Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland is a solid home run for Tim Burton and for movie fans. Maybe in the past this film couldn't have been realized to the extent it has been rendered in 2010 with contempo CGI. Apparitions and people with odd-sized heads mix and mingle with talking rabbits, stubborn mice and some rather bizarre fantasy creatures. Alice succeeds as it leads the audience from a world of normalcy and down the rabbit hole of surrealism.
Burton gets his cake and eats it too. At least three times we see an eyeball either plucked out or stabbed with a pin. Because the story takes place in a fantasy land this R-rated action gets away with a PG rating. I also giggled every time Anne Hathaway, as the White Queen, gags in her mouth when she smells something repugnant. There's a seditious side to this film, and that's mirrored in the narrative that places Alice (Mia Wasikowska) in a prim and proper background before thrusting her into a world that's a bit more perilous than the Wizard of Oz. Remember Dorothy kills two witches before all is said and done. Alice has some dragons of her own to slay. Wasikowska should be able to milk this performance for the rest of her life. She has a relaxed yet charismatic manner and is new enough to be unfamiliar to most viewers (Wasikowska was in last year's acclaimed indie That Evening Sun).
Alice in Wonderland also features several engagements in 3D and makes good use of the medium in the same manner as Coraline or Avatar in the sense of spacial awareness of the environment. But none of the eyeballs come flying directly at you.
Surrounding Alice are a gallery of thesps who know how to make this kind of dramatic fantasy work. Some are recognizable despite great alteration of their physiques, like Johnny Depp (Mad Hatter), Hathaway (her eyebrows have never been more prominent), Crispin Glover (wearing an eye-patch to compliment his crooked nose) and Helena Bonham Carter as the domineering Red Queen. Some are only readily apparent if you know their voice like Alan Rickman as a hookah smoking catepillar or Christopher Lee as the monstrous Jabberwocky.
Obviously the film plays well to the kids and princesses that will connect directly with Alice's plight. But Burton's overall achievement and the film's literary pedigree guarantees Alice in Wonderland fans of all ages.

District 13: Ultimatum

Luc Besson continues to be behind some of the most action packed genre flicks around, here in the role as screenwriter and producer on District 13: Ultimatum. The film is the sequel to just regular District 13 (from 2004), or Banlieue 13 or even District B13. Of course after District 9, a wholly unrelated title yet no doubt confusing to the layman, don’t even begin to go there.
D13 uses the stunt stylings known as parkour, a kind of power combo or martial arts and gymnastics, and D13: Ultimatum has the distinction of featuring one of the main practioners of the movement David Belle in the lead.
Banlieue 13 was a heavy influence on the opening sequence of the reboot of James Bond in Casino Royale (2006), although Banlieue 13 had a much smaller art house release. D13 was the story of castes of downcast society enclosed within cement walls to prevent their decay seeping out to the more refined areas of Paris. D13: Ultimatum continues this train of though.
Parallel stories follow rebel Leito (Belle) making an alliance with one of the factions cordoned off in D13, while supercop Capt. Tomaso (Cyril Raffaelli) takes down an entire gangster’s empire in a worthy sequence that composes most of the first two reels. Events conspire against Tomaso when he’s set up on a phony heroin bust and he contacts his uneasy ally Leito to bust him out of the joint. The conspiracy goes all the way up to the President (of France natch) while narrative twists revolve around taking out D13 with strategic bombs. The President must order the strikes and one of his main advisors hopes to gain contracts involved in the rebuilding of the decimated area.
Okay enough plot, but what about the action? After all the attraction of this particular kind of running and jumping plus the leap through the transom from the first movie holds a high bar. It’s a barrier D13: U makes its own as Belle does a leap and gravity defying upwards spin out his balcony window and Raffaelli dives from mid-air through the narrow window of an economy sized automobile.
Maybe the action choreography is as good as it gets. Certainly the fact the main actors are doing their own stunts adds to the realism. And the look and feel exceeds similar genre movies. But the main thing that makes District 13: Ultimatum fun to watch despite editing that suggests some wires may’ve been used in the stunts is the clockwork mechanism of its movement. When the first D13 came out it was set in the then far out year 2010, and likewise the sequel posits itself a few years after that. The setting isn’t so much science fiction as metropolitan dystopia.

