20/50: The Illusionist

I wanted to pair these two films together, because they both had the theme of illusion/magic in them. It is odd that in 2006 both of these films came out, and both featured, if not the same, but similar plot lines.

The Illusionist is much more of a - like I mentioned in my Pretty in Pink review - Romeo & Juliet-type story.

The film starts in the past and shows a young Eisenheim becoming friends, and soon falling in love, with a young girl named Sophie. Eisenheim is a peasant boy while Sophie is of rich and royal decent. So, this love affair is prohibited.

Fast forward many years and Eisenheim (Edward Norton) is becoming a very successful illusionist. In his former hometown, he becomes a bit of a hit, especially from local law-enforcer, Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti). As the word spreads, Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell) wants to see the show - including Duchess Sophie (Jessica Biel).

Eisenheim recognizes Sophie right away, but it takes her longer to realize that this is in fact the young boy she fell in love with years ago.

The rest of the film plays out like Ocean's Eleven, in my opinion. It's another film that you have to pay attention to as things unfold - and the payoff is pretty amazing.

Honestly, as close as the two films are, I think I enjoyed this one a tiny bit more - even though the grade won't show it.

More great actors in this film that had great performances - I don't think I have seen Sewell in anything else except A Knight's Tale, but he truly plays a great villain.

Grade:

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs / Planet 51

I am going to do a little double-dip with this review as I have gotten myself a little backed up, and really these two films sort of go hand-in-hand.

I will start with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I had only recently checked out the children's book - which is quite small by the way - and wondered how on Earth they could make a full-length film out of it.

It wasn't spectacular, but it was well worth a watch.

Swallow Falls has been well known for its sardines, and everyone eats them - even though nobody enjoys eating them.

Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) invents a contraption that can change water into any food that you can desire. As he is about to show his invention to the town, it is accidentally shot into sky.

At first, the town is amazed when it begins to rain food. They no longer have to eat sardines and it also puts Swallow Falls back on the map as Sam Sparks (Anna Faris), a weather reporter, announces to the world this amazing feat.

However, things begin to go a little haywire with the contraption and the food begins to get a little bigger - and then massive. And, finally the weather begins to turn and the food starts acting like a tornado.

It is up to Flint and his gang of misfits, including Sparks, a Gummi-Bear loving monkey named Steve (Neil Patrick Harris) and the town's former well-known celebrity 'Baby' Brent (Andy Samberg).

It was a pretty good watch and my son loved it. It is nowhere near the quality of say the Pixar films, but definitely give it a shot.

Planet 51, was also a pretty interesting watch, but I don't think I would give it a second look. Where as I would probably watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs again.

Planet 51 is sort of a bizarro-E.T. as instead of the alien landing on Earth - a human is the alien landing on another planet.

Captain Charles T. Baker (Dwayne Johnson) lands on Planet 51 and claims it in the name of the United States. As he turns around, however, he notices that he is not alone and becomes a fugitive on this alien planet.

The planet itself is a lot like Earth, however, 50 years in the Earth's past. The main character is Lem (Justin Long), a kid who is trying to become head of a planetarium and also has the hots for his next door neighbor, Neera (Jessica Biel).

As General Grawl (Gary Oldman) and the alien army try to capture Captain Baker - Lem and his buddy Skiff (Seann William Scott) do everything in their power to keep him safe and get him back to his spaceship.

It was a pretty good watch and it was fun to see a lot of other movies given some sort of homage in the film - like the Planet 51 dogs looking a lot like the alien from Alien.

Still, it could have been a lot better - but it was good for one watch.

Grades:
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Planet 51

Movie Booms I

I must say that the total lack of television on now, thanks to most of the seasons being completed, I have found some extra time to dive into some movies I have been longing to see.

I posted a review of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on Saturday, but I was also able to catch four other movies during this extended weekend.

Things started off on Saturday, when on one of the movie channels I noticed that Next was about to start (I am one of those people that can't watch a movie he has never seen, unless it's from start to finish), so I decided to record it and watch it when Kasey went up for his nap.

Next stars Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore and Jessica Biel. Cage is Cris Johnson, a Las Vegas magician who just might be the real thing. Johnson has this ability to see into the future - but only two minutes ahead and only things involving himself.

