Daily Archives: August 11, 2008

Fly Me to the Moon

Film Reviews

The first computer-generated animated feature conceived and produced
exclusively for a 3-D release, Fly Me to the Moon also represents one
of the strangest misfires in recent animation history. The story
of three young flies who stow away on the Apollo 11 space flight, the
movie displays an earnestly old-fashioned attitude toward outer space
and adolescent exploration in general, but is a case of mode of
delivery completely overwhelming substance.

Set in 1969, the movie centers around headstrong, naturally inquisitive fly Nat (voiced by Trevor Gagnon), and his two pals, Scooter (voiced by David Gore) and I.Q. (voiced by Philip Bolden). Inspired by his Grandpa’s oft-told tale of stowing away on Amelia Earhart’s plane during her famed transatlantic solo flight, Nat hatches an impetuous plan to go to space by hiding out on the Apollo 11, not knowing that — unlike other rocket launches they’ve witnessed — this trip will last not minutes but almost a week.

As three NASA scientists on the ground grapple with a United States senator set to de-fund the space program based on the success of this mission, Nat’s family anxiously awaits his return. An old flame of Grandpa’s then arrives to tell him that the Russians are angry over losing the insect space race, and have sent mercenary Yegor (voiced by Tim Curry) to sabotage Apollo 11’s computer plans for re-entry. Against this backdrop, crises in space and on the ground must be averted in order for Nat, Scooter and I.Q. to return home safely.

In both execution (a lisp from Scooter renders his dialogue frequently difficult to understand) and conception, Fly Me to the Moon seems awkward and poorly thought out. Flatly drawn, the main characters seem nipped from Alvin and the Chipmunks (the intrepid explorer, the fat and fretful sidekick, and the one with glasses), and apart from the strangely integrated Cold War clash, the script is terribly unimaginative, peppering many scenes with tired, space-filling bits like female flies fainting. It also never resolves simple but important issues of narrative underpinning, like whether there is to be any human/fly interaction.

Most problematically, the character design is confusing, incongruous and unappealing. The creatures don’t really look like flies (in fact, they resemble modified Snorks, from the mid-’80s Hanna-Barbera animated series), and some are different colors, which is never explained. The humans within the film aren’t similarly stylized, however, which makes for a bit of clash. For the full, original review, from Screen International, click here. (Summit Entertainment, G, 85 minutes)

Lacking Broom and Dustbin, UK Cinemas Ban Popcorn

Irritations

Per this item forwarded along by a reader in the UK, it seems like a fair number of cinemas in Great Britain are banning popcorn, which has to be, sincerely, among the stupidest things I’ve heard this year. Somehow even more stupid than the surging trend of its banning, though, are the explanatory comments by Daniel Broch, owner of the renowned Everyman cinema in London’s
upmarket Hampstead district.

Broch cites popcorn’s “disproportionate influence on the space in terms of its overwhelming
smell, the cultural idea of it and the operational problems created by
the mess it produces” as contributing factors in its banning. Here, let me play transatlantic problem-solver for a moment. First, it’s the odor of those urinal cakes in downmarket theaters that would trigger my gag reflex long before the odor of popcorn; perhaps an air filtration system or, failing that, a can of Oust will help save the apparently large segment of the British population allergic to the odor of popcorn. Secondly, I’m not even sure what “the cultural idea of it” refers to it, but I think that’s class-bashing. Finally, if your business is suffering major “operational problems” because of popcorn, feel free to mix in a teenager with a broom. Most towns have one or two who would gladly sweep for the chance to watch free movies. You don’t even have to pay them — just tell them they’re “floor interns.”

Broch wraps up by adding, “I’m not saying no popcorn is better than popcorn,” failing to somehow realize that yes, that’s exactly what he’s saying. Oh, Great Britain…

Vulture Wrong About Tom Cruise’s Tropic Thunder Cameo

Ephemera, Musings

Vulture takes issue with the generally promulgated notion that Tom Cruise’s cameo turn in the forthcoming Tropic Thunder is funny, but they’re on the wrong side of the fence on this one. Their main beef seems to be with the fact that Cruise — playing a foul-mouthed studio boss prone to breaking out a hip-hop hit to help underscore a point — is “yet another middle-aged actor milking yuks out of how white guys don’t know how to shake their flabby white rumps.” Yet that’s entirely not the point of his rump-shaking.

His character, Les Grossman, can dance; he does. Yes, it’s jarring, but it’s meant to be — it’s a visual counterpoint to the obscenity that he spews and crushed spirits he leaves in his wake. The subtext: here’s a guy who’s in control about being out of control. And it works. It makes him more calculated, shades and completes the portrait of shrewdness.

For Cruise, it’s also a career game-changer. Just as John Travolta, who decades earlier had memorably catapulted to fame on the strength of his Saturday Night Fever moves, reconnected with audiences in Pulp Fiction (partly) via dance, so too does Tropic Thunder help take audiences back to a time of unburdened affection for the guy — when he was just that sock-clad kid sliding across a bare wooden floor singing along to “Old Time Rock and Roll.” It’s more wild supporting turns like this one, and Magnolia, that will eventually yield Cruise his Best Supporting Actor Oscar, not any square-jawed dramatic leads in the vein of The Last Samurai.

Dennis Miller, Eclectic Pragmatist

Interviews, Musings, Politics

Politico has up an interesting interview with Dennis Miller in which the actor-comedian talks about his political views, characterizing them as eclectic pragmatism. “I have wildly swinging opinions, but through some sort of
ideological feng shui they end up in the middle — some swing far to the
left, others to the far right,” he says. “I’m for the war, but I’m also for gay
marriage. I don’t care if two folks with the same genitalia want to get
hitched, I just don’t want some asshole from another country coming over
here and blowing up their wedding to make a political statement.” This is another way of saying Miller is engaged with the culture and world around him — someone who reasons through a social or political issue, not merely filtering it through a lens of partisan ideology, and arrives at a personal feeling about how it impacts him. Regardless of what you think of the guy, or any of his specific views, we need more people thinking like this.