The ‘60s was the decade of the all-star epic and Wayne appeared in three. The Longest Day (1962) saw him winning WWII again, this time as Lt. Col. Benjamin Vandervoort, with the film recreating the D-Day landings. In How the West Was Won (1962) he was General William Tecumseh Sherman, a part he’d previously played two years earlier when he made a rare TV appearance on Wagon Train. “Truly, this man was the son of God” was his contribution to The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) a film that saw him hopelessly miscast as the Roman Centurion at Christ’s crucifixion.

It was also the decade that marked the final Wayne/Ford teaming, Donovan’s Reef (1963). It’s the weakest of their films together, falling way short of classic status. But it’s still a film that a real Wayne fan can enjoy (perhaps only a real Wayne fan); it’s just a shame they couldn’t have finished with a movie that could stand comparison with The Searchers or She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

Wayne also worked with Howard Hawks again on the fun African adventure film Hatari! (1962) and on the semi-remake of Rio Bravo, El Dorado (1966). Three other directors would have a big impact on his films in the ‘60s, Henry Hathaway, Andrew V. McLaglen, and Wayne himself.

The Alamo (1960)

The Alamo was Wayne’s dream project and a film he felt so strongly about that he invested a lot of his own money in it. It was also the film that marked his directorial debut.

This epic recreation of the most famous battle in the fight for Texas independence is a deeply flawed film. There are too many speeches — even when the characters aren’t actually giving speeches, just making conversation, they often come across as pompous. It’s this preachy atmosphere that puts many off and gets the film a lot of negative reviews. If you can get past that, however, there is plenty to enjoy here.

The performances, when not inhibited by the script's heavy-handedness, are good. Wayne makes a convincing Davy Crockett, easygoing, outspoken, and charismatic; it’s easy to see why men would follow him into battle. As Jim Bowie, Richard Widmark is a more reluctant leader, one who is fighting for his home, not just an ideal.

Laurence Harvey, as the straight-laced William Travis, gives a performance I’ve come to appreciate more as I’ve gotten older. Watching as a boy, he seemed far too stiff and, frankly, dull. But now I find he’s actually the most complex character of the three leads and Harvey’s is in some ways the most interesting performance. Crockett is fighting for a dream, Bowie for his home, but what motivates Travis? Is it blind devotion to duty? Self-serving ambition? Or a belief that what they are doing is simply the right thing to do? There is a touch of all of these and more in Harvey’s Travis.

The sheer spectacle of the film is another thing in its favour. The battle scenes are BIG, it’s the sort of thing that today they’d use computers for, creating little pixel people and big CGI explosions, but this is done the old fashioned way, with scores of extras in costume as Mexican troops and special effects crews blowing things up. It’s the closest the western came to historical epics like Spartacus (1960) or El Cid (1961).

But the film's biggest plus isn’t even something that you can see. Dimitri Tiomkin’s score is one of the all-time classics, generating far more emotion than all the film's speeches put together. The music received an Oscar nomination (one of the film's seven, although it only won one) and perhaps deserved to win; I’d certainly put it above Exodus (the winner that year).

Most first time directors start small but this is John Wayne and he didn’t do anything by halves. He does a decent job behind the camera; there is nothing visually striking about the film other than its scope but it is solidly made. Its main fault lies in the script and in Wayne’s need to bludgeon the viewer with his own ideals. There is nothing wrong with a filmmaker using a film to present their point of view but it should be done subtly and that isn’t a word you’d use to describe John Wayne or The Alamo.

The film was a financial disaster that cost Wayne dearly. Did he learn from his mistake? Not really; his next film as director was The Green Berets (1968) with Duke using the film as a soapbox for his feelings about Viet Nam.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

Now this would have made a more fitting finale for the Wayne/Ford team but instead it’s their penultimate outing. The film charts the rise of Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) and how a perceived heroic act (the shooting of the title) affects him and those around him. It’s a film that makes the viewer question the importance and accuracy of what we perceive as historical fact.

The panoramic vistas of The Searchers or the Cavalry Trilogy are absent here, with most of the film shot on the studio lot, but Ford still manages to dazzle the viewer. The gunfight between Valance and Stoddard is expertly staged, with Ford showing two differing points of view that show how easy history can be wrong. The film is shot in black and white, possibly due to Paramount cost cutting, and this along with the use of sound stages instead of location shooting (more studio penny-pinching) gives the film a retro look that sets it apart from other western films made in the ‘60s.

The performances are brilliant, with Stewart adding greater depth to his standard nice guy persona and Wayne close to Red River/The Searchers meanness, yet his Tom Doniphon is also a man capable of heroism even at great personal loss to himself. Lee Marvin, still some years away from stardom, gives us a memorable display of sneering villainy as the swaggering Valance.

With The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Ford showed he didn’t need the panoramic vistas of Monument Valley to make a great western; all he needed was a good story and talented actors and in Wayne and Stewart he had that and more.

McLintock! (1963)

The ‘60s saw the comedy western genre really come into its own – The Hallelujah Trail (1965), Cat Ballou (1965), The Scalphunters (1968) and Support Your Local Sheriff (1969), to name just a few. North to Alaska (1960) was John Wayne’s first comedy western but he topped it three years later with McLintock!, one of the subgenres finest.

The film pairs Wayne with Maureen O'Hara once again with the couple's stormy marriage the core of the film. As well as his wife, George Washington McLintock (Wayne) must also contend with his spoiled, citified daughter and a scheme to steal land from the local Indians.

But this isn’t really a film concerned about plot; it’s about fun, not just for the viewer but for the cast as well. Surrounded by family (Patrick Wayne co-stars, while eldest son Michael produces) and old friends like O’Hara, Chill Wills, and Bruce Cabot, Duke is having a ball and that translates to lots of laughs for the viewer, with the actor displaying superb comic timing.

