Fantastic Mr. Fox

One of over 400 movies that George Clooney starred in during 2009, Fantastic Mr. Fox is a stop-motion movie about Mr. Fox who raids farms and steals birds. To eat, of course. His wife, Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep), talks him out of stealing and he eventually becomes a writer for the local newspaper.

Feeling like his life is going nowhere, Fox plans to start raiding farms again. However, the farmers are on to him and they begin to make life hard on the animals. Now it's up to Mr. Fox to save the day.

The movie is an animated adaptation of the Roald Dohl children's book. The movie also stars the voices of Bill Murry, the opossum, Jason Schwartzman, Cate Blanchett, Willem Defoe, and Owen Wilson.

The movie was directed by Wes Anderson, who is known for The Darjeerling Limited, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Rushmore. The Fantastic Mr. Fox is rated PG for smoking (gasp!), smoking, and some mild violence (including shooting of guns - gasp!).

The Fantastic Mr. Fox is very melodramatic. There is very little inflection in the dialog and the humor is very dry. VERY dry. It's drier than a $4 bottle of white wine. Both of my kids watched the movie and neither got into it very much. And neither did their Papa.

This was not my favorite kids movie, nor my favorite dry humor movie. I just didn't find it all that funny. For this I can only give it 2 stars.

Zombieland

I watched this movie a week ago courtesy of Netflix. Actually, I paid for it, so it's not really a courtesy, is it?

Zombieland is a mild-humored horror about zombies. Some time in the future, a disease breaks out and Metallica plays great music and many people become zombies. Now living on his own in fear of zombies, Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) narrates the movie and gives us tips for living with zombies. Tips such as 'don't forget the double-pump'.

Suspicious of everyone, Columbus (who uses this name because that's where he's from) runs into Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson). Tallahassee has a fetish for Twinkees and a no-nonsense way of dealing with zombies - and this means fire power.

On their journey they run into 2 girls, Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) and Wichita (Emma Stone) who initially pretend to be sisters, but con the guys and steal their truck. After conning each other a couple of times, they eventually conclude that they need to work together and head to an amusement park where it is rumored there are no zombies.

Zombieland is gory-funny. It's not scary at all. Directed by Ruben Fleischer, Zombieland is 88 minutes long, which I thought was too short, and is Rated R for continuous violence, gore, and language.

I got a good laugh out of this movie. And with a cameo from Bill Murray, this movie my kind of horror movie. Nothing made me jump. And that's good. Additionally, there is awesome music throughout. And Emma Stone is pretty hot. For these reasons, I give Zombieland 4 stars.

Broken Flowers

I got this movie out of the library for a few reasons. First, I was watching Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist and noticed one of the characters. I thought she was pretty hot, but before I publicly announced that she was hot, I wanted to make sure she was over 18. So I went on www.imdb.com.

To my delight, Alexis Dziena is 25. Then I noticed she was in Broken Flowers. I did a Google image search and out popped a totally nude picture of her. As Joey Lawrence would say, "Whoa!" So I reserved it from the library.

When it arrived I read the back and it was rated R for language, drug use, and graphic nudity. Graphic nudity? What does that mean? I was thinking extended sex scenes or something.

Now, the movie itself is a dark humor movie starring Bill Murray, a former comedian. He receives an unsigned letter informing him that he has a 19 year old son. With the help of friend Winston (Jeffrey Wright), Murray decides to drive around and reconnect with former girlfriends to find out if they are the mother and if they typed the letter on a typewriter.

There is nothing overly funny about the movie. It is filled with long awkward pauses, which at first were funny, at least the first 41 times, but after that they got annoying. Murray is down on life and every former girlfriend that he finds reminds him that he sucks. Some of if was mildly funny. But for the most part I was unimpressed.

The movie also stars Sharon Stone, Tilda Swinton, and Jessica Lange as former girlfriends. But as I mentioned, the reason I watched it was Alexis Dziena. And based on what I saw and the rating, I have come to the conclusion that MPAA description of graphic nudity means that it shows pubic hair. A boob? That's just nudity. Pubic hair? That's graphic. How ridiculous is that?

So I give this movie only 2 stars. Bill Murray is no longer funny. And the graphicness of the movie was not enough to win me over. Booo!

Stripes

I got this 1981 classic from Netflix since all the other movies that I wanted were on Long Wait. I had never seen this movie, so unofficially I was not actually part of the Man Club. Though I have ridden a motorcycle and been in the boys locker room with a girl when I was in high school. But I digress.


Stripes stars Bill Murray as a has-been cab driver named John Winger who quits his job, loses his car, breaks up with his girlfriend, and gets kicked out of his apartment - all on the same day. He temporarily moves in with his buddy Russell (Harold Ramis, also of Ghostbusters). Murray sees a commercial for the Army and talks Ramis into joining with him.


Once at boot camp, Murray and Ramis were united with Ox (John Candy, who's not even an American), Elmo (Judge Reinhold), and Psycho (Conrad Dunn). It's there that we hear the memorable quote from Psycho: "My real name is Francis. If anyone calls me Francis, I kill him." Sgt Hulka, "Lighten up, Francis!"


The new recruits fall under the command of Captain Stillman (John Larroquette), the inept captain with a penchant for watching the ladies shower with his telescope. The other star of the movie is the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle, which in 2008 looks likes a badly renovated GMC Motorhome. The EM-50 is equipped with state-of-the-art toggle switches for electronics, bullet proof siding to cover the windows, missiles, and a drop down cargo door in the rear. Unfortunately, it didn't appear to have any pull-out couches or a kitchenette.


On the way, Murray and Ramis hook up with 2 lady MP's who bail them out of trouble and deliver of some saucy love. The group is the biggest rejects of the Army. They are unable to get in shape and cannot seem to learn the drills. Captain Stillman is then put in charge of the EM-50 and is sent to Germany with this new class. Murray and Ramis then decide to take the EM-50 for a joy run and rendezvous with the girls. Captain Stillman finds out the EM-50 is gone and decides to chase them, but inadvertently end up in Communist Czechoslovakia. Now the EM-50 must go in and save everyone.


Stripes fits well with the typical Murray and Ramis films - e.g. Caddyshack, Ghostbusters. And did you know that Harold Ramis wrote Animal House, Meatballs, Caddyshack, Stripes, Ghostbusters, and Back to School? This guy is the unsung hero of 80's classic comedies.


Stripes is Rated R for cursing, violence (though it's really bad), nudity (top and bottom - remember the telescope scene), sexual situations, and Dick Chaney may have had some input on the R rating because of some criticism of the government. The movie is an hour and 40 minutes long. I give this movie 4 stars. It's not the funniest movie of our time, but it's good. Definitely a movie you should see before you turn 35.