re: TulaneLSU's official 2011 movie reviews thread

Rise of the Planet of the Apes "What a chimera then is man! What a novelty! What a monster, what a chaos, what a contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, imbecile worm of the earth; depositary of truth, a sink of uncertainty and error; the pride and refuse of the universe!" Thus wrote Pascal on man's ability and limits. Planet is a movie largely about man's limitations: that even though we think we are lords or even gods over this planet, the author of life sees to it to tear down our Towers of Babel. And the towers are falling in this popcorn flick.

Besides Transformers and Thor, this summer has largely been bereft of any decent popcorn movies, until Planet. Planet does what all good sci-fi movies should do: create an alternate, possible world that we believe is entirely real. Enter the world of the Caesar, where this movie is at its best. There we see the emotion of torment of partial being that stops becoming; the rage of not reaching the potency of being. But we all know and what is becoming in nature will be, whether we strap a leash on the being or not.

James Franco gives another yeoman's performance that gets the job done, but doesn't leave the viewer impressed. The peripheral characters, notably, the next door neighbor, the girlfriend, and the profit-driven businessman, detract from the movie, which should have spent more time in the primate world, for that is where this movie excels. Many worried about the logistical improbability of a primate takeover of the world. Worry not. 7/10

Another positive I took from Planet was that it stands on its own very well. I've never seen any of the other movies, and all I know of the franchise is what I saw on Spaceballs. I was blasted by Harry Potterites when I gave the second to last HP a low rating. I stand by that rating; the second to last HP was a bad movie. The very last HP, on the other hand, was a decent to good movie that did not require foreknowledge.

You do realize this thread has gotten more page views than any other on the Arts Board during the last month? Anchors are for obscene, irrelevant, or redundant thread. This thread is none of those. Keep your personal grudges out of the thread please.

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You do realize this thread has gotten more page views than any other on the Arts Board during the last month?

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How do you see how many page views a thread has obtained?

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Arts Board

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You do realize this thread has gotten more page views than any other on the Arts Board during the last month?

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You do realize it has because you keep bumping it?

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The Change-Up to movies like Vice Versa, Like Father Like Son, 18 Again, Freaky Friday and Big

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Big is a little different, IMO. But the idea is well played out.

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unnecessary nudity

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If it's male, I'm out

The Help Some movies lend themselves to being watched in specific theaters. The Sound of Music watched at the Salzburger Landestheater or Good Will Hunting at the Brattle Theater in Harvard Square come to mind. So when I learned of The Help's release, I knew I would need to watch it at The Prytania. It's not Jackson, MS, but the neighborhood in which The Prytania sits might as well be 1950s Jackson. Even this day, early in the mornings and around four in the afternoon, you will find black workers dressed in maid outfits going to and from work, although, now, many have been replaced by Hispanic workers, who are willing to work for much less.

It's interesting to see how a cinematic jeremiad is received by the crowd the film intends to condemn. And so I trudged off to that old theater. By the roar of laughter during scenes that mocked the ruling class, an objective observer concludes that few at The Prytania are willing to see their faults in movies. How quick people are to condemn those they see without recognizing their own hypocrisy and sin.

What is this movie about? I think it's that people a corrupt society categorizes as good and upstanding are usually neither. Corrupt societies, therefore, need to be rebuked, and the rebuke can only come from heroes, or in this case, heroines who are courageous. Their courage is founded in truth, and in their courageous pursuit of this truth, freedom from the shackles of corruption and brokenness is found. It is a modern retelling of Plato's Allegory of the Cave or Luke 14:26: "If anyone comes to me [Jesus the Truth] and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple." To step outside the mob's friendship is a dangerous, painful, and sacrificial move, almost always. It's a damn shame that this movie did not make more of the cost of discipleship, or cost of doing what is right. It's a bit fairy-tale-ish in its portrayal of justice fighters as triumphant. The reality is almost always that the children of these people receive the fruits of their labor while the fighters themselves are murdered or rejected. Those who have power never give up their power without violence.

Viola Davis and Emma Stone give the performances of their careers. Their characters are the only ones that break from pack-mob mentality, although the broken, blonde bimbo, Celia Leefolt, whose character I found pitiable but superfluous to the story, could, in a way, fit in this category (but remember, her exclusion is not by choice; if it were her choice, she would join the mob). The rest of the characters are rather pedestrian and used as comic relief or foils of evil.

Most viewers, like the ones with whom I watched this movie, will look at the film as an historical fiction. And they will judge the bad guys. In judging, people feel better about themselves and gain a sense of moral superiority. But as with any jeremiad, the author wants the listener or viewer to look at himself and his own situation. How are we today acting as the bad guys? How are we today treating others in a horrific, cruel, inhuman, yet culturally accepted way? 8/10

Why won't this thread go away?