Andrew V. McLaglen directed Wayne in five films but this, their first, is by far the best. McLaglen doesn’t need to do much, just make sure he has his camera pointed in the right direction to capture the fun but he does it well. He may have learned his craft from John Ford but there are some things that can’t be taught and his films have none of the poetry of Ford; they are workmanlike, solid but unexceptionally made, with his best films elevated by great scripts or performances, and it’s the performances that make McLintock! such a treat.

Not the greatest western ever made but definitely one of the best comedy westerns, this ranks alongside The Quiet Man as the most unashamedly fun movie Wayne ever made.

The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)

The ‘60s was Wayne’s decade for making fun films, even when not out-and-out comedies like McLintock! his westerns, with the exception of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, had a easy going sense of fun that is hard not to like.

This tale of four brothers looking to avenge their father's murder is an action-packed ride from start to finish. With thirty-odd years separating Wayne and youngest “brother” Michael Anderson Jr. this doesn’t win any awards for believability, but the banter between Katie Elder’s offspring and the sense of camaraderie between the actors allows the viewer to put logic aside.

Wayne and Dean Martin are the eldest of the Elders (pun intended) and the stars of the film. Playing the sort of tough but good-humoured character that typified many of his films over the ‘60s and ‘70s, Wayne isn’t stretched at all as John Elder. It’s the sort of performance that came easily to him, so much so that he hardly seems to be acting at all.

Dean Martin, reunited with Duke after the success of Rio Bravo, plays professional gambler Tom Elder. Like Wayne, his acting muscles don’t get much of a workout and he breezes through on star charisma and charm alone. His standout moment is the glass eye scene, a piece of showmanship that never fails to make me chuckle.

As the other two brothers Matt and Bud, Earl Holliman is solid but unexceptional and if Michael Anderson Jr. overacts at times, such exuberance is easy to understand when playing opposite stars like Wayne and Martin.

James Gregory is the brothers' nemesis Morgan Hastings and he’s a cunning and intelligent bad guy, hiring a gunman but not afraid to get his own hands dirty. As the hired gun, George Kennedy is a suitable imposing physical challenge to Wayne although he’s far better used in Cahill U.S. Marshal (1973).

Also worthy of mention are a young Dennis Hopper, convincing as Hastings sniveling son and Paul Fix as Sheriff Billy Wilson, a part not a million miles away from Marshal Micah Torrance, the role he played in the successful Rifleman TV series. Fix was probably the actor who worked with Wayne the most, with the pair making 27 films together between 1931 and 1973. He played everything from an explosives expert in Tycoon (1947) to a Chinese elder in Blood Alley (1955) but the easy going sheriff he portrays here suited him the best.

Directed with assurance by Henry Hathaway and with a rousing score by Elmer Bernstein, this is a feel good western that sets out with one purpose in mind – to entertain – and it does that in spades.

El Dorado (1966)

Wayne re-teamed with Howard Hawks for this quasi-remake of Rio Bravo that has him playing a gunfighter who allies himself with a drunken lawman (Robert Mitchum) against a powerful local rancher. So which is the better film?

As the drunken sheriff, Robert Mitchum is superb but is he better that Dean Martin in Rio Bravo? It’s an impossible choice — Mitchum’s drunk is played more for laughs than the emotional wreck that Martin portrayed and it just serves to emphasise El Dorado’s lighter tone.

A young James Caan fills the Ricky Nelson role and his Mississippi is a cooler, funnier, and much more interesting character than Nelson’s Colorado. Caan, even at this early stage in his career, is a real actor (unlike Nelson) and while he has no hope of stealing the film from pros like Wayne and Mitchum, he holds his own.

Arthur Hunnicutt was a great character actor and Bull Harris is one of his best creations but he’s filling the role originally played by the master. Walter Brennan is the man when it comes to grumpy old sidekicks with a heart of pure gold and Stumpy in Rio Bravo is the pinnacle of that archetype. So, good though Hunnicutt is, when you’re up against the best all you can hope for is second place.

The romantic interest for Wayne is provided by Charlene Holt, whose biggest claim to fame (apart from somehow wangling a part in this western classic) was being crowned "Miss Maryland" in 1956. That probably says all that needs to be said about her acting ability and she’s certainly no Angie Dickinson.

So lets check the score – 1 for El Dorado (Caan), 2 for Rio Bravo (Brennan and Dickinson) and one too close to call (Mitchum vs Martin), which leaves us with Wayne. Several years older and having had major surgery to remove a cancerous lung just two years before, Wayne was still a powerful screen presence. It’s hard to pick between his performances in the two films, with the onscreen banter with Brennan weighing in Rio Bravo’s favour while the chemistry with up-and-comer Caan is always fun to watch.

So we’re back to that question: which is best? It really all depends on your mood, with El Dorado having a more comedic slant, in common with Wayne’s work in the ‘60s, while Rio Bravo works on the viewer’s emotions. Both are classics but Rio Bravo came first and that counts for a lot.

The War Wagon (1967)

This is another ‘60s western that never fails to entertain. The war wagon of the title is a horse-drawn armoured car with a Gatling gun mounted on top and Wayne and his mismatched team have an elaborate plan to rob it of its shipment of gold. That’s right, this is a heist movie, sort of The Italian Job on horseback.

Being a Wayne film though, this can’t just be an ordinary robbery, there has to be a reason behind it. Taw Jackson (Wayne) has had his ranch stolen and done time in jail (we’re never fully clued up on why) and now he’s out to get even. The gold in the war wagon is from his land and he’s going to get it back. This is Wayne doing his regular western hero, always fun to watch but nothing spectacular. It’s the sort of performance he gave a lot during the decade and what boosted it here (as was often the case) was having someone with an equal star status to play off.

