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.