MotionPicturesComics.com » 2009

Raiders of the Lost Ark & The Dark Knight

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Girls Just Want to Have Fun & Little Miss Sunshine

The Sandlot

From the DVD Shelf: Josh Reviews Once (2006)
December 22, 2009
Category: Movie Reviews

I finally signed up for Netflix, and my first selection was quite a winner: the small Irish film Once.

This is an extraordinarily delightful film, exactly the kind of unique little movie with a voice all its own that I love to be surprised by. I’d read about the film when it got some acclaim on the festival circuit a few years back, and I remembered the endearing Oscar acceptance speech by it’s two lead actors/musicians. But I went into the film knowing almost nothing else about it, only to immediately find myself quite taken with the film as the story unfolded.

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova play the leads, whose names are never given. He’s a guitar player who plays his music on a street corner in Dublin when not working in his father’s vacuum cleaner repair shop. His music is brilliant, but he seems stuck in a rut and having trouble getting over a relationship that apparently ended poorly. She cleans houses and sells roses on the street, and lives in a small apartment with her mother and daughter. She’s married, but apparently on poor terms with her husband who lives elsewhere. It also turns out that she is an extraordinary musician herself, but she has little avenue for artistic expression. She hears Glen Hansard’s character perform on the street one day, and the two strike up a friendship that turns into a musical collaboration.

I am an avowed hater of “chick flicks,” but that doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy films with deep emotion. Quite the contrary: I absolutely love being swept away by the emotions of a film with heart. I just can’t stand films that are filled with manipulative schmaltz, or paint-by-numbers plots that lead to simplistic happy endings.

I can imagine someone reading my above description of the plot and thinking that they know for sure how the story of this man and woman will unfold, but trust me, Once is anything but a typical romantic film.

The film consistently avoids taking the usual narrative path. (With one tiny exception: The filmmakers did include a scene where a bored technician/producer dismisses their music but then comes around after hearing one song. After seeing John Michael Higgins absolutely eviscerate that exact type of cliche scene in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, I can never again watch that familiar scenario unfold without a laugh.) OK, but other than that I was extremely pleased to see the film avoid all the usual DRAMATIC with a capital “d” moments and predictable complications that one might expect to see in this type of film.

Which is not to say that the film is not extremely romantic. I defy you not to be captivated by the connection that gradually builds between these two, formed by the music that they enjoy and then create together. There is a scene in which she brings him to a music shop where she’s able to use one of their unsold pianos to play. At her urging, he begins to play her one of his songs on guitar, and he helps her pick up the main chords on piano. Gradually the two begin to sing together — tentatively at first, then they both find themselves pulled into the song. It is a magnificent, beautiful sequence, and a stand-out moment in the film that has stuck with me ever since seeing it.

I am not a musician, so I don’t really feel qualified to discuss the music in the film, but I can tell you that this film is FILLED with music — much of it written and performed by Glen and Marketa — and it is absolutely wonderful. In the special features on the DVD, writer/director Jon Carney talks about how his script for the film was very short, as he wanted the story to be told primarily through music. He was wildly successful. One of the special features on the DVD is titled “A Modern Day Musical” and covers the music of the film. It’s funny — until I got to that featurette, I never thought of the movie as a musical. But of course it is, in that that so much of the story is told through the music being played and sung by the two main characters. But the music is so seamlessly integrated into the story, I didn’t even notice! Once doesn’t feel like any musical I’ve ever seen, in which every few minutes everyone bursts into song. Because so much of Once is about the struggle to create music, every song we hear over the course of the film feels totally natural and integral to the story.

I should also add that the songs are terrific. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are both phenomenal musicians. I am also happy to report that, although neither one had ever acted before, they are both fine actors. In the DVD special features, Mr. Carney talks a lot about the lengths he went to in order to make the two of them comfortable so that they would be able to act in a real, naturalistic way. Again, he succeeded wildly in his efforts. It certainly helps that much of the film is pulled from Glen & Marketa’s pre-existing friendship, and their own music, but still one should not dismiss their fine performances. I don’t think you’d have to look too far to find examples of someone trying to be him or herself on camera and winding up looking stiff and fake.

Once is a terrific film — I’m so happy to have seen it, and I highly recommend it to all of you!

