What I expected:

It was hard not to be excited about the prospect of Tim Burton taking on Alice in Wonderland. It is a dark and twisted tale, inspired by a drug trip, that takes place in a world that makes no sense. How perfect for Tim Burton. To add further fuel to my arousal, the early stills were breathtaking, which I posted about previously.

What I got:

When you first meet Alice (Mia Wasikowska,) she is now a grown woman of 20, so already you know not to expect the same story as in the book or in the original animated Disney classic. She shows early signs of being at odds with her Edwardian lifestyle, and when she finds herself on the receiving end of a proposal of marriage in front of hundreds of people, she has no choice but to take a moment to investigate a rabbit in a waistcoat that keeps beckoning her, instead of accepting the offer.

What follows is a wonderous romp through the looking glass, Tim Burton style.

Everyone is older now, and the politics between the queens has deteriorated into open war. My favorite character in the whole movie is the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter.) She is wonderfully preposterous with her huge head and short temper. Anne Hathaway plays the White Queen and she lets out some of her disturbing side, which is  new and very welcome. Johnny Depp is scene-stealing as the Mad Hatter and the voice talents of Stephen Fry and Alan Rickman are put to good use as the Cheshire Cat and the Blue Caterpillar respectively. Crispin Glover is Stayne, the Red Queens knight and right hand man and he does a good job of the role. I am not much of a Crispin Glover fan, but he does well here.

The art direction is the true star of this movie. It is so lush and fully realized that it takes your breath away. Lewis Carroll would be truly pleased to see his characters comport themselves in such a marvelous world. Tim Burton has truly created a masterpiece in Alice in Wonderland. This one is worth seeing on the big screen and a must for the DVD collection as well.

Niels Hansen is the co-owner of Hansen Creative Services, a graphic design firm near Columbus, Ohio which specializes in employee communications and small business marketing.

What you should expect:

Every year I plan to see all the movies nominated in the big categories of Best Picture, Best Actor/Actress, Best Supporting Actor/Actress, Best Director and some years even Best Screen Play. Usually I fail miserably and only end up seeing a fraction of all the great films nominated. So in that proud tradition I give you my picks for these categories at the 2010 Oscars.

What I will do is limit myself to the films I have seen, so if you think The Hurt Locker, Precious or The Blind Side are superior to my picks, you may be right. I haven’t seen them, so I can’t comment on them.

Here goes:

Best Picture: Up in the Air

I’m excited that this is the category where I have seen the most of the films nominated and those are Avatar, Up in the Air and District 9. As you will have summised from my reviews, I am not a great fan of Avatar. I think the storyline is trite, and I don’t really care about the big blue people. I enjoyed Riley cum Sigourney Weaver, but she could not make up for the lack of original story. On the other hand, I really loved both District 9 and Up in the Air. District 9 is a wonderful allegory about how we treat those different from us, and in some ways so is Up in the Air. In terms of timeliness and sheer emotional impact as a result of our horrible economy, Up in the Air wins out for me. It had the (mis)fortune of being in the right time at the (wrong) right time and is my pick for Best Picture. I have to give a mention to An Education, which I have not seen, but have to root for simply because it was directed by a fellow Dane.

Best Director: Jason Reitman for Up in the Air

My choices of directors of movies I have seen are James Cameron for Avatar or Jason Reitman for Up in the Air. Let me up front concede that I admire the sheer magnitude of the Avatar project and the technological advances gained through the making of this movie. Unfortunately, it failed to reach me on an emotional level whereas Up in the Air tore at my insides in ways I am still dealing with. Jason Reitman is my clear pick of the two.

Best Actress: Meryl Streep for Julie & Julia

Yes, ladies first! This is not a tough category for me. Meryl Streep was phenomenal as Julia Child in Julie & Julia. She truly became Julia and inspired me to ask for my very own copy of MTAOFC. That I didn’t see any of the movies of the other nominees makes this choice super easy as well.

