Reviews coming...I think:

I watched five notable films over the five-day Thanksgiving break. I already reviewed "WALL-E," but what about that "Minority Report" I promised. It'll be on in a few days; I just gotta, you know, write it.

As far as other films go, I saw the zippy, charming, surprisingly good "Four Christmases" in theaters over the weekend, as well as the powerful, undeniable "Mystic River" and the disappointing "Hollywoodland."

I'll review all four of these eventually. My December will be busy.

Essay Review: WALL-E (****)

Directed by Andrew Stanton
Cast: Fred Willard
Voice Cast: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy, Sigourney Weaver, Kim Kopf
Special Voicing Appearance: MacInTalk
2008--99 min.
Rated G (nothing objectionable)
Reviewed by The Teen Critic on November 27, 2008.

"WALL-E" is utterly astounding and remarkable, the best animated film I've ever seen, and that takes some meditation. Isn't the animated genre one that has spawned "Beauty and the Beast," "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," and "Toy Story?" Yes, and I truly believe that "WALL-E" is better than all of those, masterpieces though they are. This film redefines animation and brings it to a level that has never before been seen in the genre. It soars to new heights. No, scratch that--it creates new heights and has set the bar (for me, at least) for all animated films that come after it. It'll now be one of those movies to which one compares others, saying, "Such-and-such isn't as good as 'WALL-E.'"

The story is simple and straightforward, but aren't all of Pixar's stories? They are just engines to drive the message home. Here, the message is mildly disquieting, making this not just a "cute cartoon" or "kid's movie" in the normal sense. The movie has been criticized, even by its lovers, of being insulting to fat people, but I don't think so. What the movie is saying is much more insidious than that. The real message doesn't make the point of "WALL-E" much more different than say "2001: A Space Odyssey," "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," or "Minority Report" (and, for the record, just as good). It's more about one's meaning in society than it is about robots or outer space.

WALL-E is the only robot left on Earth, his job being to clean up the world's insane amount of garbage, piled up and practically looking like full-sized versions of N.Y.C. WALL-E (which stands for "Waste Allocation Load Lifter--Earth-class") is lonely, having not seen other robots for who knows how many years. He spends his days cleaning, gazing at the stars expectantly, and watching the 1969 musical "Hello, Dolly!" Having seen that film once on TCM, I can honestly say that WALL-E has more love for than I.

When a shuttle lands, dropping off EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), WALL-E is instantly smitten with EVE's curiosity and protectiveness. He falls in love so much, in fact, that in one scene his built-in windshield wipers clear off the grimy surface of his eyes to see the beautiful robot in front of him. Little does WALL-E know that EVE's directive is to find a living thing on the planet Earth and return to the ship holding its previous inhabitants. WALL-E has found one, and when he shows it to her, it acts as a homing device for the ship that dropped her off. WALL-E latches onto to the ship, follows her to the mothership, and gets caught up trying to return the humans to their original planet.

Wow, so maybe the plot isn't so simple, but it is ingenious and straight out of a Steven Spielberg film. It owes a lot to Spielberg's "E.T.--Extraterrestrial" and the aforementioned "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence." Both films were about lost souls (an alien and a humanoid) trying to find their respective places on Earth. WALL-E tries to fit in on the mothership as soon as he gets there. In my opinion, this film is just as outstanding and inherently disquieting as those Spielberg masterworks. Just compare Andrew Stanton's vision of a garbage-laden Manhattan to Spielberg's dark vision in "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" and you'll see many similarities.

"WALL-E" works as three different films in one. As a love story, this is as intimate and effective as any in the past few films. This romance is as realistic, if not more so, than the best live-action romance in this year's "Penelope." By the end, when EVE saves WALL-E's life during the climax, we no longer see them as robots but as real, human personalities. As a comedy, this is one of the best of the year. WALL-E is such a sweet klutz that the slapstick humor surrounding him works just as well as any in cinematic history. The supporting characters, especially the scum-cleaning M-O, are equally effective and nicely drawn out, their emotions giving way to true characteristics instead of caricaturizations. And, finally, as I said above, the sci-fi elements are perhaps the most striking aspect. Obvious comparisons to Spielberg's work, as well as Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," are warranted, those comparisons to Kubrick's film well beyond Stanton's innovative use of "Thus Spoke Zarathustra."

In the last five years (since 2003's great "Finding Nemo"), there have been precious few great animated films--before "WALL-E," the best could be counted on one hand and still have two fingers left--but this film harkens back to the classics of yesteryear, creating affecting characters, tender romance, and brilliant humor. I have yet to give a Pixar film a grade lower than three stars (that being "A Bug's Life"), but I would give "WALL-E" even higher if possible. It not only ranks as the best animated film I've ever seen--or, at least, tied with the equally transcendent "Beauty and the Beast"--but one of the best films this decade and all time. I love WALL-E, and I love "WALL-E."