Josh reviews Avatar!
December 21, 2009
Category: James Cameron Movie Reviews

An indeterminate number of years in the future, mankind has ravaged the Earth and is forced to turn to alternative sources of energy. By far the best is the ore nicknamed “unobtanium” (talk about a macguffin) that has been discovered on the alien world called Pandora. Unfortunately, Pandora is home to a bunch of pesky natives, the Na’vi, who don’t take kindly to the shiploads of humans arriving on their planet with their giant bulldozers. So the company supervising the mining sub-contracts the Marines to protect their workers and, of necessary, destroy any belligerent Na’vi.

But some scientists, lead by Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), would prefer to find a diplomatic solution to the escalating violence with the Na’vi. As such, they have constructed artificial Na’vi avatars — fully lifelike and functional Na’vi bodies that can be controlled by a human mind. The idea is that these Avatars will be able to assimilate into the Na’vi culture better than a human ever could — learning about them, and hopefully eventually being able to reach an understanding with them. Tom Sully was one of the highly-trained humans who had been preparing to control an Avatar, but when he is killed, the company must turn to his twin brother, Jake. (Since the Avatars are apparently created specifically to match the genetics of their individual human controller, only Jake can substitute for his brother.) Jake, a Marine who has lost the use of his legs, is excited by the chance to be useful again, and even more overwhelmed by the sensations of controlling a Na’vi body, through which he can at last walk (not to mention run, jump, etc.). Things get even better for Jake when the mutilated Colonel Quaritch, who supervises the Marines on Pandora, approaches Jake with an offer: if Jake will feed him all the tactical information he gains about the Na’vi during his Avatar’s time amongst them (which the Colonel can use to wipe the Na’vi out once and for all), the Colonel will see that the military pays for the expensive medical procedures necessary to restore Jake’s legs.

Of course, once Jake’s Avatar actually gets accepted into Na’vi society, things become a lot more complicated, morally, for Jake, and he finds himself caught between two societies that are rapidly heading for a collision.

Avatar brings with it an enormous amount of hype and expectation — almost more than any movie could possibly live up to. It’s the first narrative feature film from Director James Cameron since the extraordinary success of Titanic back in 1997. Mr. Cameron has directed some of the most influential sci-fi films ever made (and also some of the very best): Aliens, Terminator, T2, The Abyss, and also the terrific True Lies, and as we all know, Titanic shattered worldwide box-office records and became something of a cultural phenomenon. For the past decade Mr. Cameron has been working on developing new technologies and entirely new approaches to film-making (involving extensive motion capture of his actors, the creation of 3-D environments, etc.). Avatar is being seen by some as a movie that will change movie-making forever.

No surprise, Avatar doesn’t quite live up to that billing. But if you take away the expectation and the build-up engendered by the decade-long wait, you are still left with a very solid, entertaining action-adventure film with a bit more on its mind than just sci-fi shoot-’em-ups.

The story is a familiar one — white man goes native, and begins to see his own culture differently and question his previously-held values — and that hinders Avatar from feeling like a completely revolutionary movie-going experience. I’d wager that thirty minutes into the film, most movie-goers will have a pretty decent idea as to how the story is going to play out. That’s not to say the story is BAD — quite the contrary. Cameron has always done a good job at taking familiar narrative beats and character types and bringing fresh life to them, and he does a decent job of that here. No character feels like a cypher who you forget the film is over — even the supporting characters with limited screen-time feel like people(or Na’vi) who you understand and believe. And while the broad strokes of the story are familiar, the sci-fi wrappings of the story are fresh, and the framework allows Mr. Cameron to make a number of comments about environmentalism and the dangers of losing sight of one’s values in a war on terror. Granted, none of these morals feel revelatory or particularly complex, but I’m happy to see that Mr. Cameron had more on his mind than just shiny special effects.

