Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast

New Releases 11/21/08

Bolt (PG)
Starring: John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Susie Essman, Malcolm McDowell, Mark Walton
Director: Chris Williams
In this entertaining movie with something for all ages to enjoy, Bolt, the canine star of a TV show about a super hero dog thinks he really is as powerful as a locomotive, faster than a speeding bullet, and able to leap tall buildings. But when Bolt gets thrust into the “real world,” his kitten sidekick is just plain annoying, and the spotlight is stolen by a hamster in a plastic bubble. Presented in Disney Digital 3-D, the story holds up in two dimensions as well.
3 and 1/2 pieces of Disney fun toast

Twilight (PG-13)
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Shot like an Abercrombie & Fitch ad, this pretty-vampire-as-teen-heartthrob movie is designed to elicit screams of delight from young audiences rather than terror. Directed by and starring the duo from the insightful “Thirteen,” they bring nothing but sullenness to this low-budget tale of adolescent angst
1 and 1/2 pieces of pretty but asexual vampire toast

Synecdoche, New York (R)
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener
Director: Charlie Kaufman
Celebrated screenwriter Charlie Kaufman makes an audacious directorial debut with a tale of an upstate theater director mounting a new production in a cavernous warehouse while his personal life falls apart–and no wonder, in the pursuit of perfection, the project has already spanned decades. But the final performance isn’t that important, for in this film, the joy is in the journey.
3 pieces of Hoffman/Kaufman toast

Anita O’Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer (NR)
Starring: Anita O’Day, Amy Albany, Buddy Bregman, Charles Britton, David Boska, Ken Druker, Joe Franklin, Will Friedwald, Russel Garcia, Jim Gavin, Freeman Gunther, Bill Holman, Karen Kramer, Eddie Locke, Johnny Mandel, John Cameron Mitchell, Mark Morris, John Pietranowicz, Denny Roche, Annie Ross, Mary “Bunny” Sellers, Dr. Billy Taylor, George Win, Margaret Whiting, Joe Wielding, Gerald Wilson
Directed by: Robbie Cavolina, Ian McCrudden
We are blessed with live interviews and rare recorded performances of arguably the greatest white jazz singer of all time in this superb documentary biography. You see her with Louis Armstrong and Gene Krupa and hear her talk candidly about her sixteen years addicted to drugs and alcohol, but it is her voice that captures us, and her rendition of “Sweet Georgia Brown” at Newport is a crown jewel.
4 pieces of jazz royalty toast

The Boy In the Striped Pajamas (NR)
Starring: Vera Farmiga, David Thewlis, Rupert Friend, David Hayman
Director: Mark Herman
This is a Holocaust story of a German lad who befriends a Jewish boy at the nearby “farm” (which is, of course, a concentration camp). Due to my elderly father’s hospitalization, I have not seen this film, but other critics have written decidedly contradictory opinions ranging from “inspirational,” to “offensive,” and “contemptible awards-bait” to “melodramatic drivel.”
Unable to preview

NEW On DVD

WALL-E (G)
Starring: Fred Willard, Jeff Garlin, Ben Burtt, Sigourney Weaver, John Ratzenberger
Director: Andrew Stanton
The people from Pixar have created an amazing fable about a little waste recycling robot who falls in love after several hundred years of hard work. The fututristic earth with all the overweight people gorging themselves for no other reason than they can, is mind boggling and the first half hour, without any dialogue except an occasion whirr or gurgle, is awe-inspring. And the cockroach? Well the people who managed to make a rat appealing, do the same thing with the very same kind of bug that Raid insecticide likes to send to boot hill.
4 pieces of Pixar has another winner toast

Tropic Thunder (PG-13)
Starring: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey, Brandon T. Jackson, Tom Cruise
Director: Ben Stiller
Political correctness is thrown out with the baby’s bathwater in this war movie spoof. The set up is that a group of actors are dropped in the jungle thinking they are filming an action movie but are dropped into a real war zone where the bad guys are shooting live ammo. Robert Downey plays an Australian who has dyed his skin and coifed his hair so he “becomes” an African-American. Tacky, tasteless but funny
3 and 1/2 pieces equal opportunity grossness toast