The Password is Swordfish Will Resume In 5 Days

Sorry about the delay, guys. It’s been insane at work the last couple weeks, so the reviews are coming more slowly than I’d like. However, you have reviews of:

The Informant!

A Serious Man

Where the Wild Things Are

This Is It

…that will be arriving on Friday. In the meantime, you can become a fan of The Password Is Swordfish on Facebook! Thanks for reading, and on Friday, I’ll have a bunch of good reviews for you. And as a sneak preview for what my reviews will say? Let’s just say all of the four will be receiving at least three kernels.

Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D Double Feature: Pure Bliss

You have very little time left to see this in theaters. I went opening night, and I’ve been floating ever since. Toy Story is one of the greatest films of the last 25 years, one of the singular achievements in cinematic history, and it’s revolutionized the way animated films are both drawn and told. It also began a run of films by Pixar that has proven to be the most impressive run of films by a production studio in the history of movie production– no other run of ten films has produced seven four-star classics and three more three-star films in a fifteen-year span. Ever. Toy Story 2 is included in the double feature, and while its animation is even more impressive than the first, and it performs admirably as a sequel to one of the best films I’ve ever seen, it doesn’t quite live up. Still, the two together, with retouched graphics and 3D effects added in, stands tall as one of the best times I’ve had in theaters this year.

Surrogates: Better than Bruce Willis’ Hairpiece

If human beings could live via proxy through robots controlled by an individual’s thoughts, without any danger to the user, the world truly could improve in a number of ways. War could be waged without a single loss of human life– when a soldier robot is destroyed, its controller can simply log into another. Policemen would be impervious to the attacks of criminals they pursue. Sports would be more strategic, and athletes could play their whole lives without injury to themselves. Murder, violence, and disease would dwindle down to record-low levels. But would living through a robot truly be living? Surrogates examines this world, and while Surrogates will likely go down in history as a massive box-office flop (due to a bizarre release date, an uninspired ad campaign that made it look like a Matrix ripoff, and a huge budget), those who see it will find it to be an entertaining and well-produced sci-fi film.

9: The Future of Humanity Rests With a Burlap Doll

When your ad campaign touts the man at the helm as a “visionary director,” the visuals better hit a gargantuan home run. Luckily for Shane Acker, the look of the film is haunting, detail-oriented, and the action sequences are among the most exciting and memorable of the year. 9 (not to be confused with District 9, this August’s alien film, or Nine, the upcoming musical) is a post-apocalyptic roller-coaster ride with fascinating character design and an intriguing set-up that unfortunately never fully lives up to the expectation. While the director certainly has a vision, it’s an ear for dialogue that he needs to develop.

Adam: Sweeter Than Your Average “Disability Film”

How many movies can you think of where the two main characters are genuinely nice? I mean, characters who have true concern for the well-being of others without guile or ulterior motive? What’s more, how many of these films are set in New York City? Adam is about two nice people, and the first hour contain some of the most endearing scenes of the year. Dealing with love without being shlocky, dealing with mental disability without being patronizing, it’s never an epic romance yet it hits all the right notes. The ending is mildly unsatisfactory, but for anyone looking for a sweet September film, Adam will do nicely.

Cold Souls: Not Too Much Soul, But It’s Plenty Cold

In The Village Voice, Sophie Barthes, writer/director of Cold Souls, said of the obvious comparisons to this film, a meta-comedy where Paul Giamatti plays himself, and Charlie Kaufman’s first screenplay, Being John Malkovich, “I don’t want people to think my movie is derivative… I don’t think it feels like a Kaufman film—he’s much more cynical, sarcastic, and twisted.” While Barthes is spot-on, it’s the lack of a Kaufmanesque bite, which usually elevates his meta-comedies to stratospheric heights, that causes Cold Souls to feel…well, cold.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs: 100% Chance of Nonstop Laughter

The children’s book Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi and Ron Barrett has the perfect combination of magic and silliness that has made it last through the years. Fortunately, the film adaptation, even though it contains significant plot additions from the book, has cherished the silliness and delivered the magic. From the very beginning all the way through its exciting climax, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs shows an inventiveness and a visual wit that is quite rare in any movie, much less in animation, where usually the filmmakers are content to placate to the lowest common denominator that children will enjoy. It certainly belongs in the upper echelon of recent animated films, and side by side with Up, Coraline, and Ice Age 3, 2009 will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the strongest, if not the strongest, year in animated film history.

World’s Greatest Dad: Death, Lies, and Perversion… With Heart and Laughs

When someone dies, it always brings out the best in people—even if they didn’t know the person who died. Instead of using this as the subject of heartwarming melodrama, Bobcat Goldthwait creates a pitch-black satire of humanity’s response to premature death in World’s Greatest Dad. The beautiful twist of the film—the young victim was a dumb, perverted, and twisted individual—generates laughs from places you’d never suspect. While Goldthwait’s acting might lead one to believe that a comedy from him would be broad, it couldn’t be more restrained; every detail is based in a cruel reality. He even manages to button down the seemingly uncontrollable Robin Williams, who achieves some terrific dramatic moments and gives one of the best performances of his career.

Extract: God Bless The Annoying Next Door Neighbor

Mike Judge is the king of the annoying minutiae of the every day. Extract never takes off, because it stays far closer to conventional comedy than his previous two films, which isn’t Judge’s forte. However, there is one brilliant, purely Judgeian creation– Nathan, the nosy next-door neighbor, played with glee by David Koechner. In a cast where most actors are in familiar territory or aren’t as comfortable with Judge’s humor-in-repetition comedy style, Koechner excels and elevates the comedy to brilliance every moment he scampers onto the screen. When a character earns every one of the film’s biggest laughs, you know it’s inspired writing. The downside is that you know the rest of the film is uninspired, creating mere smiles and chuckles where Koechner gets guffaws.

Julie & Julia: Streep’s Super, Adams Ain’t

It’s not Amy Adams’ fault that her half of Julie & Julia can’t compare with the other. Part of it is because Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci make their half of the film so charming, breezy, and fun that the audience never wants to leave Paris for Queens (seems like a logical choice). The other part, and the film’s biggest flaw, is the Julia Child plotline seems to indicate a feel good, life-affirming comedy about thoughtful and caring people, but Julie Powell doesn’t live in the same fantasy world. She is real– egocentric, unthoughtful, desperately chasing a higher position in life, and ultimately dismissive of the thoughts of her husband, her friends, and Julia Child herself. Despite this, Nora Ephron still attempts to twist the film into the feel-good hit of the summer. The Streep sections make the film soar, but the Adams sections stumble.