Hollywood Reviews and Movie Trivia

"The Ant Bully" has a great lessons for the younger ones in the family and comes in with a C+...

"The Ant Bully" based on the children's book by John Nickle, has as its theme, how children can deal with one of the big trauma's of growing up, being bullied by someone bigger! The movie, just as in the book, uses something very small to demonstrate that size has responsibility. The movie, written & directed by John A. Davis, follows an unhappy, rebellious boy named Lucas (Zack Taylor), who wears horn-rimed nerdy glasses and a propeller-type cap. A neighborhood boy with a buzz-cut haircut relentlessly picks on him. Lucas has the normal tantrums and dejected feelings of a child who's constantly pick on, including a bad attitude with his parents. Taking out his feelings on something smaller than he, Lucas torments the ants living in the anthill in his front yard. Just like clockwork, Lucas takes one of his water guns and goes after the ants on a regular basis a means to vent his frustrations.

Shifting to the ants' world, they have an orderly society where everyone pitches in for the good of the whole. And they are aware of Lucas who regularly wrecks havoc on their lives. One of the elderly scientist ants named Zoc (Nicholas Cage), concocts a potion of sorts to shrink their main nemesis down to ant size. The plan works and Lucas has to learn to survive in this strange new world, without knowing if he'll ever be normal size again.

The original book was written for children, with lessons to be learned, with Lucas being among his victims and forced to live and work among the ants. Director John Davis has a few small changes to John Nickle's original story and uses a cast of a-list actor voices including Nicholas Cage, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, and Paul Giamatti just to name a few. The story holds up on the big screen with its aim of children viewers. It not the big screen spectacle of the current animated works. Its not aimed at grownups although it's very watchable.

The moral center of "The Ant Bully" is about a small boy, who is made to feel even smaller by other boys, who becomes small like the ants he torments, and learns some big things in the process. And most times, small can go a long, long way. As in "The Ant Bully", the "sweet rocks" the ants cherished, which are pretty small in our world, and in the ants world, so very precious. What are "sweet rocks", the thing all kids love, 'jelly beans'!!!!

Grade: C+

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"A Scanner Darkly", with its cast of veteran actors, presents a dark, haunting view in the future on the "War on Drugs", and scores a B...

First, the production technique used for "A Scanner Darkly", although is has the look of high-end animation, it didn't start out as animation. The process is called "Roto Scoping". Actors are filmed as usual with sets, props, etc. In the normal process, any CGI (computer generated images) are added to look as normal as possible to live action.

In Roto Scoping, the live action filmed is digitized, and then CGI enhancements are added that would be way too costly and/or time consuming to shoot in live action. What you have in the end is an animated film with very natural movements because it started out as live action.

Now, the story... "A Scanner Darkly," is based on the1977 Philip K. Dick novel. Director Richard Linklater presents a haunting view of a paranoid society in the near future. Its seven years from now in Orange County, Calif. America is losing the war on drugs, with 20 percent of the population addicted to "Substance D". A network of spy cameras and phone taps are everywhere. No one appears to know the source of the drug. Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) is an undercover cop who develops a split personality after taking "Substance D". The pills cause the left and right hemispheres of his brain to compete for dominance, each side processing information differently.

Bob, like most of the characters in the film, has a dual identity. He poses as a small-time dealer so he can get closer to the bigger suppliers. His main supplier is Donna (Winona Ryder), a woman too far gone on cocaine to realize that Bob has feelings for her. All police detectives wear "scramble suits". These special suits constantly shift their outward appearance for anonymous concealment. Bob's code name at work is "Fred" and his supervisor is simply known as "Hank". When "Hank" assigns "Fred" to follow Bob Arctor, he's actually being asked to spy on himself. As the story progresses, we learn there is more to "Fred's" superiors and their overall plan than he knows...

Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson, excel as Bob Arctor's junkie roommates, Jim and Ernie. Downey's character is high-strung, looking for the angle that will put him on top, while Ernie is the opposite, only interested in cruising through life. Winona Ryder as Donna, paints a picture of a character with dual issues for the surprise in the end. Keanu Reeves as Arctor/Fred aptly moves back and forth between the two sides of his character's personality. And the movie seems to make the statement that the heaviest users are also the most honest people, which is more anti-establishment like the counter culture of the 60's. "A Scanner Darkly" leaves one wondering just how far the powers-that-be will go in their "war on drugs" battle, which seems more ideological than practical...

Grade: B

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"Monster House", Directed by Gil Kenan, with producers Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg, used the digital animation technique of motion capture Zemeckis brought upfront with "The Polar Express" and scores a B+...

The world of animation production has changed forever. It has moved into the Sci-Fi world of the future. Gone is the Disney style of 2 dimensional traditional works, which is probably why Disney paid billions to align with Pixar. The new wave animation seems headed into 3 primary categories: the "Roto Scooping" technique of shooting live action and digitizing it as in the current release "A Scanner Darkly", the Pixar animated style as demonstrated by the awesome racing/Nascar sequences in "Pixar's "Cars", and the "Motion Capture" process Robert Zemeckis greatly enhanced for "The Polar Express".

After all is said and done, the bottom line is story, and Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg are both excellent storytellers. "Monster House", grounded in a good story, the addition of very good animation, and the voice work of seasoned veteran actors, is great entertainment for the young and the old!

DJ (Mitchel Musso), from his upstairs bedroom window, has his telescope trained on the spooky looking house across the street. DJ has a list of items that have simply vanished from the lawn of Mr. Nebbercracker (Steve Buscemi). Signs on the lawn as well as Mr. Nebbercracker, state emphatically that no one should come near the house! DJ's best friend Chowder (Sam Lerner) who joins him in his vigilant surveillance is also well aware of the strange spooky house. DJ has tried to let his parents know of the strange events occurring at the house across the street but it's passed off as a child's over active imagination.

The afternoon of Halloween, DJ's parents are going out and leave the boys in the care of regular sitter "Z" (Maggie Gyllenhaal). While looking through the telescope at the house, the boys eye Jenny (Spencer Locke), a neighborhood girl whose about to try to sell Halloween candy to the resident of the strange house. As she starts toward the house the boys run downstairs and across the street to warn her about the strange old man. The three kinds find that Mr. Nebbercracker isn't the only thing strange; the house itself seems to have a life of its own! While trying to retrieve Chowder's new basketball, the kids are whisked in the mysterious house (Kathleen Turner)! The adventure begins as the kids try to find a way out and discover the house's secrets!

The motion capture is very good, the voice actors bring a lot of life to the characters, and the story is solidly paced. Over and above it all, the technology doesn't become the high point or get in the way of the movie. With Zemeckis and Spielberg producing, I'm sure director Gil Kenan took advantage of that kind of experience behind him. As a working technician in the industry, I know I would have!

Grade: B+

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