For a preachy, romantic comedy about robots, Wall-E is a pretty good flic–and make no mistake, no matter what how you spin it, that’s exactly what this flic is. Plain and simple, Wall-E is as preachy as children’s films get, matching only G.I.Joe’s PSA’s or Adventures in Odyssey in its blatant attempts to teach children its own values.

Now, this isn’t to say that it’s bad or that teaching children values through entertainment is bad. I wouldn’t say it’s bad in the least–I mean, hey, I’m a Christian evangelical, I eat preaching up like soup in the winter–but I’m just putting it out there, that this movie was preachy, and while I agree with its anti-consumerism, anti-conglomerate-power, pro-love pro-earth message, it was so obvious that I felt like I was being slapped in the face with a trout.

Given that, however, Wall-E is the type of “message” film that gets it right. It’s incredibly entertaining, with a central hero that is downright adorable, and I am hard-pressed to think of anything in the movie that I disliked. The story is a romance, with a lonely but good-hearted individual forming a connection to another, only to be separated by circumstance and forced to venture into the unknown in search of his lost love. It’s a very standard take on the old hero’s romantic journey, and it’ll be a great tool for teaching story construction and development in the future. In fact, if nothing else, Wall-E is a great case-study in every aspect of filmmaking–it’s that well done. But, back to the story at hand. While this central through-line drives Wall-e, the subplots are still well-constructed and interesting. I was actually quite amazed at how much I was engaged in both the romance and the heroic save-the-mcGuffin plots that were established. There was a surprising lack of well-developed secondary and tertiary characters (which is odd considering Pixar’s usual 10-15 notable characters in their films), but one secondary character, an excellent cleaning bot, adds some great, “cute” comedy to an already adorable film, making for an experience that is satisfying, if a bit didactic at times.

I’m gonna give Wall-E a solid 5. I enjoyed it, and I look forward to seeing it again on DVD, eventually .

Despite absolutely awful bookends at a funeral, Who Killed the Electric Car? is a fascinating look at the development, initial release, and complete and total destruction of GM’s electric vehicles. If the concept behind this movie sounds vaguely familiar, you probably heard a celebrity like Tom Hanks talking about his electric car in the mid 1990s. And I’m sure he’s not the only one. You may have heard about a friend of a friend, whose aunt loved her electric car. Pretty much everyone who the filmmakers talk to LOVED their electric car. Yes, they loved them. Sadly, however, these cars are gone, and not “gone” like they’re at a dump, I mean “gone” like GM had them shredded into piles of plastic and metal grain. And the folks who loved these cars, who cherished them, were left asking how it all happened. really, those folks are the bulk of this movie’s focus.

I’m not really saying all that much about the electric car itself because the ar really isn’t the most interesting part of the documentary. The most interesting part is the relationships of people, heroes and “villains” alike, to the car. The car is part of the equation, sure, but the “who” is the main idea (hence the title). According to the film, the “who” could be everyone–the government, the oil companies, the car companies, even gas-dependent consumers unwilling to embrace new technology. Frankly, the movie says the “who” is nearly everyone–the death was the fault of the entire culture–the culture killed the electric car. The movie is sure to point fingers, and like I said, it’s as much about the people surrounding the car as the car itself.

And that’s really the long and short of it. This is the story of the electric car’s birth, life, and death as told by the people who knew it, which is an interesting structural take on the subject. It’s as though the picture is document on a living breathing thing, only the thing is an object. It’s pretty interesting stuff. At least I think so. So yeah, I’ll give Who Killed The Electric Car? a 5 (coulda been higher, but the opening and close of the film, at the funeral, are truly awful).

Like all documentaries, one must watch, Wal*Mart: The High Cost of Low Price with an eye for manipulation. The film is an incredibly well-paced and produced diatribe against the retail chain, with amazing focus and conviction. It’s the type of documentary that you watch and think, “What the hell did Wal*Mart do to piss this filmmaker off?” We never find out in the documentary, which makes it all the more powerful. Unlike a Michael Moore documentary, in which the filmmaker puts himself at center stage to cloud the issue and lose focus, WM:THCOLP, is only interested in those directly affected by the corporate giant, and it tells their stories with sweeping sentimentality that would make Charles Dickens proud.

