How The West Was Won - Rango

3 out of 5 Popcorn Kernels

Watch Trailer Here

Rango was not the animation that I wanted to see - but things have a way of changing. I mean, an animated western tale, created by first time animators ILM (International Light & Magic), about a scaley lizard - and a posse of desert animals (none of which possess any Disney/Pixar type cuteness), with a theme that seemed more serious than entertaining...oh, and to be directed by Gore Verbinski (of Pirates of the Carribean fame).

I was quite suprised.


Rango has a depth and sophistication I found rather different than most animated fare. Although it may appear a kids movie, the underlying plot combined present-day complexity with a western's sense of honor. Of course, with characters that appear ripped from a child's nightmare, there would be little product-marketing, so I assume they had to at least make the story appealing across the generation board.


Rango (Johnny Depp), is the name of a chameleon, who begins by giving the audience a monologue of some sort of stage play that is going on in his head. We pull back to see that he is in some sort of tank, and instantly, realize that this tank is in the back of a pickup truck in the desert that goes awry and accidently tosses Rango over unto a desert roadway. He is now rather lost, and very out of his element. He meets an Armadillo named Roadkill (Alfred Molina), who just happens to be in the middle of the road with a tire impression run through his center. They speak about a destiny, what lies across the road, the Spirit of the West, and that there is a town in the distance that he may travel to called Dirt.


And so his adventure begins.

On his journey he narrowly escapes being eaten by a hawk, before discovering another lizard named Beans (Isla Fisher), who has the uncanny habit of blanking out during conversations to a near-petrified state. She is heading to the town known as Dirt, and he follows her. There he heads into a saloon occupied by a list of unsavory characters, and this is where he adopts the persona of Rango - a brave gunslinger who lets nothing stand in his way, except for the victims in his path. During this charade, the hawk returns to the town, remembers Rango, and through a series of mishaps, is accidently killed by Rango, which raises his status to Sherrif of the town, by the Mayor, Tortoise John (Ned Beatty), who resides over this town of Dirt, which Rango discovers, is going bone-dry because of the lack of water in its water reserves.

Johnny...Is that you

The reasons for this dryness sets him on another mission to restore the towns water, but the reasons for it being dry, and the value of the water they already have, invites trouble and scoundrals from other neighboring towns, and Rango is off to another adventure. 


During each of these adventures, there is an owl mariachi band commenting in song and guitars about the Legend of Rango.


Rango is very entertaining, fast paced, quick-witted, and extreemly adult. The look of the film is unique, and rich in detail, and the humor although on the low scale, is pretty funny (sorta sitcom funny). What really caught my attention was the plot. It seemed straight out of Chinatown (the film starring Jack Nicholson), with a western theme thrown in: a loner, a town, a woman, and town corruption. I was enthrawled. I am sure that the complexity of the script is what attracted Johnny Depp to the role - and provided him yet another opportunity to alter his voice into another character.


I haven't seen many westerns, but can immediatly tell that this was a great homage to them, their style, their sense of conviction, and their underlying message of good vs. evil.


Rango may have started off as a legend in his on mind, but he soon be came a hero in mine. 

You Take Me Round, Round, Round...baby! - The Adjustment Bureau

     4 our of 5 Popcorn Kernels

         

Watch Trailer Here

 The heart of The Adjustment Bureau is a Love Story. I just thought I'd warn you.
...and by the way, it's a pretty good one.


Philip K. Dick is an amazing science fiction writer, and when I saw his name as the inspiration to this film, it gave me hope. He creates sci-fi that has a humanity as its creamy and tasty center. Many of his stories have been the muse for films: Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report...and now Adjustment Bureau.

Although the story is very different from the movie - the premise is still there: that in some small way, our destinies are chosen, but in an even smaller part known as "free will" we have the ability to alter it to create a destiny all our own.

This is what happens in the movie when we meet two characters who are destined for greatness - but their ultimate meeting, and continued interactions, may in fact, be a diversion strong enough to shift those destinies in other unknown directions.


The first character is David Morris (Matt Damon), who is on the losing end of a U.S. Senate congressional campaign which he is a candidate. He visits a men's room in the hotel where the campaign is being held, in order to think of what he will say to the public before moving on. And in this restroom, out of one of the stalls, comes his destiny - dressed in high heels and a satin dress no less - in the name of Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt). She's overheard some of his ramblings about what he was going to say to the press and the longer she waited the weirder it would have been to just "pop out". So they talk. He laughs. She explains she has crashed another party in the hotel and must flee. He smiles (and isn't that all that Matt Damon really has to do), and there is an instant connection. Then she is gone.


That inspiration causes David to make a most engaging speech, which swells his popularity when he runs for the same campaign again...then comes the wrinkle: That meeting was not suppose to happen, because now he can't stop thinking about her.

Run Forest...I mean David...Run!

This is where the Adjustment Bureau gets tricky, because in life there can be one event, one meeting, one circumstance, that can divert our lives in whole different directions. The Adjustment Bureau calls this "Chance". Because three years later is when they were really were suppose to meet, in a chance meeting on a bus. But that meeting has to be thwarted - why? Because if they meet for a second time, their connection with each other will become stronger, their influence upon each other will change them from strangers to friends to possible lovers and what was once two separate paths have now become one uncertain one; because they will be on it together.


It is at this time we meet The Adjustment Bureau or "The Men In Hats". Richardson (John Slattery) is one of these men, the leader of sorts, who assigns another adjuster Harry Mitchell (Anthony Mackie), to distract David enough so that he misses the bus on which Elise is riding. Mind you...this is three years later, and David is still awe-struck. When these two meet...oh my goodness, the fireworks may light up the eastern skies. But being an adjuster is a tiring job I would hazard to guess; going through life causing such minor distractions in ordinary lives, so that those distractions can keep these chance meetings from interrupting what appears to be destiny that touches other lives, changing their destiny...and so on, and so on...whew!

Touched By An Angel

Well, Harry misses his chance at distracting David, and he and Elise meet. This causes David to get to work a little earlier than expected because he didn't catch the later bus - and when he gets to his office (because he is now a Senator), he finds his staff has been frozen in time, and dancing around them are these "Men in Hats". David freaks out, and heads for the hills...but he is caught.


In a separate facility, David is told about the Adjustment Bureau, and how his destiny is to be great, but it cannot happen if his continues to see Elise. Her destiny too will be great...if she does not see him. But to David, love creates its own destiny, and although he is warned not to tell her (or his mind will be erased completely), he isn't strong enough to do it. He isn't strong enough to be without her. He isn't strong enough to forget her...and as events unfold, he is on the run - with Elise pulled along with him, as she too is pushed into the back curtain of reality and sees what lies there. She is scared - but she too believes in love. They are already thinking as one.


The Adjustment Bureau is very fast paced, as the two lovers first find the strength to pursue their own paths, and run from the path given them. Anthony Mackie - who plays Harry, the one who misstep at the bus stop caused much of this - soon becomes an ally, and his portrayal of a man who has empathy for his boss and his "client", becomes the voice of the audience. He delivers a great performance, one that is reserved but filled with a quiet inner strength of a man who struggles with decisions he is not sure he can no longer agree with.


Matt Damon isn't doing his Borne-Thing this time, but his versatility as an action hero really pays off in this movie, because we feel his will and determination as an unstoppable force. It is this force, and the inner conflicts these characters have, that make this less of a science fiction adventure (although the various elements are there), it is grounded in this time, this moment, and that makes it real to us too. 


We are running along with them, determined to make it on our own...and if we fail, at least we tried.