Wednesday, June 17, 2009

All the New Movies That I Have Seen

1. Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008).


Actually the most surprising part about this movie was how much they tried to downplay the potential offensiveness of its premise. In fact, it was pretty amusing to see the various ways the writers attempted to pander to both Anglo and Hispanic movie goers. On one hand, you had the fact that the entire movie revolved around a white dog who gets kidnapped by brown-skinned Latins (though one villain looked so much like a stereotypical Arab that he appeared to have wandered in from a Delta Force movie). On the other, you have the constant emphasis on the fact that the title character is detached from her ethnic roots to the point of not even being able to communicate in Spanish. I do not believe the resulting movie will be played at too many LULAC meetings but I did not find it to be as offensive as I had feared.

Anyway, I found the sight of Jamie Lee Curtis with gray hair to be more shocking than anything else that actually took place within the movie. Please do not let this be the last film of Ms. Curtis' career because she really does deserve better.

And whoever put Piper Perabo in that atrocious outfit she wore in her first scene in this flick has a lot to answer for. Even if Ms. Perabo’s character is eventually shown to have better taste in men than in clothes.

2. Bolt (2009).


Better than I expected. And I do not usually have a soft spot for dogs. Of course, I felt a bit sorry for the cat. But at least, the writers managed to come up with a reason for the cat’s fate that was both understandable and sympathetic.

3. Coraline (2009).


Better than I suspected. Especially that creepy pseudo-mother that the title character gets involved with. Beware the woman with the shoe-button eyes...

4. The House Bunny (2008).


Anna Faris may be a genuinely funny person but she is not funny enough to make up for this mess. I found one sequence almost too painful to watch. I am usually a sucker for outsiders-vs.-the-insiders storylines but this movie was so bad even that storyline could not save it. Especially since the writers seemed to be more creative at coming up with ways to humiliate supposedly sympathetic characters than anything else.

5. Up (2009).


Pixar does it again. (Yawn!) Okay, it is not bad. In fact, it is very good. I just wish Pixar had more competition.

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