All the westerns I’ve picked from the ‘60s so far have one thing in common — they all pair Wayne with a big name co-star and this one is no different. Kirk Douglas plays the flamboyant Lomax and it’s a part tailor-made for him. The complete opposite of Wayne’s western persona, Lomax is all about what you see. He wears fancy clothes, including a leather shirt and one glove (maybe Michael Jackson’s a fan), never mounts his horse in conventional fashion, instead leaping aboard (you’re never in any doubt that it really is Douglas doing the stunt), even his female companions are exotic.

Wayne and Douglas were polar opposites and that comes across in their performances. Jackson and Lomax aren’t friends, in fact Lomax has been offered money to kill Jackson with only the chance of a bigger payday stopping him, but the pair do have a mutual respect for one another and I think the same was true of the actors who played them. Douglas certainly seems to be having fun, doing his utmost to upstage Wayne.

The rest of the gang comprises Howard Keel as an Indian (yes, you read that right), Robert Walker Jr. as the young explosives expert who also happens to be an alcoholic, and Keenan Wynn as the inside man.

Burt Kennedy was the perfect choice as director on such a light-hearted film. He’d made The Rounders (1965), a sort of Monte Walsh-lite with Henry Fonda and Glenn Ford a couple of years previous and the following year he made one of the classic comedy westerns, Support Your Local Sheriff! with James Garner. Here he throws in everything from gunfights to saloon brawls and finishes with a robbery that (as always in a heist movie) doesn’t go quite to plan.

While The War Wagon won’t find a place on any top ten lists, it is solidly entertaining and has two lead actors who may have been coasting on star charisma but also played off each other to the film's benefit and the audience's delight.

True Grit (1969)

Wayne’s favourite director of the ‘60s was Henry Hathaway. They made four films together during the decade and while only this one was a classic, they are all enjoyable. The unexceptional Shepherd of the Hills (1941) was the first film they made and they worked together in the ‘50s on the desert adventure Legend of the Lost. North to Alaska (1960) got the '60s off to a good start while Circus World (1964) was the least interesting of their offerings and The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) we’ve covered already. That leaves the classic I referred to, True Grit.

A mismatched trio are tracking a gang of criminals each for their own reason. Marshall 'Rooster' Cogburn (Wayne) is doing his job, Mattie Ross (Kim Darby) is looking for the man who killed her father, and Texas Ranger La Boeuf (Glen Campbell) is hunting the man who killed a Texas Senator (and his dog). It's these disparate individuals' relationship, particularly Cogburn and Mattie Ross, that forms the centre of the film.

Wayne’s Oscar-winning performance in the film is often dismissed as the academy just being sentimental, having overlooked the aging actor for so long; others would argue that had Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight not both been nominated for Midnight Cowboy and thus splitting the vote, one of them would have been a more deserving winner. Well this is one reviewer who thinks Wayne got his just desserts for one of the best performances of his career.

Is it his best? No, but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have won. Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and The Searchers should all have seen him get at least a nomination. That they didn’t and that the only western one of the genre's greatest directors was nominated for was Stagecoach (1939) shows it wasn’t just Wayne that was overlooked but the western genre as a whole. Cimarron (1931) was the only western to win best picture until Dances with Wolves (1990).

Marshall Reuben J. 'Rooster' Cogburn, the tough, crotchety, drunken, one-eyed lawman, was a perfect fit for Duke, well apart from the one-eyed part. It gave him the chance to use his gift for comedy while also allowing him to be the macho western hero he’d become famous for. There was a touch of self-mocking humour in his performance that showed he was one Hollywood actor who wasn’t trying to hide his advancing years.

In Kim Darby’s Mattie Ross he has one of his most unusual co-stars, a feisty young girl who could give Maureen O’Hara a run for her money when it comes to strong-willed characters. Wayne didn’t get on with her on set, finding her behaviour unprofessional, but onscreen they are a perfect match.

As an actor Glen Campbell makes a great singer and as Texas Ranger La Boeuf he’s the film's weakest link. Not just up against Wayne and Darby but also a veteran scene stealer like Strother Martin and up-and-comers Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper, the country and western star is out of his depth. He’s kept afloat by Wayne who is so good he draws your attention away from Campbell in their scenes together.

The film looks magnificent thanks to cinematographer Lucien Ballard. Ballard was director of photography on many of Sam Peckinpah’s films, including The Wild Bunch (1969). Made the same year as True Grit, The Wild Bunch was a film Wayne disliked intensely, feeling it destroyed the myth of the western, so it’s somewhat ironic that he finally won his Oscar the same year that the genre underwent its biggest change since Stagecoach.

Henry Hathaway was an expert action director, regardless of genre. He excelled himself with True Grit, creating one of the most memorable shootouts in western movie history as Wayne, out-gunned, takes his reins in his teeth and with pistol in one hand and rifle in the other charges “Lucky” Ned Pepper's gang. It’s an iconic image and one of the most enduring ones of Wayne; ask a Wayne fan to pick a scene from one of his films and this would doubtless rank near the top of the list.

The film also features a score from the master of the genre, Elmer Bernstein. Famous for his rousing theme from The Magnificent Seven, he does a similar job here but there’s an emotional centre to the music that plays on the viewer's emotions and adds to the Rooster/Mattie relationship.

The western may have been changing thanks to The Wild Bunch and its ilk, but as the ‘60s closed Wayne showed he was far from finished, giving his best performances in years and he still had a couple of classics left in him.