Fish Tank

A dysfunctional family provides the gist for a young girl's rather rough coming of age. The theme to Fish Tank could be love means you never have to say I hate you. An earthy entry from the UK, Fish Tank follows a 15-year old girl who's more delinquent than dilettante. The film's very British down to its you-need-to-concentrate accents and it's locales including the coast near Essex.
As written and directed by Andrea Arnold, Fish Tank revolves totally around Mia (amazing newcomer Kathie Jarvis) with all the other, mostly adult, characters seen from her perspective. One moment Mia's arguing with her single mom, the next she's flirting with mom's boyfriend (Michael Fassbender, completely different from his turn in Inglourious Basterds). Mia varies from fighting other tough girls in the neighborhood to wanting to be a dancer. Her musical influences range from "Life's a Bitch" by Nas to a soulful cover of "California Dreamin" by Bobby Womack. Mia may be sensitive but we rarely see that trait. Instead she tends to run with bad boys or exist as a loner; one disturbing incident even suggests that she may be capable of kidnapping.
Despite an obviously unenlightened existence Mia arouses our curiosity with the turns her life takes. Arnolds direction is bouncy in spite of the dramatic intensity of Mia's choices. Fish Tank's reputation precedes it as it's won BAFTA and Cannes Film Festival plaudits.

DVD slight return

The Universe Season Four from the History Channel, on 4 DVDs including a couple of extra segments on comets and meteors, epitomizes everything cool about cable downtime. You’re glued to the screen and you’re smarter afterwards. Of the twelve eps on four discs one features the top 10 ways to kill Earth. Another ep muses on science fiction versus science fact and references recent films like Star Trek and District 9. It takes how much electricity to beam aboard?
Another History Channel special, on a single disc, The Real Wolfman (94 minutes) ties together modern mythology with historical incidents. In other words most of the Wolfman movies and stories of the 20th and now current century owe allegiance to a series of over 100 murder in the mid-1700s in France. (Another recent feature film dealt with this occurrence - The Brotherhood of the Wolf, which came out in 2002.) There's some interesting paths The Real Werewolf tracks. Additionally we're privy to a scientific experiment where silver bullets are fired alongside regular bullets in ballistics tests. Perhaps it's no surprise the silver bullets are less powerful.
Fix has all the elements to be a great ride. But it's almost the opposite - a very hard sit. This indie film from 2008 has a bunch of beautiful people driving around L.A. in a car with the loosest of plots. The dialogue drags and even the impromptu moments seem dull. Olivia Wilde is on constant display as she's the main driver but even her comfort with the camera can't make Fix matter. We see all sorts of underground and gangster digs as the cast of Fix attempts to get their friend into rehab by financing his stay with a drug deal. You've been warned. Fix actually has two commentary tracks, one with the director and one with the actors. A little vanity goes a long way.

March at a glance

Alice in Wonderland in 3D everywhere March 5, pushes Avatar off 3D screens, at least for the first couple of weeks. I would expect to see Avatar going back into theaters in some manner especially as trade reports have Alice operating on a 13-week DVD window. The scope of this article isn't about theatrical windows yet there exists a lot of hustle and flow between theater owners (NATO) and the major studios who dominate most of the schedule over the time alloted between theatrical release and such things as DVD release and other ancillary options. Note too that at the end of the month the animated How To Train Your Dragon in 3D followed in early April by Clash of the Titans in 3D will also battle the Gods for 3D theater screens both digital and IMAX. The 40-minute IMAX shot docu Hubble 3D will stick to museum and science IMAX screens but expect to eventually see Hubble 3D in mainstream theaters alternating with feature length 3D-ers.



Also opening on the 5th are District 13: Ultimatum (some great action sequences) and cop drama Brooklyn's Finest along with the exclusive engagement of Fish Tank, a lauded film from the UK. And it's Oscar weekend.
The 12th offers Green Zone reuniting director Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon. Based of Rajiv Chandrasekaran's book Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone, the film's trailer suggest Bourne-style action while the book promises heavy duty political skullduggery. Also opening are youth oriented romcom She's Out Of My League and the Robert Pattinson (he's only been good in the Twilight films) starrer Remember Me.
Opening on the 19th are Bounty Hunter (Midnight Run meets romcom?), Repo Men (not a sequel to Repo Man however), and for the youngsters Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Closing out the last weekend of March are the previously mentioned Dragon and the R-rated comedy (looking for a Hangover redo?) Hot Tub Time Machine. Throughout the month some indie and foreign titles will play including Greenberg, A Prophet, and Police, Adjective.