Speaking of shiny special effects, though, I saw Avatar in Imax 3-D, which is without question the best way to view Mr. Cameron’s creation. To state that the visual effects are absolutely extraordinary would be to short-change them. The scale of the film is jaw-droppingly vast, whether we’re seeing the interiors of the space-ship that brought Jake and his fellow complement of Marines to Pandora or marveling at the gorgeous vistas of Pandora’s lush jungles and bizarre, floating mountains. Every environment to which we’re introduced has been realized in enormous detail and brought to life by the CGI effects in a way far beyond what could ever have been accomplished by more traditional methods of camera tricks, matte paintings, or model work, and also far beyond even the best CGI effects of the past twenty years. The space-ship effects are cool, but it is the world of Pandora that is the real achievement. I’ve seen alien jungles in sci-fi films before, and they always look like either a) a set, or b) an actual jungle on Earth with just a few weird prop plants thrown in. But Mr. Cameron and his team have created a fully-realized WORLD on Pandora, filled with an enormous variety of fauna and wildlife that I couldn’t begin to describe here. We spend a huge amount of the film’s running-time amongst the jungles of Pandora, and at no point was I anything less than mesmerized by the alien world that I was seeing being brought to life before my eyes.

(This is the type of fully-realized, never-been-seen before alien environment that I remember expecting from the Star Wars prequels, which also came after a decades-long wait and accompanied by their directors’ proclaiming that he had waited to make the film until he had perfected the technology necessary to bring his visions of alien worlds to life. But whereas the Star Wars prequels ultimately disappointed even on that level — giving us environments that looked beautiful but far too clean and, well, computer-generated, Pandora’s environments feel far more ALIVE to me.)

I was also stunned to consider, after having seen the film, just how much screen-time passes without any human characters whatsoever, with only CGI-created Na’vi characters (over ten foot tall blue creatures) on screen (interacting, by the way, in a completely CGI environment). The film hinges on our accepting these “special effects” as living, breathing, REAL creatures, and in that the movie succeeds without question. Yes, they are obviously CGI “effects” (how could these aliens be anything but?), but I never found myself distracted from the story by contemplating the visuals (either because I was impressed by how life-like the CGI was, or because I was bothered by a fake-looking effect). The Na’vi just ARE, and I think you quickly stop thinking about how they were created, which of course is the goal of any good visual effect — to NOT be noticed.

In the same way that I give Andy Serkis enormous credit for bringing Gollum and later King Kong to life in Peter Jackson’s films, Sam Worthington as Jake and Zoe Saldana as Neytiri (the Na’vi who Jake first meets) must be given great praise for their performances. I’ll have to wait for the eventual DVD/Blu-ray special features to learn more about the technical processes that combined their performances with CGI designs and animation to bring their characters to the screen as we see them. But it seems clear to me that their believability as performers was just as important to this process as the technical achievements of the animators and CG technicians. When we watch Jake’s Avatar and Neytiri interact on screen, these blue alien creatures are alive without question.

The supporting actors are also a fine bunch. I was thrilled by how much screen-time Sigourney Weaver had as Dr. Augustine. Somehow I had gotten the idea that her role was more of a cameo, but she is a central character to the film. It was an absolute delight to see Sigourney back on screen in such a meaty role. Once again her collaboration with James Cameron has borne potent fruit. (And I must admit to have gotten a fan-boy thrill when I saw her wake up in another cryo-tube at the start of the film!) Stephen Lang brings great menace to the role of Colonel Quaritch — he’s a great bad-guy, menacing without too-terribly-much moustache-twirling. Giovanni Ribisi does nice work as the rather heartless Parker Selfridge, the head of the corporate mining efforts on Pandora. (By the way, did anyone else catch the quick reference to the corporation as “the company”? Was that an Alien/Aliens reference?? I choose to think so!) I was also pleased to see Michelle Rodriguez in a nice role as a tough woman who wasn’t a, well, a bitch.

Then there are the 3-D effects, which I think were as much a focus of Mr. Cameron’s technical efforts over these past number of years as were the creation of believable CGI creatures and environments. Seeing Avatar in Imax 3-D was a delight. While I wouldn’t necessarily say that the 3-D effects make you feel as if you’re actually IN the movie, they do enhance the already extraordinarily immersive environments. And when the action comes — ho boy. There’s a lot of build-up to the ultimate third-act throw-down, and it is quite a spectacle. The combination of the 3-D with the CGI (not to mention the terrific sound-effects and score) creates a visceral, edge-of-your seat effect that was a ton of fun.