Last year, Pixar paired Cars up with the brilliant short film Maestro. It was a one-joke short that centered on a pair of rival one-man bands, competing for the coin of a young child who was looking to throw said coin into a fountain. It was a great short that got us all in the mood for the feature. This year, Pixar has a new short paired up with Ratatouille; this one is called Lifted, and I think I may like it more than Maestro, which I loved. This time, instead of the one-man bands, it centers on an alien abduction that doesn't go quite as planned.

The short opens in a darkened bedroom. There is a man lying sound asleep in bed; a blue glow fills the room and the man is levitated out of his bed and moved towards a nearby open window. All is going nice and smooth until the man bumps right into the wall next to the window. It's okay to start laughing now, I did. You may not be laughing at this description, but trust me, when you see it, you will laugh. Laughter is inevitable.

The scene cuts outside where a flying saucer is hovering over the house. Inside said saucer are two alien beings, a large one with a clipboard, and a smaller one in front of an enormous panel covered in switches that do not have a single label. As he hits different switches, the man down in the house hits a different wall. The small alien is becoming nervously frustrated as the larger one watches on.

In case you could not tell, this is Abduction 101, and things are not going so well. I have probably already given away too much, but this short is tears-in-your-eyes hilarious. It is a one-joke short, but the joke works so well and is so funny that it doesn't matter, it only needs that one joke to carry it through.

The animation is nice, a bit more basic than the features, but that has to be expected. It is still very smooth, crisp, and clear. There is no dialog — they are aliens after all. The short was scored by Michael Giacchino, a name to watch as he has done nice work for Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Mission Impossible III, and Lost. Gary Rydstrom, former sound designer for Skywalker Sound, made his directorial debut with this short, and I look forward to what he may do next.

So, basically, when you go to see the excellent Ratatouille, be sure you get there early enough to catch this short. It is definitely worth the extra time (plus you'll get a better seat). And remember: "Failure is an option."

Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about entertainment when he isn’t sitting in a movie theater. He is known around the office as the “Movie Guy” and is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Interests include science fiction, horror, and metal music. His writings can be found at Draven99’s Musings, as well as Film School Rejects.

Setting a new standard for incoherent science, Dark Storm is a baffling mess that is so completely ridiculous, you have to wonder how it made it all the way through to production. Stephen Baldwin stars as a scientist heading up one of those oh-so-popular “secret government experiments” that apparently aren’t that secret if movies are any indication, and we all know TV doesn’t lie. Anyway, there’s some world destruction, nasty special effects, and ridiculous plot twists before this one mercifully ends.

The movie revolves around dark matter, which is so poorly explained by the script, the audience will have a tough time wondering how this all works. What you need to know is that it produces storms that can disintegrate any object it’s aimed at, and if left uncontrolled, the world would not be a place to buy real estate. Through the government experiments playing with the stuff, Stephen Baldwin’s character is infused with this matter, becoming a ridiculous-looking super hero type that can control it.

The story feels as if it’s making things up as it goes. The dark matter seems to randomly choose targets when it’s out of control, with no real sense as to why. There is plenty of lightning and thunder along with some smoke, and that is what sub-atomic particles known as dark matter look like in case you’re paying attention. A few mildly interesting destruction sequences fail to convey the threat thanks to the expected low budget effects.

Basic scenes of military personnel fighting to keep the secrets, well, secret end up being uninteresting action sequences that paint our military as incompetent, or the soldiers assigned to guard this project were kicked out of boot camp long before proper training could be completed. Stephen Baldwin races to the rescue in an attempt to save the world from full on disaster, using his newly received super powers that manage to activate at precisely the right moments.

A predictable ending could have come from any super hero movie; only this one is amazingly anti-climatic given the build up. The final showdown between hero and villain is brief, and doesn’t necessarily follow the rules set earlier. Shouldn’t the dark matter dissolve anyone exposed to it like it did multiple times in the film? Apparently, villains can inhale it like crack and they become all powerful.

Along with the ridiculous scenario used to set up the story, there’s nothing here worth watching. Disaster movies are numerous, and if seeing the planet being taken down by scientific phenomena is what you’re looking for, keep moving. There’s nothing to see here that you won’t find elsewhere.

Matt Paprocki is the reviews editor for Digital Press, a classic video game website which he called home after his fanzine (Gaming Source) published its final issue. The deep game collection which spans nearly 30 systems and 2,000 games line his walls for reasearch purposes. Really. He has also begun writing freelance for the Toledo Free Press.

Bridge to Terabithia is a haunting story that stays with the reader of the book by Katherine Paterson or the viewer of this movie for the rest of his life. Centered around two characters, a sixth grader boy and girl who don’t fit in anywhere, the story unfolds gracefully and draws the audience in close. The novel, and the movie, feature themes about family, friendship, dreams, and loss that will resonate for everyone no matter where they grew up or in what situation.

I liked how the film set up the family, how they introduced Jess Aarons (played by Josh Hutcherson) and showed what his world was like before it got changed by Leslie. The Blu-ray edition has crisp clean images that show the rundown farmhouse and rural area where Jess lives. There are several good visual touches throughout the film, like the clutter in the family greenhouse. The high-def presentation is so sharp it looks like you can step into the picture.

In just a few moments of showing Jess running cross country and at the breakfast table with his siblings, the viewer gets the idea that Jess is totally lost within the family. Every scene is marked by his fear, pain, and anger. I could see that Jess was dwindling down, become smaller and smaller, till he was barely taking up any room in the world. You can’t help but feel for a kid like this. Hutcherson portrayed Jess to a T. My wife teaches elementary school and I coach little league baseball. We’ve both seen kids like Jess and it’s heartrending.

