Quick Takes: "Bambi", "Detachment", "Mirror Mirror", "Bourne Ultimatum"

"Bambi" (1st Viewing)

Directed by David Hand

Less than two weeks past my 25 Greatest Films of All Time list, and I'm already reconsidering certain selections. For example, I suspect next year will see a marginal decrease for "The Illusionist" in lieu of its place being taken up by this more seasoned of animated delights. It's not to say "Bambi" decreases Sylvain Chomet's recent masterwork in any degree, but I can only admit a "Greatest of All Time" list is still a work in progress for me. There are blind spots to be filled, and I can't even begin to comprehend that this was one of them for so long. Who hasn't seen "Bambi", right? While I do have faint memories of childhood, they don't stand the test of time as well as recent experiences.

Something that strikes you in the first moments of the film is how layered the illustrations of these woods are, beyond simple cardboard cutout movements. The way the trees move as perspective changes is a thing of extreme beauty that no other traditional animation Disney flick has quite achieved. As years progressed, the composition of animated pictures has become very stationary and simple, whereas in "Bambi" so much is moving with the action. There's a big to-do in the first five minutes of the film that has all the animals in motion. It brings us into this graceful world with such vim and life. In replacement of overt magic, Disney has given us a more natural wonder to behold.

OSCAR 2012: Pre-Fall films spark enduring interest

It's been a particularly dry patch at the theaters, given that it's been more than a month since wide release yielded any particular gems. The last new release I caught in theaters was "The Dark Knight Rises", and somehow that just didn't light a fire for the end of summer. Even a handful of my most anticipated films of this month are already falling from grace. "The Bourne Legacy" seems to be receiving a universal yawn from critics wondering how this story couldn't have booted up into an entirely new franchise. I caught a preview for "ParaNorman" recently that entirely doused my interest in the film, which seems to be trading heavily in hollow and substance-less wit rather than genuine magic.

So I've taken the time to revisit some rather positive cinematic revelations of the recent past, and it's beginning to show how much of a splash these films could make in the awards season conversation. We're bound to see one or two films not meet expectations, but on the most part the fall slate is seeming to have a pretty massive hold on the Academy's interest. "Argo", "Les Miserables", "Life of Pi", "Lincoln", and "The Master" remain prominent figures on the schedules, and we'll see rises and falls depending on how those play with audiences and critics. But there are more than a few films from this first half of the year that I suspect will figure into the conversation more than they have been.

Box Office Report: April gets "Lucky"

WAVERING QUETION: Why aren't people in love happy?

Can somebody do me a kindness and explain to me how this weekend turned out to be so ridiculously successful at the box office? I did not believe for a second that films with as little buzz and interest as "Think Like a Man" and "The Lucky One" would end up with the colossal debuts they did, especially after more obvious smashes like "American Reunion", "Wrath of the Titans", and "Titanic 3D" seemed to wash up to some degree. Don't get me wrong, since they're still earning quite the honest intake, with "Reunion" having been made on a small profit, "Titans" pulling in a profit overseas, and "Titanic" having already tripled its budget some time ago.

Needless to say it was a weekend for underdogs, with Tim Story's black (as in the colour) comedy "Think Like a Man" becoming the surprise hit of the weekend. My guess is it found a niche in the Tyler Perry crowd of viewers, and ran with it quite well. And who could possibly be surprised that a bunch of girls flocked to theaters to check out Zac Efron in yet another Nicolas Sparks adaptation. At this point, what tween actor hasn't had the Nicolas Sparks treatment? I think we're waiting on Taylor Swift to grab one up, and I admit that if she did that, I might actually see it. Why? Because I'm an idiot who loves Taylor Swift, so back off keep reading.

Box Office Report: "Hunger" Leads to Starvation

Keep doing your thing "Hunger Games", because it's going to be a long month once your magic has drifted to a state of normality. Not to say this month has no promise whatsoever. On the contrary, there are enough decent releases throughout the month to make up for the drought that's existed below the top five at the box office. I'm sick of typing in digits below $1 million, and even sicker of talking about "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen"s kinda/sorta "success". In any case, it's tough to look at this weekend's stats and not see a bit of disappointment. After all, there's been strong enough success in the 3D market to assume that something like "Titanic" would be able to thrive. I guess it's just not THAT beloved.

And I guess people don't really care about the dumb revival of a dumb film series that went away for a good reason. Don't expect "American Reunion" to stick around for good measure. Their disappointment evokes a strong enough boost for last week's somewhat honest debuts. "Wrath of the Titans" fell a good deal as expected, but it's already tracking much better than "John Carter" did. "Mirror Mirror" didn't take much of a tumble at all, and it seems that there's been some kind of positive audience reaction on the part of that film. Hopefully it'll end with some solid enough wages. "21 Jump Street" seems to be reaching the point of winding down, but it'll make it's way to $125 million pretty well. Oh yeah, and "The Hunger Games" did stabilize to a degree, and should make its way past $350 million, but not much higher.

Box Office Update: "Hunger" Devours "Wrath" & "Mirror"

This weekend continued the trend of behemoths dominating senselessly due to unearned enthusiasm while the real gems are still acknowledged, though not nearly as much. I wasn't happy with "The Hunger Games", so the impact of its gargantuan debut had me shrugging with an extreme sense of banality. Though the film did take a massive tumble this weekend, but that's to be expected from such an outstanding opening figure. The film is working on its crawl towards $350-$400 million by the end of its run, though where it lands in that schema depends largely on how it fares next weekend. If nothing else, the film is giving an uncustomary boost to a usually banal box office frame.

