Movie Reviews #14…
Tomorrowland. Dir. Brad Bird. I guess many reviewers (Sandy Keenan, ABC News; A. O. Scott, NY Times; Stephen Whitty, NJ Star Ledger; Justin Chang, Variety; Christopher Orr, The Atlantic; and others) won’t be receiving one of those little medallions for being a genius! Clearly they didn’t understand this film. It’s very Clooneyesque: there can be a bright future for the human race if we only get off our butts, get our act together, and do something about making it happen. That’s the important message these reviewers missed.
Clooney does a fine acting job too as the old geek Frank, a super-MacGyver who screwed up a few things along the way. Hugh Laurie tries to shrug off his Dr. House role and does a good job as the evil Gov. Nix. The child actors are fine too (Thomas Robinson as young Frank, Britt Robertson as Casey Newton, and Raffey Cassidy as Athena the Android), but I had trouble understanding Raffey at times and Britt was a bit too histrionic.
There’s a lot of meaning in this PG movie—I just might have to see it again. For those who thrive on visual and sci-fi action thrills, there are lots of that too. Some violence and mayhem, but it’s done only to robots. You can take your kids too, but smart adults will glean a lot more from the story (reviewers mentioned above are obviously exceptions, but what do they know?). A+ for this one.
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared. Dir. Felix Herngren. This Swedish film (English subtitles) is based on the novel by the same name by Jonas Jonasson. I never bought this popular ebook—it’s too expensive. Probably no loss because the movie was excellent. Robert Gustafsson does a fantastic job of playing Allan Karlsson, a man obsessed with blowing things up.
The movie is a road trip about four weird characters—two old guys, a young misfit with tons of college credits, and a woman with a pet elephant (yeah, Jumbo is on the road trip too)—plus multiple and extensive flashbacks about how Allan has changed the world. Everybody comparing it to Forest Gump is doing it a disservice—it’s much better! Hollywood should make comedies like this instead of crap like Hot Pursuit and Paul Blart, Mall Cop. (Humor authors should learn a few things from Jonasson too.) Lots of dark humor in this one as well as historical commentary.
I haven’t had this much fun in a movie for quite a while, starting with the title. It’s rated R. I guess Disney can blow up robots (see above), but the Swedes can’t blow up anything because Nobel was a Swede? Another A+, unless you have an absolute phobia toward subtitles.
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In elibris libertas….
June 1st, 2015 at 11:47 am
We saw TOMORROWLAND over the weekend, and I agree with your review. Not the best movie I ever saw, but it had some positives that went beyond the movie. I’m glad to see that you said what I saw — a movie that is very positive about the future and celebratory of science and intellect. One comment I have about the violence: the robots vaporized the (human) cops pretty indiscriminately — I wonder if that was the reason for the PG rating? We were talking about it at home and I said that I didn’t see much reason for a PG other than that.
My kids both loved it; from their reactions I would say my older one liked it a little more than the younger one. He loved the idea of a city where scientists are creating wondrous stuff. It is one of the things we love about Disney — ol’ Walt always had that “if you can dream it you can do it” attitude. It’s a positive, inspired attitude that I encourage my kids to have as much as possible. Great message, fun movie!
June 1st, 2015 at 11:49 am
(guess my first comment is in spam heaven.)
Just one more comment: I believed Britt Robertson as a high school student, but I looked up her age and she’s 25! Hardly a child actress! 🙂
June 1st, 2015 at 1:24 pm
Hi Scott,
Yep. Checked spam and saved your lost comment. 😉
Didn’t remember the robot-on-human violence, but I remembered the two in the pawn shop doing down.
Funny thing about Walt. He was born only a few miles from where my father was born. They both had creative artistic ability, and both went to CA, but my father thought he could never feed a family as an artist. One man seeks his dream, another doesn’t. That Robert Frost fork in the road.
You’ll have more fun with The Hundred-Year-Old Man…. Maybe not for kids, though. I’m not sure they’d understand all the historical references either.
Grownups often play kids. Remember Michael J. Fox? And that Ferris Bueller guy? Britt definitely screams like a teenager, though.
r/Steve
June 2nd, 2015 at 10:39 am
The reason I looked her up was because I wasn’t aware of her in other productions and I assumed she was about 18. She played 16+ (I don’t know exactly how old she was supposed to be in the film) very well. As far as the robots killing humans, it was outside that Blast from the Past shop. The robots got out of their cars with their creepy smiles and shot the cops.
Was your father born in Chicago also?
I’ll try to catch Hundred-Year-Old Man. Sounded interesting from your review!
June 2nd, 2015 at 11:13 am
My bad about Disney’s birthplace. His family owned a farm in Marceline, Missouri, though, which might explain some of my family folklore. Lots of German and Irish farmers around the area at that time, but thanks for the correction. My father was born in Americus, Kansas, and went to school in Topeka.
Ah, yes, there was one android with a creepy smile that haunted our heroes. You’re speaking to that bad-fake-Feds-taking-down-local cops scene. Pretty tame androids, though, compared to Blade Runner.
Saw the 92-year-old woman finish the marathon and thought, “She should meet that hundred-year-old man.” 🙂
June 3rd, 2015 at 11:55 am
True, I didn’t really mean it as a correction, just that it was interesting that your dad was born in Chicago. But yeah, I think the Disney family moved when Walt was really young to Marceline. Supposedly Main Street, USA at Disneyland and Magic Kingdom is modeled on (Walt’s recollection of) the main street of Marceline. I’d guess that Walt considered that to be his real hometown. As an aside, the house where Walt was born in Chicago was recently up for sale. I knew some Disney folks who were trying to put together a consortium to buy it (I think it was all a joke, because the pledges were mostly of the twenty buck amount and were usually accompanied by a winky face or something). Don’t know what the fate of that house was. I’d look it up, but I already have a patient waiting as I type this…:-)
June 3rd, 2015 at 12:31 pm
I took it as a correction, though…to the family folklore…memories of Dad wanting more time to paint and invoking Disney’s name. He and Mom did go to CA, though. That’s why I have a love for ethnic food! I spent a summer on my grandfather’s farm in KS, and the vittles were very Americana…bacon or sausage and eggs with biscuits at 5 a.m.!
Dad was a character. Disney never had three pro boxing matches….
r/Steve