Jess has always been a dreamer. His family is blue collar and his father (Robert Patrick) and mother are hardworking parents with five children. The family barely gets by. Even buying a new pair of tennis shoes is beyond their financial means. Jess feels guilty for being a problem to them, and that shows on his face. (Hutcherson proves himself to be an extremely great physical actor.) He’s stuck in a world that doesn’t work and he doesn’t know what to do about it.

All his life, Jess has wanted to be an artist. He works in pencil, color pencil, and crayon because that’s all he has. He has a notebook full of drawings that he’s obviously carried for some time. His father doesn’t understand him and wishes Jess would stop daydreaming and get his head out of the clouds.

These are things that every kid and every parent who’s ever been a kid has been through. Katherine Paterson’s novel was published in 1977, so has now been around for 30 years. These problems between parents and children still exist, and so do the misunderstandings. I like stories that hit on truths that are widespread. That’s why this story rings so true for me.

With four younger and older sisters at home, and his mother constantly tired from running the household, Jess doesn’t have anyone at home to talk to either. The closest one who comes to understanding him is his younger sister May Belle (played by Bailee Madison), but she gets into his stuff and draws in his book. She invades his privacy and he tries to keep her out. However, she looks up to him like he’s some kind of hero.

Things in school are just as bad for Jess. He has two enemies, Gary Fulcher and Scott Hoager, who make his life miserable in class and around the school campus. He’s even got “Monster Mouth” Myers as his teacher and she doesn’t appear to care for him. The highlight, though, is the music teacher, Miss Edmunds (Zooey Deschanel). The young teacher becomes Jess’s first crush and he doesn’t know what to do about that either.

I could empathize with all of these things. I’ve been through them. And that’s part of the magic of Katherine Paterson’s book and this new movie. You totally get where the characters are coming from and what they have to confront in order to become more whole.

When Leslie Burke (AnnaSophia Robb) steps on stage in the movie, you know that things are about to take a decidedly different turn. The animosity between Jess and Leslie is real, and it’s based in the right emotional context. They don’t care for each other because they’re boys and girls, and boys and girls aren’t supposed to get along at that age. It’s embarrassing and icky.

Where Jess tends to be withdrawn, Leslie is positively a social butterfly. She excels at her work and quickly grabs the teacher’s attention. She also seems to be the only one who’s clued in to the fact that Jess is gaga over Miss Edmonds. She teases him about it in a good way, but of course Jess isn’t pleased. It’s the small quiet nuances between the characters – just little riffs of dialogue and looks they exchange – that really bring them to life for me. They’re real, and that makes the story more real.

Later, when Leslie outruns Jess after he’s finally able to beat his arch-nemesis, things really get off to a rocky start between them. We also get introduced to Janice, the eighth grade bully who charges smaller kids a dollar to use the bathroom during recess and lunch. Janice becomes an integral figure to the story and provides some pivotal scenes later. Again, this movie is absolutely wonderful in the way it handles character and the changes that happen within and to character.

Thrown together because no one else will have them, Jess and Leslie go exploring and find a rope swing over a stream. Every kid who’s ever lived out in the country knows exactly what it’s like to see something like that and not be able to walk away from it. You just have to swing across.

On the other side, Leslie declares this unexplored part of the forest to be a new land filled with magical creatures and terrifying monsters. But, she says, in Terabithia no one can crush them. They’re faster, smarter, and braver than they are in the real world.

The movie took some negative reaction when it debuted in theaters. The trailers (and the DVD covers) obviously show a mythical fantasy land much like Harry Potter and Narnia. Some families went to see the movie expecting to see a fantasy story. The trailer and the DVD covers are misleading, but the movie is a joy.

Make no mistake, Bridge to Terabithia is firmly grounded in the real world. The fantastic creatures that are shown in the trailers and on the DVD covers are a very small part of the movie. And they’re not even real. Except as allegory for things that are going on in Jess and Leslie’s lives.

I loved the movie. It hurt, but I loved it. All the relationships that you see in this movie are true. They all happen every day. Yet the way Katherine Paterson and the movie manage to bring those relationships to life on the page and on the screen is simply amazing. This is a good family movie, but I would offer a warning about showing it to any of the kids who are really young. There’s some really strong emotion involved that you won’t know about unless you’ve read the book, and it’s hard to tell you what it is without giving away too much.

The Blu-ray disc features the movie in brilliant color and sharpness in 1080p high definition and widescreen (1.85:1). If you have a surround sound system, the movie sound is absolutely fantastic in uncompressed 5.1 surround sound.

Bridge to Terabithia belongs in the family entertainment shelves. It’s a great movie, with great actors, and a fantastic story to share.

It is that time of year again, you know, when Pixar unleashes their latest creation upon an unsuspecting public. It is the time of year when some speculators begin to wonder if this will be the first failure to come from the animation house that can seemingly do no wrong, or if this will be the one to rival Nemo for the highest gross, or if they will simply be able to match last year's success.

I am not here to discuss the potential box office merits of this latest film, but what I will tell you is that it is an absolute joy, another triumph for Pixar, and another feather in the cap for writer/director Brad Bird. Simply put, Ratatouille is a must-see film for people of all ages.

The story seems like a simple one. A rat named Remy (Patton Oswalt) living in the country outside of Paris has discovered that he wants something more than a life of stealing and eating garbage, and his highly developed sense of smell could prove to be his way out of his current lifestyle. Following an incident that chases Remy and the rest of the clan out of their country abode, Remy finds himself separated from his friends and family. At first, he is scared and unsure of what to do, but his love of food, cooking, and Chef Gusteau gives him hope, particularly when the lonely rat visualizes Gusteau as someone to talk to and get inspiration from. This leads to his meeting with Linguini, a nervous garbage boy with cooking aspirations.

