There’s something about shooting fish in a barrel, and if any modern equivalent of a movie which lent itself to post-modern bashing more than Avatar does, you might only have truly smug equivalents of Stepin Fetchit, and those examples are self-aware.
Yogi's First Christmas (1980) (DVD)
As an animated movie, Hanna Barbera could have done much better. “Yogi’s First Christmas” isn’t the worst animated movie I’ve ever seen but in terms of quality, it all feels like such a rushed product that was pushed in to production in time for Christmas. The line work is shaky, the coloring is bland, the character models are fuzzy and there are even a few errors that will give the keen observer a hard time.
Up in the Air (2009)
Ryan Bingham is panicking. It’s not that he’s losing his job. There are no dilemmas that are plaguing his family. Ryan is panicking because, for once, he has to settle down and face the fact that soon he’ll have to stop and take a catalogue of what his life has become over the last few years of his life. Traveling around the world, Ryan is the man companies hire to break it to employees that they have been terminated. And he prides himself in being ruthless and merciless in regards to emotions and insecurities involving people he just met and will probably never meet again. Ryan now has to take stock and decide what he has to do now that his company has decide to take its employees and bring them back down to Earth downsizing their traveling due to their slowly decreasing funds and productivity.
The Lovely Bones (2009)
Peter Jackson is usually a very competent director. Hell, he’s a skilled director who can take any concept he wants to tackle and tackle it with great prowess almost never failing. With “The Lovely Bones” the man doesn’t seem to be hitting his stride and instead looks to be sleepwalking through what could have been an excellent film. I never read the novel before but I felt that was what would give me the ability to see through what Jackson was attempting to accomplish. Instead what I received from his latest was a story that was often confused about what it was trying to say. He seems to want to jump on every theme and plot point possible and this causes a cluster fuck in its focus hopping from character to character from perspective to perspective.
The Girlfriend Experience (2009)
We live in a world where fantasies are manifested in the drop of a dime. We can access our fantasies online, we can purchase them, and with enough money we have the ability to live out our fantasies through any means we deem necessary. “The Girlfriend Experience” is about those fantasies and the lengths we’re willing to go to have them lived out. Soderbergh examines the man of today and what situations would indicate their need for companionship. Chelsea is an escort but not the typical one.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Tarantino is often touted as a filmic sensation, a director who understands film and the art of storytelling and despite the backlash he gets from some, the man simply knows how to tell a damn story. In a world where blockbusters and animated films shake us down for cash in exchange for a movie that only acts as an amusement park ride (experienced now, easily forgotten later), Tarantino opts instead to give us bang for our buck with films that surpass their genres and provide us with the old fashioned art of storytelling. With his flair for dialogue and his mastery of the film camera, Tarantino is always performing at his best regardless of his film’s quality (erm–“Death Proof”) and “Inglourious Basterds” is one of his best works yet.
Julie & Julia (2009)
Based on true stories, Nora Ephron’s dramedy is actually based on two novels. This allows Ephron and co. to take parallel storylines and turn “Julie and Julia” in to a bonding ground for a lost woman and a budding chef, both of whom are starting their lives out in new places when we first meet them, and are about to embark on a rather interesting adventure involving food, changing the way they and others think, and fulfilling ambitions regardless of how grand or minute it may seem. Julie is a woman just starting out in her new job as a woman who takes complaints involving 9/11 in Queens. After days of listening to people’s problems, she decides to emulate her hero Julia Child pursuing a different kind of natural high after realizing her life hasn’t been taken advantage of after a meeting with her high powered best friends. Back in the forties we meet a young Julia Child who is just beginning to follow her dreams as a professional chef in Le Cordon Bleu.