Thursday, January 20, 2011

SKI slope of doom

FROZEN (2010)

Remember the days when you could make a great, kick ass movie with a wad of bubblegum and your mama's second hand-handy cam. Ok me neither, but still, not every movie needed 100 million dollar budget, and computerized blood. Shout out to Savini! If you don't know who that is, its ok. Sad. But ok.
Well there is still a market for independent film making. Indeed with the growing number of big budgeted kaka, and Hollywood's growing dependence on the remake one could argue people are seeking out alternatives. Okay most of those people might be stoned university students, and middle aged people who have eight copies of the evil dead, but dammit it counts.
Frozen stands as the most vivid example of a success with near nothing but a great idea, and writing, and actors and ... well that's all you really... ok and directing. Simple plot... Boy and girl, and boys bestie go to ski/snowboard. They get left behind on a ski lift after the park is closed (quite believably actually). And realizing they will freeze before help arrives they try to find a way down from a chair suspended a good sixty feet from ground.
Sound boring? If so slap your damn self. The suspense is nerve shattering... You will cringe, and if you are not horribly desensitized by modern horror and Oprah, you will look away. The struggle these three go through as real people in a real situation with a camera never afraid to be unflinching is ... well REALLY SCARY.
I've heard a peer refer to this as "Will do for Ski lifts what Jaws did to the water" and they is right. I would bet money a few girlfriends talked boyfriends out of a ski trip after this flick. The gore (yes there is gore, how you ask? Go find out!) is fantastic. Brutally real... Its really a running theme with this flick.
This movie messed me up a little. Oh and Hollywood... pay attention to what a real freaking ending looks like.

After you watch this movie the following joke will make sense, till then sorry: If Hollywood had done this guaranteed in a few months we'd have trailers for the sequel... "Frozen: Ice Dances with Wolves"

A great movie. The performances are stellar... The line "That was the boy I was gonna marry" still gets me. I honestly think she deserved a nod somewhere from someone.

Movie scale: 3.5 out of five stars
horror/thriller scale: 4 out of five stars (points for originality, and simplicity)

-- Sincerely your fav white holmie
Chuck B. Boonsweet

Then sea Dwellers

ATLANTIS : The Lost Empire (2001)

Ok plot, if you are unaware of Atlantis. The legend/history goes as such. Super awesome city of long ago, was all advanced, and disappeared. So that's the legit part anyway... Enter Disney, and Atlantis had spaceships, and laser beams, and I think was populated by the extras from LILO and STITCH lol. So present day, a few thousand years after city went for a swim, bumbling science guy gets a mysterious benefactor to back his quest for fame, and the lost city. With a rag tag group of funny and colorful characters, they make there way past giant robot lobsters, fire bomb fireflies, and spear wielding Atlantians... (I should pause here if you are thinking how did they go from spaceships to spears, not sure something to do with a hidden glowing ball I believe) to the city itself.

That being said Boony loves this movie for a few reasons. This was one of two big budget Disney ventures into computer assisted animation that was not well received by the public (Reference the 150 million dollar flop that was the underrated TREASURE PLANET). Films that I thought along with another non Disney entry into the genre TITAN AE were actually very, very pretty, and fun.

Second... tremendous voice cast... Michael J Fox... Leonard Nimoy... James Garner (as a fantastic bad guy). and the dearly missed Jim Varney. Doyouknowwhatimean?

Lastly both my often indulged inner child and full grown man child thing Boony is now, agree, this movie is a blast. Some great one liners. Solid inside jokes... and memorable characters...

Maybe not one of Disney's most famous ventures. But a risky and expensive one, that I have thought since the first time delivers some of the most amazing visuals this side of CGI and 85 minutes of family enjoyment much warranted to see.

Movie scale : 2.5 out of five stars
Animated scale : 3.5 out of five stars