HECTOR and the SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS, PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR, THE BABADOOK, HUNGER GAMES; MOCKINGJAY PT 1, UNDER THE SKIN plus on DVD-- BRIDGE TO THE SUN, PACIFIC RIM, YOUR SISTER'S SISTER, and PITCH PERFECT

Christmas movie season is fast upon us, so the next report should include many of those that open for the holidays, if I can keep up.  Here are some of the films that have opened so far.

An out of the blue surprise, HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS (or as one French speaker puts it,  "a penis" instead of happiness) is an odd ball comedy drama that is cheerful and profound at the same time.  Simon Pegg plays a quirky psychiatrist who begins to questions his placid life, all the while trying to help his clients seek happiness, when he isn't sure he knows what it is himself.  He decides to travel around the globe in search of the elusive elixir to life that will cause happiness, and starts writing a journal.  His exotic travels take him to Japan, Nepal, Africa, Los Angeles and France, where he meets a succession of friends and strangers that teach him what he seeks to know.  The film features wonder, humor, sadness, profundities, and actually becomes "about something" while still being entertaining.  I loved it.       GRADE----------A

A silly, wacky bit of nonsense that works for adults perhaps even better than for kids, THE PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR is blessed with a kooky and amusing "voice" performance by John Malkovitch as an evil octopus, and a wild exotic script that sends these odd birds all over the globe in what feels like a James Bond thriller, but much much more fun.      GRADE-------B+

This is a solid, logical Australian horror film that builds a lot of suspense.  THE BABADOOK starts with a strange book that ends up on the shelf of young boy  but it freaks out his mother who has her own psychological problems, all of which become apparent as the "monster" of the book seems to come alive in the home.       GRADE-------------B+

HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY Pt. 1 is a frustration to critique.  I've enjoyed the previous two films, and I really love where this new film is headed---away from children killing children, and into the realm of political protest and government overthrow, which will be led inadvertently by our heroine Katniss Everdeen.  The actors are quite good, and the production values excellent as usual, so it comes as a bit of a shock when we realize that this new film is really only a teaser for the final Part 2 which comes next year.  How do you rate a long preview?         GRADE--------B-


Viewed on DVD---------------------------------

Moody, enigmatic, weirdly compelling at times, slowly frustrating, UNDER THE SKIN (2013 but released in the spring of 2014 in the US) is a weird science fiction film about an alien disguised as a woman who drives around the city picking up single men and luring them to their symbolic watery death.  She has no emotional life, no vagina for sex, no moral compass, but that may be starting to change, and another alien on a motor bike who seems to be following her, cleaning up her messes, may have another agenda.   There is no explanation as to what is happening, or why, or how, so good luck if you want to figure out what is happening.  The film appears to deviate from the novel, I'm told, quite a bit by the end.  The film does work OK, but just barely.       GRADE--------B-


One of my favorites from 2011 is THE INTOUCHABLES, a French film about a poor African young man from the Parisian ghetto who takes a job being the caretaker for a wealthy paralyzed middle-aged white man.  Their relationship changes both men, and there is a lot of humor as the rich man really needs to live vicariously through the high jinks of the younger caretaker.  Long time French actor Francois Cluzet and newcomer Omar Sy work hilariously together.     GRADE----A-

I'd never heard of BRIDGE TO THE SUN (1961) but this interracial love story set in the late 1930's and early 1940's grows progressively more interesting and compelling.  Carroll Baker plays a young Southern belle who is wooed by a Japanese official played by James Shigeta, and against her family's judgement and the concerns of the Japanese government, they marry and move to Japan.  The opening scenes feel dated and have some campy humor to them as she bungles her way through social guffaws and there are some coy, awkward scenes of prejudice.  But as Japan enters into WW2 as an enemy of the US, the film takes on some heady moments of drama, intrigue and suspense.  The film skillfully balances the emotional pull of what is feels like to be an expatriate and potential traitor to your country.  This is a nice surprise.        GRADE---------B+

A big budget, loud, blustery science fiction film concerns the attempts to fight gigantic monsters of the deep ocean bottom with gigantic robots that the US government has built.  In other words, it's a lot like the last GODZILLA film.  But the production values and special effects are excellent and the cast (including Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day and Ron Perlman) are all gung ho.  The director of PACIFIC RIM (2013) is Guillermo Del Toro, who also helped write the story of this film and other horror classics including DEVIL'S BACKBONE (2001), HELLBOY (2004), and PAN'S LABYRINTH (2006).         GRADE-------B

Local filmmaker Lynn Shelton's recent film YOUR SISTER'S SISTER (2011) takes a simple idea of having an immature man sleep with the lesbian sister of his closest platonic girl friend, endangering the future relationship with the platonic friend, who has other ideas, and stretching it into an entertaining  psycho babble comedy drama that plays a lot like a laid back Seattle Woody Allen film, but without too much neuroses.  Shelton's most recent film is LAGGIES from this past fall.
     GRADE-----B

A sequel of the popular comedy PITCH PERFECT (2012) arrives this winter, so I had to remind myself of this singing and dancing hit that totally plays like a longer, older (college) version of TV's GLEE, not that there's anything wrong with that.          GRADE-------B

Debbie Reynolds does what she does best (perky) and Tony Randall plays the uptight IRS official she tries to woo in the comedy THE MATING GAME (1959), set on her father's farm.  Paul Douglas plays her dad who hasn't payed any income tax for years because he just trades for whatever he wants.  There are some bright funny lines and situations, along with some slapstick.  Overall, it's easy to watch.      GRADE-------B-

YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER (2010) is not one of Woody Allen's better films, but it does have some clever lines and situations, and the cast (including Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Lucy Punch, et al) is, as usual, quite winsome.       GRADE-------C+

THE ROAD TO SINGAPORE (1940) is the first "ROAD" film I've ever seen, and in spite of the occasional charms of Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour, I resisted this mainly due to the uneasy mixture of racial profiling, sappy songs and silly scenarios.          GRADE---------C+


LOVER BOY (1989) is a silly sex comedy about a young college student (a very young looking Patrick -Dr. Mc Dreamy-Dempsey) who tries to raise money by giving women some sexual company while delivering pizza "with extra anchovies."  Kate Jackson, Carrie Fisher, Kristie Alley and Barbara Carrera co-star.  It's easy to see why Dempsey would grow up to be so popular in TV's Grays Anatomy.         GRADE-------C+
 
 A mediocre remake of Alfred Hitchcock's classic, the BBC version of THE LADY VANISHES (2012) fails to find much of interest in spite of some good production values.  The young actors try, but the plot from the Hitchcock version has been changed to be closer to the novel, and unfortunately it is not as clever or spellbinding.       GRADE-----C

It may be an inspiring story, about a disgraced biking legend (Jock Boyer) who moves to Rwanda to help establish the first Cycling team there to compete in the Olympics, but as a documentary film, RISING FROM ASHES (2012) is a bit of a mess technically, and there is some confusion about just what happened when.  Strictly for bike enthusiasts, but still, NSH.          GRADE-------C-