Robot Chicken Star Wars (2007)

Robot Chicken: Star Wars is an Annie Award-winning 22-minute compilation of 35 Star Wars-related snippets, some reused from seasons 1-2. Remember that Robot Chicken stopmotion is fast-paced, edgy, and ranges from quizzical to hilarious and RC:SW is no exception -- but with plenty of great original sequences and laughter. The disc includes (* = best): Opening (Palpatine rebuilds RC as Vader), 2 (Luke's grenade surprises AT-AT pilot on toilet), 3* (Palpatine takes collect call from Vader after Death Star destruction: "I love you too"), 4 (Jawa orders "Martini!" at cantina), 5 (custodian sweeps up body of Darth Maul), 6 (Admiral Ackbar cereal commercial), 7* (cantina lightsaber victim as innocent architect pranked by drunk coworker then laid off), 8 (3PO sets off airport metal detector), 9 (Qui-Gon drops lightsaber and it cuts through numerous decks), 10 (Vader's helmet gets stuck), 11* (Imperial officer explains to recruits how crew humors Vader's imagined choking power), 12 (Luke remembers he has no family to tell of victory), 13 (SW nerd dressed as tauntaun saves George Lucas from mob of fans), 14 (Luke's blast shield down, Obi-Wan knees him in groin), 15 (space slugs order out for Chinese), 16 (custodian sweeps up body of Mace Windu), 17* (George W. Bush fantasizes he is a Jedi, has numerous encounters), 18 (Cloud City weather report: "cloudy"), 19 (Han Solo's tauntaun already has an occupant), 20* (Luke holds Yo Mama fight with Palpatine), 21 (custodian sweeps up body of Palpatine), 22 (Solo's "reactor leak" bluff does not go as planned), 23 (Jar Jar fatally exasperates Vader), 24 (Luke enjoys Tosche Station strippers), 25* (Boba Fett gloats over Solo in carbonite, gets creepy), 26 (Chewbacca combs self), 27* (Vader reveals to Luke "I am your father" and other anticlimactic spoilers), 28* (Palpatine's speech is interrupted by construction noises), 29 (Lobot disco dances), 30 (Max Rebo's Greatest Hits commercial), 31 (Conan O'Brien-style parody show invites a Death Star visit), 32* (Luke and Leia apres incest), 33 (Empire on Ice! musical), 34 (SW theme music sung as RC chicken bawks), 35 (luminous Jar Jar annoys Vader). 4 stars. (6-15-11)

Priceless (2006)

Priceless is a memorable French love story about Irene (Audrey Tautou), a sexy Gold Coast gold-digger, who mistakes the fumbling hotel bartender Jean (Gad Elmaleh) for a rich jet-set businessman. Their dalliance eventually costs her a liaison she has built over two years with a rich old sugar daddy, three months from a marriage where she would be "set for life." She sets her mind (and hooks) on a series of other rich old men but her heart is not in it whenever she sees Jean at the five-star hotel she frequents in Monaco. Meanwhile, Jean has been picked up by a rich attractive widow as Irene coaches Jean (who I would call the French Hugh Grant) in how to play his benefactress for as many gifts as possible: "You have to get everything you can get. We have the power of youth and charm." However, Jean realizes he must choose what he wants and why -- expensive gifts or an impossible love. Priceless is a sweet romantic comedy with a steady stream of situational mishaps that the couple must negotiate to get away with their harebrained schemes and find time to be together. You also get to see the daily routines of life in some of the world's best hotels as employees make beds, provide turndown service, prepare food, and so on. 4.5 stars.

Super Capers (Super Capers: The Origins of Ed and the Missing Bullion) (2008)

Super Capers is a campy, fun spoof of superhero movies -- much as if Mystery Men or Zoom: Academy for Suoerheroes met up with Kick-Ass. You should watch Super Capers if you like corny movies like Mystery Men, The Big Hit, The Big Bus, and Big Trouble. Otherwise, skip it or you may just get peeved. Our story begins as Ed Gruberman (Justin Whalin), a would-be superhero who is looking for his secret powers, is following a mysterious woman down a dark alley. He two-by-fours a robber who accosts her, only to find out she is a self-styled superhero named Red (Christine Lakin). After Gruberman gets sued by the thief and his oozy lawyer (Tom Sizemore), Judge (Michael Rooker) commits him to a superhero halfway house headed by Sarge (Tommy Lister) and populated by alpha male Will Powers (Ryan McPartlin), Felicia Freeze (Danielle Harris), the metakinetic Brainard (Sam Lloyd), technical wizard Q (Oliver Muirhead), a pint-sized Schwarzeneggerian robot (Pancho Moler), and, for comic relief, Pufferboy (Ray Griggs), who inflates like a puffer fish every time he gets nervous. The plot gets more convoluted than you would expect (including some time travel) and the movie is full of fanboy references to Star Wars, Star Trek, Back to the Future, James Bond, and more. I had a good time laughing my way through this serving of silliness and I hope you do too. 4 stars. (6-8-11)

Surrogates (2009)

Surrogates is something like Eagle Eye meets I, Robot -- except we are the robots (simulacra driven by virtual reality interfaces, actually) and the global assault threatens all of humanity (except the Luddite yahoos who live in squalid camps who would be the only survivors). It's a very nicely done story on a sci-fi subject I would be hard-pressed to find tackled elsewhere. (WALL-E showed what would happen if humanity's survivors tooled around on ad-blasted virtual-reality couches: Can you say Blimp My Ride? So what would happen to the human spirit if all real-world, face-time interaction -- with its attendant risks and rewards -- were performed by designer-model human surrogates while flesh-and-blood people never left their homes?) Bruce Willis plays his blonde-haired plainclothes-cop simulacra, investigating and chasing bad guys out in the real world, as well as his unplugged self getting slapped around in helicopters, cars, and other conveyances when it is the only way to save the world. James Cromwell is the creator of surrogate technology, forced out of his company and now playing more than one role in the lethal endgame. Surrogates is action-packed like Die Hard but with technology like Eagle Eye and a few nods to pathos like AI. I like it better than I, Robot. 4.5 stars. (6-8-11)

