Get Smart **1/2

Director: Peter Segal
Cast: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway
Alan Arkin, Dwayne Johnson, Terence Stamp, James Caan

Based on the 1960's legendary spy spoof show, this adaptation has Carrell as Maxwell Smart, a top analyst at CONTROL: an ultrasecret USA agency battling KAOS, their evil archenemy which is involved in nuclear arms dealing.
After a sneak attack compromises all the top agents in CONTROL, the Chief (Arkin) promotes Maxwell to field agent and teams him up with the deadly 99 (Hathaway) who at first refuses to work with the inept newbie.
The original series, created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, relied on sophisticated, spoken humor, which sounded better because of Don Adams' droll, ingenious deliveries.
This version chooses to place this in the background and concentrates on explosive action sequences, some of which have nothing to envy of "real" spy/action thrillers.
And while the movie doesn't turn out to be anything spectacular, it still manages to be above your average blockbuster fare if only for the performers.
Carell is the perfect choice for Smart because he has that face which is always stuck between ironic and serious.
He's brilliant at delivering dialogues, which are obviously incoherent to everyone but Maxwell, and in more active scenes his timing is flawless.
Arkin is effortlessly good and Johnson, who's slowly shaking off his wrestler image is satisfying, but the film might as well belong to two actors.
First Dalip Singh, as a Jaws inspired villain with a heart of gold who steals every scene he's in and then Hathaway, who clad in gorgeous Chanel outfits, gives 99 killer comedic timing, unbelievable sex appeal and even a heart!
It's the actors who elevate this in a way no high tech gadget ever could.

Mommie Dearest?

Watching "Mrs. Miniver" today I detected something weird in the way Greer Garson looked at Teresa Wright.

She plays her mother in law and they have a great deal of scenes together talking about how uncertain their men's lives are in WWII, but when the film reaches its dramatic climax I sensed something Alfred Hitchcock would've been proud of.

I don't want to give away the ending to people who haven't seen it, but Garson exuded a total Mrs. Bates aura that was way more creepy than moving.

I dismissed it as me going all Freud on Oscar winning propaganda, but later when I started looking for information about the movie I found out that after filming, Garson married Richard Ney, the actor who played her son in the film and whose character is in love with Teresa Wright's.

Hmmm so maybe I wasn't being that crazy and maybe just maybe Garson and Wright got Oscars for this film because of the uneasy sexual tension that hovers over it as opposed to their delivery of tearjerking dialogues...

Superhero Movie *

Director: Criag Mazin

Cast: Drake Bell, Sara Paxton

Christopher McDonald, Regina Hall, Leslie Nielsen

With the idea that with low budget comes no accountability, "Superhero Movie" is the latest in a series of cheap parodies made with the sole intention of earning a quick buck, disregarding the minimum audience respect in terms of plot coherence.

This time around it pokes fun at superhero, comic book movies by focusing on Rick Riker (a very likeable Bell), the type of geekishly handsome young man that is obviously the school's loser, has a crush on the popular blonde (Paxton) and can never get things right.

After he's bitten by a radioactive dragonfly he becomes known as "The Dragonfly" who appears just in time to stop a crazy villain (McDonald) trying to obtain immortality by absorbing people's energy.

During its short running time the film makes references to "Spider-Man", from which it draws most of its plot from, and both sequels, as well as "X-Men", "Batman Begins" and "Fantastic Four" among others.

It also has the obligatory Britney Spears and Tom Cruise jokes, plus characters played by Leslie Nielsen and Regina Hall, who albeit funny, have started to overstay their welcome from the genre.

And as with most entries in this style, "Superhero Movie" has huge troubles drawing laughter from the audience, mostly because the films it makes fun of have been, almost, consistently good; leaving absolutely no space for you to find ridiculous flaws in them.

Sadly the same can't be said for this one.

Definitely, Maybe **

Director: Adam Brooks
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Abigail Breslin
Isla Fisher, Elizabeth Banks, Rachel Weisz
Kevin Kline, Derek Luke

After learning about sex at school, 10 year old Maya (Breslin) begins to question her father, Will,(Reynolds) about his own experience before her mom.
Slightly surprised by this request Will comes up with the original idea to tell his daughter the story of his life, but changes the names of the women in order for her to guess which is her mom.
Flash back to 1992 when Will is working for Bill Clinton's campaign and the three mother candidates are: Emily (Banks), Will's college sweetheart who is having trouble following his pace, sexy erudite Summer (Weisz) who has a thing for a seasoned writer (Kline) but can't help liking Will and finally April (Fisher) a kooky, free spirit working as copygirl for the campaign.
While original in concept, the film lacks spirit in the execution and before long ends up feeling like the extension of a joke that wasn't so good to begin with.
Sometimes forgetting that it's supposed to feel like a love jigsaw, it tries to cover all the right bases and instead of focusing on something, goes for a "feel good" sense in every single way.
Nobody is dislikeable and the script manages to be condescending without ever feeling selfconscious.
Reynolds makes for a satisfying lead, even if his performance is fueled by inertia more than anything else, since he knows everyone can overact him here, which is why it's the girls who stay with you the most.
Banks' "all American" beauty has a sweet effervescent mood, while Weisz is sexy, intriguing and the most real of the characters.
But leaving the film you will probably have stronger impressions from Fisher who does her best Amy Adams impersonation to become the girl you root for the most and of course Breslin, who unlike other child actresses is able to keep a balance between being a child and a child thinking they can act like an adult, which helps her deliver a performance that goes from "staple cute kid" to fully formed character.
While it's true that revisiting our love histories is a double edged sword, "Definitely, Maybe" has the innocence none of its characters does and is able to remain hopeful amidst a world that constantly tries to remind you hope is practically gone.
Whatever you decide to make out of it, the one unforgivable thing the film does is try to treat you like Maya, when truth is even she knows best...

