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Ticket or Click It? Cooper vs. Christmas
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 As the nation emerges from its Halloween candy sugar coma, what’s the best way to spend your November time and money: a trip to the theater or a movie at home On Demand? We’re here to help you decide.
What’s On Demand?
I Love You, Beth Cooper
Hey! No fair! When I stood up in an ‘Up with People’ assembly and shouted my undying love for Brad Fergerson, all I got was a restraining order. “Heroes” star Hayden Panettiere trades her role as a hot high school girl fighting evil villains for a turn as a hot high school girl who doesn’t fight evil villains. When a nerd declares his love for her in his valedictorian speech, she makes his evening.
Our Take: This wish-fulfillment comedy is riddled with clichés and disappointingly unfunny.
Food, Inc.
Yeah. I’d rather not know too much about my food. In this documentary, director Robert Kenner takes a hard look at food production in the United States, and doesn’t much like what he sees.
Our Take: Kenner raises some troubling issues, but lays way too many of America’s problems on corporate food production. Dude, obesity is caused by eating too much. Don’t over think it.
The Taking of Pelham 123
Sequel: Robert Kenner takes over a hot dog factory and threatens to show us goes in those things unless we pay $10 million. Bad guys have taken over a subway train. No, not drunk club hoppers or those guys with bucket drums. Hijackers. Fortunately, subway dispatcher Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) is a public servant who’s ready to rumble.
Our Take: Um, who would hijack a subway train? Because, you know, they’re on tracks and police pretty much know where they’re going. This remake is mediocre, but fun for a distraction if you can get past the basic premise.
Aliens in the Attic
I had bats in the crawlspace once. Does that count? Kids have to save the world from an invasion by teeny but nasty-toothed aliens. Parents are wholly clueless.
Our Take: Thin characters are covered up with lots of action. The bar for kids’ movies is pretty high these days. This film doesn’t measure up to the rest of the pack.
What’s In Theaters?
A Christmas Carol
Man. This calendar is defective. It says November 6. This film is a retelling of the familiar story by Charles Dickens. A trio of ghosts knock some compassion into old Scrooge’s head at Christmastime.
Our Take: The animation is lovely and the movie is well made. Jim Carrey stars as the voice of several characters. But, seriously, isn’t November 6 a little early?
The Box
The same thing happened to me, but my box gave someone kidney stones and I got $17.99. Totally worth it. If Cameron Diaz and James Marsden push the button inside the mysterious box, someone they don’t know will die and they get $1 million dollars. You’ve got yerself a moral dilemma right there.
Our Take: Suspenseful and intriguing, veering a little into “Twilight Zone” territory.
Fourth Kind
Do you think if we asked nicely they’d take Carrie Prejean? People have been disappearing from an Alaskan town for decades. Polar Bears? Moose gone awry? Sarah Palin gone awry? No, silly. Alien abductions.
Our Take: I’m not a big fan of movies in which you can’t tell what’s unscripted footage and what’s acted (I’m talking about you, BORAT!), and this film is one of those. It delivers a few shocking moments, but wants you to believe more than you want to.
The Men Who Stare at Goats
George? Sweetie? We love you but it’s time to stop making movies about Iraq. This George Clooney military satire tells the supposed story (“More of this is true than you’d care to believe”) of psychics in the military in Iraq. A hippie Green Beret, if you will.
Our Take: Satire is hard. This film, with only a few funny moments, comes off as smug. Those looking for a fun romp will be disappointed; those who haven’t moved on from Bush-era mockery will like it.
Ticket or Click It?
Ticket! We may need to lodge a formal protest with Congress at the timing, but "A Christmas Carol" is the best movie of the week. Ho, ho, ho!
Message Edited by Victor_Balta on 11-06-2009 06:00 PM
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