Critics Consensus: Astro Boy Doesn't Quite Soar
Plus, The Vampire's Assistant flunks, Amelia is grounded, and guess Saw VI's Tomatometer!
This week at the movies, we've got an anime hero (Astro Boy, with voice work from Kristen Bell and Nicolas Cage), a vampire war (Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant , starring Chris Massoglia and John C. Reilly), an aviation pioneer (Amelia, starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere), and gore galore (Saw VI, starring Costas Mandylor and Mark Rolston). What do the critics have to say?
Astro Boy
Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy is one of anime's most iconic and venerable characters. Now he's getting the big-screen CGI treatment, and the result, critics say, is an energetic but derivative affair. In the film, Astro Boy is a young robot with super powers who learns, slowly but surely, what it means to be human; he also must protect his new-found friends from danger. The pundits say Astro Boy is a lively and good-looking jaunt, but it also cribs from such legendary kiddie fare as Pinocchio and Wall-E without making a distinctive stamp of its own. (Check out voice actress Kristen Bell's Five Favorite Films here.)
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
Vampires are all the rage these days, so it makes sense that the 12-volume Cirque du Freak book series would be adapted for the silver screen. However, with The Vampire's Assistant, critics aren't exactly hailing the birth of a franchise. Chris Massoglia stars as a young man who mistakenly ends a truce in a 200-year-old vampire war; becoming a half-vampire means "dying" to his friends and family and plunging into the bloodsucking world. The pundits say The Vampire's Assistant is overstuffed and scattershot, uneasily mixing scares and laughs while leaving its characters underdeveloped.
Amelia
As an adventurer, author, and proto-feminist icon, Amelia Earhart maintains a powerful grip on the public's imagination. And Amelia has all the trappings of an award-worthy biopic: it stars Oscar winner Hilary Swank and was directed by the critically acclaimed Mira Nair. Unfortunately, the critics say the film is decidedly earthbound. The film follows Earhart from her early aviation triumphs to her 1937 disappearance over the Pacific Ocean -- and explores her fame and interpersonal relationships as well. The pundits say Amelia takes these compelling raw materials and does little with them, conventionally ticking off Earhart's accomplishments without exploring the soul of the woman.
Saw VI
As with most of the previous entries in the gorehound-fave Saw series, Saw VI has not been screened for critics prior to its release. This latest installment finds Detective Hoffman continuing Jigsaw's legacy of mayhem after framing some poor chump in Saw V. (And don't forget to check out See Saw With Alex, in which RT's own Alex Vo watches all the Saw movies in order.
Also opening this week in limited release:
- The South Korean import Night and Day, about a 40-year-old professor who impulsively flees to Paris for a bohemian existence, is at 100 percent.
- The Wedding Song, about a friendship that crosses religious lines in facist-occupied Tunisia, is at 100 percent.
- Killing Kasztner, a documentary about the still-controversial Hungarian Jew who bargained with the Nazis to rescue more than 1,000 concentration camp inmates, is at 60 percent.
- Ong Bak 2, starring martial arts celeb Tony Jaa as a nobleman on a mission to avenge the murder of his family, is at 53 percent (check out Jaa's Five Favorite Films here).
- Lars Von Trier's controversial Antichrist, starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a grieving married couple on the brink, is at 51 percent.
- (Untitled), an indie comedy about a love triangle amidst New York's hipster art scene, is at 44 percent.
- Motherhood, starring Uma Thurman in a comedy about a stay-at-home mom who writes about her experiences, is at 29 percent.
Finally, props to lancerbird13 and King Kubrick for coming the closest to guessing The Stepfather's 13 percent Tomatometer.
Agustin Macias
Sucky weak for movies.
Oct 22 - 04:35 PM
Agustin Macias
I mean crappy
Oct 22 - 04:36 PM