Avatar

Spanks - 5

Director - James Cameron

Writer - James Cameron

Starring - Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Joel Moore, Giovanni Ribisi & Michelle Rodriguez

Release Date - 18 December 2009

MPAA Rating - PG-13

Avatar starts off on a spaceship that has just arrived in orbit of the moon Pandora. Pandora has become a great interest to a Corporation from Earth who built an outpost there. The company is there to mine a mineral called unobtainium which sells for millions of dollars per kilogram. Pandora has a humanoid species called the Na'vi that are in their way, and an atmosphere that is poisonous to humans. Because of this, they create the avatar program that genetically creates a Na'vi out of a humans DNA that can be remotely controlled by the human safely on the outpost. On the ship is the movies' narrator, a disabled veteran named Jake Sully who is permanently in a wheelchair. He signs up for the avatar program to make money to get his legs fixed to walk again. What starts off as following orders, turns into much much more.

Tise film, like Titanic, has all of the action in the last third of the movie. Cameron keeps your attention and never gets boring in the "slow" parts because he is teaching the viewer all about the culture of the Na'vi and the ecosystem of Pandora and showing the greed of the humans who run the human outpost, lead by Colonel Miles Quaritch and lead miner Parker Selfridge.

The film is visually awesome. You can tell that it took a long time to make by the great attention to detail. It did have two years of post production. You could say that it looks like a cartoon with the blue people and pastel colors of the native wildlife, which is true if it were set on Earth. Do you really think every possible planet or moon would look exactly like Earth? Everything that has been transported to Pandora from Earth looks just like it would here on Earth from the humans, from the habitats, to the methods of transportation.

I have been hearing stories that the film is racist. If humans conquering, destroying, and relocating other beings to get what they want without any care to the beings or the environment is racist then so is Avatar. How District 9 is the science fiction version of the South African Apartheid, Avatar is the science fiction version of the way European settlers/early Americans treated the Indians to get what they wanted. Those people complaining about Sigourney Weaver's smoking are out of their mind, because she has a cigarette like three times in the two hour and a half hour film.

Avatar is truly a film that has to be seen in 3D. It was filmed with 3D cameras to be in 3D and not digitally converted into 3D like most 3D films are. Seeing it in a standard 2D theater would be a waist of money. If you can make it to a true IMAX theater, it would be even better being that the screen is bigger then standard 35 mm or digital 3D theater.

The Men Who Stare at Goats

Spanks - 4

Director - Grant Heslov

Writer - Peter Straughan and Jon Ronson

Starring - George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey & Stephen Lang

Release Date - 6 November 09

MPAA Rating - R

The Men Who Stare at Goats is inspired by the top secret true story of the United States military and its attempts to use psychic powers in a group of soldiers as told in the book by Jon Ronson.

The film follows reporter Bob Wilton, who meets Lyn Cassady in Kuwait. Bob knows about Lyn's involvement as a psychic spy from one of his previous articles After the two men meet, Lyn invites him to write a story about his new mission, that brought him out of retirement, in Iraq. The film also tells about the creation of the New Earth Army that Lyn was an original member of.

The humor in the movie is very dark and weird. It is definitely not your typical comedy. It is funny, but only if you are interested in off beat comedy. Jeff Bridge's Bill Django character is his funniest since The Dude. George Clooney can play a wacko and should continue to stick with these kind of roles and refrain from playing the action hero.

Public Enemies

Spanks - 3

Director - Michael Mann

Writer - Ronan Bennett, Michael Mann & Ann Biderman

Starring - Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Stephen Lang & Billy Crudup

Release Date - 1 July 09

MPAA Rating - R

Public Enemies is the latest film about John Dillinger. It takes place over a year of his life from when he broke his gang out of the Indiana State Prison right after he himself was paroled from prison until he is shot and killed by the FBI outside the Biograph Theater on July 23, 1934. Along with telling Dillinger's story, the film follows Melvin Purvis who was the FBI agent in charge of finding and arresting Dillinger and his gang.

The film is accurate in showing the downfall of each member of Dillinger's gang, but the time line of the deaths is out of order to make for a better screen story. The robbery scenes and the shootouts were shot well, but it could have used more of them. The rest of the film was very slow in the pacing, and I was bored at some parts. Johnny Depp and Christian Bale are great actors and portrayed their characters magnificently.

The filmmakers did a wonderful job recreating the 1930's with the cars, architecture, clothing, and props. In that way it was incorporated into the film. The picture was too clear and looked to me that it was shot with home video cameras. That took away the feeling of being in Dillinger's time. Period films should look more gritty and old, not perfect and crystal clear. That doesn't represent The Great Depression. It might look better on an HDTV than the huge movie screen, which is where you should watch this film anyway.