The Pre-emptive Critics
‘The Lookout’
The kid from “3rd Rock From the Sun” and Jeff Daniels, who was Harry in “Dumb and Dumber,” team up in “The Lookout” to tell us a bank heist story that has never, ever been told before.
Wait, I need to reword that last statement. Let me try again.
The kid from “3rd Rock From the Sun” and Jeff Daniels, who was Harry in “Dumb and Dumber,” team up in “The Lookout” to tell us a bank heist story with clichéd characters, transparent plot points and a catch phrase that was seemingly stolen from that wonderful Disney movie “Blank Check.”
This movie looks like all those other bank heist movies but without any of the pizzazz. It looks flat and unnecessary. Don’t get me wrong – there are some bank heist movies that I absolutely love. “Inside Man” was one of them. Not because the story was the most original thing ever, but it had Denzel Washington and Clive Owen.
Take out the “3rd Rock” kid and Jeff Daniels, put in Denzel and Clive, and then we’ll talk.
I pre-emptively hate this movie.
-by Aaron Peck/aaronpeck@cc.usu.edu
‘Meet the Robinsons’
In January of 2006, the Eisner-compromised House of Mouse dodged another potential bullet. You see, Pixar, the world famous computer-generated imagery animation wizards behind the only good animated Disney films to see the light of day since “Tarzan” bowed in 1999, was ready to leave Mickey’s hallowed halls behind after their five-picture deal with the company was finally up.
But early last year, Disney purchased the prolific studio for $7.4 billion, catapulting Pixar to the head of the entire corporation’s animation department. Before this brilliant move, Disney was clearly panicking.
The success of films like “Shrek” and Pixar’s own “Finding Nemo” had made traditional, two-dimensional animated films a thing of the past, and the company scrambled to put together a CGI studio of their own. The result was last year’s forgettable “Chicken Little” and this soon-to-be-released interpretation of 1993 children’s book “A Day with Wilbur Robinson.”
Set roughly 30 years in the future, “Meet the Robinsons” chronicles the exploits of boy genius Lewis, a young inventor who must team up with the time-traveling Wilbur Robinson in order to recover his latest invention from the evil Bowler Hat Guy.
Yep, if the film’s source material is any indication, Disney should really leave the contemporary family animation to the professionals. And with Pixar in their corporate grip again, it looks like they finally can.
I pre-emptively hate this movie.
-by Mack Perry/mackp@cc..usu.edu
‘Blades of Glory’
Growing up in the halcyon days that were the late ’80s and early ’90s, I was raised on the Molly Ringwold classics that always peak with a dreamy kiss between an unlikely pair.
Because I can’t get that dreamy kiss out of my head, I’m a little wary of the unlikely pair that is Will Farrell and Jon Heder in “Blades of Glory.”
I’m not saying that “Blades of Glory” will be to these two what “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” was to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
It’s just that after the not-as-funny-as-it-should-have-been “Talladega Nights” and “Stranger than Fiction” which was, well, stranger than fiction, I don’t know what to expect from Will Farrell anymore.
But despite my reservations about Will Farrell, the premise of the movie and the trailer both have me hooked.
I’m also excited about seeing Gob from “Arrested Development” abandon his Segway for a pair of ice skates.
So I will see this movie. And I will have my wife cover my eyes when she thinks that Will Farrell is starting to look a little too “pretty in pink.”
Molly Ringwold may be gone, but her legacy lives on. And for the way it carries that legacy, I pre-emptively love “Blades of Glory.”
-by Zach Pendleton/zpendleton@cc.usu.edu