Rango

Rango is a great Western.  It’s a great kids’ movie.  It’s just plain great.

This beautifully animated film both ribs and pays homage to the Western, and particularly the spaghetti Western.  It’s a tale of an evil boss and a new sheriff, and it references enough classics of the genre to keep the aficionado in deep clover.  More importantly, it tells its own Western story, and it does so well enough to capture the imaginations of children for whom it represents their first exposure to the genre.

Johnny Depp voices the titular Rango, a chameleon who dreams of adventure and heroism.  When he wanders into an Old West town populated with (beautifully rendered) desert creatures, he tries to blend in.  After all, that’s what chameleons do.    Next thing he knows, he’s the sheriff.  Now, if he can only figure out how to work that gun …

And away we go.  Rango has gunslingers, saloons, jailbreaks, and even a plucky belle struggling to save her ranch.  It also has great music, funny jokes, and the most beautiful animation I’ve enjoyed since Kung Fu Panda.  I loved it, my wife loved it, and my kids loved it.  Now, if only I can get ‘em to watch Stagecoach.

Spider-Man 2

Many critics call Spider-Man 2 the best superhero movie.  I think that distinction belongs to The Incredibles, but I can see their point.

When the film opens, Spider-Man has been web slinging for a while.  He's also been trying to hold down a job, go to school, and be there for his friends, but he’s a juggler with too many balls and not enough hands.  Fighting crime is a full-time job, and he’s no millionaire playboy.  Something’s gotta give.

And so goes the maturation of Peter Parker.  He’s found his calling, but he hasn't found his balance.  What results is a work of surprising maturity, balancing the requirements of the ‘spectacular blockbuster’ with those of a carefully told story about growing up and out, about learning how to be a man.

So, how does Spider-Man 2 do in the ‘spectacular blockbuster’ department?  Very well, thank you.  The film has a very cool, very cinematic villain in Doctor Octopus, played by Alfred Molina.  Doctor Octopus is attached to enormous cybernetic arms, and the film brings them to life with a masterful combination of practical and computer-generated effects.  We believe in this contraption, and in the menace it represents, and this helps bring the film to life.  Of course, it doesn't hurt that the film continues the tradition of hiring world-class actors to play its villains.  Molina can do charm with the best of them, but he can also do a version of sneering contempt that’ll make you recoil.

So yeah, I can see why so many critics are in love with this film.  It’s thrilling and cool and rewarding, and it succeeds in every way.  I love it, too.  it isn't The Incredibles, a legitimate classic, but it belongs in the same sentence.

Undertaking Betty

UNDERTAKING BETTY is a thoroughly inoffensive, moderately amusing, ultimately forgettable trifle of a romantic comedy. It rocks along pleasantly enough for an hour and a half, ends on an up note, succeeds in everything it tries to do.

The whole movie gets set up in the opening scene: a girl at a school dance attracts the notice of a shy young boy. Before the boy can work up the courage to ask her to dance, a more confident boy steps in and sweeps her away. Since Movie Law demands that whomever catches our eye in our preadolescence is destined to be our One True Love, she still pines for the boy, now all grown up and played by Alfred Molina. She (Brenda Blethyn) married the confident one, who grew up to be a jerk who's playing around with Naomi Watts. There's your romantic comedy framework, and here's your twist: Molina is the undertaker in their quiet Welsh town, and he's in dire competition with an evil American interloper who wants to "put the fun back in funeral." Christopher Walken plays the American, and he has great fun hamming it up.

And there really isn't much to say beyond that setup. UNDERTAKING BETTY never elicited so much as a chuckle, but it was reasonably nice, reasonably fun, and entirely pleasant. Should you go out of your way to see it? No. But you may enjoy having it on in the background while you're folding laundry.