And the rest of what's currently filling up the market isn't faring too terribly, if not particularly as excellent. "Wrath of the Titans" opened second to nearly half of what its predecessor opened to. Granted there has been a lot of well earned hatred surrounding that film that this one has been attempting to redeem, so it does have a fight ahead of it, especially if it wants to make back its $150 million budget. Admittedly, that's an easier target to achieve than "John Carter" had against it. "Mirror Mirror" too isn't quite raking in the children it expected to, and everyone else just isn't giving notice to it. It largely depends on buzz, and if the small faction of people who adored it are able to spark enough interest in it.

Academy Announces "Mirror Mirror" as Preemptive Champion!

On Friday, it seemed like the world united in a display of profound anger and hatred for Tarsem Singh's fairy tale revisioning of the classic tale of Snow White, "Mirror Mirror". It was immediately condemned as nothing more than a manipulative kids film that throws hideous visuals at children, desperate to come off as cool. Obviously, given my own perspective on the film, I do not agree with the haters. I believe the film finds small, yet broad, strokes to paint over the familiar story in a way that rings as significant for the world it is releasing onto today, as well as sneaking in some unexpected and hilarious jokes along the way. I still profess confusion as to why nobody speaks of the film's magnificently tucked-in rape joke.

It appears that the Academy agrees with me entirely, if perhaps they have taken things a bit too far this time. In a stunning show of passion and confidence, the 85th Annual Academy Awards have announced a preemptive winner for the grand majority of the categories, and that winner is "Mirror Mirror". Taking the prizes for Best Picture, Director (Tarsem Singh), Actress (Julia Roberts), Actor (Armie Hammer), Supporting Actress (Lily Collins), Supporting Actor (Nathan Lane), Adapted Screenplay, Original Score, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Art Direction, Cinematography, Makeup, Costume Design (A well deserving Eiko Ishioka), Film Editing, Visual Effects, and controversially Best Animated Feature. A whopping record of 17 wins!

FILM REVIEW: "Mirror Mirror"

For quite some time, Tarsem Singh's joyous reiteration of the Snow White fairy tale went without a name, though I admit that I would still have been excited to see "Tarsem Singh's Untitled Snow White Project". It has kind of a jaunty ring to it, but no less than "Mirror Mirror" does. It seems like this could so easily have been titled "Snow White and the... Whatever... Just Give it a Name", but it means something to me that Tarsem took so long landing on a title for a film that was well into production, and perhaps already wrapped up shooting. It was the first thing I thought about heading into the theater, but the last thing that was decided upon. Perhaps that's because Tarsem realized the film's potential as, in itself, a sort of fun-house mirror upon the world it being released upon.

Perhaps I'm reading a deal too much into it, but "Mirror Mirror" didn't seem preoccupied with telling a simple story that's been told countless times before, or putting it into a genre context like "Snow White and the Huntsman" looks to do much later this year. It was much more of a retelling in a different context, being mindful of the landscape the film is coming out to, in both a literal and slightly sexual sense, in this day and age. Not every film would dare be so unhinged and flamboyant in every waking moment of its runtime, but Tarsem pulls it off without ever losing the heart of the film.

The Snow White in this film is cooped up in her castle by the eccentric and careless Queen Clementianna, who isn't so much evil as she is hilariously off-kilter and self-absorbed. Snow White, meanwhile, isn't turned into a one-dimensional princess with no ambition. It seems like such a simple move for her to be compassionate towards her people, but it adds a dimension to her that makes her more than just a pretty face. It's that selfless motivation that puts audience respect on her side, but there's a complexity in that she lacks the self-respect that the Queen has in spades. It's an decisive and compelling contrast that sets the board nicely.

Films to See in 2012: March

After two consecutive months of having nothing worth anticipating, we finally get around to March, which is always the point where the year actually arrives to some degree. The Academy Awards have been put to bed, and we can now actively move on to films that we may even remember by the end of the year. Of course the month starts out rather unassumingly, with whatever "Project X" is (cause I still don't know), and the animated adaptation of "The Lorax". This was the frame that "Rango" landed in last year, but I do not at all think that Dr. Seuss is quite going to give off the same vibe of nicely dialed insanity. In limited release that weekend is "Being Flynn", starring Paul Dano and Robert Deniro. It's fantastic to see Dano taking on bigger roles, but that film just looks way too simple-minded. I will say that it's better than whatever else Deniro is doing.

The following week we get around to Eddie Murphy's latest film, "A Thousand Words", which I have no idea about one way or the other. The guy's biggest prospect for this year was hosting the Oscars, and that fell through. It's also worth noting that "Friends with Kids", starring Adam Scott, Kirsten Wiig, Jon Hamm, Maya Rudolph, and Chris O'Dowd, is coming into limited release. I know, it's like a huge "Bridesmaids" reunion, and as somebody who really enjoyed that film, this sounds like it could be an interesting mix. And there's also "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen", which has some interesting people attached to it, but there isn't much in the way of actual story to be told there, so I'm not that sure about it. Lest I forget, there is also Elizabeth Olsen's year-old thriller "Silent House" finally getting release, so that may well be worth checking out.