The Addams Family (2019)

I was worried that this version of the longtime satirical weirdos would be defanged by being a film made with a children’s audience in mind. I need not have been worried. This animated installment of the franchise doesn’t rise to the levels of the earlier, live-action films from the early ‘90s—still classics of the dark humor genre to my mind—but it delivers enough genuine laughs that anyone can feel comfortable with this version of the characters. The standout, as usual, is Wednesday; she seems to be the character the whole concept revolves around, and as such all the best moments belong to her and her story. There are some faults; the humor could be a bit more dry and droll in places, and a few musical choices could be better. (Honestly, does every even vaguely creative work now need to be drenched in rap music?) Plus, the denouement is a bit timid, probably due to the family nature of the target audience; you’d like to see the villain hit a little harder in the end, but ... you know, the kids. Still, there’s enough to like here that the flaws can be overlooked. It may not be a total snap, but this is at least a song that’s catchy enough.

Bolt

Another surprise. A relatively simple tale that takes some cues from movies such as The Matrix--or is it The Muttrix?--and The Incredible Journey turns out to be an insightful, funny and occasionally even moving story about a girl and her dog...and, oh by the way, Hollywood, which the film both admires and skewers at the same time and with equal amounts of feeling. Anyone who has ever had a pet can’t help but feel the tug of this picture's underlying story of a companion lost, so it’s no wonder the film would hit home with its audience. Add on to that foundation a clever script, strong vocal performances, and a major upgrade to the studio’s digital animation output (by this point Disney finally learned a thing or two from their Pixar cousins) and you wind up with a movie that probably deserves way more love than it seems to have gotten in its day and subsequently. Ironic though it may be, this is one movie about a dog that earns a long, loud PURR.

Tom and Jerry

Watching Tom and Jerry cartoons has been like looking at one of those evolution charts, except the animals in the line have been devolving. For T&J cartoons, this flick represents the return to primordial ooze, a dive to rock bottom for what were once the stars of animated classics but are now just hopeless studio "property" items that exist only to be brutally commodified to exploit whatever good feelings remain out there for what once was. In other words, this is a dreadful film. I knew it was going to be awful from the moment I saw the hip-hop rapping pigeon--sadly, I kid you not--in the opening sequence. It gets no better from there. The "music" throughout is awful, designed to appeal only to the absolute lowest common denominator of Generation AA; the live action performances range from mostly bland to downright awful--Michael Pena particularly shames himself--and even the cartoon bits, many shamelessly pilfered from the best of the old cartoon shorts, come across as tired and lame. This is a sad spectacle if you can remember how great the original run of Tom and Jerry cartoons were back in the day--but then, that's the point of this: it's designed to appeal to people who can't remember the app they downloaded yesterday. Personally, I'd rather have the memories than more of garbage like this. Nuff said.

(500) Days of Summer

The biggest star in this movie is neither Joseph Gordon-Levitt nor Zooey Deschanel--it's honesty, perhaps to a fault. So much of what's in here rings true, regarding romantic relationships (as far as I would know), that this flick sticks out like a sore thumb in the rom-com landscape. You can make minor quibbles about certain aspects of the story--people that young generally don't like music that old; one suspects the source material could have been updated--but this story, including its denouement, feels right; this really is how it goes in the world. Given cinema's habit of selling the fantasy, the vision presented here actually comes across as refreshing.

Kick-Ass 2

Lighten up, Jim. Yes, this is an extremely violent movie, but given the story it tells it could hardly be otherwise. In fact, I'll take this in your face violence over the sanitized, inconsequential violence we've been fed in so many Stallone or Schwarzenegger movies. The real problem here is not the graphic nature of the action, but the lack of freshness in the overall work. Such shortcomings are inevitable, perhaps, in a sequel like this, when the original was so fresh and...yes...original. What pulls this one through is the characters; we like and believe in Kick-Ass and Hit Girl, and want them to come out on top, whatever fight they're in. Just relax and let this one be what it is, and you'll have some fun watching it.

Dark Shadows

I don’t know; this Depp-Burton thing may have run its course. Not to say that this is a bad movie, but at certain points in this picture you get the impression that maybe someone else, singly or in a pair, could have brought something better to this revision of the old TV show. There are good moments here, some nice satire of the period (a good idea not to set the action in current times), but by the end the filmmakers have gone overboard; a little too much trying, not enough just leaving it alone and letting it be. You want to applaud effort, but not so much effort that it gets in the way.

Hugo

Martin Scorsese finally discovers subtlety. It's worth noting, perhaps, that if even one of the characters in this movie had simply told the honest truth from the beginning, much trouble could have been averted. Then again, we wouldn't have had much of a movie. And this is much of a movie: a wonderful, deeply involving--at times riveting--story about life, hope, and redemption that also makes a powerful case for the director's pet passion of film preservation. The film's look is gorgeous; the 3D aspects, even in a 2D presentation, never overwhelm the storytelling. And pitch perfect performances from the terrific cast (even from Sacha Baron Cohen's almost over the top station inspector) bring the story alive and make for a deeply affecting movie experience. A must see.