Avatar is not a perfect film. It doesn’t represent an entirely new paradigm of movie-making, and I don’t think it’s going to make my top-ten list of 2009 movies. But it is a throughly entertaining adventure story with a surprising amount of heart. I feel like I took a trip to an entirely alien world for a little over two-and-a-half hours, and I’m eager to go back!

Guest Blogger Jeremy Myerson Discusses The Sandlot!
December 18, 2009
Category: My Favorite Movie of All Time

Below is a contribution from guest blogger Jeremy Myerson to our continuing series in which I asked several of my close friends and colleagues to name their Favorite Movie of All Time.

I was recently asked by Josh to be a guest contributor to MotionPicturesComics to help him out as he is surely getting no sleep as a new parent of twin girls! The assignment was to review my favorite film. Being the iconoclast that I am, I refused the task and changed it. To help Josh celebrate the wonder of children, and because Josh and I are long time friends (and co-sufferers) as Mets fans, I instead offer my review of my favorite kids’ baseball film!

There are countless websites and lists dedicated to the ‘Greatest Baseball Films,’ almost all of which exclude my entry for the top of the list: The Sandlot. This wonderful film accomplishes the true essence of baseball… Americana. The bulk of the film takes place in the 1960’s following the life of a runt kid (appropriately nicknamed ‘Smalls’) who moves into a new neighborhood and learns the game of baseball.

While the supporting group of local kids is somewhat reminiscent of The Bad News Bears, you’ll find much more heart and humanity in this motley crew. From the romantically desperate Squints, to Timmy and Tommy Timmons who repeat everything, to the wonderfully bullish and comical Ham Porter (who, of course, is the team’s catcher… think a young ‘Crash Davis’) The passion comes from the fictional future MLB player, Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez.

Baseball becomes the backdrop for the adventures of this group of neighborhood kids, as they invade the local community pool, explore the state fair and even try ‘dip’ like their Major League idols… and learn their lesson in a terrible and comical way. The adventures continue as their ‘Babe Ruth’ ball gets lost in the grouchy neighbor’s yard and is guarded by Hercules, the largest scariest film dog since Cujo.

For me, one of the finest moments in film history occurs when the kids play their only night game of the year on July 4^th. The game is lit by the glow of the fireworks… Benny hits a ball up into the night and all the kids stop tracking the ball as they get lost in the glory of the fireworks display (set to Ray Charles’ ‘America the Beautiful’). Benny just keeps on running the bases… true baseball passion.

While this baseball movie has no scandals, no shattered lights and no ghosts in the cornfield it does have appeal to baseball fans of all ages. And it sure doesn’t hurt when you throw in a cameo by James Earl Jones!

Jeremy Myerson is the Training Manager for Holiday Inn Club Vacations at Orange Lake Resort in Orlando, Florida. He performs regularly with SAK Comedy Lab, Orlando’s longest running comedy venue, and suffers continually as a fan of the New York Metropolitans.

The series so far:

Raiders of the Lost Ark & The Dark Knight

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Girls Just Want to Have Fun & Little Miss Sunshine

Guest Blogger Stephanie Edelglass Discusses Girls Just Want to Have Fun & Little Miss Sunshine
December 16, 2009
Category: My Favorite Movie of All Time

Below is a contribution from guest blogger Stephanie Edelglass to our continuing series in which I asked several of my close friends and colleagues to name their Favorite Movie of All Time.

What unit of measurement should I use in picking my favorite movie of all time? Should I go by my grandfather’s comment after seeing There’s Something About Mary, “It must have been good because I don’t remember the last time I stayed up for an entire movie”? For me, that would eliminate almost every movie I began watching after 9pm. Or should I go by the mood I was in when I left a movie? By that caliber I’d choose It Could Happen to You because I left the theater with a feeling that life is good and sometimes people actually can be good and fair. I remember leaving with a smile on my face. What could be more important than the entertainment factor important when rating a movie?