Inquiring Nuns (1968)

Inquiring Nuns is a straightforward man-on-the-street slice-of-life time capsule dated 1968 in Chicago. Two fresh-faced nuns are given a cameraman and a microphone, instructed how to hold and point the microphone, and quasi-directed to ask anyone they choose "Are you happy?" as well as any followup questions they deem fitting. The result of these two women's amateur ad hoc interviews is a sincere and often insightful snapshot into what proved to be the most turbulent decade of my lifetime. This snapshot is urbane since those approached for interviews are generally inside the Loop, outside a Catholic church, or in the Field Museum of Industry and Science but interviewees are mixed in racial and philosophical makeup -- from the four men who reveal themselves to be seminarians from Denver to black and white folks from nearly every situation in life. (Steppin Fetchit happened to be one of the respondees.) The earnest and articulate responses of many interviewees, mixed with the casual or spontaneous responses of others, may help build your hope in the greater angels of our human nature -- esp. when considered against the backdrop of our increasingly more rancorous society today, some 42 years later. The disc also includes a 14-minute followup featurette, conducted 40 years later by schoolchildren. (I had to acquire this disc through a competing service to view and rate it since it is a Save title on this service.) Enjoy! 3 stars. (11-29-10, posted 6-2-11, updated 3-2-16)

Sea Wife (1957)

Imagine a Casablanca-like postscript on a story like The African Queen or Heaven Knows Mr. Allison, but not as well written and acted, and you would have Sea Wife. Our story opens years after the supposedly harrowing but mostly humdrum survival at sea of four (er, three) occupants of a lifeboat. Apparently, they dealt with the trauma of their ship being sunk by the Japanese and finding themselves, four strangers, in what might be the sole surviving lifeboat by referring to each other only by nicknames: Bulldog, Cannon, Sea Wife, and Number Four. They refrain from divulging personal details of their lives back in society and Sea Wife (Joan Collins) esp. abstains from divulging that she is a nun. (She was passing children into a lifeboat when she lost her religious robes.) Still she observes her faith by quietly praying so that the others may not hear and later refusing the romantic advances of Cannon (Richard Burton), who late in life decides to seek her out. He just misses her at the end, walking right past her, dressed in the habit of her religious order. When her superior comments that he did not recognize the woman he loved, she replies, "Why should he? No one ever looks at the face of a nun." 3 stars.

Heaven Help Us (1985)

Heaven Help Us nearly got 4.5 stars from me but the movie provided more exposition than emotion (though the disciplinary scenes were quite gripping). In short, Heaven Help Us is like The Name of the Rose meets The Dead Poets' Society: It deftly pegs the atmosphere and the culture of a Catholic all-boys high school but the heart of the narrative is firmly in the mouth of a misogynistic mook whose be-all and end-all is to smoke, joke, and get girls. It is for this reason that I disliked Dead Poets' Society: We do not steep ourselves in faith and literature, appealing to our higher angels, so that we can drink, smoke, swear, rebel, and carouse. Anyway, our story begins in 1965 at St. Basil's Catholic Prep School for boys in Brooklyn. The Christian Brothers who administer and teach at the school are (as in real life) a mixed bag of souls: a stern yet pragmatic principal, Brother Thadeus (Donald Sutherland); an amiable and practical novice, Brother Timothy (John Heard); a hardline disciplinarian (who topples over the line into physical abuse), Brother William (William Eustace); and others. Father Abruzzi (Wallace Shawn) gives a scathing sermon against lust before the social dance between the boys and girls schools that may be a high point for many. Central characters are Michael Dunn (Andrew McCarthy), a kind and thoughtful boy whose grandparents, sister, and late parents are convinced he should become a priest (and possibly even Pope), though after several confrontations, he falls in with Rooney (Kevin Dillon), the lead troublemaker, Caesar (Michael Danare), and others. Dunn also falls in love with Danni (Mary Stuart Masterson), whose own tragic story leads to a measure of joy, grace, and sorrow for both. The closing moments carry us to a climactic confrontation and resolution that may have you gripping your seat. As it is, I would love to give this movie 4.5 stars but to do so it should be more like Taps than Wide Awake. 4 stars.

Monsters vs. Aliens: Bonus: B.O.B.'s Big Break (2009)

Pay attention people: BOB's Big Break is 20 minutes total. (It says so right in front of your eyes.) It is a bonus disc not the full movie. (It says so right in front of your eyes.) It does not come with 3D glasses. (It says so right in front of your eyes.) You provide your own 3D glasses -- even a free pair from a movie you caught in the theater. (Do not complain about the movie or this service on these grounds. You queued it. Get over it.) This disc contains a 13-minute self-titled cartoon (Dr. Cockroach and Missing Link try to use BOB as a bomb in an escape attempt but he becomes an accidental mind-reader, followed by chase scenes and craziness) plus 7 minutes of karaoke (Ginormica sings "I Will Survive," BOB sings "More Than A Woman" to his lime Jello mold, and Dr. Cockroach and Missing Link sing "Born To Be Wild"). The cartoon is funny; the animation and voice talent are all top notch. 4 stars.