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PG-13 | 1 hr 49 mins | Thriller Movie
A man (Liam Neeson) wakens from a coma while on a business trip to Europe only to watch that some other man has taken his identity and stepped into his life.
Synopsis:
Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) wakes up after a car accident in Berlin to discover that his wife (January Jones) suddenly doesn't know him and another man (Aidan Quinn) has assumed his identity. Ignored by disbelieving authorities and hunted by mysterious assassins, he finds himself alone, tired, and on the run. Helped by an unlikely ally (Diane Kruger), Martin plunges rush into a deadly mystery that will force him to question his sanity, his identity, and just how far he's willing to go to uncover the truth.

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Starring: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, January Jones

Rango

Director: Gore Verbinski
Starring: Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Alfred     Molina, Bill Nighy, Ray Winstone
Release Date: UK & US – 4th March
 
An unnamed chameleon (voiced by Johnny Depp) finds himself stranded in the Mojave Desert after his terrarium falls off his human family’s car.  Rather than try to find his way home (he’s not a dog), the chameleon desperately hunts for water and his search leads him to the Western-style town of Dirt.  Once there, his instincts as an actor/writer/director kick in and he decides to assume a new identity: Rango, meanest reptile in the west.  The gullible townsfolk believe him and after he accidentally defeats a hawk, he’s made sheriff by the Noah Cross-esque mayor (Ned Beatty).

Rango proudly wears its Chinatown inspiration on its sleeve.  The major conflict in the film is that Dirt is almost out of water, which functions not only as a refreshing beverage, but as the town’s currency.  Every Wednesday, the town lines up to do an intricate line dance in order to appease the mighty desert faucet, which is now only pumping mud. After the water reserve is stolen from the bank, Rango gathers up a possum posse and seeks to reclaim the reserve (neglecting to mention that he stupidly helped the supposed thieves tunnel their way into the vault).
Everything in Rango is done with a great deal of charm.  There’s plenty of slapstick and a little bit of bathroom humor, but I find these aspects far less grating when they’re coupled with a desire to be strange.  The script has no problem giving its characters SAT-level vocabulary or providing the love interest (Isla Fisher) with a malfunctioning defense mechanism.  Verbinski makes room for the broad comedy that everyone will enjoy and a bunch of movie references and wordplay jokes that only adults will get.

What’s wonderful about Rango is how it deftly balances the light, silly humor with the darker, more thoughtful aspects of the story.  There’s pathos to Rango’s story as he struggles to make his own identity and there’s smart commentary about the nature of authenticity against the backdrop of Hollywood’s facade of the west.  But then you’ll see a hawk inserting quarters into a vending machine or Rango quickly explaining that camouflaging is “an art not a science,” and the movie continues on at its brisk pace.  Only when it reaches the third act does the story begin to feel a bit drawn out and in need of some trimming.

However, the length isn’t too much of a problem because Verbinski has created such a delightful world.  All of the voice acting is terrific, but Depp in particular does tremendous work with his Rango voice and you can really hear him throwing himself into the performance.  The animation of the characters is equally outstanding.  The cast is comprised of southwestern fauna such as reptiles, amphibians (“Ain’t no shame in that.”), and rodents, and Verbinski doesn’t try to make them look cuddly.  He understands that giving them big, expressive eyes will make them relatable to the audience, and then he can let the animators do impressive work when it comes to how their skin shifts and moves.  And it’s all tied together with some gorgeous visuals, which should comes as no surprise when you consider that cinematographer Roger Deakins (True Grit) served as a visual consultant on the picture.

Megamind

With the voices of:
Megamind Will Ferrell
Roxanne Tina Fey
Hal/Titan Jonah Hill
Minion David Cross
Metro Man Brad Pitt

"Megamind" was the third 3-D movie I'd seen in a row, and as I struggled to free my glasses from their industrial-strength plastic envelope, I wasn't precisely looking forward to it. Why do 3-D glasses come so securely wrapped they seem like acts of hostility against the consumer? Once I freed my glasses and settled down, however, I was pleased to see a 3-D image that was quite acceptable. Too dim, as always, but the process was well-used and proves again that animation is incomparably more suited for 3-D than live action is.
I'd just been rewatching "Superman" (1978) and felt right at home with the opening of "Megamind," narrated by a bright blue alien over flashbacks to his infancy. Born on a distant planet, he's packed into a rocket ship and blasted off to Earth, just like the Man of Steel. En route, he meets his lifetime nemesis, a golden child who lands on Earth and in the lap of wealth. The blue child, alas, lands in a prison and is raised by hardened convicts.

As they grow up, these two super-beings are destined to play crucial roles in nearby Metro City, where they're named Megamind (voice of Will Ferrell) and Metro Man (Brad Pitt). We may remember that Superman was given his name by Lois Lane, and here the story of the two superbeings is covered by a TV reporter named Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey). Roxanne's cameraman, Hal (Jonah Hill, looking rather Jonah Hill-like), later morphs into yet a third super-being named Titan.

This set-up is bright and amusing, even if it does feel recycled from bits and pieces of such recent animated landmarks as "The Incredibles" with its superpowers and "Despicable Me" with its villain. "Megamind" even goes so far as naming Megamind's fishy sidekick "Minion" (David Cross), a nod to the Minions who serve the despicable Gru. I enjoyed Megamind's conclusion, after being bullied as a child, that if he can't get credit for doing anything good, he might as well become a villain.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a hero requires a villain, and "Megamind" has some fun by depriving Megamind of Metro Man. Left without an opponent, he loses his zeal for evildoing, and actually clones Titan to cure his loneliness. All of this of course is accomplished with much slapstick and sensational action, in a population which consists entirely of super-beings, plus Roxanne, the prison warden and cheering thousands of anonymous humans.

Tina Fey does a spirited job with Roxanne, and again I was reminded of "Superman" and Margot Kidder's high-spirited, unafraid Lois Lane. This time Roxanne isn't smitten by anyone, which is just as well because these guys are aliens, after all.

"Megamind" is an amusing family entertainment and gains some energy from clever dialogue and the fun Will Ferrell has with his character. I like the way he pronounces "Metro City" like "metricity," for example. The 3-D is well done, if unnecessary. Nothing in the movie really benefits from it, and if you can find it in 2-D, that's the best choice. Save the surcharge and see those colors nice and bright.