I really can’t stress this enough. Wal*MArt: The High Cost of Low Price is one highly manipulative piece of film making. From the music cues to the shot selection, it’s a highly-skilled piece of anti-mart propaganda. Leni Reifenschtal would be proud. The film makes you want to kidnap the Walton children and torture them for their greed and implied villainy. It makes you want to form a mob and burn your local Wal*mart to the ground. It makes you want to get a law degree just to attack the corporation at a legal level. It does all of these things well and with conviction.

Why do I say this, well, when the documentary started, and the opening shots and facts begin to unwind, all could say, “What, Commerce is bad? Businesses close as their competitors grow. That’s not hard to grasp.” Then the documentary began to juxtapose Wal*Mart’s own propaganda against the stories of those they’ve hurt, and my goodness, did the tone change. The documentary really had nothing to say about commerce or capitalism, but it had everything to say about a company that was destroying these things and earning a buck along the way. Taking a moment after the documentary, I could only say, “You know, these problems they’re mentioning, probably constitute 7-8% of the total operating energies in all of the wal*mart corporation; but damn it, when 7-8% of operational energy can affect and, in some cases, ruin from 12,00-20,000 lives, that’s a huge F*cking problem.”

I mean, let’s face it, even if 50% of all Wal*mart stores (i think there’s about 4000, so 50% would 2k) had two violent crimes a month for 2 years (meaning approx 9600 violent crimes in two years), and 10 million people a year make trips to Wal*mart, that would mean there would been a single violent crime for every 1,000 or so shoppers, which isn’t a terrible statistic (0.1%) BUT here’s the thing. If Wal*Mart could have stopped 60% of those violent crimes by only spending 1% of their profits ($280,000), then they had better do it. And that’s really what it comes down to. Sure, Wal*Mart’s a corporation, but they are a morally reprehensible one, and there are other, better companies out there.

In the end, Wal*MArt: The High Cost of Low Price is actually a startling documentary that is much, much, much more frightening than I would have thought. Yes, it’s heavy-handed and one-sided. Yes, It’s manipulative. However, for a company of this size and magnitude to act in the way they do at the highest echelon’s of leadership is utterly disgusting. It’s sickening, and that’s really the bottom line.

Of all the graduates of “Saturday Night Live” to have a post SNL career, Adam Sandler is one of the most successful. His films, on average, do increibly well, making money not only in the theatres but also through DVD and TV. He’s been a marketable commodity, and he deserves it.

Sandler can be very, very funny. I don’t love all of his flics, but he’s a talented dude, and he’s very likable. His singing voice is alright, too. “The Wedding Singer”, more than any of Sandler’s other film, may maximize his mass market strengths. The film has fantastic laugh-a-minute gags and jokes, with great musical moments, and loads of great supporting cast members, includiong a wonderful cameo by Billy Idol himself.

The movie, set in the mid 1980s, follows wedding singer Robbie Hart (a.k.a Sandler) as his world falls apart after he becomes disillusioned about love and life. The once sweet and innocent Robbie goes through a period of dark brooding BUT he rises above his pain through his relationship with the wonderful Julia, played by Drew Barrymore. As if the fact that the movie is set in the 80’s isn’t funny enough, the movie is donwright clever and poignantly humorous. Sandler’s range is comically explored to make us laugh at his darkest and most light-hearted moments. I cannot remember a single moment I felt was boring, and I was in a state of constant enjoyment.

I really, really enjoyed The Wedding Singer, and I I give it a 6. I’d say it’s my favorite Sandler enterprise to date.

I don’t even know where to begin talking about Steven Spielberg’s film, The War of the Worlds. It seems fitting to begin by saying I didn’t really like it…at all. I am unsure what expected.I don’t know even really get what happened…I mean I guess I kinda do, but I just feel “meh” about it. I guess it’s because I just didn’t care. Tom Cruise’s character, I think his name is Ray, is an okay deadbeat dad. The kids are both annoying. The aliens look kinda okay…Man, I really don’t like this movie much.