Together, Remy and Linguini navigate a relationship that, if exposed, would prove to be rather detrimental to both of their livelihoods. So, with Remy's gourmet cooking skills, and Linguini's human appearance, they form a cooking powerhouse that takes the cooking world by storm while they break down the barriers that exist between their two species.

The movie is so much more than a "rat that can cook" story. There is a moment early on when Remy's brother, Emile (Peter Sohn) asks him about why he goes into the house, and the dangers of humans. Remy responds with something along the lines of "Look at what they can do, what they can create." I do not remember the exact words, but it had an effect on the rest of the film. The scene gives this wonderfully optimistic outlook that pervades the rest of the film. It is only strengthened later on with a scene between Remy and his father where Remy says that it only takes one person to begin change. Combine that with Chef Gusteau's quote, "Anyone can cook," and you have the core of this movie. You can do what you put your mind to. It is a great story of friendship that has gravity and a sense of the real world it. Sure, Remy can move Linguini around like a marionette, but I am allowed to give up that conceit as it works quite well.

What works very well for this movie is the writing; it follows a natural progression, has nicely developed characters and is just a delight to listen to. The approach is not to create a talking animal comedy, rather to create a film where the characters come alive. Compare this to, say, Shrek the Third. In the ogre movie the characters are there to set up the gags, whereas in in Ratatouille the gags are created organically out of the characters. It is very good writing.

The film as a whole is reminiscent of the old screwball comedies, with the well written characters placed in zany situations leading to physical comedy. The jokes throughout this movie are very good, plenty of jokes in the dialogue, lots of physical gags. All of this is told with some of the most gorgeous animation to grace the big screen yet, right there with Cars as the best seen yet.

Brad Bird just keeps turning out great films. From his debut with The Iron Giant to the Pixar masterpiece The Incredibles to this, he can do no wrong. He has a wonderful grasp on how to create these vivid characters and create the situations around them out of them, rather than letting the outside desire to reveal plot or tell gags be the driving factor or the stories. Plus, he has some great talent providing voices, particularly Patton Oswalt as Remy and Janeane Garafolo, with a great French accent, as Colette. There is also nice work from Peter O'Toole as Anton Ego, a food critic who serves as the villain of the piece.

Bottom line. This is another winner from Pixar; it tells a funny story with great characters and really gives you an uplifting feeling as you leave the theater. It is definitely a step up from Cars and approaches The Incredibles. This is a movie that you will want to make a point of seeing on the big screen for its masterful blend of story, gags, comedy, heartfelt moments, the works.

Highly Recommended.

Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about entertainment when he isn’t sitting in a movie theater. He is known around the office as the “Movie Guy” and is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Interests include science fiction, horror, and metal music. His writings can be found at Draven99’s Musings, as well as Film School Rejects.

Two years ago, the movie audience was introduced to the adventures of the Fantastic Four. That film was moderately entertaining, though it had serious flaws which prevented it from coming anywhere near the quality of the X-Men or Spider-Man franchises. However, while it made story, character, and casting missteps, it was not nearly as bad as the critics would have had you believe. In any case, it did well enough at the box office, and on DVD, to warrant a second film be made.

The teaser trailer promised to payoff on the promise of that first film. The final product, alas, does not live up to that first trailer. Still, it is head and shoulders above the original, and a much more satisfying superhero romp than the exciting spectacle, yet lousy story mash that was the much hyped and anticipated Spider-Man 3.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer seems to pick up the team in a real time span between the first film and now. The team has been doing the hero thing for awhile. They are heroes, but they have also become celebrities and media darlings. Much like in the comics, they do not conceal their identities and do not have the same PR issues that someone like Spider-Man has.

It appears that, at the moment, the biggest issue is trying to get Reed (Ioan Gruffudd) and Sue's (Jessica Alba) wedding to go down without a hitch. As for their celebrity, the four are dealing in a variety of ways. Johnny Storm (Chris Evans) loves the publicity and uses it to his hotheaded advantage, while Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) takes it in stride. Meanwhile, Reed keeps his head buried in his experiments, while his wife-to-be tries to get him to work on the wedding.

As the four are doing the super-powered family thing, strange things are happening around the globe, where there have been sightings of a silver streak preceding each event. It isn't long before the army is knocking on Reed's door, looking for help in finding, and stopping, the cause of these strange occurrences. Enter the Silver Surfer, a strange silvery being that is at the root of these problems. The rest of the film has our four heroes track down the interloper, and with begrudgingly accepted help from Dr. Doom, they succeed in capturing the Surfer. But that only sets off a new series of issues, as we know Doom has ulterior motives, not to mention the coming of Galactus — the destroyer of worlds whom the Surfer serves as herald.

This sequel, while infinitely superior to the original, is nowhere near perfect. It is still a highly satisfying tale. The movie is free of any delusions of grandeur or aspirations for greatness. It targets an entertaining story and hits the mark. It has the advantage of not having heaps of hype laid on it. It has neither the overbearing box-office expecations of a tent-pole film, nor the promise laid out by an incredible predecessor. It also does not set its heights so high, but rather it is content to target a slightly younger audience. This movie delivers a nice blend of comedy, action, and adventure in an inoffensive mixture that is enough to satisfy the kids as well as the adults in the audience.

The look and tone of the film is just right, brightly colored, yet tempered with a bit of darkness. There is family-like squabbling among the four, an end of the world scenario, and a cool new character, all working together to deliver a fun summer adventure. Still, while it all works on the whole, this is far from a perfect scenario.

The acting is a mixed bag. Ioan Gruffudd seems to be considerably more comfortable in Mr. Fantastic's shoes, although he still isn't written quite "brainy" enough. His partner in crime, Jessica Alba is not so lucky as Invisble Woman. She is just horribly miscast, selected more for her "it girl" factor than for being anywhere near being right for the role. Each successive film seems to expose her mediocre at best acting ability, on top of her being seriously creepy looking with the blue eyes and blonde hair.

