The Really Drawn-out Blog Cabins Decennial Spectacular: #7

Decennial, in case you're not hip to the term, means 1. relating to or lasting for ten years, or 2. occurring every ten years. It's really a word that we should hear more often. Anyway, this will be my series where I count down my favorites from the last decade, and since I don't plan on it taking 10 years to finish, we're going to go with the second definition.

Previous day's posts:
12/21: Intro/#10: Idiocracy
12/22: #9: Children of Men
12/23: #8: Pan's Labyrinth

Number 7 on the RD-oBCDS is...

Wall*E (2008)
Pixar released seven feature films during the last decade. Six received a Best Animated Feature nomination from the Academy (this number will reach seven in a few short months when Up joins the team), four of which went on to win (Cars and Monsters, Inc. being the exception; again, this number is likely to climb to five). All but Cars has a Rotten Tomatoes score of > 95%. All but Cars has a worldwide gross of >$500 million. And all this is a long way of saying that any number of them could (should?) be in this spot, specifically either Finding Nemo or The Incredibles.

So what puts Wall*E ahead of them?

Good question. It comes down to a few things it was able to do: a) make you fall in love with a robot, b) leave you even more speechless than the film with a wordless 20-minute intro, and c) incorporate a preachy message...without being overtly preachy (the link to Idiocracy doesn't hurt, either). In addition, by being the newest of the three - and by being the only one set outside of our atmosphere - it's able to capture your eyes just as much as it did your heart.

(But it's really close. I feel like no matter which was chosen, it would have been the "wrong" selection.)

And then...

All right, who put a vote in for Wall*E as Pixar's worst?

Stand up and be counted. And give reasons - I gotta hear this.

Oh, and for the record, I'm about halfway through Cars - and yeah, it's easily the worst, at least as far as adults should be concerned. It also dawned on me that it's The Color of Money all over again, minus the Clapton and plus (an annoying) Bonnie Hunt. Where are though, Mary Elizabeth Mastrasansndnlongnametonio?

And then...

New poll - Pixar, part II

There may be a few leftover votes, but I'm calling the fight right now. It started out as a close fight (Lederman scored it 10-9 through the first round), but quickly turned into a TKO. Insert other boxing analogy here. Long story short, The Incredibles is the runaway winner and earns the title of Best Pixar Film with 33% of the 53 votes, followed by Wall*E with 18% and the original Toy Story with 16%.



















Commentor Farmacy had the better idea - what would you choose as the worst Pixar film? I have a feeling this will be a 3-way race between A Bug's Life, Monster's, Inc., and Cars, but who knows. Our buddy Nic Cage (commentor, not actor) is a big fan of Cars, and when Nic Cage talks, people cover their ears.

And then...

New poll - Pick your Pixar

Walter and The Dude will be playing in the semifinals, but it seems as though The Dude is the better bowler, if only by a hair. Taking first place with 42% of the vote, El Duderino bested his best bud by a scant two votes, with that pederast Quintana rolling into third with just 3 votes. No contest.



















For the latest poll, I figure it's time to settle the Pixar debate: which is their best film? I'd mentioned in a comment that I thought this might be a 3- or 4-horse race between Wall*E, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, and Finding Nemo, but that only leaves out, um, Toy Story and Toy Story 2, long considered the best - at least up until a couple years ago. I'm curious to see how this goes...

And then...

Breaking News: Tony Stark popping up on film sets worldwide

LOS ANGELES - After helping lift the rejuvenated Incredible Hulk series over the hundred million dollar mark, Iron Man's Robert Downey, Jr. finds himself in demand and overworked.

Hot on the heels of the $300 million success that was Iron Man, the smart folks behind The Incredible Hulk, who already had a cameo for Downey's Tony Stark character lined up, decided to push up the appearance of the bit part from the post-end credits sequence (a la Samuel L. Jackson's cameo in Iron Man) to the end of the film, ratcheting up the fanboy buzz and ensuring that moviegoers got their fill of Stark in what's set to be a cross-pollination franchise spree for Marvel.

However, other studios have seen the success that a Stark appearance can bring to a film, and they want in on it. As a result, Downey, Jr. has found himself littered upon set after set, playing Stark/Iron Man in everything from a man on the street in the upcoming Robert DeNiro-Al Pacino crime thriller Righteous Kill to a "robot" in Wall*E to a co-starring role in the Coens' already hotly anticipated Burn After Reading.

The usually shy Coens' even opened up to Blog Cabins, giving their take on why they wanted Iron Man for their caper. Says Ethan Coen, "People told us that Tony Stark was a comic book character and had no business being onscreen in a quirky comedy, but I really feel as though they had blinders on. Stark's a visionary, and I can see him being in everything from horror films to documentaries - the guy knows a lot, has seen the world, and isn't afraid to blow sh*t up every now and then, which comes in handier than you'd think."

