Elf

Happy Holidays, Everyone! My family celebrates with silly Christmas movies and lots of tissues (because I always get sick).

Santa!!! I know him!

Buddy (Will Ferrell) was adopted by Santa (Ed Asner) after he crawled into his present sack from the orphanage. Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) raises Buddy to be an over-sized elf in the North Pole. As Buddy grows up, his size also grows to be a problem with bedding, toilets, and he can only make 85 Etch-A-Sketches a day (gasp!). Buddy overhears that he isn't just a "special elf"--he's a human. He sets out on a journey to New York to find his father, Walter Hobbs (James Caan), who isn't as nice as gumdrops and sugar plums. Buddy's elfish ways clashes with the rush of New York, but he finds his way to his family and Jovie's (Zooey Deschanel) heart.

Ahh...there's nothing better than watching Elf to get in the Christmas spirit. Its hard not to laugh at the charming Will Ferrel in a hilarious elf costume...in New York City. Buddy brings the child out of everyone; from spinning in revolving doors to stashing free handouts, he is easily a lovable character. Pair him up with Mr. Grumpy Walter Hobbs and Cute Jovie and we have a great Christmas movie. The story is gumdrop-sweet and unbelievable, but what the hey--it's Christmas. Anything can happen.

The Karate Kid

Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) moves to Beijing because his mother's, Sherry (Taraji P. Henson) job. Dre experiences  culture shock and even encounters bullies, such as Cheng (Zhenwei Wang), who is jealous of Dre's smooth [American] moves on Little Miss Mei Ying (Wen Wen Han). After a kung-fu-butt-kicking from the bullies, Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) saves Dre, revealing his own kung-fu prowess. The bullies are instructed by Master Li, who promises that his boys will leave Dre alone if he or Mr. Han fights them. Dre and Mr. Han work together to prepare for the kung-fu tournament using unusual methods for training. No waxing the car, though. Just hanging a coat over and over and over...

Jaden's character was sheet thin--almost invisible. Jaden was able to rely on his cuteness in The Pursuit of Happiness, but that safety net is taken away in the Karate Kid. We learn a little about Mr. Han; we learn a little about Mei Ying, but Dre is just a kid with fancy poses. Actually, everyone was poorly developed. Mr. Han busted out a tragic car crash memory and reminisced for five minutes. His dispute with Master Li was left unfinished by the end of the movie. Dre's mom has a shady job, if she even has a job in Beijing. Mei Ying and Dre's "friendship[?]" was super awkward. What made Mei Ying fall for Dre? Was it his braids or his embarrassing dancing? Who knows...the script called for some romance and that's that. 

Awwkwaard...

The Karate Kid could entertain little children, trapping them with flashy kung-fu, popular music, and cheesy jokes.For everyone else: If you want kung-fu, watch Chinese wuxia. If you want culture shock, watch Lost in Translation or something. If you want child romance, go hide in a corner. 

I'm going to hang up my coat now. I have some bullies that need addressing.

"Attitude!"

The Last Airbender

M. Night Shyamalan sure had us fooled...who knew his true calling was COMEDY? The Last Airbender gave me a few laughs because it was like a spoof video of the show. I showed a clip of the movie to my friend and she thought it was a fanvid.

In the world of Avatar, there are four nations: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. The people in their nation can bend the corresponding element if they're born with the ability. The Avatar is supposed to bring balance to the four nations with his powers (ability to bend all four elements). Katara (Nicola Peltz) and Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) from the water tribe find Aang (Noah Ringer) in an iceberg and free him. They find out that Aang is the Avatar that ran away 100 years ago because he didn't want to be the Avatar (can't have a family) and he got caught in a storm, resulting in getting trapped in the iceberg. Aang is hunted by the Nazi-like Fire Nation, who wants to take over the world with their fire bending with the absence of Aang. Prince Zuko (Dev Patel) is banished to hunt the Avatar in exchange for his fathers acceptance. When the firenation captures Aang, Katara and Sokka decide that it is their "responsibility" to help Aang. They escape with some swoosh swoosh airbending and Aang and his new friends stop by some small Earth kingdom towns to stop the firebenders little by little. He has to learn waterbending as the first step to mastering the elements (he already mastered air) to defeat the evil fire nation.

Oh my goodness! He's bending fire out of nothing! It makes all the other firebenders look like wimps.

People in the theater probably thought I was crazy because I was laughing so much when the scenes were solemn. Aang is only twelve years old, but he acts like his mother beat the childhood out of him or something.   Every single character in Avatar is stripped of his/her personality, which makes the show what it is. There is absolutely no excuse for Shyamalan's suspicious casting. I can act better than Noah Ringer and just use his stunt double to do some cool flips. Nicola Peltz had no emotion. Might as well cast a rock for Katara and invest the money on a better camera (most scenes looked blurry and foggy). Heck, I can write a better script than Shyamalan.
Aang (being a Liberater): "There's earth under your feet!" 
Earthbenders in prison: Really?? Ooh there is!! I can earthbend this earth that has been right under my feet for the past 100 years!
Me: *facepalm*
The bending in the movie reminded me of a video game. Opponent's turn. Fire ball: → O ↓ ↑ X ← Enter. You dodge. Your turn. Rock Throw: ↓ O ↓ ← ← Enter. Opponent defeated. You gain 10 EXP.

