filmland / By Charlie Myers

Hyped Up

Yeah, you heard me: Pixar’s latest is no great shakes

(June 4, 2009) Previews

If you’re looking for something other than brain-dead film fare this coming weekend, visit a local video rental store. Opening Friday, June 5, is The Hangover, a comedy directed by Todd Phillips (School for Scoundrels) about, as the title suggests, a wild bachelor party in Vegas wherein one of the celebrants fails to appear in the morning. Surprisingly, the alcohol-soaked brains of the other bingers can’t remember what happened the night before. What a novel and promising premise. Rated R for pervasive language, sexual content including nudity, and some drug material. 100m. At the Broadway, Mill Creek, Minor and Fortuna.

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If that doesn’t float your boat, there’s Will Ferrell in another alleged comedy, Land of the Lost, based loosely on the 1974 children’s TV series. It seems “scientist” Rick Marshall (Ferrell) is sucked (the scientific term) into a space-time vortex and ends up in an alternate universe populated by such strange creatures as dinosaurs. Marshall is hopelessly clueless, but luckily a redneck and a cute, brainy research assistant named Holly (Anna Friel, Pushing Up Daisies) are sucked along with him. As of 2 p.m. June 1, Ferrell doesn’t make the cast list in IMDB. What do they know that I don’t? Look for Leonard Nimoy. Boy, am I missing Portland. Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, and for language including a drug reference. 93m. At the Broadway, Mill Creek and Fortuna.

Reviews

UP. As I was about to undertake one of my relatively infrequent visits to an animated film, I was heartened by the almost universally positive reviews. Entertainment Weekly actually gave the film an “A” and I was sure its critic would never steer me wrong even if the magazine seems aimed at somewhat immature 20-somethings. Unfortunately, I believe I have been spoiled by such truly superior fare as Ratatouille, a nicely animated film that actually has an interesting story for adults while still appealing to a younger audience.

Pixar/Walt Disney did manage to produce its usual superior animated images (I saw the 2-D version), but the other qualities seemed sadly lacking. I can’t speak for the under-10 audience, but this curmudgeonly geezer found little of interest in the one-dimensional characters or the narrative development.

It is not, however, totally without redeeming qualities. As often happens, the premise of the film is more interesting than its fleshing-out. The opening expository section of the film focuses on Carl Fredricksen, a young boy who dreams of following in the footsteps of explorer Charles Muntz (voiced by Christopher Plummer), even after Muntz is disgraced by accusations of faking a discovery in South America. In quick succession, the viewer watches Carl (Edward Asner) age. He marries his childhood sweetheart, Ellie, who has the same dream as Carl: to go to Paradise Falls in South America and build a house there.

Unluckily, reality continually frustrates their dream and eventually Ellie dies. Carl’s sadness and loneliness becomes frustration and anger when a huge construction site surrounds his house, and he dismisses the attempt of a young explorer scout named Russell (Jordan Nagai) to help him, a task that would earn Russell his final merit badge. The final straw comes when Carl is sentenced to be put in a retirement home. Having once sold balloons at the local zoo, he conceives the idea of tying his house to a huge number of helium balloons. When the retirement home people arrive he releases the balloons and, in one of the film’s finest moments, his house breaks away from its foundation and floats away, along with the unexpected stowaway Russell.

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