Kung Fu Panda **1/2

Director: Mark Osborne, John Stevenson

To date, Dreamworks Animation Studios has been characterized by creating films that rely on pop culture references, crass humor, sloppy animation and other than for the green ogre, haven't come up with a real icon to represent them.

"Kung Fu Panda" might be the closest thing they've come so far to creating animation that won't feel irrelevant ten years from now.

Set in a magical Chinese valley it tells the story of Po, a chubby Panda who works in his adoptive father's noodle restaurant. While Po dreams of one day becoming a great kung fu master, his hopes are often shattered by others' misconceptions and his own self esteem which has convinced him that someone with his weight will never succeed.

Things change after tortoise Master Oogway has a premonition revealing that the evil snow leopard Tai Lung will escape prison and return to seek revenge in the valley. The only one able to stop him will be the mysterious Dragon Warrior, a legendary savior whose identity is yet to be revealed.

On the day of the ceremony, the Furious Five - Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Sanke and Crane - a group of brilliant kung fu artists trained by master Shifu, are sure that one of them will be chosen, but to their surprise, and in what becomes one of the film's first attempts at philosophical depth, it's Po who gets chosen as the Dragon Warrior.

After this the plot turns into a rehash of "The Karate Kid" by way of "Hero" as Po must rise to the ocassion and fulfill his destiny.

Briskly paced and with a simple, sweethearted sense of humor, "Kung Fu Panda" shines because of how unpretentious it is. The characters aren't really that memorable, except for the panda who is built as someone we can't help but root for, which in a sense is all the movie really needed to work.

The animation is often breathtaking, especially in the stylized action scenes which seem to defy gravity, but other than this practically nothing else is challenged by the filmmakers.

In a way "Kung Fu Panda" is best described as its main character: something that shouldn't really work, but when it does stil feels as if it's missing something.

Happy Birthday Meryl.

That screen goddess known to us mortals as Meryl Streep turns 59 today.

With a career spanning three decades, two Academy Awards, thirteen other nominations, six Golden Globes, a steady, and extremely intimate and normal, family life and usually regarded as the greatest living actress, Streep probably has nothing to wish for today, does she?

What would you wish for if you were her?

In Bruges ***

Director: Martin McDonagh

Cast: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes

Clémence Poésy, Jordan Prentice, Jérémie Renier, Thekla Reuten

After a job gone bad, hitmen, Ray (Farrell) and Ken (Gleeson) are sent by their boss, Harry Waters (Fiennes), to hide for a while and await further instruction in Bruges, Belgium.

For Ken, the medieval architecture and quaintness of the city comes to indulge his inner history buff, while for the emotionally unstable Ray it becomes a terrenal representation of whatever purgatory must feel like.

Things turn around when Ken receives orders to get rid of Ray, while Ray falls for a seductive drug dealer (Poésy).

Feature length debut by writer/director McDonagh, "In Bruges" is a well done pastiche of comedy, gangster and action that works mostly because of its inspired dialogue which at times is made out of offensive, racist and sexist remarks that somehow fit because of how true they remain to the characters uttering them.

McDonagh's theatrical background is felt throughout the film by the way in which the characters and settings are usually treated as symbols.

While Ray represents the conflicted conscience, Ken brings a sense of weird morality that we should be questioning because of its source and with the somber inclusion of Harry ends up having Shakespearean repercussions.

Influenced by classic noir (watching "Touch of Evil" play in the TV during one scene is enough to put a smile on your face) the movie owes itself to many gems of the cinematic style as much as it does to Tarantino and Scorsese.

Gleeson does a terrific job playing a sensitive mentor, while Fiennes goes into psychotic Amon Goeth mode to deliver a great star turn (his line about why he deserves a "normal gun for normal people" might be the most offensive thing you've heard in your entire life), the real surprise here though is Farrell who does more with his character than you'd ever expect.

While Ray is written as a guy who just killed someone he shouldn't have and has time to flirt and do girls, Farrell gives him a damaged soul that he can't hide despite his lines.

His combination of humor, sadness and humanity is outstanding.

With fast cuts, even faster lines and a droll sense of humor, the plot unfolds before your eyes in an almost surrealistic way which in a way might come from Bruges, which ends up being its most influential character.

The city, which has never gotten cinematic justice, comes to life as a sort of limbo where time has stood still. The Flemish jokes and clichés fly like bullets, but without this sense of timeless dread the hitmen wouldn't really have anything to work with.

It is because of the magic of Bruges that we even care about their problems, its "fairy tale" qualities as they call them, are what makes us believe that people like them deserve to have a second chance.