I’ve decided to choose two favorite movies, one from my childhood and one from adulthood. Girls Just Want to Have Fun is my childhood pick. I recently subjected Josh to this movie and he doesn’t quite agree that this is a timeless classic. He may have even thought it was formulaic!! Nonetheless, it has sentimental value, as there was at least a two-year period when I chose it every time I went to the video store. I can still picture which shelf I could find it on each time I went into the little independent video store in Needham, MA.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun stars Sarah Jessica Parker as “Janie” and Helen Hunt as “Lynne”. If you look closely, you’ll notice Shannon Doherty as the little sister of the lead actor. Helen Hunt is the “bad girl” who leads Janie to follow her dream of becoming a dancer on Dance TV. Adventure ensues. I always wanted to have the guts to be Helen Hunt in this movie. She turns her school uniform into a cool outfit with just a little Velcro and exudes a confidence that, as a twelve year old, I only dreamed of having in my life! The eye candy who plays Janie’s dance partner, Jeff, is your classic “bad boy” and although he doesn’t have the gymnastics and dance training that Janie has, he holds his own throughout the movie. There is a classic scene where Janie and Jeff are practicing their dance moves in the park and you can tell that romance is in the air. The music is fabulous and the wardrobe is classic ’80s. I recommend this as a must-see for anyone who wants to watch a classic ’80s chick flick.

My favorite movie as an adult is Little Miss Sunshine. This was a hard choice because there have been so many movies to choose from and Josh has actually motivated me to not fall asleep at the opening credits of most movies, so I have a much broader scope of movies to choose from these days! I remember leaving the theater, the first time I saw this movie, and wanting to turn back around and watch the movie again. I think that this is a great indicator of a winning movie. I also recommended this movie to all of my friends and family and offered to watch it again with them in theatres.

Little Miss Sunshine feels like a movie about real people. These actors don’t look or sound polished and that makes this film unique and entertaining. As with Lynne, my favorite character in Girls Just Want to Have Fun, the main character in this movie exudes a confidence that I think we can all hope to achieve. Except this girl is about ten years old, not fifteen or sixteen or thirty-one. This ten-year-old knows what she wants (to win a beauty pageant), and she works hard to succeed. I laughed and cried throughout this movie, and anyone who knows me knows that I am not a crier! The characters and the plot are equally unique and defy any simple summary. Just go watch it!

I hope I’ve been able to convince any of you who have not enjoyed these movies to Netflix them at once! You will not regret it!

Stephanie Edelglass teaches first grade in Sherborn, MA. Over the past several years, she has gamely watched an inordinate amount of science fiction along with her husband, yours truly. She rocks.

The series so far:

Raiders of the Lost Ark & The Dark Knight

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Josh Reviews Up in the Air
December 15, 2009
Category: Movie Reviews

Director Jason Reitman continues his winning streak with his third film (after Thank You For Smoking and Juno), Up in the Air.

George Clooney (continuing to prove that he is a far better actor than you might think a fellow with his movie-star good looks and fame would need to be) plays Ryan Bingham, a man whose job is to fire employees at companies whose bosses don’t have the desire or the guts to do so themselves. Every day, Ryan flies to a different city, back-and-forth across the United States, to fire different people from a different company. It’s a job that most would probably find tremendously distasteful. But Ryan loves it. It’s not that he gets pleasure from firing people. (Actually, he’s quite skilled at helping newly-fired employees get over the shock and anger of being fired — and by someone they’ve never met, to boot — and he seems to enjoy the moments of human connection when he’s able to help one of those unfortunate souls find some shred of a silver lining to their situation.) It’s more that he loves the unattached, free-as-a-bird lifestyle that his constantly-traveling ways allow him.

Ryan relishes having no ties. His apartment (that he barely sees) is completely empty and unadorned. He isn’t married, doesn’t have any kids, and is distant from his family. While most Americans would probably side with me in hating the experience of flying, Ryan loves it. He relishes having frequent flyer cards and valued customer status at airlines, car-rental organizations, and hotels across the country that enable him to zip in and out (cutting ahead of the rest of us poor folks waiting in endless lines) with just the swipe of a gold card. He loves staying in hotels, he loves having a drink in airport VIP lounges, he loves flying. In Ryan’s mind, he is entirely free.