Also, is it me, or does Alba keep getting skinnier everytime I see her? Seriously though, the weight dropping is a little alarming in this age of eating disorders among celebrities. Michael Chiklis and Chris Evans remain the rock solid team that seems to be perfectly cast. Chiklis does a fine job as Ben Grimm, the gruff muscle of the group, while Evans as the sarcastic hot headed ladies man couldn't be more right. The interactions between those two are spot on. Finally, Julian McMahon as Dr. Doom, never seems to be on his game. His line delivery is blase, and his attempts to portray a stone-faced menace fall flat. I think he is decent for the role, but is let down by screenplay and direction.

Newcomer Doug Jones brings a beautiful otherworldliness to his performance as the Silver Surfer. I am sure that much of what you see is the creation of a computer, but it is Jones who was onset providing the guide to the character. He has been carving out a nice niche playing these types of roles, previously appearing in Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth. He brings a grace and serenity to the screen, despite being forced to assist in the destruction of planet after planet. It is a wonderful character, and I hope they lock him up to be in the proposed Silver Surfer film.

I still do not feel that Tim Story is the right director for this franchise, but there is no denying that this is a step in the right direction. There is a better balance between the crisis and the family dynamic among the four. I just think that there is room for improvement if another director took the reigns to push this to the next level.

In the end, there is no denying that this movie was a lot of fun. It was better than I had hoped, even with my lowered expectations. One of the bigger things to have bugged me is the ease with which they believed in alien life, from the talk of planets being left barren and lifeless, to the automatic assumption that the surfer was an alien, as opposed to another super powered human. It was almost as if there was a movie in between which introduced alien life as true within this universe. I know, it is a minor nitpick in the face of the Alba issues, but it bugged me anyway. But then, there is also the issue of the Dodge branded Fantasticar…

Bottomline. I liked this movie, it was not great, but I found it to be very entertaining with a tone that seemed to be more in line with the comics. It was a significant improvement over the first entry, and provided me with 90 minutes of fun.

Recommended.

Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about entertainment when he isn’t sitting in a movie theater. He is known around the office as the “Movie Guy” and is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Interests include science fiction, horror, and metal music. His writings can be found at Draven99’s Musings, as well as Film School Rejects.

Forged from the remains of the Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter franchises, DOA was born. It is a series of fighting games, known as much for its fighting and its over-endowed, gravity-defying female characters than for any story that is in desperate need of being told. The girls of DOA were so popular that they spawned another game, one centering on the bikini-clad fighters leaving the fighting arenas and heading to the beach for a round or two of bouncy volleyball.

Well, now the fighting, the girls, and the volleyball have been adapted to the big screen in a movie that is sure to send critics into epileptic fits should they attempt to sit through it, and leave fans frothing at the mouth that their beloved characters have been so disrespected, leaving a smallish group (with me as a member) that will smile at just how bad it is and simply enjoy it as cinematic diversion from the big budget disappointments that seem to come out each summer.

I have only a small amount of experience with the series, only having spent time with the fourth version that made its debut on the Xbox 360. I quickly fell in love with the game, leaving with the impression that it was one of the best fighting games that this non-gamer has ever played. Now that the movie is here, I would have much rather played the game for 90 minutes, but there was something that is undeniably attention-grabbing about the movie. I don't know if it was the plethora of toned female bodies, the terrible acting, the bad dialogue, the silly effects, or the nonsensical way in which everything goes down, but I found myself enjoying the heck out of the movie despite recognizing just how pointless it was.

The movie does not have much of a plot, but such as it is, it does seem to follow the game pretty closely, or so I would imagine. Fighting games have never been known for their deep, complex, and intriguing stories. You will generally have a combination of thin threads like someone looking for a family member lost in the prior year's tournament, someone who just wants to fight, someone runninng from their past, and someone looking to take down the guy running the tournament. The tourney mastermind is always some sort of evil genius with some crazy plot to get money, world power, or something along those lines. There really is nothing groundbreaking about the stories, they are all related to the fighting game standards and cliches.

DOA: Dead or Alive opens with the introduction of three of the primary characters. Princess Kasumi (Sin City and DEBs Devon Aoki), who wishes to find her brother, thought to be killed in DOA; she leaves her clan, despite knowing it will result in her being declared a shinobi and an assassin sent to eliminate her. The assassin is the purple-haired Ayane (Natassia Malthe), who makes a few appearances throughout the film. Tina Armstrong (My Name is Earl's Jaime Pressley) is an ex-wrestler looking to prove herself in real combat; she is joined by her father, Bass (pro-wrestler Kevin Nash). Finally we meet Christy (Holly Valance), a master thief who enters the tournament looking for a big payday. On the island where DOA is held we meet the final of the four primary females, Helena (Shark's Sarah Carter), daughter of DOA's deceased founder. Other characters include Bayman, who is nothing more than a henchman, Gen Fu who fulfills the requirement of an aged, white-haired martial arts master, and Zack, a cocky ladies man who likes to think more highly of himself than he should. There are others, but most are just there as window dressing to the primaries.

Also on the island is Donovan, played by Eric Roberts with a rat-tail. Donovan is the evil mastermind behind the tournament. The tournament had originally been formed by Helena's father as a genuine competition; however, Donovan saw it as a way to do some weapons research that he could turn around and sell to world powers. He is definitely not a nice guy, and he has ulterior motives for discovering who the best of the best of the contestants is.

