GO SEE THIS: This Ain't Your Granddaddy's Cartoon

[I decided that my template was lame and boring so - - KA-POW! MUCH prettier! Many thanks, Blogger!]

So last night, my boyfriend scored us tickets to an advance screening of "Surf's Up". I wasn't overly excited to see it, to be honest. Actually, the idea of watching a 6pm kids' movie at a theater in New York kind of sends shivers down my spine.
















But, I tagged along anyway, thinking that if it really sucked, I could always leave (heck, it was free, right?). (As it turns out, it was on the Upper West Side, so if anything, the 7 year-olds populating the theater were probably more mature and sophisticated than me.)

The film began pretty promptly, and about 20 minutes into it, I was surprised to realize that I was actually enjoying myself. It was pretty darn good! Nothing too original as far as plot goes - think "Karate Kid" meets "Happy Feet" - your typical feel-good-while-learning-a-lesson buddy film. But the actors who voiced the characters did a really great job (I should disclose here that I am partial to Jeff Bridges and Shia LaBeouf [dude I actually spelled that right on my first try, I feel like I deserve a prize or something]), and the animation was fantastic. When I say "fantastic", I mean amazing. The characters were incredibly life-like, and the surf scenes were so good, I forgot I was watching animation.

It's being marketed as a kids' movie, but I would say it's an older kids' movie. While there were no really scary sequences, some of the jokes were in the "wow, did they just go there?" category, also the documentary-style format and overall themes might be a little over the 'lil ones' heads. Personally, I left the theater ready to grab my surf board (oh that's right, I don't have one...). Not only did it unexpectedly raise my spirits, in my opinion, it raised the bar for animated features.

And the Oscar goes to....

Ooh, ooh. It's Oscar season! And while I, like the rest of the country, eagerly await The Academy's decisions to be handed down from whatever Beverly Hills retirement community the old cods are stashed away in, I find it much more satisfying to offer up my own unsolicited opinion on this year's offerings from Tinseltown:

Best worst movie of the year.... was NOT "Snakes on a Plane", although that did have its own awesomely bad merit. It provided hipsters with some amusing catch-phrases for a while, and it made for some very entertaining Halloween costumes. Ultimately, though, it tried too hard to be bad. I like my bad movies to have some smug director standing behind them, completely immune to the stench of their cinematic turd. Therefore...the best worst movie of the year was...... "Crank"!

Yes! This craptastic masterpiece (which I am completely convinced was written and directed by a 14 year-old boy, given the sophomoric story and proliferation of boobies) offers a stunningly lazy plot that centers around a mildly culturally offensive "Ancient Chinese Secret" poison. It's non-stop, cheezy action from beginning to end, sprinkled with a healthy dose of T and A. Don't worry guys, none of the women actually speak, except for one exceptionally vapid, nearly naked blonde.

(She's acting. Like, really, really hard.)

I don't want to ruin the ending...well, maybe I do. He dies. He runs around doing crazy shit, trying to keep his adrenaline flowing, then he dies. But this should not prevent every able-bodied American (especially males between the ages of 14 and 22) from walking - nay, running to the nearest proprieter of DVDs and adding this gem to their collection.