Disney's Planes ,Review

Rating: 5.5 out of 10
Movie Details: View here 

Cast:
Dane Cook as Dusty Crophopper (voice)
Stacy Keach as Skipper (voice)
Brad Garrett as Chug (voice)
Teri Hatcher as Dottie (voice)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Rochelle (voice)
Priyanka Chopra as Ishani (voice)
John Cleese as Bulldog (voice)
Cedric the Entertainer as Leadbottom (voice)
Carlos Alazraqui as El Chupacabra / Additional Voices (voice)
Roger Craig Smith as Ripslinger / Additional Voices (voice)
Anthony Edwards as Echo (voice)
Val Kilmer as Bravo (voice)
Sinbad as Roper (voice)
Gabriel Iglesias as Ned / Zed (voice)
Brent Musburger as Brent Mustangburger (voice)

Directed by Klay Hall

Summary:
"Planes" has some cool flying animation and should please children, but the unoriginal plot and bland characters make it pretty forgettable for adults.

Story:
Set in the world of "Cars," "Planes" features Dusty Crophopper, a crop dusting plane that dreams of one day becoming a racer. Determined and optimistic, nothing gets this plane down… except his fear of extreme heights. Through skill and good fortune, Dusty manages to qualify for a race around the world, but he's going to need to get over his fear of heights if he has any hope of winning the race. He might just do it with the help of his friends including an old WWII fighter by the name of Skipper. Dusty will need the experienced plane's expertise if he's going to defeat the reigning champion Ripslinger.

"Planes" is rated PG for some mild action and rude humor.

What Worked:
For me, the highlight of "Planes" was the 3D animation. It worked quite well as the airplanes flew in and out of the screen and they gave you a first person view as Dusty flew through canyons, between trees, and around other obstacles. The end result is a film that makes the most of the big screen medium.

While much of the film was rather bland, a couple of scenes did stand out. The first was when El Chupacabra, in an attempt to woo the Canadian plane Rochelle, starts singing "Love Machine" with a blaring boom box. But then Dusty helps him and he ends up singing a great acoustic version of the song along with a Mariachi band. It turns into an unexpected and fun musical moment. Another scene features a flashback by Skipper to his WWII days. We see him and his squadron in a rather brutal air battle against some ships in the Pacific. It was an unexpected moment in an otherwise 'safe' movie with no surprises. I probably could have watched an entire film of nothing but the WWII planes.

While there are no bonus scenes in the credits, there is a logo for the upcoming "Planes: Fire and Rescue." So if you or your kids liked this film, you'll be glad to see that.

What Didn't Work:
The big problem with "Planes" is that it feels completely phoned in. Other than the fact that it features living airplanes, there is no other novelty to this story. It's your typical underdog sports story with all of the usual clichés and it is utterly predictable. You can look at the movie poster and trailer and figure out the entire plot of this film. It's that by the numbers.

Besides the familiar plot, none of the characters are real standouts. Dane Cook was perfectly adequate as Dusty Crophopper, but anybody could have played the role and done an equivalent job. All of the other characters are similarly dull which is a surprise considering the cast includes Stacy Keach, Brad Garrett, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and John Cleese. They even have a fun "Top Gun"-themed cameo by Val Kilmer and Anthony Edwards, but you don't even realize it was them until the credits rolled. Overall, it does not feel like the cast was used to their full potential.

The Bottom Line:
I'm sure "Planes" will make Disney a lot of money and kids under 10 will love it. And while it is severely lacking in many respects, there are a lot worse films that parents could sit through. "Planes," fortunately, is tolerable.

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, review 2

Rating: 6.5 out of 10
Movie Details: View here 

Cast:
Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson
Brandon T. Jackson as Grover Underwood
Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth Chase
Leven Rambin as Clarisse La Rue
Jake Abel as Luke Castellan
Anthony Stuart Head as Chiron
Stanley Tucci as Dionysus
Nathan Fillion as Hermes
Douglas Smith as Tyson
Robert Maillet as Polyphemus
Missi Pyle, Yvette Nicole Brown and Mary Birdsong as The Graeae

Directed by Thor Freudenthal

Review:
With a complete change in creative personnel, and adjusted expectations, "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" is a noticeable improvement over the first "Percy Jackson" adventure, but it's still awkward and unsure of itself like the teenagers it purports to be about. And still doomed to continue living in Harry Potter's shadow.

