Flick Chick

Ah, the holidays. Family, friends, food, presents, trees, luggage, air mattresses, car trips, after-Christmas sales, pets, video game marathons... and ample time to see movies. This Flick Chick entry covers two recent viewings, and one not-so-recent viewing: I Am Legend, The Golden Compass, and Lars and the Real Girl.

I Am Legend, starring one nee west-Philadelphia born and raised Fresh Prince: Will Smith. I give this flick a Meh on the scientific rating scale of Boo, Meh, Decent, and Woohoo! Here's the thing: this is not "Urban Castaway." I thought it was, and let me just tell you, going into this movie with high expectations is unwise. Go into this movie with "monster/zombie movie" expectations and you'll probably enjoy it a lot more than I did. The movie takes place in post-Armageddon-ish NYC where Will Smith is a lone scientist survivor of an outbreak of a mutated virus that has turned humans into cannibalistic zombie monters. This movie has its fair share of bumps in the night that caused me to jump and such intense scenes that I was forced to watch through fingers and attached to Ian's arm at times. So, as far as zombie movies go, this one is pretty darn scary; but the zombie monsters themselves are so CGI, they're not even believable as former humans. And, ps, totally designed by a man, because the female zombies, although running around naked and deformed for supposedly 4 years, still have perfect C-cups, bouncy and perky. Riiight. Smith's performance doesn't disappoint, but it's nothing to write home about. So I won't.

The next film we saw during our winter holiday break was The Golden Compass. Now, there were all kinds of mass e-mails swirling about the interweb calling this movie everything from "of atheist sentiment" to "this movie will brainwash your kids into satanic worshippers." Methinks most of these e-mails were probably clever marketing ploys to peak interest in a movie that was easy to write off as "Narnia-with-different-kids." It worked for me. I was curious enough to give it a shot when buttered popcorn was on the agenda. The movie was Decent. And I did not find it the atheist anthem some feared it to be. Granted, this was just the first in a series, and I haven't read the books, but from this movie alone, one has to work to see any kind of atheist symbolism. The movie surrounds Lyra, a little girl who lives in a world controlled by the Magisterium, an organization seeking to take away free will and torturing children on the side in their experimental efforts. Could the Magisterium be a symbol for organized religion? Sure. But, really, it-- and it's representative Nicole Kidman-- are just the standard children's movie villains more symbolic of evil in the good vs. evil plight than anything else. Performances in this movie are quite good. And the effects are stunning. The battle scenes are too graphic for little ones, however. The movie makes no attempt at an ending since sequels are expected-- annoying-- but, on the whole, an entertaining jaunt through a fantastic world of mystery and magic.

A movie I saw a while ago but haven't had a chance to blog about is Lars and the Real Girl. This movie gets a resounding Woo-hoo! Loved it, loved it, loved it. The story surrounds Lars (Ryan Gosling), a lonely man struggling with a delusional disorder that he and his family and townspeople all have to try and understand before he can get well. The writing is sublime, the psychiatrist (Patricia Clarkson) character is brilliant, and this heartwarming movie tackles dark themes such as mental illness and death with humor and realism. It's just a quiet little film that matches the quiet little town in which our hero, the flawed Lars, takes his journey.