The toll is taking its part on Downey, Jr., but for the meantime, he's more than willing to ride out the renewed vigor in his career. He is, however, worried about the potential damage this may due to the Iron Man franchise, stating "I mean, obviously, it's hard for me to say no to two million dollar paychecks for 3 days work all the time, but you have to think that people are gonna get sick of this guy. The Bond people approached me recently about adding an Iron Man cameo to Quantum of Solace as the new gadget guy for Bond, but I had to say no - I mean, wasn't John Cleese the last guy to take that job? Didn't exactly earn him much favor with audiences."

And then...

Fletch's Film Review: Wall*E

Derivative, repetitive, and mostly boring, Wall*E has to be considered the most overhyped, overrated piece of garbage (pun intended) of the new millennium. Tugging at your heartstrings with Louis Armstrong, Hello, Dolly and shades of R2-D2 is no way to make a modern masterpiece, much less one swathed in eco-morals and romance between inanimate objects.

Ah, who am I kidding? (You, hopefully.) Wall*E is far and away the best film of the year-to-date, one that follows in the Pixar/Disney tradition of being as much (if not more so) for adults as it is for the kids. Even Maxine, the fictional curmudgeon made famous in all those Hallmark cards, couldn't help but be smitten by the lonely trash compactor with a heart of gold.

Maxine had better bring her glasses to the theater, though, as director Andrew Stanton has crafted the most beautifully animated film my eyes have seen, surpassing Pixar's previous effort, Ratatouille, by leaps and bounds - a statement that might have seemed blasphemous just a few months ago. That's all the more amazing considering that much of the film takes place on a desolate, tarnished and left behind Earth that's filled with more trash and pollution than one could ever dream.

Well, maybe not everyone. Much has been made of the homages the film features, from the silent movies of yesteryear to 2001 to the aforementioned R2-D2, but it owes its non-love story premise to that of Michael Judge's Idiocracy, a brilliantly immature satire so rudely ignored by audiences and critics alike just two years ago. From the mountains of refuse to the big box stores larger than some small towns to the salvation that a single plant brings (and many, many more examples), I can't help but feel that Judge ought to be receiving a hefty check from Disney any day now. (The irony of Disney, one of the country's largest corporations, not-so-thinly veiling an assault at Wal-Mart ought to be mentioned as well, but at least their heart is in the right place.)

Though it's not perfect (even at just 103 minutes, the third act does make it feel a bit long), Wall*E stands on its own two treads as a beautiful work of art, and one that should be seen on the largest screen possible.

Fletch's Film Rating:

"You're the best...around!"

And then...

TGITDNMAR (6/27/08 & 7/1/08)

It's that time again for TGITDNMAR, which (obviously) stands for Thank God It's The Day New Movies Are Released.

You might be wondering what this post is doing here on a Monday. Well, I missed it on Friday, and this week's lone wide release is coming on Wednesday, so I figured I might as well split the difference and combine them both for what you see here now.

Wanted
Cubicle drone pulled from his boring existence into a world of intrigue and danger? Check. Smoking hot raven-haired beauty as a love interest/experienced member of secret society? Check. Leadership/introduction given by wise elder (of color)? Check. Special effects that revolve around bullets? Check?

Could this have possibly been any more of a Matrix ripoff? Why does this not bother everyone to the point of boycotting it? It's not as though the source comic came out before the Keanu-led actioner, so there's really no excuse for a 'remake' of the Wachowski brothers' classic less than ten years from its release date. Ugh, this pisses me off.
Fletch's Chance of Viewing (in the theater): 15%, or equal to the chance that someone like James McAvoy would ever end up with someone like Angelina Jolie.

Wall*E
I've seen the early scores from the fine folks at the LAMB for this, and let me tell you, were LAMBScores not such a new feature over there, I'd be crowing about Wall*E setting a record for the highest scores yet. The worst score I've seen so far is 4.5/5, and one person is even trying to give it a 6/5 rating.

My interest in seeing this has always been little more than marginal, but I must say, I feel compelled to see it now. I just wish Steve Guttenberg was on board.
Fletch's Chance of Viewing: 70%...and rising.

Hancock
Bad buzz, or just a lack thereof? Bad marketing? Confusing poster? Whatever the reason, it seems as though no one is hyped to see Hancock. I can't say that I am, either, but I am intrigued, and frankly, with Smith and Jason Bateman on board, I'll have a hard time saying no, especially when considering the lack of any competition this weekend (or next, really, which brings Hellboy II and, uh, Meet Dave to the table).
Fletch's Chance of Viewing: 50%, or equal to the chance that I can get "Summertime" in your head by saying this:

"Summer summer summertime/
Time to sit back and unwind"
(Repeat 50x)

And then...