That's not entirely "Percy's" fault. Some of it is the compelling nature of the Hero's Journey archetype, which invites imitation, and some of it is the desire among film executives to keep making films for teenage boys about finding your place in the world and developing agency over your own life, over and over again, under the assumption audiences have the memory and attention span of gold fish.

Which is all fine and dandy the first time out, but once you start making sequels you have to confront the reality that you've covered that ground already and doing it again will just be repetitive and boring. To their credit, the "Sea of Monsters" filmmakers resist the urge to shrug, say they don't care about that, attempting to advance the characters as much as they can within the trap of the youth-oriented effects film.

Among other things, that gives us a markedly more likeable Logan Lerman as Percy himself. Not only is he a better actor now than he was three years ago, Percy himself has aged and matured as well. Though still frustrated over the lack of communication with his father, the sea god Poseidon (played by Sir Not Appearing In This Movie), much of the teenage angst of the first film has been left behind, giving us a Percy more confident in his abilities and his place in the world of Camp Half-blood.

Or he would be if he wasn't continually being shown up by Clarisse (Leven Rambin), daughter of Ares, whose more evolved killer instincts begin to foster doubts in Percy about his abilities as a hero. Doubts he'll have to face when the magic shield which protects the camp and its inhabitants from monsters threatens to fall, forcing Percy and his co-horts to go on a quest for the legendary Golden Fleece which may be able to heal the magic tree which casts the shield and save the camp.

Which happens pretty quickly in this much more action-oriented sequel. With all the set-up of the world out of the way in the first film, new director Thor Freudenthal ("Diary of a Wimpy Kid") is free to jump right into the adventure itself; and jump he does with introducing several new characters including Clarisse and Percy's one-eyed half-brother Tyson (Douglas Smith) and a fight with a giant mechanical bull, right off the bat.

In fact, "Sea of Monsters" spends quite a bit of time introducing and developing new characters and their relationships with Percy, pushing returning players like Alexandra Daddario's Annabeth and Brandon Jackson's Grover to the sidelines. Grover himself disappears from the film fairly early on and does not reappear again until the last act, while much of Annabeth's feistiness has been transferred to Clarisse, offering her little to do but get pushed around and grouse about how much she distrusts Tyson.

It seems years earlier when she and Grover were young children--as opposed to near thirty-year-olds … I mean … teenagers--they were attacked by a band of Cyclops on their way to Camp Half-blood, saved only by the sacrifice of their friend Thalia, daughter of Zeus, whose sacrifice resulted in the tree which protects the camp in the present day.

This will all be very important later on, and by later on I mean in a third Percy Jackson film which is continually teased throughout "Sea of Monsters" to the point of becoming a little distracting (and which will require the stars of the film to be teachers at the Camp instead of students by the time they get to it at the rate they've been going).

There is a prophecy, you see, that the human child of one of the three Great Gods (Zeus, Hades and Poseidon) would either save or destroy Olympus by his 20th birthday, and young Percy is the only one fitting that bill, causing him to regress somewhat to worrying about his destiny and ability to chose his own path in life through much of the film (and I assume through a third film if they actually make it).

That's something Luke (Jake Abel), son of Hermes, would happily like to see come to pass as he returns to both antagonize Percy again and prove that he is the better actor of the two and would probably have made a better star than Lerman. Though he has gotten more self-assured as an actor, Lerman continues to spend most of his time getting upstaged by more flamboyant personalities, like Nathan Fillion's Hermes, who seems to be channeling Alec Baldwin from "30 Rock."

That said, "Sea of Monsters" is still a genuine improvement over the tepid "Lightning Thief." Freudenthal and screenwriter Marc Guggenheim ("Green Lantern") have pushed aside any supporting characters not directly related to the goings on, creating a more focused narrative. Combined with a better sense of Percy as a character, and actually attempting to grow him as a person, results in a noticeably better film.

"Percy" is still, however, its own worst enemy. It's difficult to make a move for the juvenile without becoming juvenile--it's a balance filmmakers fight and lose against all the time--and "Sea of Monsters" bounces around that line quite a bit. Unfortunately, neither Freudenthal nor Guggeheim is particularly good at being whimsical and the attempts at levity or comically showing the godly world inside the real one fall hopelessly flat.

Still, the fact that they were able to improve so much from the first film shows there's life in the "Percy Jackson" boat yet. Yeah, it's still living under a big, lightning bolt shaped shadow, but there's room to grow and at least some desire to attempt it. Here's hoping they make that third film after all.