OSCARS 2009: November Predictions

Three months away...

Best Picture:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Director:

Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Sam Mendes, Revolutionary Road
Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight
Gus Van Sant, Milk

Best Actor:

Leonardo DiCaprio, Revolutionary Road
Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn, Milk
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Best Actress:

Cate Blanchett, The Curious Case Benjamin Button
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Kristin Scott-Thomas, I've Loved You So Long
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road

Best Supporting Actor:

Josh Brolin, Milk
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire
Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road

Best Supporting Actress:

Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis, Doubt
Rosemarie DeWitt, Rachel Getting Married
Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

Best Adapted Screenplay:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Original Screenplay:

Happy-Go-Lucky
Milk
Rachel Getting Married
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
The Visitor

Best Animated Feature Film:

Kung Fu Panda
WALL-E
Waltz with Bashir

Best Art Direction:

Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Revolutionary Road

Best Cinematography:

Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Defiance
Revolutionary Road

Best Costume Design:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
The Fall
The Other Boleyn Girl
Revolutionary Road

Best Film Editing:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Defiance
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Makeup:

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Synecdoche, New York

Best Original Score:

Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Defiance
Revolutionary Road
WALL-E

Best Original Song:

"All Dressed Up in Love," Sex and the City
"Down to Earth," WALL-E
"I Want It All," High School Musical 3: Senior Year
"Rock Me Sexy Jesus," Hamlet 2
"The Wrestler," The Wrestler

Best Sound Editing:

The Dark Knight
Defiance
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Iron Man
WALL-E

Best Sound Mixing:

Australia
The Dark Knight
Defiance
Iron Man
WALL-E

Best Visual Effects:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Iron Man

Sorry...

I'm buying "WALL-E" tomorrow, at which time I will start my review over. It'll be on in a few days.

I may also offer up a review of this decade's best film, "Minority Report." Yes, it's even better than "The Dark Knight." It's a staggering masterpiece of sci-fi pop entertainment and the best of the genre I've ever seen. I'll get into it a little later.

COMING TONIGHT!!!

"24: Redemption," the TV movie leading up to the seventh season of my favorite show on television--ever. Jack Bauer is a great television hero. Can't go wrong. The fifth season is the best season of anything ever (except perhaps the superlative fourth season of "The X-Files").

TRAILER DEBUT: "Astro Boy"

This actually has potential. I'm loving the animation.

Essay Review: Tropic Thunder (****)

Directed by Ben Stiller

Cast: Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Jay Baruchel, Brandon T. Jackson, Steve Coogan, Danny R. McBride, Bill Hader, Nick Nolte, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Cruise, Reggie Lee, Trieu Tran, Brandon Soo Hoo, Jon Voight, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jason Bateman, Lance Bass, Alicia Silverstone, The Mooney Suzuki, Kathy Hilton, Mickey Rooney, Tobey Maguire, Kevin Pollak.

2008--108 min.

Rated R (pervasive language including sexual references, violent content, drug material)

Reviewed by The Teen Critic on November 22, 2008.

Ben Stiller is a genius. After months upon months of such viral marketing to rival that of "The Dark Knight" and "Cloverfield," Stiller surpassed expectations to make the most consistently funny movies I've ever seen. A satire of everything Hollywood above all, "Tropic Thunder" is gloriously R-rated, wholly ingenious, rip-roaringly funny, and shockingly smart all in one (I'll be using those types of seemingly hyperbolic adjectives in my other two reviews, so get used to it). Stiller, who directed the picture with the hand of someone like Steven Spielberg or Ridley Scott and cowrote it with buddies Etan Cohen and Justin Theroux, has simply crafted a potty-mouthed masterpiece that would make a good triple feature with "Dr. Strangelove" (which poked fun at the Cold War-induced paranoia movies of that time) and "The Princess Bride" (which satirized the B-movie fantasy films such as "Legend" and "The Neverending Story"), as a movie that skewers the Hollywood system in its every facet. From the uptight, Weinstein-like producer to the method actor who doesn't get out of character "until I've finished the DVD commentary," "Tropic Thunder" eviscerates everything in its path. It's unapologetic, blissfully so, and purely hilarious for its entire running time. In fact, the laugh-a-minute ratio is probably four or five successful comedic bits every three minutes. You do the math.