I don’t like comparing movies, but War of the Worlds is a blend of M. Night Shyamalan’s film Signs, in that it focuses on a singular nuclear family; but it’s also like Independence day in that tries to give us the details of the different points of the alien invasion and what happens to society under the pressure of implosion. However, it fails to really meet the requisites of doing either of these things, failing to maintain the depth of the first film nor the grandiose scope of the latter. Sure it has large setpieces, but we never feel the plight of those fighting the war, just those running from it.

I hate to say this, but the film actually moves like a perfectly choreographed, staged, and designed old-school video game, wherein each scene or sequence is a beauiful tapestry to survive or “beat”. The scenes wherein one is not out-running the alien laser beams, surviving a capsized boat, or trying to evade alien detection in a barn, are not unlike the interludes found between levels. This isn’t a critique of video games, rather it’s a testament to the difference between the mediums and what works perfectly for one and fails to work for the other.

Look, I hate to be a jerk, but I can think of nothing I really liked about this movie. While it’s interesting to see different aspects of the dangers posed by the invaders, the video game-esque structure and format doesn’t really work for a flic, at least not this one. It’s an interesting experiment though, and the effects were pretty outstanding, even if I didn’t dig the designs. I am going to have to give The War of the Worlds a generous 3. I really can’t think of anything I liked about it, but the visuals are interesting enough that I’d sit thorugh again with another person if they asked me to, and I didn’t really hate it. 3 is fair.

Wayne’s World 2 might contain the single best line of dialogue ever spoken in a comedic film. Here’s the context: A man is sleeping upside-down and when he awakens he explains that Rolling Stones rocker Keith Richards taught him the maneuver and then presents the concept that, due to this method of slumber, “Some people believe, that is why Keith cannot be killed by conventional weapons.” I’ll be honest, I don’t know much about Keith Richards–just that he is apparently always drunk or doped up, he fell out of a coconut tree and cracked his skull open, and Johnny depp based his performance of Captain Jack Sparrow on Richards’ mannerisms. Needless to say, this line is still hilarious, and everytime I hear it, I just about pass out laughing.

Other than that, Wayne’s World 2 is hit and miss. The story is okay, but it’s basis on a dream Wayne has is kinda lame. I’m not even gonna get into it. The characters are not as funny as they were previously, but the new characters they introduce are hilarious. The music is still good. Their are several parodies and bits taken from other movies, and most of them lame. There are subplots are Okay, but each has great moments (particularly a fight between Wayne and Tia Carerre’s father and apart where Gart begins to levitate due to a kiss with a seductive Kim Basinger), and it is those moments that really carry the film and bring it above mediocrity with some very sizable gut-busting laughs.

I will actually come out and say that Wayne’s World 2 is still fantastic as far as laughs per minute go. The gags are hit and miss, but the ones that hit really hit hard. In fact, I would say one thing really working for the movie is that it tries enough different gags that even if I didn’t like them, the person sitting next to me might find them to be hilarious. And it’s great when a comedy can do that and cater to different senses of humor.

I give Wayne’s World 2 a moderate 5, just barely above the 4. It was the Keith Richards line and Wayne’s fight with Cassandra’s dad that brought it up, but like I said before, it’s more hit and miss.

SONG OF THE POST: “Rag Doll” by Aerosmith from one of their albums (I got it on Itunes)

I love Wayne’s World. I first saw it around age 10, and I saw an edited version off of TV. I loved it and watched it several times. What’s great about that is that when I watch the DVD, I feel as though there’s new jokes and scenes added. They weren’t, but I don’t remember them from my youth, so they are new to me. Anway, Wayne’s World is one of those movies for me that has only gotten better with age and time.

