CJ7

CJ7 is the international title of the Mandarin language Cheung Gong 7 hou and the film is an instant classic. CJ7 functions as art house fare, as a fantasy with a Chaplinesque glint, and as a kid's film a la ET.
Director Stephen Chow shows a warmth with his characters that was not evident in Kung Fu Hustle, but still maintains his unique visual sense. Think of wide angles and superb editing, not unlike the style of Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz). Chow also co-stars and many of his scenes show him working perilously perched on the top of a skyscaper under construction. A blue screen effect makes it appear as if Chow's eating lunch sitting on the edge of a multi-story drop only to have the camera sway over the ledge and cause the audience to feel a sense of vertigo.
CJ7 serves up mucho CGI but with gusto. The title character is an alien that resembles the head of a toy dog with a body of flubber. Chow plays a single dad who has landed in the poor house after sending his son to an expensive private school. The lad gets teased by the other rich students because he's poor. Dad finds shoes and toys in the garbage dump to give to his son because he can't afford them. The newest trash heap toy is actually the titular alien.
At first the son has a dream where he thinks CJ7 uses space magic to help him ace a test. Only the reality proves to be the opposite of his dream so the kid gets medieval on the little critter, even stuffing him into a toilet. This cruelty to animal subtext might explain the PG rating in what is otherwise a film as pure as driven snow.
Natch the boy rejects the alien and then misses the alien and then uses his faith to will the alien to return. The whole Jesus parable seems obvious but that's not the film's main aim. Not to give away all the plot points but there's also a reanimation.
As comedy CJ7 makes you laugh when it counts and as a fantasy the film pays off bigtime for adults and children. There's some righteous UFO satire involved too as well as snide glances at the gulf between the have and have-nots. You don't want to miss this film and since it's in limited release you'll have to search for it, a quest that will reward its viewer on this plane if not in heaven.

Vantage Point

Vantage Point has been floating around movie theaters for a while, there have been trailers for it running since last summer. That would seem to indicate confusion as to how to market what is essentially a tense assassination thriller that consistently holds your interest. With a cast that includes actors like Bill Hurt and Dennis Quaid, plus some attractive bad guys the film keeps hopping from, ah, vantage point to vantage point to tell the same story from multiple angles.
If you're familiar with the cinema of Michael Haneke you can see his style in Vantage Point, what with the action rewinding every reel to mark a transition to another character's point of view. Make no mistake, VP is not a Haneke film yet there's something to be said for the way his touch has been dumbed down but still used in American films.
Back to VP: The first segment shows a gathering in a town square in Spain where the U.S. President (Hurt) prepares to make a major policy speech as seen from the control room of GNN cable news. When POTUS is shot the action rewinds and the film starts over from the perspective of a tourist video taping the event (Forest Whitaker); the terrorist who planned the assassination, secret service agent Quaid, and then POTUS himself watching blocks away from a hotel suite as his body double takes the bullet. Finally the film goes past what has been revealed and concludes the tale after a massive car chase through the city's crowded plaza.
Director Pete Travis comes from a TV movie background. Even though Vantage Point offers plenty of potboiler atmosphere it also uses the latest film editing techniques (think Bourne Ultimatum) and presents the action with a complete yet fractured continuity. Concept films like these - the audience either buys the premise or no. I bought it mainly on the strength of the talent (look for a scene with Brue McGill and James LeGros as feds) and heightened action sequences.