Ryan’s perfect-to-him life is shifted, though, by two developments. One is positive: at a hotel bar one evening, he strikes up a conversation with a beautiful woman who, it turns out, is just as much of a travel-junkie as he is. The woman is Alex, played by the luminous Vera Farmiga (Matt Damon’s girlfriend in The Departed), and she and Ryan seem to immediately realize that they have each found a special connection with the other. The other change is much more negative to Ryan: an ambitious young woman named Natalie (Anna Kendrick), newly hired by his company, has developed a system in which Ryan and his peers can fire people without every leaving their company headquarters. Instead of paying enormous sums to fly back and forth across the country, they could instead use today’s modern web-cam software to simply set up video links with the companies who hire them. While his boss (Jason Bateman) is ecstatic, Ryan is devastated by the threatened sudden end to his jet-setting ways.

Up in the Air is a marvelous concoction. It is a dramatic film, but contains a lot of humor as well. It has a somewhat outlandish hook (Ryan’s lifestyle is an extreme one, to say the least), but is populated with characters who are refreshingly human. Jason Reitman balances all of the elements well, keeping a lot of different tonal plates spinning while never allowing the film to shift too hard in one direction or the other. (In less skilled hands, this movie could have been a real bummer ,or, on the other hand, a frivolous comedy with no dramatic depths.) I did get a bit worried for a few minutes during the film’s third act. The visit to Ryan’s sister’s wedding and what happens at Ryan’s big presentation both were story points that shifted uncomfortably close to Hollywood movie cliché. Thankfully, the film quickly regains its footing and settles on a more ambiguous ending which seemed much more in line with what had gone before.

Mr. Reitman is ably assisted by a top-flight cast (no pun intended). George Clooney brings a tenderness to Ryan that was surprising, and creates a main character who one can’t help but root for despite his rather abhorrent profession. Vera Farmiga is equally compelling as Ryan’s mirror image and romantic partner. She is a hard-working business-woman who avoids falling into any simplistic “bitchy” stereotypes. Rather, Alex is warm and friendly, and the connection she forms with Ryan is well-realized. Anna Kendrick also brings a great amount of depth to her role as the young woman, Natalie, whose actions threaten to overturn Ryan’s life. As the film progresses, we get to know Natalie a lot more than I had at first suspected, and I was pleased to see her begin to learn just how much she had to learn without ever being made to look stupid or idiotic. (In many respects, actually, she might be right in terms of the many areas in which she disagrees with Ryan!) Jason Bateman doesn’t have any jokes to crack but is still terrific in his brief role, and talented folks like Zach Galifianakis, J.K. Simmons, Sam Elliott, Danny McBride, and many others do a great job in cameo roles.

Up in the Air isn’t an earth-shattering film. It’s not the most dramatic film you’ll see this year, nor the funniest. It won’t have the cultural impact that Juno did, that’s for sure. But it’s a smart, adult little movie, and it’s well-worth your time.

Guest Blogger Ethan Linden Discusses Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
December 14, 2009
Category: My Favorite Movie of All Time

Below is a contribution from guest blogger Ethan Linden to our continuing series in which I asked several of my close friends and colleagues to name their Favorite Movie of All Time.

This is the type of assignment I would normally reject. Not writing for Josh’s blog, which I am honored to do, despite his somewhat upsetting regard for the finale of Battlestar Galactica. As a matter of policy, I refuse to state my favorite movie. People in my life know I watch a lot of movies (or at least I did until I had, you know, children) and they consider me a bit of a movie buff, so often I am asked to give my top ten, or top five favorite movies. I always politely decline, because really, what the hell does that mean?

I can recite pretty much all of This is Spinal Tap (“like lukewarm water”) but, given the right company, it’s still hysterical. I laugh every time I see Airplane! (“what a pisser” is just funny) and no matter how often I see Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, I can’t help wishing I lived his life, even now. Are these my favorite movies? How about a movie like this summer’s sadly under-seen The Hurt Locker, which has stayed with me with incredible vividness? Or, in a similar vein, a film like The Deer Hunter which gets more painful, and more powerful, as I get older? And don’t even get me started on The Godfather and The Godfather Part II (or the The Godfather Part III for that matter, though the speech is decidedly different). The list goes on and on, and it shifts as I shift, which is, I suppose, part of the power of movies.

But I have come to see that my unwillingness to pick a favorite as a sort of moral cowardice; it is, at its base, a deep hesitation to be judged on the basis of my choice. If I am unwilling to declare myself for one movie over all others, than what am I? If I am not for my movie, who will be for me?