The story of Wayne’s World is relatively simple. Wayne Campbell and Garth Elgar run a Public Broadcasting “talk show” from the basement of Wayne’s parents’ house, and a TV exec sees their show and decides to buy it. Wackiness ensues when the exec tries to change the style of the show and steal Wayne’s girlfriend, a singer plaed by Tia Carrerre. There are running gags about how awesome Garth is and how crazy Wayn’es former girlfriend is, and etc. Not too complicated; and frankly, it doesn’t have to be.

This movie is a gag movie. it is gag after gag after gag after gag and joke after joke after joke after joke. And you know what? 8 times out of 10, this movie hit the mark. It made me laugh. A few times, it even had me rolling. Everyone in the movie does a fantastic job.The jokes are a great blend of in your face gags and subtle downplayed comments. It’s a good, fun mix, and it kept the movie from feeling repetitve and stale by the end–a a problem which I have for many, many comedies.

Wayne’s World get a solid 7 from me. It’s a great comedy from start to finish with loads of laughs, great characters, and a young Tia Carrerre–which is something every movie should have. I loved the movie since I was a kid and it continues to entertain me as much as it ever has. It’s a favorite!

SONG OF THE POST: “BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY” by Queen, from the film’s Soundtrack album.

What can I say about the Warriors that hasn’t already been said about beer. IT has an acquired taste, but once one has developed the paleete for it, few things can subsitute for it when its what your craving. The Warriors…The Warriors just rules. I mean, I don’t know even know what to say…it’s just awesome.

The Warriors. The Warriors changed my life. This movie made me care about vandalizing, assaulting, pink criminals. And not only did I care about them, I loved them. And not only did I love them, I wanted to be one. “Man, I wish I was in a gang.” That’s all I thought the whole movie, that I could get jumped-in and become part of a gang.

This movie has so many amazing lines. “Warriors, come out to PLAYY_EE”. “Can You Dig It?”. “What the matter, Going Faggot?”. “I want all The Warriors”. It’s chock-full of fights and chases, which include such noteworthy moments as a dude throwing a bat into a cop’s shins, a guy busting a wooden chair over a girl’s face, a mount-up scene wherein dudes are ripping pipes from a decrepit building to use as weapons, a guy getting thrown in front of a subway train, a guy getting spray-painted in the face, and of course, the final appearance of a gang called the RIFFS–an army of black dudes dressed in black tees and jeans, carrying hockey sticks and baseball bats. Once again to quote my buddy, Dave, “Man, how much does it suck to know you’re gonna get own by an army of black men with hockey sticks.” Dang Straight.

Like The Killer, The Warriors is a timeless tale of men having to fight their way home after becoming stranded in a forgein land. As the proglogue of the director’s cut of the mvoie points out, this archetypical story finds its roots all the way back to ancient Greek Lore. That’s what I’m talking about. The story to this is movie is banging, and the revelation the main character has at the end is so pointed and well-put that I just, well I just nodded in understanding. This movie, this wonderful film is just so good. I could sing of its praises forever.

Now, I know some people don’t dig The Warriors, just like some people don’t dig Army of Darkness or Roadhouse, AND there criticism is well taken. If you don’t let yourself get lost in the world of the movie and accept it, you will most likely think its silly, stupid, and awful. I’ll be real with you dear readers, the girl in this movie is ugly as sin, BUT BUT BUT I recently saw an interview with her now, and she aged well, lookijg much better in her 40s than she did in her 20s, so she gets a pass. Plus, and this is no offense because I’m no Brad pitt, but there are ugly-ass people in this movie. Like, when you watch it, sometimes you think to yourself, “At least I don’t look like that dude.” Also, some people might hate the costumes. That’s cool. I love the costumes, particularly for the beloved Baseball Furies and the Turnball ACs. I guess that’s why this is one of my favorite movies, any critique people bring, I accept it, then I spin it into something I dig about the movie. Nice.

The Warriors gets an easy 7 out of 7, the highest meview rating. It is one of my all-time favorite movies, and well, “Warriors, come out to play!”

SONG OF THE POST: The Theme to “The Warriors” BY Barry DeVorzon from the movie’s soundtrack.