, and we get a very interesting mix of sci-fi high-tech mixed in with and old-west type of atmosphere. Think of "Star Wars" crossed with "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly."

The plot: Serenity is the name of a space ship captained by Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), a veteran of a civil war in which the Independents, or "Browncoats" (which he volunteered for) fought against the Alliance, which is similar, but not identical to the Rebel/Empire thing of Star Wars. But the Alliance is actually more like the Federation of the Star Trek franchise, without the alien life forms.

Reynolds fought for a single ideal: freedom to choose his own way of life. The Alliance is one of those capitalist/socialist conglomerations that seek to smother their citizens in an abundance of regulation and a promise to shelter everyone from all evil. Mal, and his sidekick Zoe (Gina Torres), who fought alongside Mal in the civil war, both realize it is better to die free than to live enslaved to a system that thinks it knows better than you do. Though the war is over, Mal and Zoe continue their own private little war against the Alliance by running a Robin Hood style outlaw organization that steels from the Alliance and gives to Serenity's crew. Think of it as a bit of pay-back for the hell the war put them through.

In it's adventures, Serenity picks up a doctor and his sister as passengers. It is only after they are aboard does the reality of their situation becomes known: they are fugitives on the run from the Alliance. The doctor's young sister, River (Summer Glau), who at one time was a brilliant student, was taken under false pretenses by the Alliance and mentally "re-engineered" to become a lethal weapon, in order to be used covertly against those hold-outs still bucking Alliance control. The young doctor, Simon (Sean Maher), uses all his money and influence in a plot to rescue his sister from the facility where she is being programmed, and the two of them make a run for it; Simon all the while trying to do what he can to help his now deranged sister regain her mental faculties.

Yet the Alliance is finally catching up to these two renegades, and it's up to Mal Reynolds and the small crew of the Serenity to keep the doctor and his sister out of their clutches.

While this might seem like just a sci-fi version of "The Fugitive", it is in reality much more than that. All really good science fiction is far more than just aliens and special effects, it is an examination of core philosophical and theological ideals which makes society what it is. In this film we are—amazingly—treated to a meditation on the meaning of love; and a blatant example of the fallacy that sin (evil) can be removed from a society through political/scientific endeavors.

The Alliance, in their bid to create the perfect Utopia, finds that they have created a horrendous hell instead. River, through her mind-reading ability, inadvertently discovers the Alliance's closet full of skeletons. It is the possible unmasking of this closely guarded secret that makes River and her brother high priority targets. It's hard to convince people that you are the ultimate system of benevolence when the hard evidence of social experimentation gone wrong demonstrates the opposite.

I don't know the political or religious ideals of Joss Whedon, the writer and director of this film, but one cannot help but to notice that Serenity is a powerful body-slam to the modern day liberal ideologues who think the road to perfect peace and happiness can be found in the next government social welfare program. It shows the empty promise of political utopias in a way that is so powerful, it will be a wonder if a left-wing, anti-war do-gooder will be able to withstand watching this film without self-destructing. We plainly see, just as we did in the classic film "Forbidden Planet," or in the wonderful book "1984," that the road to a political Utopia is paved with far more violence than that it seeks to eradicate.

For that alone, Serenity is the best film of the year, and easily one of the best films in the past five years.

I plan on seeing this film several more times; and I almost NEVER seen a film more than once in a theater. I may even go so far as to buy double the number of tickets I need, just because this movie is worth double the ticket price, even triple. Yeah, it's THAT GOOD.

My score: 20 out of 10.

I must admit I had low expectations as I walked into the theater to see Polar Express. I had seen 'The Incredibles' just a short time earlier, and was amazed at how good that film was, perhaps the best film of 2004. I did not think Polar Express or any other movie could possibly top it.

I was wrong. Polar Express may be the best movie of 2004, so far…

When creating a film from an incredibly popular and well-know book like Chris Van Allsburg's 'Polar Express,' I had wrongly believed that the Hollywood types could only screw it up, make it boring, and fill it with lots of Jerry Bruckeimer-type special effects that would only distract us from the wonderful story. Again, I was wrong.

The film 'Polar Express' does an absolutely wonderful job of capturing the two best aspects of Van Allsburg's book: the artwork and the message.

The computer techniques used to tell this story are, by far, the best use of computer animation I've ever seen. Nothing that Disney or Pixar has done even comes close. The look and feel of Van Allsburg's wonderful artwork is completely intact, and in some ways, even exceeded. It's like watching a beautiful oil painting come to life. The film, if nothing else, is an absolute feast for the eyes, I was completely in awe from the opening minutes to the closing credits. I truly did not want to watch this banquet of beauty and light to end.

But of course there's more to a movie than visualization, and the simple, but powerful tale of a boy out-growing the need to believe in Santa Claus is very well done. In the book 'Polar Express,' the boy-hero very much still believes in Santa when the train shows up in front of his house. In the movie version, we see a young boy who's begun to seriously doubt the Santa stuff. The change is a good one, in that most of the audience, especially the adults, will be able to relate to this change in perspective about Santa Claus that comes with the coming of age. The visit of the train to this boy's house is more than just the start of an adventure, it is the beginning of a mission of redemption, even if that redemption is only one's faith in a Jolly Old Man.

But that's why 'Polar Express,' first in book form and now a motion picture, works so very well. It' not really a story about Santa Claus at all, but about faith. The film drives home this message in a more heavy-handed way than the book does, but still without the preaching and condemnation that often comes from other Hollywood films that attempt to re-educate their audience.

Polar Express works on a much, much deeper emotional and spiritual level than does 'The Incredibles,' and will fit in very well with those other Christmas classics that are really parables about faith, like 'The Miracle on 34th Street,' and 'It's A Wonderful Life.' And to a lesser extent, even 'A Christmas Story.'

My seven-year old daughter, who saw both films with me, gave 'The Incredibles' a score of 9 out of 10. As we were walking out of the theater, I asked her if she liked 'Polar Express.' She told me 'Yes, I give it an eleven!'

My review of 'Polar Express' is of the 2-D version that will be seen on most screens. I have every intention of going to see it again, but this time making use of the IMAX 3-D version. Roger Ebert (film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times) saw the film this way, and said it was the best 3-D experience he's ever had.

I so wish the Polar Express would stop in front of my house this Christmas Eve.

My rating: 11 out of 10.