My favorite movie is Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. Partly, this is a choice defined by nostalgia. The movie came out in 1988; I was eleven years old, and it was right in my wheelhouse. It is the first movie I remember going to see multiple times in the movie theaters, using my own money, dragging friends and family members, or homeless people, anyone really, who would join me. I loved Roger Rabbit, I thought it was brilliant and funny and poignant (though I would not have used that word) and I thought Jessica Rabbit was, well, impressive.

I find I still feel that way, about all of it. Sure, some of the gags seem a bit broad to me now (“nice booby trap” to Jessica after one of the weasels goes searching for Acme’s will in the wrong place and gets a nasty-looking set of jaws on his hand) and some of the moments I loved as a kid are a bit more obvious than I thought as an eleven year old (really, a guy named Judge Doom turns out to be the bad guy!) but there is greater depth with age as well. There is something melancholy about the movie, even with all the cartoon fireworks. Toontown survives Doom’s attempt to dip it out of existence, but the reality of being an adult is the knowledge that there is no Toontown. You don’t need dip, just maturity. Indeed, even Doom’s master plan, the one Eddie Valiant labels as “insane” is, of course, precisely what transpires in our real world. There is a freeway, and there are miles of fast food restaurants, automobile dealerships, and billboards stretching as far as the eye can see. “My God,” Doom says, in a rapture, “It will be beautiful.” He’s right about the future, but wrong about the beauty. In the end, there is no saving Toontown.

That’s not to say the movie isn’t funny. It’s still funny. Valiant falling through the sky while chatting with Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny is a great moment. Mickey’s silly laugh at the end of his line “You could be killed” is brilliant comedy. The classic Donald Duck and Daffy Duck routine at the Ink and Paint Club stands the test of time. (Daffy: “Does anyone understand what this duck is saying?”) I am happy also to report that it’s still funny when Roger slips out of the handcuffs he and Eddie have been sharing. (Eddie: “You mean you could have gotten out at any time?” Roger: “No, not at any time, only when it was funny.” It was.)

I also surprised myself by laughing at the opening Maroon cartoon with Roger and Baby Herman. As an eleven year old, I am pretty sure I found the whole thing hysterical because it was funny to see Roger set on fire, banged on the head, cooked, and generally pulverized. As an adult, I laughed because the opening cartoon is a clever satire on cartoon violence, and the outrageous over-the-topness of the whole proceeding is now funny to me in a whole different way. And then there are moments I’m pretty sure I didn’t really get as a kid, and are so funny now I can’t believe the filmmakers got away with them. Anyone up for a nice clean game of pattycake?

In watching the movie as an adult, I can also appreciate the craftsmanship of the pieces that comprise the final product. Robert Zemeckis absolutely works wonders with the film, and the fact is that it still looks great over twenty years later. The basic conceit, Toons living and interacting in the human world, still holds up, even after all the advances in effects creation. Watching Jessica take Eddie’s hat off, or Baby Herman chomp on a stogie, you still have to buy it. It’s magic. Bob Hoskins is terrific, especially given that he acted all by himself in scene after scene; you’d never know it. Christopher Lloyd is like an evil Doc Brown, and you love him for it. The voice work is similarly outstanding, giving depth and character to the Toons. Charles Fleischer gave voice to both Roger Rabbit and Benny the Cab, and both are funny without being obnoxious. Even the score, which I barely noticed as a kid, is beautifully done. Finally, you even have to give a nod to the business end: how in the world did they get the rights to all those classic cartoons? Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is a stupendously well-made film. At eleven, I just knew it was great. At thirty-two, I know how hard it is make something great, and I appreciate the effort all the more.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is indelibly a movie of my childhood, and I will always love it for that. But it is also a truly great piece of filmmaking. It deserves a place in pantheon of must-watch movies for the next generation. And even if it never gets a place in those hallowed halls, it’s still my favorite movie. And that’s pretty good too.

Rabbi Ethan Linden served as the Assistant Director of Camp Ramah in New England before moving down to New Orleans to become the Rabbi of Shir Chadash. A tally of the number of hours that he and I have discussed Battlestar Galactica would be hard to fathom.