← ← ← Run away! Run away!

It takes so long just to move a tiny rock. Why waste your time bending when you could just go up to your opponent and stab them? It would be so much faster. If firebenders need a fire source, why can't everyone put out their stupid campfires? There are so many things in this movie that doesn't make sense. Even though it's a fantasy, Shyamalan's ideas wouldn't even make sense in the Avatar world. I may be a bit biased because I'm a huge fan of the show, but people that don't watch the show have common sense and are probably lost in The Last Airbender's super fast pacing. I can't say that I'm disappointed because I kind of predicted that this would be a bad movie, just not this bad. 1 star for making me laugh sometimes and promoting the show (you should watch that instead). I really hope this isn't a trilogy...

Curious George

In celebration of Jack Johnson's new CD, I'll review Curious George, which has awesome jams by Jack.

Curious George is brought to life (or animation) from H. A. Rey's classic picture books. The colorful illustrations translate well into the film, which stayed faithful to traditional animation (too much 3D definitely would have ruined the movie). Ted, aka the man in the yellow hat (Will Ferrell), works at a museum that is lacking in funds and the only visitors are Miss. Dunlop and her class. The museum's owner, Mr. Bloomsberry (Dick Van Dyke) wants to close the museum to make room for a parking lot that Bloomsberry Junior (David Cross) has always wanted. To save the museum, Ted accidentally volunteers himself to go to the jungle to search for the giant lost shrine of Zagawa. Junior is jealous of Ted being the "favorite child" (even though Ted isn't even Bloomsbery's son), so he misleads Ted from the Zagawa shrine. But then again, Ted is no adventurer, so he probably would get lost without Junior's help anyways. Instead of finding the lost shrine of Zagawa, a real monkey follows Ted back to the city. Mr. Bloomsberry got the city hyped up about the monkey shrine, so Ted and George has to somehow recreate the shrine or tell the truth. They work together to try stall and think of ways to fix the shrine problem. Instead, they end up on tons of adventures: George's hologram terrorizes the city King-Kong-style, they tour the city with balloons, and they get tons laughs because they're just being silly.

Ivan the not-so-Terrible returns!

Curious George surprised me. I watched it with my little sister, thinking that it was a children's movie like Clifford the Big Red Dog, but it wasn't boring at all. This movie really entertained me. The animation was minimalist, which was fitting for this movie. All of the voice acting was perfect and very comical at times. The dialogue is hilarious, especially with Will Ferrell, and there are so many funny quotes that I got out of it. George, my personal favorite, was super cute. George is the reason why kids ask for pet monkeys for Christmas. Sometimes, there are breaks with the natural laws of physics, but that's the great thing about being a kid. Everything's possible. This film makes me feel like I'm eight years old again. Kids, tell your parents that balloon travel is possible and stop analyzing it. There's some speculation that the "frightening" abandonment in the movie would scar the kids, but seriously, those people should get potty trained and suck it up. Everything doesn't need to be sugar-coated. That's why obesity is a growing problem.

Curious George hangin' with his buddy, Jack Johnson

How to Train Your Dragon

Ok, Dreamworks is no Pixar, but this was a pretty cute movie. The storyline is a little cliché: Hiccup is expected to slay dragons to save his village from the sheep-stealing, house-burning pests. Oh, and did I mention his father is a dragon slayer beast! and the chief of the village. Hiccup's physique isn't quite right for swinging hammers around, so he relies on his engineering to capture dragons instead. Hiccup captures and befriends a Night Fury dragon and names it Toothless. He realizes that dragons aren't the vicious monsters that everyone thinks they are and uses all of the knowledge he learns about dragons to tame them during Dragon training. Actually, the dragons act very much like giant pet cats. Hiccup tells his father and saves the village, blah blah blah. Dragons and Vikings become best friends, but the ending isn't as happily-ever-after as Barbie and Kent. They really went for it, took a risk (I don't want to spoil it), and it paid off.

Love the voice acting (McLovin!), but America Ferrera's voice didn't quite fit Astrid's tough heroine character. Hiccup and Toothless stole the show with their chemistry (which seemed stronger than Astrid and Hiccups). I don't mean to be hating on Astrid, but her sudden change of heart towards dragons and Hiccup seemed unreal. How to Train Your Dragon wasn't as funny as the Shrek movies, but it got me chuckling a couple of times. It was filled with lots of video-game-type action and beautiful flying scenes that reminded me of Avatar--huge complement right there. It's a great family movie, but kids would probably complain about the ending (good luck trying to explain why happy sunshine endings just don't work sometimes).