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart

My pool of candidates are George Clooney in Up in the Air and Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart. The two performances are almost night and day to each other. Clooney plays cool as a cucumber with some emotional vulnerability thrown in, so essentially himself, whereas Jeff Bridges goes all out in portraying the down and out country singer. Advantage Jeff Bridges.

Best Supporting Actress: Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air

This is another category where I have three to choose from: Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick, both for Up in the Air and Maggie Gyllenhaal, for Crazy Heart. I thought Maggie Gyllenhaal did a nice job in Crazy Heart. Vera Farmiga did a similarly nice job in Up in the Air, but of the three, Anna Kendrick is my favorite. Her character had to undergo the most change over time, and she really brought all sides of that character to life. If you had only seen her in Twilight before, I think you would agree she got a big chance to do a lot more here.

Best Supporting Actor: NA

I have not seen any of the films nominated, so I cannot make an honest choice but my emotional favorite is Woody Harrelson for The Messenger, but only because of Zombieland, which by the way: “Hello!” Way better than some of these “important” films. The same is also true of Star Trek, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus and Sherlock Holmes – all favorites of mine from 2009. They are “only” recognized for art direction and other technical categories. Hrumph!

Best adapted screenplay: District 9

In this category I can express my opinion about District 9 and Up in the Air. They are both truly excellent stories and movies, so the choice is hard. However, since I have gushed over Up in the Air in all the other categories, I’m going to go with District 9. It leaves a mark as well, and is a very uncomfortable look at how easily we can alienate each other. I do think though, that this is a more fitting award for it than Best Picture would be.

As you can see, this is a very incomplete and myopic view of this years best films, but as they say “write what you know,” so that is what I have done. Out of the 19 movies nominated in these categories I have only seen five. It will be fun to see how accurate I can be with such a small sampling. On the other hand, conventional wisdom may be no more right than I am. The academy can be tricky that way. They like an underdog but sometimes get blinded by the truly huge movies or they will reward more of a lifetime achievement than the specific project. With that in mind, James Cameron, Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep should all have solid speeches ready – and should keep equally eloquent concession ones in their back pockets just in case.

Best of luck to all!

Niels Hansen is the co-owner of Hansen Creative Services, a graphic design firm near Columbus, Ohio which specializes in employee communications and small business marketing.

What I expected:

Rick Riordan has written a series of five wonderful and funny young adult books featuring Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The series does not rival Harry Potter in writing craft or sheer wonder, but it is a fun ride and a great way to learn about Greek mythology. My daughter and I have enjoyed these books together and we wanted the movie to be just as wonderful. However, my heart was filled with dread when I learned that Chris Columbus was the director.

What I got:

I pretty much got exactly what I expected, which is a real shame. Chris Columbus should not be allowed near our favorite books. He was in charge of the early Harry Potter movies, and even if the magic was nicely portrayed, the acting was just horrible, especially from the kids. The Lightening Thief suffers from the exact same problem. The art direction is gorgeous, the special effects are what they should be and a fine cast was assembled, but he still manages to make an almost unwatchable mess out of it all, and fall way short of what it could have been.

The story is fairly straight forward, even if they did leave out most of the funny stuff from the books: Percy Jackson is the son of Poseidon but doesn’t know it. He is growing up in NYC with his single mom and her jerk boyfriend (Joe Pantoliano, who cannot be made to suck, even by the likes of Chris Columbus.) On a school fieldtrip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Percy finds out that he is a demi-god after a fury threatens his life. She is working for Hades (god of the Underworld) and they believe that Percy has stolen Zeus’ lightening bolt, which he has not. His best friend Grover is revealed to be a satyr protecting him and Grover whisks Percy away to camp half-blood and safety. After finding his place at the camp, Percy accepts the quest to go find the lightening bolt and to bring it back to Zeus on Mount Olympus which is now located above the Empire State Building.

