New Movie Releases: Wall-E, Wanted and More!
Wall-E
Who knew that an emoting robot could steal your heart so quickly and effortlessly? It only takes a moment for your eyes to meet those of Wall-E, the newest pipsqueak of a trash compactor from the magicians at Pixar. But in that moment, gazing into the mechanization of his little binocular face, you realize that you could love his bleeping robot heart your whole life long.
We meet Wall-E in the midst of our future landscape, a bleak and smoggy trash heap of existence, covered with superstore detritus and the rust-bucket carcasses of Wall-E's kind. You see, Wall-E is completely alone (save his squeaky roach companion) in a world that has become unfriendly to flesh-and-blood life. The other "Waste Allocation Load Lifter- Earth Class" robots have long since given up the ghost, their batteries dried up and their compactors no longer compacting. But somehow Wall-E has survived, and, being a clever robot, has developed preferences for the finer things in life, like his collection of Zippo lighters, Rubik's Cubes and, of course, a well-worn VHS tape of the Babs Streisand classic, Hello, Dolly!
It is this one VHS relic that links Wall-E to the humans who once inhabited his home, and more specifically, to the notion of romance. Wall-E may not understand the full back story of why these dancing, singing things want to be together, but what he does understand is that his three pronged "hands" interweave much like their fingers do. And after seeing how much joy this linking of digits brings the characters in the film, he desperately wants to try it. Serendipitously, a booming spaceship lands in his neighborhood, depositing a sleek, hovering female bot named EVE, for whom Wall-E falls hard and fast. Too bad that EVE has a directive to discover and retrieve proof of life on earth, and is not easily distracted from her work.
You already know this, but just as a reminder: Pixar doesn't make kids' movies. Instead they form fully-fleshed romance, comedy, tragedy and suspense films clothed in velour layers of digital animation. Taking a sci-fi bend on this newest project, co-writer and Director Andrew Stanton combines not only the sweet story of precious robots in love, but also the sour situation that they exist in--namely a world that was abandoned by the beings that destroyed it. And once space-bound, those beings develop technologies to destroy the very bodies they inhabit, rendering the human masses incapable of doing anything besides catatonic video screen viewing, zooming here and there in hover chairs, and slurping super sized cups of blended dinners. It is actually quite a strange irony that we too sat motionless in a darkened room, enraptured by the skillfully crafted images onscreen, mindlessly enjoying the drinks and snacks that had been delivered right to our seats by our trusty waiters at the Alamo Drafthouse.
We don't want to give away too much, because the movie is absolutely fantastic, and you truly must experience it firsthand on the big screen, and then spend hours thinking about the implications of what you just saw. There are countless nods to other sci-fi classics and clever pop culture references that will have you in stitches (particularly the use of Sigourney Weaver's voice as "the computer", and the Macintosh reboot tone, naturally referencing Pixar's erstwhile owner), as well as a delicate and eery score by Thomas Newman (of Six Feet Under and American Beauty fame), haunting and enchanting you with every note. But let us just say that emoting robots are not that far-fetched, so perhaps we will all get a little bucket of nuts and bolts to love someday soon--and we really want ours to look like Wall-E. --Steph Beasley
[Trailer] [Showtimes]
Wanted
Chances are, you already know that Wanted is an action movie starring Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman—you’d have to be living in Antarctica to have missed their faces on commercials, posters, etc. And there’s another guy too, who looks familiar, but you can’t quite place him. We can help you out there: he’s James McAvoy, that Scottish guy from The Last King of Scotland (AKA "the dude who made out with Keira Knightley in the rain" in Atonement).
In Wanted, McAvoy plays an average Joe (fake American accent alert!) who's suddenly plucked from his boring life and told that he’s actually a superhero-type spy (Matrix alert!), and that it’s time to answer his true calling. Based on a graphic novel about a secret fraternity of “good guy” assassins, Wanted sure looks slick, and promises cool action (shooting the wings off a fly!), crazy stunts (Jolie almost smashing her face into the top of a train tunnel!), and neat CGI effects (stopping a bullet flying at you with a bullet of your own! Neat!).
Freeman will give it enough gravitas to keep us from rolling our eyes at the silly premise, and costars Common and Terence Stamp should also bring good things to the table. No one’s going to say that it’s art, but it’s probably the most fun you’ll have at the movies this weekend. Heck, we got interested in seeing it just writing this! --Matthew Frederick
[Trailer] [Showtimes]
ALSO OPENING IN AUSTIN THIS WEEK
Children of Huang Shi
During the Japanese occupation of China during WWII, a British journalist and an American nurse try to save orphaned children in the province of Huangshi.
[Trailer] [Showtimes]
The Flight of the Red Balloon
A Taiwanese babysitter helps a struggling mother of two (Juliette Binoche) deal with the overwhelming stress of her daily life.
[Trailer] [Showtimes]
Reprise
In this Swedish feature, young writer Erik tries to convince his successful but mentally unstable friend Phillip to return to writing.
[Trailer] [Showtimes]
Singing Revolution
This documentary tells the story of a non-violent revolution that freed Estonia from Soviet occupation during the late 1980s.
[Trailer] [Showtimes]
