Rick's Flicks Picks on AWN

In 2004, Danny Boyle directed one of the most charming family films in ages called MILLIONS. Now he has another film with million in the title and it's as equally charming. Mix Charles Dickens with the Brazilian gangster film CITY OF GOD and sprinkle a Bollywood epic all over it and you'll get a sense of the flavor of this film.

Jamal Malik (Dev Patel, TV's SKINS) is on the verge of winning 20 million rupees on the Indian version of WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? However, because he is a poor boy from the streets, the arrogant host Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor, TAAL) is convinced the young man is cheating. So a police inspector (Irfan Khan, THE NAMESAKE) uses some harsh interrogation techniques to force out a confession. When Jamal proclaims that he knew the answers, we flashback to his childhood, learning how it was written that his life experiences would lead up to this defining moment in the spotlight.

Companion DVDs to feature films, which either launch the Tuesday before the film's theatrical release or day-and-date with the film on DVD, have become increasingly popular, allowing fans more adventures with often supporting characters. Now in conjunction with the KUNG FU PANDA DVD release, DreamWorks has given fans a 20+ minute short chronicling the origins of the Furious Five told to a class of kung fu students by kung fu mega-fan Po.

In the scenes with Po and the kids, the animation again is CG, but the backstory tales are in the same 2D animation style as the opening sequence of the feature. Each tale teaches the kids an important lesson of kung fu. Mantis' impatience leads him into a trap. Viper, as a young snake, shows her kung fu master father what a fangless little one can accomplish. Crane wasn't always viewed as a master, especially as a scrawny kid in kung fu school. As an orphan, Tigress struggles with those afraid of her anger. Monkey didn't start out as a hero either, but with help from Oogway he learns to put his painful past behind him.

If you're the kind of person who would like Halloween to be everyday then This Weekend's Film Festival is just right for you. But it will also provide thrills, chills and fun for everyone as we look at paranormal investigations on film. HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY, which hit DVD this week, is the inspiration. We have mutants investigating mutants. Psychics awakening a haunted house. A desperate mother calling on paranormal experts for help. Scientists saving NYC from ghouls and one giant sugary treat. And we have the mother of all horror films. Prepare to laugh and cringe.

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY kicks things off. While having seen the original film, viewers will find a continuing story, but new comers will not be lost. A centuries' old pact between humans and magical creatures is about to be broken by the bitter Prince Nuada whom wants the creatures of the forest to rule once again. Working for the U.S. government, Hellboy, played wonderfully once again by Ron Perlman, and his paranormal investigation team set out to stop the renegade royal. Director Guillermo del Toro brings his truly original visual style to this adaptation of Mike Mignola's comic book series. Hellboy has a soft spot for human-looking pyrokenetic Liz (Selma Blair), but finds it increasingly hard to fight against other magical creatures when his existence goes public and he's ridiculed for his bright red appearance. As I said in my original review, "Like the first film, del Toro mixes these fantasy creations with jokester material and inner struggles. Hellboy might look like a hulking demon, but he has a soft spot for kittens and drinks in the shower when his girl won’t tell him what’s wrong with her." Within this spectacle of fantastic creatures and monsters, there is an interesting dilemma presented to Hellboy — why does he fight on behalf of those that want to hide him away?

This is the scariest movie ever made. It still retains its power to creep me out after so many viewings. Why is this of all the horror films so haunting? It's the balance between the real world and the fantastic. Oscar-winning writer William Peter Blatty and director William Friedkin paint a normal world that we recognize and then let the devil creep into the shadows and our private spaces.

The story begins in Iraq where the elderly Father Merrin (Max von Sydow, THE SEVENTH SEAL), encounters an ancient evil. The fear on his face makes us uneasy. Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM) is an actress working in Georgetown, where she lives with her daughter Regan (Linda Blair, AIRPORT 1975). When Regan gets ill, Chris takes her to all the best doctors, but they're stumped. Meanwhile, Father Karras (Jason Miller, 1984's TOY SOLDIERS) is struggling with a crisis of faith, due to the passing of his mother. When a freakish death occurs, Lt. Kinderman (Lee J. Cobb, 12 ANGRY MEN) calls on the priest for advice. At the same time, Chris is becoming increasing furious with her daughter's doctors who suggest that she might consider requesting an exorcism for Regan.

So the fall season is beginning to heat up. The hotly anticipated films are beginning to roll out including SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE on Nov. 12, QUANTUM OF SOLACE on Nov. 14, AUSTRALIA and MILK on Nov. 26, and then December will have movie fans sleeping at theaters. Six films make the buzz list this week, read all about them.

Getting Buzzed
6) The Tale of Despereaux (Dec. 19)
A new trailer for THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX is out. Based on the Newbery Medal-winning children's book, this Universal Pictures animated feature has promise, but will it be a good adaptation from another medium like HORTON HEARS A WHO! or a bad one like DOOGAL?

One of the best films of the year, THE VISITOR, arrived on DVD about a month ago. Inspiring This Weekend's Film Festival theme of houseguests. Some guests come to stay for research purposes, as well as to hide out. Other guests break in, but are not asked to leave. Some guests are unwanted relatives that sleep with your boyfriends. Other guests are royalty on the run. This is an eclectic mix of films from a screwball comedy to a quiet Korean drama to a modern dramedy to a classic romantic comedy to, as I said before, one of the best films of 2008.