The cast is very strong. It features Uma Thurman as Medusa, Pierce Brosnan as Chiron (the trainer of heroes,) Rosario Dawson as Persephone (Hades wife) and the always delightful Catherine Keener as Percy’s mom – just to name a few. Unfortunately, these talented actors are slumming it here. All of them are capable of so much more. It is as if Columbus went with the first take of every scene without any exploration whatsoever. He specializes in the significant stare and it is on full display here. Pierce Brosnan is especially afflicted, and not just because he is literally acting with a horse’s ass.

The young actors playing Percy (Logan Lerman) and his best friends Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) and Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario) are all too old to be given the child actor treatment, which is clearly what Columbus did to them. I would venture to say that they as well could do so much more.

If you take your kids like I did, they will probably enjoy themselves, even if you, as a sentient human adult, may have trouble doing the same. Restroom breaks and popcorn runs can be your friend here. Just remember: You are doing it for the kids. You may have to repeat that more than once.

Niels Hansen is the co-owner of Hansen Creative Services, a graphic design firm near Columbus, Ohio which specializes in employee communications and small business marketing.

What I Expected:

I honestly didn’t know what to expect of Dark Target. I knew it was an action movie produced here in Columbus and that the talent was local. I assumed the budget was meager and I also knew that the director, William Lee’s, last movie was a zombie flick called Demons Rising and I hoped that wouldn’t be the tenor of this one.

What I got:

Let me say up front that I was impressed. Dark Target offers some really good acting, a good script and cast and crew that obviously poured their heart and soul into the project.

On the other hand, it is obviously not the product of a slick Hollywood studio and you have to allow for that when it comes to some of the technical aspects of the movie. That is especially true of the special effects. The gunfire muzzle-flares and the resulting flying blood splatter are very cartoonish but could easily be remedied with a bigger budget and some higher-end post-production. It is also obvious that the crew just came off making a zombie movie. Some of the violence and gore is clearly rooted in that aesthetic but it doesn’t overwhelm the action. The actual language is also quite raw and it seems at times unnecessarily so.

Overall the camera work is quite nice. William Lee uses interesting angles and editing to make the movie exciting and to pull you through the scenes. Shaky-cam is not my favorite style, but in this case it helps keep the energy raw and to communicate the on-edge quality of the story itself.

It centers around an ex-CIA operative, Daniel Kane (Brian Spangler-Campbell,) who tries to get away from spying after he accidentally shoots his best friend in the line of duty. He quickly gets pulled into a sinister plot where rogue agents led by Commander Baker (Kim Carey) are trying to alter the racial makeup of the country through wholesale execution of blacks. Kane allies himself with a drug-kingpin (Rebecca Moore) and a former CIA doctor (Jennifer Stepp.) Together they take the fight to Baker and his rogue band of sadists.

Dark Target is a nice showcase for some strong Columbus actors. I was especially impressed with Jennifer Stepp as Doctor Mia Camara. She is stunning on screen and commands any scene that she’s in. Brian Spangler-Campbell is also very strong in the lead role and his combat skills are quite impressive. The same is true of Duane Gamble, Jr who plays one of the rogue agents. Kim Carey is wonderfully demented as Baker and Lonnie Gary gives us her all as his partner and lover. I also enjoyed Gavin Herscher as the evil Dr N’Kame. He was very convincing as a heartless sociopath.

It is great to see that Columbus can put out such a strong movie and that we have such talent right here in town. Dark Target is not for everyone but if you’re willing to give it a chance it will reward you for it.

Niels Hansen is the co-owner of Hansen Creative Services, a graphic design firm near Columbus, Ohio which specializes in employee communications and small business marketing.

What I Expected:

Nothing. I had no pre-conceived notions about this movie whatsoever. The title could make it a comedy, a drama or some combination of both. Since the title suggests it is geared to a female audience, some element of romance could also be expected. It  doesn’t feature actors I knew much about beforehand so I went in naked on this one.

