UP

I have been missing for awhile now, but this marks three posts in three consecutive days. I should be back for about a month before heading back to classes, but I will hopefully find the time to update more than I did during my last semester.

Also, it appears that many people are creating their Top movies of the year lists (and some are even doing top movies of the decade). I will do my best to give it a whirl as well in a future post or two.

But, I digress. The real reason for this posting is that I finally watched Up last night with my family. (Spoilers are possible).

Up to me was not truly a children's film, but dove pretty deep in the sentimental drama that many kids don't quite understand yet. I know for a fact that my 3-year old was not quite getting why Carl (Ed Asner) was so sad, although he did know that he was in fact sad.

The movie starts out with a young Carl coming back from watching a news reel featuring his hero Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer). As he returns home he runs into another huge Muntz fan in Ellie. This is the start of a great friendship and soon love.

The next part of the film basically shows Carl and Ellie growing up together, getting married, and eventually shows Ellie's death.

Then Carl becomes a pretty large curmudgeon, and the house that he and Ellie had lived in their whole marriage is now in the center of a huge development project.

To save his house, and keep a promise to Ellie that he would make it to Paradise Falls, Carl gets the entire house to fly using balloons. What he doesn't realize, however, is that Russell (Jordan Nagai) is standing on his porch and is forced to take this trip with him.

The rest of the film is Russell and Carl trying to lead the house to the correct spot on Paradise Falls, except they are accompanied by a rare bird and a talking dog named Dug (Bob Peterson).

The dogs are out looking for this rare bird at the instruction of Muntz, who has spent his entire life trying to capture a live one to prove that the bones he found were not fake.

This movie has a lot of heart, and the ending will certainly pull at your heart strings. The movie does have a few laugh-out-loud moments, and Dug is certainly an enjoyable character.

Going in I had heard that this was quite possibly the best Pixar film of the bunch, but I have to say after one viewing that I would rate it somewhere in the middle of the pack. Toy Story to me is still the crowning achievement in Pixar films.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this film a lot, and it still lives up to the Pixar name. But, it isn't the best ever.

Grade:

25 Days: Elf

I must admit that I did laugh out plenty of times last night while watching Will Ferrell as Buddy in Elf.

Buddy is an orphan who climbs into Santa Claus' (Ed Asner) sack one Christmas Eve night and ends up at the North Pole.

Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) raises Buddy as his own - and as an elf - despite his huge size difference to the other elves.

After overhearing a few other elves speak about him being a human, Buddy sets out to New York City to find his birth father, Walter (James Caan).

Buddy, however, despite being about 30 years old still has the mind of a child and is constantly trying to spread Christmas cheer wherever he goes.

The only thing that convinces Walter that Buddy is his child is a blood test - and even then it appears that Buddy is more of a nuisance to him than a son. Walter's other son, Michael (Daniel Tay) is also neglected by his father - who is a bigshot children's book producer.

Buddy also falls for a girl who works at the Gimbels Department Store, Jovie (Zooey Deschanel) - and takes her out on his first ever date, and even gets his first ever kiss.

After interrupting a very important meeting that might cost Walter his job - Walter unleashes on Buddy and throws him out of his office. Buddy decides to leave and on his way sees that Santa's sleigh hs crashed in Central Park.

This is where things get sort of weird for me. I know that a movie only has a short amount of time to tell a story, but when Michael comes to get his father to come help find Buddy - it was an awfully quick turn around for Walter. I mean this man has been married to his job for years, including blowing up at Buddy not a few hours before - and all of a sudden he is a great family man, I don't buy it.

The story itself was rather interesting - Ferrell did a great job as Buddy and I really enjoyed Deschanel as Jovie. I think she is a really underrated actress.

I wasn't as thrilled with Caan's performance but I guess he was going for a Scrooge-like character that all of a sudden catches the Christmas spirit.

A decent film that one can watch each Christmas - but doesn't truly leave a lasting impression.

Grade: