Blind Side

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Plot: A white housewife takes in a black boy who later becomes a high school athlete. The boy becomes a member of the family gradually during the movie. At the end, there is controversy involving college recruiting. 

Review: Blind Side is cloying sweet candy soaked in warm-fuzzy melodrama, frosted with after-school-special morality and all dipped in suburban white guilt. No character was realistic; Leigh Ann Touhy (Sandra Bullock) is too perfect and too glib; husband Sean Touhy (Tim McGraw) and daughter Collins Touhy (Lily Collins) are just props for Leigh. The football player, Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron,) tries so heard to prove he is harmless and nice, that he does not have any human emotion.

Jae Head who played the young son, SJ Touhy, steals every scene he is in. He lightens up the action, and is used by the director to move the story along. I doubt there is any documentary accuracy in any of his dialog. Lots of good lines, well delivered. I'd like to see more of Jae Head.

Sandra Bullock also delivers a fun performance in an otherwise dismally cheerful picture.

Cast: Sandra Bullock, Quinton Aaron, Jae Head

Crew: written and directed by John Lee Hancock based on the book by Michael Lewis

Rating: 1.5 flasks - not bad enough to be one star, but really awful. I was going to put up a picture of treacle syrup instead of the movie poster to show what I really thought.


More: I liked the football game scenes. Good photography. Good plotting for these quick scenes.

Even more: Blind Side deals with racial issues. The film is hard on the southern whites who do not accept Michael, but the film does not present positive black role models (aside from the NCAA official at the very end of the film -- who is a 'villain'.) All the younger blacks in this film are hoodlums and drug addicts and all the virtuous adults were white.
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Fantastic Mr Fox

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Plot: Mr Fox steals poultry, and despite his wife's nagging him to quit, he begins a private war on three neighboring farmers. The farmer's retaliate and go after the Mr Fox's family and the other woodland creatures with heavy equipment. Mr Fox makes a plan, gathers a team, and everything turns out fine. 

Review: Fantastic Mr Fox is a high concept comedy that happens to be done in stop-action animation, and for some reason this heightens the novelty and irony. Mr Fox is like George Clooney in Oceans 11/12 making plans, recruiting people and stealing things.

The film is voiced by celebrity actors including George Clooney as Mr. Fox. The animation is servicable, but not really up to the task of communicating the characters motivations and thoughts. We are often viewing doll-heads mouthing lines.

The real star is Wes Anderson who delivers his brand of satire on American society using animals. Anderson who did The Royal Tannenbaums, and The Life Aquatic, enjoys exploring quirky characters and drawing out their likeability. This is a good installment in that series.

The film gets lots of points for being creative and different. It is also fun-to-watch and keeps moving. On the other hand, there is no social message or insights into the psyche here. Mr Fox steals farm goods because "he is a wild animal," and we get no clues into how people should live our lives in a society. I don't think there is a "moral," in this film - just a wry ironic grin.

Crew: directed by Wes Anderson; based on the book by Roald Dahl

Rating: 3.0 flasks: Pluses - creative, fun; Minuses - not a lot of content or drama



More: I loved the side-scrolling video-game-like sequences.

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