What I got:

Unlike its near-name-sake Weatherman (the over the top comedy starring Will Ferrell) Weather Girl is a more quietly funny and straightforward view into the heartache and professional suicide of a local TV station weather “girl”. Sylvia, played by Tricia O’Kelley (from the TV show The New Adventures of Old Christine.)

This is a modern story, so the characters are not syrupy and their choices are real. When the story begins Sylvia has been sleeping and living with her co-anchor, Dale (Mark Harmon,) who is now cheating on her with their other co-anchor. Sylvia breaks up with him by breaking down and dumping him very publicly on-air. She is now a pariah in the TV-host  market and she ends up staying on her brother Walt’s (Ryan Devlin) couch. While staying there she meets his best friend Byron (Patrick Adams) and they start an uncomplicated affair with benefits while her self esteem is low. Since she can’t get a broadcasting job she is working as a waitress.

The story comes to a head when the TV station offers Sylvia her old job back working with Dale again. Her public dumping of him has become an internet sensation and the viewers demand to get her back. She unceremoniously dumps Byron once she has a chance to return to her career and… no wait, I can’t give it all away.

Weather Girl is a nice date-movie that doesn’t rely on trashing one gender or the other or cheap stereotypes to get its laughs. All the characters get their chance to be up and down, and it is all done with good humor. Though there is some predictability to the storyline, it still seems fairly fresh, exactly because it treats women and men as equals. It is refreshing to see a female lead that destroys her life and then rebuilds it without that becoming a vehicle for grotesque slapstick. One thing that stuck out at me though was that Sylvia’s two female friends seem oddly grafted onto the story – almost as an afterthought – and they don’t really do much for the story or the movie itself.

If I was to classify this movie, I guess it is a romantic comedy, but that label seems oddly insufficient for this one, because it also allows itself to tap into a little of the drama genre. It is a nice choice if you want funny and straightforward. If you want fall-down funny, it won’t quite get you there but it will have both men and women laughing and feeling uplifted.

Niels Hansen is the co-owner of Hansen Creative Services, a graphic design firm near Columbus, Ohio which specializes in employee communications and small business marketing.

What I Expected:

When you put Philip Seymour-Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh & Emma Thompson in a blender with a storyline about larger than life outlaw DJs, it is safe to assume overacting will ensue of almost biblical proportions. Throw in the fashion and style of the 60’s and you can expect a fine concoction of “yuck,” but with a great soundtrack.

What I got:

Sometimes I wish counter-culture docu-dramas would not play to type quite so much, and be better than I expect them to be.

Unfortunately, Pirate Radio is not one that even tries. Instead, it manages to take the story of one of the most important moments in popular entertainment in Britain and make it both small and uninteresting. This was the time of sex, drugs and rock-n-roll and none of that danger and excitement makes it onto the screen. If what they did was dangerous and rebellious against society, it sure is hard to detect in this sad piece of self-indulgent camera holding.

The story is simple enough. In the 60’s Rock-n-roll was hot, yet BBC failed to program it, thus making a niche for pirate radio stations that broadcast from ships off the coast of England. They were not technically breaking the law at first, and provided a broad audience of all ages the music they craved. This was a huge milestone in music broadcasting, and formed the model for music radio to this day. The British government did not appreciate what they perceived to be immoral filth and they eventually outlawed the pirate stations.

How it is possible to make this topic seem dull is a bit of a mystery, but Richard Curtis somehow manages. He has been the writer behind such uneven material as Mr. Bean’s Holiday, both Bridget Jones movies and Love Actually. This is his second attempt at directing – Love Actually, being the first – and he should have stopped while he was ahead.

The pacing is slow and the characters almost sleep walk through it all; even the “dangerous” ones. What this movie really needs are likeable characters that you can care about and villainous ones that you can dislike in equal measure. Unfortunately, everyone seems almost comatose and that is despite the marvelous overacting!