Wow, trying to buy into the story will make your head hurt. It is not hard to understand, and it is told in a pretty straightforward manner, but it is dealt with in such a shallow manner that it makes you wonder if any of the characters have a brain. The easy answer is no, they only have what the script allows them to have, and the script might as well have been snagged directly from the games for all of the subtlety it contains. Despite this, I still found myself enjoying the heck out of the foolishness playing out in front of me. They even managed to work some bikini volleyball into the plot. Gratuitous, definitely, but still a welcome sight.

I think what made this awful movie so watchable is its lack of pretension. It is a movie that knew what it was and that is all it aimed to be. It was not trying to be the next big thing, it was not trying to inject any deep philosophical thought into story, nor were the filmmakers trying to create multi-layered characters that would remain with you for any period of time. It was a movie with a bunch of silly fights, some attractive young actresses in bikinis fighting, and that is pretty much it.

Corey Yuen directed the film, and does a bring a certain visual flair to it. He is a veteran Hong Kong action director who made his English language debut with The Transporter (a vastly superior film to this). The fights are not real world believable, but as fights brought out of the digital world and into a live action facismile, they looks pretty good. Granted, there are only a couple of one-on-one fights, but they are fun. There is the Kasumi against Ayane in a bamboo forest, Christy versus Helena in bikinis in the rain, and Tina taking on Zack as the main one on ones. There are also numerous fights with faceless henchmen and quick one-on-ones with other characters, like Tina and Bass.

Bottom line. I hate to say this is good when you shut your brain down, but it is pretty much true here. There is nothing to really recommend this. There are a number of attractive ladies, some decent wire-fu fights, and a style that was brought right out of the game to the big screen. I had fun, but I suspect that most will not. This is a very bad, very dumb action picture that you can have fun with in the right frame of mind.

Mildly Recommended.

Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about entertainment when he isn’t sitting in a movie theater. He is known around the office as the “Movie Guy” and is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Interests include science fiction, horror, and metal music. His writings can be found at Draven99’s Musings, as well as Film School Rejects.

This week's show (Sundance Channel, 9pm Tue) introduces us to a new concept, cradle to cradle. Simply put, many of the products we use come from the ‘cradle’ of the planet in the form of natural but not renewable or sustainable resources such as hydrocarbons, and end up in the ‘grave’ of the planet's landfills. Cradle to cradle is to use renewable resources, and use them in such a way that when the product reaches the end of its useful life the component parts can once again return to their original raw material.

As Frederic Scheer (CEO of Cereplast) points out, plastic is a wonder material, and its uses are almost endless, but what happens to it when it has reached the end of its useful life? In the case of a supermarket plastic bag, the useful life may be 30 minutes, or however long it takes you to get your groceries home. The next step for the bag is the landfill. Fifty or a hundred years from now, that bag is still there. From plastic bags to entire motor cars, there is a sustainable answer.

"Paper or Plastic" features three people that are embracing the cradle to cradle concept, and making a great name for themselves in the process. One such person is Jay Bolus, who helped develop McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry’s “Cradle to Cradle” benchmarking methodology. “Cradle to Cradle” certification is a tool used to evaluate the impact chemicals and materials have on human and environmental health throughout their life cycles. Bolus, MBDC, and the United States Postal Service have teamed up to reduce the USPS’ environmental footprint by eliminating toxic inks, adhesives, and coatings from its packaging.

Also from MBDC we get to meet the design team for the concept Ford Model U, a car designed to be eco-friendly and ‘cradle to cradle’. Non-polluting, the Model U uses hydrogen as its fuel. All of the components use low eco-impact materials, and are fully recyclable.

Cereplast is a company with a vision. They are manufacturing the raw materials for a biodegradable plastic. A frightening statistic is that each year the US alone disposes of 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups, and these all end up in the landfill. Frederic Scheer (CEO) has a solution; using corn, starches, and other renewable and non toxic materials, he creates biodegradable plastic. Depending on the end product it will biodegrade to ‘worm food’ within 60-180 days.

I had the opportunity to conduct a brief interview with this visionary.

You produce an eco-friendly version of plastic. Where did you get the initial idea from?

As a 15-year veteran in the bio-plastic industry, I could see that there was a trend toward biodegradable and compostable plastic products across many industries, especially in North America. Cereplast, which is the combination of the words "cereal" and "plastic," was born from that belief.

What is the average ‘degrade’ time back to its basic components?

Cereplast resin is certified compostable and biodegradable by the Biodegradable Products Institute, which means it "returns to earth" in 180 days or less when placed in an industrial compost facility. The Cereplast resin meets the ASTM D6400 test method standard for biodegradability and compostability. Cereplast does encourage composting of products made of its resin.

In Big Ideas For A Small Planet, there are shots of cups, plates, and takeout containers. Could your product be used for larger items? A replacement for the product used to cushion items like TVs and stereo components that currently come with masses of Styrofoam?

Yes. Products of all forms are very likely future applications of Cereplast resins, not just food service packaging. Our future markets extend beyond food service to include medical device, automotive, consumer electronics, and cosmetics, among others.

How do manufacturing costs compare to more traditional materials?

In many cases, the cost of the Cereplast resin is comparable to traditional plastic resins. Since Cereplast is starch-based rather than petroleum-based, the cost is not subject to fluctuation based on the price of fossil fuels. The manufacturing process for Cereplast resins takes place at a lower heat than that required for manufacturing with traditional plastics, further bringing down manufacturing costs.

Obviously your products will biodegrade, but can you also recycle it? Is it possible to take used cups/plates etc, and manipulate them back into usable raw material?

Products made from the Cereplast resin are best suited for placement in compost, where they will break down and return to the soil.

Big Ideas For A Small Planet is a great show, and well worth the 30-minute investment. If you cannot get the Sundance Channel on your cable network, you can pick up most of the segments on their web page.