The series so far:

Raiders of the Lost Ark & The Dark Knight

Guest Blogger David Edelglass Discusses The Sandlot and A Few Good Men
December 11, 2009
Category: My Favorite Movie of All Time

Below is the third in a three-part contribution from guest blogger David Edelglass to our continuing series in which I asked several of my close friends and colleagues to name their Favorite Movie of All Time. Click here for Part I and here for Part II.

My Favorite Movie From My Childhood: The Sandlot

This is another one of those movies that you can catch on ABC Family or some similar channel just about every month, and that’s A-OK with me.

Whenever I watch this movie, I find myself saying the same thing: “They don’t make kids movies like they used to.” It’s true. Most children’s movies these days are silly, over the top escapades that seem to think kids can’t appreciate a well written story or fully developed characters. The computer animated films have faired slightly better, but only Pixar has really been able to make movies that are funny, heartwarming, and family friendly (in this case I don’t just mean a movie that you can take your kids to, but one that will appeal to all audiences — something that even adults will find enjoyable).

The Sandlot is the story of nine kids during the summer of 1962 in L.A. Scott Smalls, a small, somewhat dorky kid, has just moved to the neighborhood with his mom and stepfather (Karen Allen and Denis Leary). He befriends a group of local kids who play baseball every day, and with the help of their de-facto leader, Benny Rodriguez, he slowly becomes one of the gang (and learns to play baseball to boot). The film is essentially the story of their summer, filled with swimming, giant dogs, James Earl Jones, and lots and lots of baseball.

The nine kids who make up the core of the movie are fantastic. Not only are the actors great, but the characters are all well developed and diverse. Each one has their own personality, and while some get more screen time than others, they all seem like real people, not vague character sketches.

Next time this film is on ABC Family, check it out. You’ll enjoy yourself, no matter how old you are.

Honorable Mention: The Last Starfighter

My Favorite Comedy:

This ones is tough. I spent a lot of time thinking about it in preparation for this post, and ultimately I decided that I just can’t decide. There are just too many great films out there, and comedies in particular seem to be very dependent on when you watch them and who you watch them with.

Some of those that have made me laugh the hardest upon first viewing are Planes Trains and Automobiles, The Hangover, Tropic Thunder, and Wedding Crashers, but movies like that are usually never as funny as the first time you saw them. Then there are the ones that get funnier the more you watch them, as you begin to notice the details that are not quite so obvious the first time around: Annie Hall, This Is Spinal Tap, The Big Lebowski. A movie that stays funny on the tenth or twentieth viewing is probably the better film, but there is something to be said for laughing your ass off in a packed theater with a bunch of friends, even if some of the laughs may come cheap.

The Movie I Can Watch Any Time, On Any Channel, No Matter At What Point I Turn It On: A Few Good Men

There is something about this movie that just grabs me. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite movie ever, but I’m not lying when I say that I will watch this film at any time at any point, and whenever I happen across it on TV, I usually I end up watching the rest of it (which is no small feat, since with commercials it runs about three hours). And considering how often this film is on TV, you can bet that I’ve seen it many times, and I never get bored.

A Few Good Men is written by Aaron Sorkin (before I knew who Aaron Sorkin was) and directed by Rob Reiner (at the tail end of his great run of directorial efforts, which in my opinion ended a few years later with The American President, also written by Sorkin). Sorkin has a way with words, which is why I’ve always seen anything he’s been involved with. He writes dialogue that sounds natural, and yet it’s unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. The writing is smart and funny, and even Jack Nicholson’s monologue at the end never seems forced or contrived (due in no small part to Nicholson himself).

But the script is only part of what makes this movie great. This movie is filled to the brim with great actors. I don’t think there is a single person in this movie that I haven’t recognized and enjoyed in other things even if I don’t know their name (except for maybe the two accused soldiers, although they each perform admirably in their small roles). Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Kevin Pollack, Jack Nicholson, Kevin Bacon, Noah Wylie and Cuba Gooding Junior in early roles, and the list goes on. It’s really incredible.

What a movie!

David Edelglass is my brother and a man of impeccable taste. The apartment that he shares with his wife Jess is always well-stocked with fine beers, as any home should be!

The series so far: