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The Anticipator: December 2009

By Joe Lavers ⋅ December 28, 2009 ⋅

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The end of the school semester and the holidays set me back a bit, more than usual, so I’m going to do something a little different with this month’s Anticipator. Seeing as December is fairly kaput, I’m still going to list each release by week, but give my thoughts on how it all went down. There are still plenty of wonderful films being screened in revival houses this month, so keep an eye on your local cinema. Here’s what came for the month of December.

There are a lot of movies this month that I haven’t seen yet: “The Princess and the Frog,” ”A Single Man,” “Crazy Heart,” “Nine,” “The Young Victoria,” “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” and “Sherlock Holmes” are all on my must-see list to varying degrees. I have no interest in Clint Eastwood’s latest, “Invictus,” mainly because he lost me with “Gran Torino,” and I’m starting to feel like he’s just pumping them out one after another. I have yet to see “Up in the Air” and I continue to hear mixed word of mouth. It will be interesting to see George Clooney continue his year of kinda-sorta domination following “The Men Who Stare at Goats” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” Disney’s latest animated venture didn’t make as big a splash as their return to hand-drawn cartoons was supposed to entail and the “squeaquel” to “Alvin and the Chipmunks” looks set to continue the success of this harmless franchise.

Of course the movie of the moment is James Cameron’s return to the big screen, “Avatar.” The comparisons to “Star Wars” are apt, and I’d go further saying I’d much rather play on Pandora than in George Lucas’ entire creative universe. Sadly the plot is nothing to crow home about; it’s not bad, it just copies the basic plot of so many SF/fantasy epics of the past, certainly a product of Mr. Cameron’s childhood reading repertoire. Upon second viewing the plot and character motivations fall apart even more, but the sheer strength of razzle-dazzle on display is more than enough to hook you in.

Oddly enough the most compelling film I watched this month was “The Muppet Christmas Carol” at the New Beverly Cinema; an old-fashioned puppet movie from 1992, and one of the best adaptations I’ve seen of the Charles Dickens classic. I really do want to see the new 3D motion-capture adaptation by Robert Zemeckis. I’m sure it will be as forgettable as his past few works, but it deserves a viewing.