The Clone Wars

George Lucas made one of the greatest American movies, and it's all been downhill since then... That is too harsh, for every Jar Jar Binks, there's been an Obi Wan Kenobi, so I shouldn't complain. Last night the kids and I saw his new animated film "Star Wars: The Clone Wars". It shows once again that his strength is the visual representation of a vivid imagination, and his weakness is anything to do with human beings. Everything in this movie looked great and felt just like a "live action" Star Wars movie, except for the actors. Unfortunately this can be said about his last three "live action" movies as well. I enjoyed the action, the space battles, the locations and the light sabers. I winced whenever a line of dialogue was uttered, and I had a hard time figuring out how the digital representation of Natalie Portman could be so unhot, even creepy. There was a very sweet scene in which the Jedi along with the currently good Clone Troopers are scaling a cliff, literally fighting uphill as the Droid army attempts to hold them back. Just the idea of this battle was cool, and the filmmakers and artists did a great job of creating this sequence. It reminded me of the scene when Jabba is planning on executing Luke, Han and Chewie. It reminded me of the Battle for Hoth. It reminded me of Luke and Leia trying to escape from the Stormtroopers in "A New Hope". I like scenes that bring back good memories, so in that way "Clone Wars" was a fun way to continue the Star Wars experience.

Tropic Thunder

Alright, this isn't the best comedy ever made. I didn't expect it to be, but for some reason I thought it would be closer. That's not to say that it didn't have its moments, and it sure did make me laugh much more than most recent comedies. "Juno" and before that "Napoleon Dynamite" were original, honestly funny films. "Tropic Thunder" is not in that category, but then it's not trying to be. Not too suprisingly it's more like "Zoolander", which was very funny for what it was. The problem is that lampooning a specific genre only works for so long, and "Tropic Thunder" doesn't hold up for the duration. All the main characters fulfill their contractual obligations, but only Robert Downey Jr. puts in any overytime. That being said, I can only imagine how blown away by his perfomance I would have been if only I hadn't seen any trailers. Once again those idiots at the trailer factory gave us way too much of the best stuff, leaving me with a bad case of deja vu there in the theater. Why pay for what I got for free 100 times in the last two months? That might be unfair though, because there is a little bit that wasn't in the trailer, and Downey s worth the price of admission. Then there's Tom Cruise. This morning it came to me that he was probably trying in some strange way to pay tribute to Peter Sellers in "Dr. Strangelove". This is a tall order to fill, and Tom wasn't up to the task. He was funny in a "Magnolia" sort of way, but once again, it didn't quite live up to the hype. Now of course my mind is making some connections; Tom Cruise was paying homage to a character from a Stanley Kubrick film, whos final film he starred in... and that character was played by an actor who was mentioned by Robert Downey Jr's character in a speech earlier in the film... Is that an intentional circular connection meant to add depth to an otherwise shallow Hollywood comedy? If so, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Personally if it makes me think about the movie more, then I'd have to say it was good.