FOUR FOR KIDS (almost)
SKY HIGH
“Sky High” is literally a high school in the clouds for children of superheroes. Its goal is to teach the kids how to use their newly acquired pubescent hormone fuelled superpowers for the good of mankind. Some kids are beacons of leadership. Others are first rate trouble makers. The most gifted are at the top of the school’s social hierarchy. The powerless are at the bottom. These unfortunate students have either not matured enough to manifest some power, or their parents’ genes have skipped a generation. They are divided into two categories - Hero and Sidekick. A Sidekick is part of a support team for a Hero. Everyone has high hopes for Freshman Will Stronghold (Michael Angarano) but he fears the worst. He’s the son of the world’s most revered Super Heroes - Commander Stronghold (Kurt Russell) and Jetstream (Kelly Preston). He has super human strength and she flies. Will is still waiting for something to happen to him when he starts school.
Yes! “Sky High” is predictable. Young Stronghold’s gifts will emerge, but not before he has to deal with the same things that plague every high school kid from a misguided infatuation with a member of the opposite sex to dodging bullies in the hallways. Teen angst, immaturity, and the requisite insecurities that go with the territory are played out in direct proportion to each teen’s abilities and origins. As in any fantasy of this type, a real villain lurks in the background waiting to make his/her move. It all has to do with the early adventures of Will’s mother and father and the powers of mysterious ray gun taken from an arch enemy that has eluded them. Ultimately “Sky High” is an entertaining mix of special effects, juvenile humor and high adventure that fosters the importance of education, a sense of fair play, and family values. That can’t be all bad.
THE FANTASTIC FOUR
On the surface, “The Fantastic Four” doesn’t look like a kid’s movie but its strait forward sense of good and evil and bloodless violence are presented in terms that any child can understand. It’s a live action Saturday morning cartoon style movie with a mixture of cheesy effects, non stop action, and a generous dose of juvenile wise cracks. It never strives to rise above the sensibility of its comic book roots unlike the superior “Spider-Man” movies. Despite its lack of ‘serious’ appeal, I think most kids under the age of fifteen will get a kick out of the way the characters fight, then embrace the newfound powers they acquire after passing through a nuclear cloud in outer space. It changes their molecular structure. The super scientist, Reed Richards (Welshman - Iaon Gruffud {Lancelot in “King Arthur”}) becomes Elastic Man, Sue Storm (Jessica Alba-TV’s Dark Angel) can become invisible at will, her wise guy high testosterone brother Johnny Storm (Chris Evans from “Cellular”) turns into a human fireball that can soar through the sky, while Ben (Michael Chiklis from TV’s The Commish and Division) turns into a stone creature of super human strength. They nickname him The Thing. Victor von Doom (Julian McMahon from Cable TV’s “Nip and Tuck”), the financial wizard behind the expedition, becomes the villainous Dr. Doom - his body’s infrastructure turns into indestructible steel.
Predictably, Elastic Man spreads himself thin to suit the situation, sliding under doors, between crevices and stretching out to help his fellow man. My favorite moment has him stretching his face to shave. Sue Storm has her most embarrassing moments when she has to strip in public - albeit as the Invisible Woman - to slip through crowds of people, or slither unseen to rescue a fellow hero. Her brother uses his new powers to pick up girls, while the sympathetic Ben - The Thing - has to deal with the separation from his wife because of his condition. They also do feats of derring-do to become heroes of the press and the people, and battle the maniacal Dr. Doom.
The idea of using a mysterious cloud - or mist - to alter the molecular structure of a human was an important part of “The Incredible Shrinking Man” from 1957. It’s a classic low budget film from Jack Arnold that explored big ideas about one man’s place in the universe. The title tells all. This is a film that is till equally entertaining to kids and adults alike.
As an aside, I thought Julian McMahon bore a striking resemblance to Rex Reason (or his brother Rhodes?), a lead actor of B movies from the Fifties, and star of another classic sci-fi film of the era, “This Island Earth”
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
My vote is still out on Tim Burton’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s novel, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” The basic plot line is pretty much the same as the first film version, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” with Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. Five kids who find the five tickets hidden in the wrapping of a Wonka Bar will get a chance to meet the reclusive Willy Wonka, tour his factory and win a grand prize. Unbeknownst to them Willy will pick the one kid who is unselfish and who shares Willy’s sense of wonder to learn and eventually take over the Chocolate Factory. There are monstrously huge differences between the old and the new versions, from Tim Burton’s adding a family history to Willy Wonka’s past to the eccentricity Johnny Depp brings to his interpretation of Willy Wonka. His Wonka is more of a boy in a man’s body, while Gene Wilder was much more an authority figure in the first version of Dahl’s book. That first version also had a more vibrant color scheme that reminded me of the pastel look of the Candy Land Game board. This version is a dark as - dare I say - a dark chocolate Wonka Bar. Whether or not the film can be digested as well as a Wonka Bar is quite another matter. It’s a question of taste. I found “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” to be a schizophrenic exercise in childhood fantasy and self indulgence.
“Charlie…” starts off promising. Charlie’s home looks like it jumped out of the pages of a Dickens novel into a modern world. Willy Wonka’s childhood is anything but ideal. His father, a dentist, deplores candy. Willy’s childhood deprivation of candy leads to his later obsession for chocolate. The history of Wonka’s first successes, his failure to stop his copycat competition and his seclusion from the rest of the world behind the walls of his Xanadu flits across the screen like a Brothers Grimm fairy tale. The further development of his chocolate empire and the conception of his confections are shrouded in mystery. It’s an auspicious beginning for a movie that later flounders. The Ooompa Loompa songs that follow the demise of each child, seem like they belong in a different movie. Others like the emulation of slasher movies on a TV screen, “Psycho” in particular, are totally out of sync with the rest of the family friendly film. These scenes were a hoot for film fans but it makes you wonder for whom Tim Burton made this movie?
In true fairytale tradition, the ‘bad egss’ - a chronic eater, a gum chewing champion, an obsessive TV addict and video game player, and a spoiled brat - each get their comeuppance. Charlie is the hero. He embodies the family values that Willy Wonka admires.
The wonderful Freddie Highmore from “Finding Neverland” is superb as Charlie Bucket, as is David Kelly as Grandpa Joe.
THE BAD NEWS BEARS
I’ve got bad news for this “Bad News Bears.”
It doesn’t hold a candle to the original from 1976 with Walter Matthau. The first version has lost none of its bite. The
kids’ performances, particularly by Tatum O’Neal and Jackie Earl Haley, are
far superior to anything in director Richard Linklater’s
update. The only reason I can imagine anyone would want to this film is to
see Billy Bob Thornton as the one-beer-too-many Buttermaker
who’s roped into turning a team of Little League rejects into a winning team.
But even
Copyright 2005