The only occurrence of him seeing further into the future involves Liz Cooper (Biel), whom Johnson believes is part of his destiny.

The FBI, however, led by Callie Ferris (Moore) is trying to lure Johnson into helping them find and stop a group of bombers. Johnson, though, just wants to remain normal and resists - until Cooper is kidnapped by the bombers.

I was actually pretty interested in the film, Cage is always hit or miss with me, and he was pretty tolerable here - I was not too impressed with Moore as the FBI agent, however. The movie flowed pretty well - that is until the ending, which I felt ended much too soon. It was a pretty interesting play of events, but I was looking for me.

I would have to give this movie a 3/5 thanks to the disappointing ending.

Sunday night I managed to finally watch a movie I had been interested in seeing since it was in theaters.

The Kingdom revolves around a single incident in Saudi Arabia that involves two U.S. government agents. The agents, who had been stationed at a Saudi Arabian base, were killed when a bomb went off.

The movie stars Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman and Chris Cooper. Foxx plays Ronald Fleury, who without permission, sneaks himself and three other members of his team into Saudi Arabia to help track down the culprits behind the bombing.

Once there, however, the crew is not allowed to touch anything or go anywhere without supervision - until Fleury gets permission from one of the local princes.

It's hard to explain this movie without truly giving something away, so I will just say that the movie has a lot of action - a few squeamish scenes - and the acting is pretty top-notch. Bateman plays Adam Leavitt, and his character gives some much needed comedy to a very dramatic situation. I give the film a 4/5.

The third movie of the weekend was more of a television movie. I had actually heard that this movie was going to be on during an interview on The Mike O'Meara Show and thought it might be worth a look.

Recount premiered on HBO during the weekend. It stars Kevin Spacey, Ed Begley Jr., Tom Wilkinson, John Hurt, Denis Leary and Laura Dern.

The film is about the 2000 presidential election year between Al Gore and George W. Bush. I have never been a very political person, but this proved to be a very interesting movie.

The entire movie is focused on the state of Florida during the election, a state that proved to give the election - and the presidency - to Bush. Spacey stars as Ron Klain, an attorney for the Gore campaign, who trying everything in his power to find out the correct results of the election.

For those who might not remember, the state of Florida had a series of issues when it came to it's election. A handful of people, believing they were voting for Gore, accidentally voted for Pat Buchanon. Other votes were cast, with what is called a hanging chad (or a punch that didn't go all the way through).

Thanks to this, many votes for Gore were uncounted and thus gave Bush the presidency. There were so many twists and turns to this situation - which basically all came down to the decision of Florida's secretary of state, Katherine Harris (Dern), who decided not to count those that were uncounted. Harris is a Republican - perhaps that had something to do with it.

Like I said I am not too political, but this movie certainly had me enthralled. Imagine what could have been? Would we be in the situation we are now if Gore would have won? Very interesting. My lone complaint is I was hoping the filmmakers would have interviewed the actual lawyers and participants on the two campaigns. I was very interested to hear what say James Baker (Wilkinson) had to say about Bush now - eight year later. Nevertheless, I still give this movie a 4/5.

The final movie I was able to watch this weekend was Breach starring Ryan Phillippe, Chris Cooper. Laura Linney, Gary Cole and Dennis Haysburt.

Phillippe is Eric O'Neill, an upstart in the FBI, who is given his first real assignment as an agent. He is to work for, and investigate, Robert Hanssen (Cooper), an intense, religious, computer intelligence officer.

Hanssen has supposedly been selling off American secrets to the Russians for years, and before his retirement in two months, the FBI is looking to bust him. Phillippe is forced to outwit one of the most intelligent officers he has ever met - and actually begins to like him.

This movie was based on a true story. Hanssen is reportedly the worst spy in the history of the United States. The capturing of Hanssen was the one and only assignment for O'Neill, as he decided to pursue law after the long ordeal.

Breach was an interesting movie which kept me involved, but it didn't have much action - and the 'spy games' used in it weren't as involved as I would have liked. However, it was a good watch so I give it a 3/5.

There you have it - hopefully there will be more of these Movie Booms throughout the summer - as I try to get caught up on the many movies I want to see.