Saturday, Sep. 19, 2009

Forecast calls for a great family movie

By Gary Wolcott, special to the Herald

The title alone tickles the taste buds. Flint Lockwood is the geekiest of geeks, an inventor of a machine that makes food out of water. A slight snafu sends his machine into orbit above his Georgia island town of Swallow Falls. Pretty soon it's raining food and temporary meteorologist Sam Sparks is the hit of a weather channel.

When it rains hamburgers and other appetizers Sam feeds us pun-lover delights like: "We all love a meteor shower but you've never seen a meatier shower than this."

More mouthwatering puns, sight gags and jokes follow.

The best bits are before things go terribly wrong but not much goes wrong with the animated version of Judi and Ron Barrett's popular 1978 children's book. The movie comes in two flavors, 2-D and three. Dine on the 3-D if you can. Unlike most three-dimensional productions it enhances the story and the excellent animation but doesn't overwhelm them.

While catering to kids, parents will also find the film's brain-cuisine worth adding to their entertainment menu.

Love Happens

Aaron Eckhart's (The Dark Knight) Burke Ryan wrote the best-seller A-Okay to ease the pain of the death of his beloved wife three years before. He gives seminars to help others unable to deal with the loss of a loved one.

Love Happens is about grief. Not love. It gets tossed into the plot as a catalyst for the grief guru to finally deal with his. Jennifer Aniston, whose acting skills are largely unappreciated, is added as a love interest to fill seats with chick flick fans fooled by the title into thinking it is a love story. Ryan reaches out to a floral shop owner played by Aniston. She becomes the catalyst for Ryan's much-needed catharsis.

The love story isn't as powerful or as interesting as the emotion-packed grief encounters done with just a sprinkling of melodrama by writer/director Brandon Camp and his co-writer Mike Thompson. Their three-hanky ending is spoiled by an inability to resist the temptation to neatly wrap-up the love story.

That's grief of a different kind.

The Informant

Corporate espionage is serious business. The same goes for price-fixing and embezzlement. Consumers get creamed, shareholders are scammed and everyone loses. When Hollywood tackles the topic, comedy and comic consequences usually aren't part of the formula. Steven Soderbergh's The Informant changes the recipe.

Based on a true story, Matt Damon packs on an extra 30 pounds and gives a heavyweight performance as corporate tattletale Mark Whitacre. He rats out his company to the FBI for price-fixing. Whitacre has a light bulb or two missing in the chandelier and while trying to help his FBI compadres seal an indictment he mugs for the hidden camera and can't keep his mouth shut about what he's doing.

Damon's performance is pure Pinocchio and lets him show off until now unknown and unseen acting chops. Each lie tops the last and each revelation more outrageous. Damon delivers them all with flawless mock-seriousness and precise comic timing.

Jennifer's Body

Forget Jennifer's body. This is all about Megan's body. That's Megan as in Fox, tabloid charmer and former Transformers leading lady. She now has a movie of her own and shows off her ... uh ... considerable skills. None of them are acting.

Fox's Jennifer is a vampire. It's not her fault. Things happen. Everybody should just understand. Her best friend is Needy in name and nature. Needy wants to save Jennifer from Jennifer but that's not possible. Tragic teen horror movie death and angst follow. So does the much-publicized uncomfortable mouth-to-mouth, tongue-to-tongue make out scene with co-star Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia).

Fox's assets are physical. That makes the casting rather canny. Hollywood's new favorite vamp as a vamp and a vampire is the perfect pick. And Fox, whose prospects for movie star longevity is within a decimal point or two of zero, makes the most of it. She preens and prances, slinks and sashays and does "I'm so hot and I know it" better than anybody and shows almost everything to her second love: the camera.

She leaves no doubt her first is a full-length mirror.

◗ For an expanded review or to comment on these movies go to Mr. Movie's blog at: www.tricityherald.com/arts/mrmovie.