My expectation of spectacular overacting was met on all fronts. Emma Thompson is probably the one who overdoes it the least, followed by Hoffman. Branagh and Nighy just can’t help themselves, and I’m not sure whether to blame them or not. When you go to one of their movies you know what to expect and it’s really not their fault if you then don’t like it.

The music is the real unsung hero of this movie and it helps keep you engaged enough that you don’t abandon ship halfway through – even if you should. I wanted Pirate Radio to be so much more, but it met my expectations in every way.  This boat does rock, but it is just difficult to care. Pity.

Niels Hansen is the co-owner of Hansen Creative Services, a graphic design firm near Columbus, Ohio which specializes in employee communications and small business marketing.

What I Expected:

From the previews Law Abiding Citizen promised to kick ass and take names from start to finish with lots of exploding stuff and a really pissed off bad-guy/hero. I liked that about it. Gerard Butler (The Ugly Truth) and Jamie Foxx (Ray) pitted against each other seemed like it could work, and I was in the mood to be entertained with big explosions and lots of carnage. My expectations were pretty high that it would deliver on those fronts.

What I got:

Law Abiding Citizen is indeed very satisfying in the “things-that-go-boom” department. It gives you a happy couple of hours having stuff thrown at you with ever increasing speed and intensity through a kerosene-soaked crescendo and if that was all you got, I think you’d be fine with that. The bonus here is that you also get a reasonably interesting premise that leaves you with very mixed emotions about right and wrong.

Clyde Shelton (Butler) is a family man whose world is turned upside down when two thieves break into his home and brutally rape and murder his wife and kill his daughter. He survives the ordeal and even though the killers are caught, only one of them is convicted of the full crime. The other, and most violent of the two, pleads his sentence down to a near slap on the wrist by cooperating with the prosecutor (Foxx.)

Shelton, rightly so, feels that justice was not served and he wows to exact his own revenge not just on the killers but also on the prosecutors, the judge, and the rest of the system that let him down. Shelton, we come to find out, is an expert in killing remotely, and he uses that set of stills to full effect to dole out his vengeance.

What is ingenious about this construct is that you find yourself rooting for Shelton as he becomes this creepy omnipotent serial killer that is able to kill even after he is behind bars. He is brilliant and you have no real sympathy for the system that so clearly wronged him. As the story unfolds though, you can’t help but feel a bit uncomfortable with what you are willing to cheer for as “right.” The violence does at times seem excessive but it does serve to keep you off balance about where you allegiances lie.

My only real beef with this movie is that the final plot revelation and resolution are too contrived and unlikely. I had by then hoped for something a little more inspired. There was such promise – but alas.

All in all, I had fully expected scorched eyebrows and first-degree burns from Law Abiding Citizen, but I was pleasantly surprised that it gave me something more than that. Expect to enjoy the ride, but do yourself a favor and bring your brain. This one is not quite as mindless as you’d expect.

Niels Hansen is the co-owner of Hansen Creative Services, a graphic design firm near Columbus, Ohio which specializes in employee communications and small business marketing.

What I Expected:

Pitting the sexes against each other is not really my idea of romance, so when it is billed as romantic comedy, I cringe a bit. On the other hand Katherine Heigl seems to have a good nose for picking decent roles and she is funny, so I was willing to give The Ugly Truth the benefit of the doubt. Gerald Butler on the other hand is best known as the phantom in Phantom of the Opera or King Leonidas in 300 – neither role really a comedy… hmm.

What I got:

Katherine Heigl plays Abby, a hard-driving TV producer who has no idea how to get a man, while Gerald Butler plays Mike – a misogynistic self-help guru for men, who is peddling “the ugly truth” about the sexes. They clash the moment he is hired to work on the morning TV show she produces. When he overhears her talking with a prospective date on the phone, Mike bets her that he can coach her to get the man on the other end into her bed with his insight into the male psyche. Needless to say it works, and many (and sometimes funny) complications arise, especially as he falls for her in the process.