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, review 1

Rating: 5.5 out of 10
Movie Details: View here 

Cast:
Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson
Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth
Douglas Smith as Tyson
Leven Rambin as Clarisse
Brandon T. Jackson as Grover
Jake Abel as Luke
Anthony Head as Chiron
Stanley Tucci as Mr. D
Connor Dunn as Tereus
Paloma Kwiatkowski as Thalia
Nathan Fillion as Hermes

Directed by Thor Freudenthal

Summary:
"Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" has a few fun action sequences, but weak characters and plot leave it with little to offer to anyone over 12.

Story:
“Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters” is based on the novel by Rick Riordan.

Sometime after the first film, Percy Jackson and his friends continue to train at the camp for demigods. But Percy's starting to doubt himself, especially as rival Clarisse goes out of her way to bully him. Maybe saving Olympus was just a fluke? And maybe he has to rely on his friends since he may have no real talent of his own?

Percy's doubt is interrupted when the camp is attacked and the magical tree that generates its protective barrier is sickened. The attack is led by Luke who, it turns out, wasn't killed in the first film. As the magical tree begins to die, Percy and his friends discover that the only thing that may save it is the Golden Fleece located in the Sea of Monsters (i.e. the Bermuda Triangle). But Percy, Grover, Annabeth, and Percy's newly discovered cyclops half-brother Tyson will have to risk life and limb to recover it.

"Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" is rated PG for fantasy action violence, some scary images and mild language

What Worked:
The best thing in "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" is easily the action. It's a lot of fun to see monsters from Greek mythology terrorizing our heroes in modern settings. You see a mechanical bull destroy the demigod camp, a massive sea creature devour ships, an attacking giant Cyclops, and more. It was the highlight of the first film and it remains the highlight of the sequel. Combine that action with some pretty good 3D and you have a mildly entertaining popcorn flick.

The cameos are another highlight of the latest Percy Jackson film. Nathan Fillion appears as Hermes and provides some much needed comic relief. He throws yet another modern twist on Greek mythology by playing a UPS executive (Get it? He's the messenger of the gods.) Stanley Tucci also has a small role as Mr. D, or the god Dionysus, the god of wine. He's one of the headmasters of the demigod school and has some fun interaction with Percy and the crew while he rocks yet another impressive wig. Tucci does look a tad like Ron Jeremy which is unsettling, but I think that’s what he was going for.

I took my two young sons to this film. Only the older one had read the books, but both were quite happy with the movie. I must admit that I was looking for something more substantial, but if I was going to have to sit through a movie geared for kids, this at least kept me somewhat engaged.

What Didn't Work:
While "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" does have some highlights, it is ultimately quite bland. Percy is kind of dull as a character on the hero's journey. Grover, the main comic relief of the first film, is largely absent from this sequel. Conflict with Annabeth is now substituted by conflict with Clarisse, and she's largely unlikable. And the new Cyclops half brother Tyson is simply a mild-mannered oaf with little depth. Combine the bland characters with a very basic plot and you have a story that serves little purpose other than linking action scenes together.

The first movie was compared to Harry Potter a lot. And while that was OK on the first outing, nothing is done to distance it from the Potterverse in the sequel. In fact, it seems more like a Harry Potter rip-off now. You have the obvious comparisons between the demigod camp and Hogwarts. You have ineffective adult instructors. You have the trio of teens breaking the rules to go on a quest to save the school. You even have a magical taxicab that draws obvious comparisons to the knight bus in Harry Potter. These increasing numbers of similarities make it all seem very familiar and very done to death.

As fun as some of the special effects were, some of them just made you question why they even bothered. Hermes carries a staff with a couple of bickering CG animated snakes. They're painful to listen to but thankfully short-lived. The other scene with the Gray Sisters and the taxicab was also incredibly overdone and, as previously described, unoriginal. The witches are played by Yvette Nicole Brown (from "Community"), Missi Pyle, and Mary Birdsong, but their talents are not put to good use here. Later in the film, Clarisse captains a Civil War era steam ship crewed by zombies that is actually pretty cool. But the zombies are so unthreatening that you can't help but think a great opportunity was missed. (And why are there zombies in a movie about Greek mythology? Surely there was another option!) Anyway, the movie is filled with hits and misses and these are some of the misses.

The Bottom Line:
I'd only recommend "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" to fans of the book and anyone 12 and under. Parents will find it tolerable family fare if you have to entertain the kiddies over the summer, but it is overall pretty forgettable.