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MONSTERS VS ALIENS (U) 94min 0..
As with the cheerfully vacuous Bolt, Monsters vs Aliens exemplifies the virtues of today’s 30 cinema - eye-popping to watch, leavened with self- referential humour that makes it easy to digest, but also playing things so painstakingly sale that any resonance evaporates the moment the end- credits roll.
The monsters imagined here are a motley crew of freaks and losers based on archetypes of 1950's sci-ti cinema including The Blob, The Fly and The Creature From The Black Lagoon, namely a blob called BOB (voiced by Seth Rogan), Dr Cockroach (Hugh Laurie) and a reptile/man called The Missing Link (Will Arnett). Into the monsters’ top secret facility comes Susan Murphy (Reece Witherspoon), whose proximity to a fallen meteorite has raised her to just one foot short of a statuesque 50 foot woman, and hence the name Ginormica.
Together with her fellow outcasts, Ginormica soon finds herself pressed into service as mankind’s last hope in a war against the aliens, with ruler Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) fielding a variety of interstellar weapons ranging from a huge one-eyed robot to 3 Heath Robinson-style cloning machine capable of creating an army of little Gallaxhars.
The question eventually posed by Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon in their accomplished animation is: can the self-doubting but individualist team of monsters overcome the self-confident, mass-produced aliens? With such a meaningless yet potentially entertaining premise, the creators lash out with a barrage of quick-fire gags, which recall the irreverent heyday of Tex Avery. These range from Bob the Blob’s faltering romance with a jelly on a dessert tray to an elaborate parody of the climax of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with the US president (Stephen Colbert) attempting to make first contact by playing a funked-up version of Harold Faltermayer’s Alex F theme. (Eddie Harrison)
I General IU/(XISU from Fri (9 Apr.
URI-«hulk; TONY MANERO (18) 97min 0000
As any sell-respecting Saturdth Night Fever fan will tell you. Tony Maneio is the name of the white suit-wearing dancer who made John Travolta a b, word tor cool The premise of Pablo Larrain's sophomore iilovie is like a disco nightmare. It's 1978 ll‘. Chile and 550 something Raul Peralta lAllredo Castro) spends his time watching John Badhaiii's 19/7 classic film and dreams of one day Winning a Manero lookalike contest. As in Harmony Korine's Highland-set Mr I one/y, the protagonists desire to be a doppelganger is used as a metaphor tor identity crisis and alienation.
Larraiii's sophisticated and macabre film has more depth and insight than Korine's. and Peralta's infatuation With Manero is portrayed as analogous to that of the South American country. where at the time. the recently installed dictator General Pinochet had begun to embrace American style capitalism. The fear and confusion that state of affairs caused amongst everyday Chileans is shown through Peralta's depraVIty and sinister criminal turn.
For all the images of Travolta strutting his stutt, it's not Saturday Night Fever that's the touchstone here for director Larrarn, for this unsettling little film has far more in common With the tales of masculine alienation as depicted by Martin Scorsese in Tim Driver and Sam Peckinpah in Straw Dogs. (Kaleem Aftab)
I Selected release from Fri 70 Apr See profile, page 45.
FANTASY'ADVENTURE
RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN
(PG) 98min 0..
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Dragonball: Evolution (PG) 83min . Ptitx'llt‘ (IUIKVLKKI tilrii \eisuun o‘ the Japanese inanga pheriomem l‘. This u'ieap lookzng
titlllillcl‘lt‘x t‘u :tl'lt'x‘it‘kl {W ti Desfiruitiw‘ :le Jan‘es \‘io'g in, ilisapt xtll‘i, tarts ,tll') i‘iesa‘oir‘ers alke Justin llhatwilp klhav. \piii 'a'. an) Asian A'neriga" a'to's J.» t" Park and Jaii‘ie Chung star (Altlfltytl/ 'tli’thtfil) "NIP Vit’ll' C" "A”, 17 Again (PG) 102mm 000 Better than gall might expet‘t agle 'exersal (itll'rlt‘lI, x'i What a nor. tiustrated and middle aged ti lll'ilt‘l teenage pregnant“, dad 'Matthi-w Perry gets another tflldlltit' when. he is transformed back to his ‘i,' year old self [ac t'tron [)li'tétll’l' Burr lgbi Goes Down Steers intelligent direction and Jason F-ilardi's detent screenplay helps avoid iriany ot the usual pitfalls General release tron: lri to Apr Fast & Furious (15) 107mm
00 This is actually lhe last and the lurious‘ .1 but it's the tirst one that Vin Diesel has agreed to be in since the original because the screenplay met With his approval (must have been good theni Actually this is lust an upgrade ot the original film With almost the same plot and cast and a higher budget, This is more of a rebirth than a seguel ~- hence the new abbrewated title. Stars Diesel and Paul Walker's acting prowess does. however, seem to have improved in the intervening years. General release from Fri 70 Apr.
The 400 Blows (PG) 100min 00.0. Francois Truffaut's delightful 1959 debut in a lovely new print. the first of a series of films about Parisian rapscallioii Antoine Doinel lJean-Pierre Leaud). The best film showmg anywhere this fortnight. Film/louse. Edinburgh, Fri IO—Tliu 23 Apr.
Director Andy Fickman lShe's the Man. The Game Plan) reVIves one of Disney's most venerable properties by pimping out 1975 ‘alien kid' adventure Escape to Witch Mountain as a high—concept vehicle for the studio's current star Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock. Fickman and Johnson scored a notable tairiily hit wrth comedy The Game Plan, and the wrestling star has a tailor-made role here as Jack Bruno. a good-natured Las Vegas taXi-driver who finds two unearthly children teleported into the back of his cab. Po-faced extra-terrestrials Sara lAnnaSophia Robb) and Seth (Alexander LudWig) immediately attract the unwanted attentions of black swted FBI-man Henry Burke (Claran Hinds), and the kids' magical powers convmce Bruno to help them escape to their secret
rendezvous at Witch Mountain.
Less cheesy than might have be expected. Race to Witch Mountain is a solid. briskly told. if somewhat blandly exeCUted time-passer. making up in speed and slick production values what it lacks in character. The original Witch Mountain kids. Ike Eisenmann and Kim Richards turn up in extended cameo roles as a small town sheriff and his Sympathetic pal. reflecting Finkman's attention to the Original concept's detail which should please kids and nostalgic parents alike.
(Eddie Harrison) I General release, Fri 70 Apr.
2—76 Apr 2909 THE LIST 47