Nothing really new here, except, that The Ugly Truth is a fairly sweet take on the battle of the sexes. Much more so than you might have expected from a modern comedy, especially one about lies and deception. This one falls somewhere between 27 Dresses and Knocked Up, – which were both very enjoyable previous efforts by Ms. Heigl. That Gerald Butler proves to be a comedic talent is certainly a bonus. The chemistry between the two of them is never truly believable, but their “battle” is still fun to watch.

As date-movie themes go, I would caution the guys to tread lightly here. It would be easy to fall into the trap of taking the side of the ugly truth-er, but I suspect you would do so at your peril, if you want the date to end “well.” He is a pig, and even if you secretly agree with some of his techniques, don’t let it on too much.

And ladies, you too should be careful not to express your disgust too loudly, if you want the date to end “well.” Not all men are this much of a pig, but we are still fairly basic creatures, and picking an argument over our worst qualities, really isn’t very romantic. Unless you are into angry, make-up sex, in which case, by all means duke it out after the movie.

The nice thing about The Ugly Truth is that there is something in it for both men and women. It is not really a chick-flick, while certainly not a guy-movie either. It is a reasonably fun comedy that you can enjoy together with plenty of laughs, beautiful people and a good, relationship affirming morale. No really, it is actually not a chick-flick. Trust me guys.

PS: As a designer, I really appreciate the use of the Helvetica toilet people in the poster. Very nice!

Niels Hansen is the co-owner of Hansen Creative Services, a graphic design firm near Columbus, Ohio which specializes in employee communications and small business marketing.

What I Expected:

What to expect of a suicidal hit-man love story? Comedy, drama, or just a mess? Or maybe some of all of that? I wasn’t sure, but I thought it best to keep my expectations in check – even as I wanted to be charmed by the concept. I usually enjoy Michael Keaton and Kelly MacDonald is always excellent, so The Merry Gentleman was poised for me to be taken by it.

What I got:

The Merry Gentleman is quiet, really quiet. It is not a long movie, but had it been any longer I might have started to fidget. Or fall asleep. As it was, I really enjoyed the careful unfolding of the main characters and you even get a light chuckle in here and there though it is largely a drama.

Michael Keaton made his directorial debut with this film and he chose a real actor’s movie to do it. There is virtually no action, but you are never bored exactly because of the power of the characters and the actors playing them.

Keaton plays Frank Logan, who is a suicidal hit-man intent on off-ing himself after finishing his last assignment. The suicide attempt is interrupted when the eternally optimistic Kate Frazier (MacDonald) walks in on it. Her life is not a happy one either, as her husband beats her and she has to fight him off, but together she and Frank find that they have something to offer each other. All the while a dogged, but largely disillusioned cop (Tom Bastounes) is trying to solve the last murder Frank committed. As the three worlds become more and more entwined, we are treated to amazing feats of character development by all three.

I am a big fan of Kelly MacDonald, and she shines again in the role of Kate. She is probably best known to American audiences as the Texas housewife in No Country for Old Men, but if you saw Choke you would have enjoyed her as the doctor in that or if you had the pleasure of seeing the British TV mini-series State of Play, she was the young newspaper journalist in that story as well. Her Scottish accent is endearing and it is on full display in The Merry Gentleman, adding a charming touch to her character.

Michael Keaton is very restrained in his role as Frank Logan, and not at all like his Mr. Mom, Beetlejuice or The Paper roles. It is a joy to see him flex his quiet side and yet be at least as impactful as he is when he does his high-energy acting.

The Merry Gentleman is definitely an actor’s movie and I found it quite charming. Just don’t try to watch it in a comfortable recliner after a big meal. That should guarantee a light snore and very little memory of the movie itself. But even then you can remember this movie fondly.

Niels Hansen is the co-owner of Hansen Creative Services, a graphic design firm near Columbus, Ohio which specializes in employee communications and small business marketing.