Director Damien Cockburn (what a great name, right?) is not having a good week. He's five days into filming his soon-to-be masterpiece, "Tropic Thunder," and already $100 million over budget. The film was destined to rejuvenate the careers of its three stars. Tugg Speedman has burnt out after the long-in-the-tooth "Scorcher" series and failed Oscar bait in "Simple Jack," about a mentally challenged farm hand. Jeff Portnoy ruined his career after starring in the critically acclaimed "Heat Vision 'N Jack" by starring in fart comedies, such as "Fart Club" and "The Fatties." And method actor Kirk Lazarus floundered in the recent failed "Satan's Alley" (call it what my friend called it: "Brokeback Monastery").

In attempt to assuage the guilt of making some of the most critcally panned films ever made, Cockburn takes the plunge and sets out to make the best, most expensive war movie ever made. When the biggest mistake happens--a $4 million explosion that goes off without the cameras rolling, in one of the funniest scenes this year--producer Les Grossman threatens to pull the project if Cockburn and screenwriter Fourleaf Tayback don't get their bleeping act together. So, Tayback suggests that Cockburn line the forests of Vietnam with tiny cameras and watch them as they make the film themselves. Cockburn is killed by a surprise landmine that isn't one of theirs, and of course, the actors just think it's an effects show (this leads to a tastelessly funny sequence involving a "prop head" that leaves you appalled but laughing your head off). When Tugg is kidnapped, the other actors start to catch on that maybe things aren't what they seem. Lazarus, disguised both in form and voice as character Sergeant Osiris, heads up a rescue mission with Portnoy, rapper Alpa Chino, and character actor Kevin Sandusky.

"Tropic Thunder" is unlike many other comedies, in that it never ever condescends to the audience. Controversy has surrounded so much of the movie, including the makeup for Robert Downey Jr. as an African-American general and the use of the word "retard" in a supposedly offensive way. If the tone of the film is hateful toward something, it's toward the conventionality of Hollywood. It's an amazing sight to see when a satire of American war films is made with the professionalism and gravitas of those films. Ben Stiller quarterbacked the project to his fullest capabilities and captured lightning in a bottle. He even hired the cinematographer John Toll, of "Braveheart" and "The Legends of the Fall." "Tropic Thunder" is a beautiful, gritty film to look at. Also production designer Jeff Mann, who did wonderful work on "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" and "Transformers," creates a brilliant environment. A film set within a film set is hard to do, I'm sure, but Mann puts it to great use.

Now, a note on some of the performances. Ben Stiller has seriously never been better in the role as Tugg Speedman. You really end up caring for Speedman as a person by the end, both as an actor (he's really quite good) and as a growing person. His performance, in my opinion, is one of the better ones this year. Jack Black is surprisingly two dimensional as Jeff Portnoy, someone who goes through an actual transformation by the end. Jay Baruchel and Brandon T. Jackson are fall-down funny as Kevin Sandusky and Alpa Chino, yet surprisingly good, too. Smaller roles, including ones by Nick Nolte, Matthew McConaughey, and Steve Coogan are successful and funny, too, if mildly underwritten.

But the performances that really put the film into perspective are those by Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise. Downey Jr. makes for both a scarily good Australian method actor and a believable black general. Think of this as Russell Crowe meets Louis Gossett Jr. Downey is simply spectacular in one of the three finest performances so far this year (the others being Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight" and Angelina Jolie in "Changeling.") Not only does he make Lazarus believable, but he makes Lazarus in turn make Osiris believable. If that doesn't make sense to you, see the movie and then everything will come together. The role is one of the classic comedic endeavours this decade and should be up for an Oscar if the Academy is smart at all.

As for Tom Cruise, let me say this: His performance as Les Grossman is one of ribald tour de force. Yes, his hip-hop dances to "Low" by Flo Rida are silly, but no less intelligently played out. Grossman is just that, a vulgar spoof of the Weinstein brothers. Every other word is the f-word, adding twisted humanity to a character that easily could've been broad and unfunny. Grossman may be a horrible human, but he's still a human. It's scary how well Cruise plays this character. Watch his delivery of each line, as if it's physically painful to communicate with humans he finds to be lesser than he, and you'll see that it has completely rejuvenated Cruise's career post-couch-jumping.

"Tropic Thunder" isn't simply a satirical comedy; it's about the need to create something artistic. The movie they ultimately make, showcased at the Oscars sequence just before the credits, actually looks entertaining. The filmmakers and screenwriters set out to spoof Hollywood--and spoof it they did--but they inadvertently and lovingly reference it at the same time. In a country where something like "Meet the Spartans" represents the comedy that teenagers seemingly enjoy (I don't, for the record), "Tropic Thunder" is a success that goes beyond words, creating characters and situations. It's not smug with itself. And that's what makes it the comedic masterpiece it is. It isn't just a great comedy. It's Ben Stiller's Great American Movie.