Sony Film is attempting to establish a beach head in the computer animation space to complete against Pixar/Disney and Fox but hasn’t made a great deal of progress yet. Surf’s Up is their third major release, better than either Open Season and Monster House but still not as good as Pixar’s least effort (say A Bug’s Life).

Which is not to say Surf’s Up is a bad movie; it’s just not a terrific one. Yet another penguin story, we get a mockumentary-style look at Cody Maverick (Shia Labeouf), the next great surfing champion. Cody is toiling away unappreciated in Antarctica when a promoter’s lackey comes searching for new faces his boss (James Woods) can promote at the big tournament in Hawaii.

The promoter’s problem is that no one can dethrone Tank (Diedrich Bader, doing his best to imitate Patrick Warburton’s mean voice) who, unfortunately, is your stereotypical spoiled sports star. The third main competitor is stoner Chicken Joe (Jon Heder). Tank became champ by beating the original surf king, Big Z (Jeff Bridges)–Z died in that contest.

Or did he? When Cody gets to Hawaii he meets reporter Lani (Zooey Deschanel), Z’s niece. Cody’s board is broken in an early test against Tank so Lani takes him to Geek for a new one. Hmm. Lani and Cody of course fall in love immediately and meanwhile Geek tries to teach our boy how to grow into a good man.

Surf’s Up was directed by Ash Brannon and Chris Buck, who previously worked at Disney and Pixar, and they deliver good visual elements but the script, by Brannon, Buck, Chris Jenkins (no previous writing credits) and Don Rhymer (no animated films but credits include classics like Big Momma’s House 1 and 2, Santa Clause 2, Agent Cody Banks 2 and Deck the Halls), never rises above expectations nor does the voice work. There are some nice gags and jokes but not much originality and few places where anyone takes a risk.

recommended

There have been a number of movies in the last few years focused on people dealing with the emotional devastation of 9/11 and, for the most point, I tend to avoid them as too painful or too likely to be maudlin. Somehow, though, I had the feeling that Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler could be trusted not to make those mistakes.

Reign Over Me, the story of how a lost friend (Cheadle) helps a lost soul (Sandler) come to grips with the loss of his wife and daughters, doesn’t make those mistakes. A terrific supporting cast helps too. Jada Pinkett-Smith, Saffron Burrows, Liv Tyler, Melinda Dillon, Robert Klein, Donald Sutherland and Paula Newsome all add to the total what their roles as family and friends permit.

Particularly surprising was the understated script by writer/director Mike Binder (though not his performance as Sandler’s friend), since his previous work rarely rose above the level of dreck like The Upside of Anger, Man About Town and especially the HBO flop comedy series Mind of the Married Man. Maybe I’m trying find excuse but I think the difference with Reign Over Me is likely down to the influence of the two stars, who produced it.

Mostly I like this movie because the story is primarily about having to go on with life after tragedy rips away the ones you love most, where the events of 2001 are the origin, offscreen, and next about how giving friendship can be repaid many times over in self-awareness.

definitely recommended

When I was about 10 or 12 I started reading Allen Drury’s Cold War tales of political intrigue in Washington, D.C. He had such an imaginative way of retelling what the real life pundits and politicos tried to warn us were the true dangers of those villainous Soviets and Red Chinese.

Advise & Consent was the first and most famous of those novels, originally published in 1959 and made into a stage play before turning out this 1962 film version. Henry Fonda plays Robert Leffingwell, nominated to be Secretary of State by a (never named in the script) president, a very controversial choice, mainly because he ran afoul of a very senior southern senator several years before. Senator Seabright Cooley (played by Charles Laughton) does not like to be shown up, not hardly, and knows how to hold on to a grudge.

Leffingwell’s politics are, perhaps, a bit too liberal in what was a country barely passed the McCarthyite Era and sure enough Cooley uses a trick right out of that nasty playbook. The nomination also runs into the ambitious young senator named Van Ackerman (a very young George Grizzard) and the morality of the committee chairman, Lafe Smith (Don Murray, Smith is the junior senator from Utah so of course he’s called Brigham Anderson). Playing a Kennedyesque bachelor senator is Peter Lawford (who was the real ones’ brother-in-law) and also stuck in the middle is Walter Pidgeon as the loyal workhorse majority leader.

Directed by Otto Preminger and with a screenplay from Wendell Mayes, Advise & Consent wisely avoids explicitly stating to which party any of the politicians belong. Though if one were to suggest the majority (and all the main characters) were Democrats, I’d probably agree. Preminger made this movie at the height of his career, coming after the Sidney Poitier version of Porgy and Bess, the Jimmy Stewart thriller Anatomy of a Murder (with script also by Wendell Mayes) and Exodus, improbably starring Paul Newman in the dramatic journey of Holocaust survivors trying to get past nasty British soldiers into pre-Israel Palestine.

This film version is just okay, the novels were much better; Preminger and Mayes take the melodramatic portions of Drury’s novel and as much as possible avoid the political story. Fonda is barely seen in the first half and refuses to involve himself in the back room maneuvers surrounding his nomination. Laughton and Murray have the meatiest parts, though the few women present–mainly Gene Tierney and Inga Swenson–have juicy cameos.

moderately recommended

Nicholas Cage has starred in many big action movies over the years but given his physical and emotional natures has been a poor choice for the roles (e.g., Gone in 60 Seconds, Face/Off, Con Air). Characters that are a bit on the quirky, self-conscious side are better fits (Matchstick Men, City of Angels, The Rock). This film, which does not require him to be strong or fast or even all that smart, turns out to be a good choice.

In Next Cage plays Chris Johnson, a man made nearly miserable by having been born with the strange talent to see about two minutes into his own future. He uses this skill to be a modestly successful Las Vegas magician and win just enough money to stay under the radar of the various casino bosses.

One night, though, he catches the eye of a security manager and needs his ability to barely escape (the unstated) unpleasantness that would surely follow being caught. On his way out, however, he bumps into a man who plans to rob the casino’s cash cage and shoot two people dead; his nature won’t allow him to skate by without stopping it from happening.

Somehow–the movie never explains this important fact–Johnson has also already come to the attention of FBI counterterrorist agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore) and a polyglot terrorist band who’ve smuggled a nuclear device into Los Angeles. Both are tracking him, though the baddies just want him out of the way and Ferris wants his help stopping them.

The last complication is Liz Cooper (Jessica Biel). For the first time in his life Johnson has seen one thing more than two minutes in the future: he sees Liz walking into a Vegas diner. And he sees it over an over again, to the point where he goes to said diner every morning at the time of his vision, since he doesn’t know the day. Finally she shows up and he uses his ability to ensure the perfect approach. They leave together.

Just ahead of the Feds and bad guys, as it happens. He’s already fallen for her and sure enough she falls for him (he cheats, of course). Then the downside of his emotional attachment becomes clear as the bad guys take Cooper hostage to get to Johnson.

This movie doesn’t require Cage to be a fighter or a genius, just to be overly aware and able to portray a man weary beyond his years, something he can do quite well. Think about how ‘old’ Chris Johnson’s brain must be, reliving so many moments in time until they come out just as he desires; two minutes over and over again.

Lee Tamahori, a Bond veteran (Die Another Day), has a good touch with the mix of special effects and action, not always showing all his down cards. The script, by Gary Goldman (Total Recall) and Jonathon Hensleigh (Die Hard With a Vengeance, Armageddon, The Punisher), muddles a bit more than one would like but decent overall. Honestly I’m a bit surprised that Next wasn’t a bigger hit since I think it’s a better movie than a number of Cage’s which were.

recommended