Starting off with a light touch, Howard Hawk's BALL OF FIRE is one of the most underrated of the classic screwball comedies. Making AFI's 100 Greatest Laughs list, the film still doesn't have the general acknowledgement that Hawk's BRINGING UP BABY has. Starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck, the 1941 comedy is a clever take on the SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS fairy tale. Written by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, the plot follows eight stodgy professors working on an epic encyclopedia that discover their understanding of current slang is way out of date. Cooper's Prof. Potts goes out to find test subjects and ends up attracting gangster moll Katherine "Sugarpuss" O'Shea into his studies. When she shows up at their door, the aging bachelors (and one widower) can't refuse the alluring woman's request to stay. In actuality, she's using the poor saps to lay low from the cops. The pairing of Cooper and Stanwyck is magnetic. "Cooper’s awe-shucks style is perfect for the aged boy genius. Stanwyck radiates in her role, combining dangerous sexuality with a hint of depressed vulnerability," to quote my original review. Filled with constant laughs, the film's closing emotional punch sneaks up and sucker punches the viewer. Simply a gem of the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.

A HULL OF A MESS is the best of the wartime Popeye shorts because it remembers what made Popeye shorts so entertaining. Popeye and Bluto are pitted again each other in a race to see whom can build a battleship the quickest. The winner wins a contract to build a fleet of battleships. The muscular adversaries find ingenious and quite humorous ways to get the job done quicker, but it will take a bit of spinach assistance for Popeye to overcome Bluto's devious plans to sabotage his construction.

Director I. Sparber and animators Al Eugster and Joe Oriolo cast Popeye as a quip muttering, happy-go-lucky bloke who is a step ahead of Bluto at every turn until the villain cheats. This plotline is more in the vein of the earlier Popeye shorts where the sailor was the hero not a bumbling buffoon to his nephew or some random trash-talking anthropomorphic adversary. While it has a faster Looney Tunes timing than the earlier Fleischer Studios work, it contains the original spirit of the character.

Not really a wartime Popeye cartoon, but a military-themed short. THE MIGHTY NAVY was made before the U.S. had entered World War II, casting Popeye as an inept crewman on a destroyer whose improvising creates a great amount of frustration for his superior officer. But when they are attacked by an enemy whose flag states "Enemy: Name Your Own," Popeye grabs his spinach and rises to the occasion.

In addition to establishing the basic plot of many of the subsequent wartime Popeye cartoons, THE MIGHTY NAVY changed the look of the pipe-chomping brawler, dressing him in Navy whites instead of his previous black outfit. While many gags are not as fresh as some in the earlier Popeye cartoons, this short presents a great use of musical timing and foreground-to-background animation. Some battleship gags reference previous Popeye adventures, giving a nice wink to fans, as well as a fresh unexpected joke. Another unique element is the ending, which commemorates Popeye's image being used as the official insignia of Navy bomber squadron. The ending closes the short with a sentimental beat instead of the typical joke. Minus any extreme racial stereotypes and featuring some of the funnier gags of the wartime shorts, this one has held up fairly well in terms of the later Popeye cartoons.

From the title one can pretty much ascertain the basic plot of this Popeye short. Olive wins first prize in a sweepstakes. She searches the house furiously for the ticket and can't find it. When Popeye and her finally locate the missing ticket, it heads out the window on the wind, sending Popeye into a string of near disasters.

Out of all the Popeye shorts from 1941, this one retains the puns and asides that so wonderfully defined the earlier shorts. In the tail part of the depression era America, or even today, a lost lottery ticket gives a great rooting point for the audience. A great hook for stringing together what turns out to be simply a list of gags. But the film works not just because the gags are good, but because they are woven into a plot that means something and supplemented with funny dialogue and character moments. A great piece of writing comes when Popeye tries to grab the ticket of the backside of a young lady without being slapped. Popeye reads a paper and mutters, "Man bites dog outside frankfurter stand." Classic Popeye humor. There's also some solid animation. The timing is great in how the scenes flow seamlessly from one gag to the next. Though the closing line is dated, there is a funny charm in the dated joke all the same.

This HBO movie chronicling of the Florida recount of the 2000 U.S. presidential election will have you worrying about our political process. While its main character is on the Gore team, the film argues that when it comes to counting votes, the opposing sides are far more interested in the ones being counted for them. That seems fairly obvious, but when courts and elected officials put party allegiance above the will of the people we have a problem in this country whether we're on the winning side or the losing one.

Ron Klain (Kevin Spacey, AMERICAN BEAUTY) was Gore's chief campaign manager until he was fired. Then he was later hired back in a lower function. When he's offered a post in Gore's possible transition team, he declines what he sees as a demotion. When it seems the election has been called too early in Florida, he becomes the chief champion for hand recounts. Standing in his way is Republican strategist James Baker (Tom Wilkinson, MICHAEL CLAYTON), who will try every legal trick in the book to prevent the recount from going forward. His chief tool (tool being the key word) was Katherine Harris (Laura Dern, BLUE VELVET), the Florida secretary of state, who did everything in her power to stand in the way of the Gore campaign's requests, believing that God placed her in this political storm.

Ingmar Bergman was a horror movie director. Don't think so, well look at this film and tell me otherwise. CRIES AND WHISPERS deals with torture (the mental kind). Dead bodies come back to life. Shocking sexual violence. Blood. Pain. Images on the screen are so difficult to watch I had to look away. But what makes this haunting film so frightening isn't that there are boogie men lurking in the shadows, only ourselves.

Karin (Ingrid Thulin, WILD STRAWBERRIES) and Maria (Liv Ullmann, PERSONA) have come to stay with their sister Agnes (Harriet Andersson, SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT) on her deathbed. It is the early 20th century and Agnes is suffering painfully from cancer. Her sisters are emotionally distant. The only one that gives Agnes any genuine care is her stocky maid Anna (Kari Sylwan, FACE TO FACE).