ArtisticallyChill

THE LOVELY BONES

Based off the book of the same name written by Alice Sebold, THE LOVELY BONES tells the story of Susie Salmon who was murdered at the age of 14. Trapped in limbo, Susie’s spirit watches as her family deals with her disappearance and her killer tries to cover his tracks and plan his next kill. It was a rather entertaining movie, filled with some fantastic CGI imagery for the ‘In-between’ or Limbo that Susie Salmon roamed. Serena had read the book and like most movie adaptations, there were a few things left out that could have made it a better movie but would have increased the running time much longer than it already was. With suspenseful movie like this, you don’t want to keep viewers at the edge of their seats too long. Otherwise, they would fall off and lose interest, just wanting the movie to be over with already. If you haven’t already read the book, I recommend doing so just to get more depth out of the characters and further appreciation of the story.

THE BOOK OF ELI

I enjoyed Denzel Washington’s performance. The plot, however, is a bit ridiculous but does a good job of being a conversational piece. Is it the first great film of 2010? I don’t believe so. It’s one of the better post-apocalyptic movies of the decade, but nothing I believe to be spectacular. As my cousin commented on facebook, “It was like Waterworld without the water with a touch of Road Warrior.” What I find to be ridiculous is that the book (which is made obvious as to what that book is early on in the movie) is explained in the movie as the cause of mankind nearly destroying themselves to almost extinction, and yet mankind wants to preserve the last copy after all others had been burned after wars were over and the bombs were dropped. It makes no sense. It’s like mankind wants to start the end of the world, again. It’s like how mankind eradicated small pox yet you know some government or agency has the last specimen of small pox locked up in some freezer in some secure facility for no real good reason, but just to hold on to it. Are we really to believe that mankind’s rebirth in a post-apocalyptic world will be dependent on what caused it’s downfall in the first place?

The acting was great, especially by Denzel Washington. The action was delivered in timely amounts to keep the story moving at a nice pace. Other than the weak foundation of the plot, the movie is still a pretty chill flick.

If you were only allowed to watch the 4 flicks mentioned above, the order I would recommend would be: The Book of Eli, Waterworld (yeah that’s right), The Road Warrior, and then The Lovely Bones.

~ LoneWolf

My girlfriend and I caught a matinee (which nowadays, seems more like paying full price) of The Princess and the Frog yesterday. When we first heard that John Lasseter wanted to bring back 2D Animation to Disney, we were both skeptical. We had our doubts that whatever movie they had in mind to mark this return to a medium that had produced such memorable movies like The Little Mermaid and The Lion King would not be able to even touch that bar that was set rather high. We feared the movie would end up not being well animated and would only spawn straight-to-dvd sequels.

After finally seeing The Princess and the Frog, I must admit, it was a lot better than I had expected. The characters were quite memorable and so are the original songs by Randy Newman. The animation style is very distinct yet it falls in line with previous Disney 2D animated movies. I especially liked the brief change in the art style during Tiana’s song in the old sugar mill. The pacing was pretty good, there wasn’t a moment where I felt that a song sequence was too drawn out or that there wasn’t enough story when there wasn’t a song.

Overall, The Princess and the Frog is an entertaining and enjoyable chill flick. It delivers a strong and heartfelt theme that everyone can understand and relate to without beating you over the head with it.

Not bad for Disney Animation Studios return to 2D animated cinema. We eagerly wait for their next film and hope that the bar that has been already set so high can be raised even higher.

~ LoneWolf