Quick Takes

Note: Due to the large number of movies I get to watch as an AMC Stubs A-List member, I will be posting these encapsulated reviews more frequently, maybe one a month or so.  This month we have an eclectic mix: a musical, a horror flick and an animated feature.

Pigeon: Impossible

I don’t watch many family-friendly computer-animated movies, but ‘Spies in Disguise’ caught my interest because it’s different from most of the unimaginative kid fare nowadays and is a spy movie.  This feature, based on (according to Wikipedia) a 2009 animated short whose name I stole for the title of this entry, is about a tux-wearing superspy (voiced by Will Smith) who’s accidently transformed by a tech geek (Tom Holland) into a large eye-browed blue pigeon which, other than providing the obvious comedic effects, gave him the perfect disguise to vanquish Killian (Ben Mendelson), the cybenetically-armed nemesis in this silly-fun but ultimately disposable exercise.

Grade: B

Please don't bring back vengeful water spirits from Japan 

Though ‘The Ring’ may be what comes to mind when it comes to Japanese scary movies or “J-Horror,” ‘The Grudge’ is proving to have more staying power thanks to producer Sam Raimi’s latest installment of the critically maligned franchise now spanning four films dating back to 2004 (not counting the Japanese-made original ‘Ju-On: The Grudge’).  But what do the producers care about the critics as long as suckers like me keep going to see these low budget affairs?  While this latest “sidequel” boasts some talented actors in John Cho, Jacki Weaver and genre veteran Lin Shaye, it’s about as much fun as watching someone ravaged slowly by cancer.

Grade: C-

Meow Mix

The critically-panned movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s time-honored feline musical ‘Cats’ from acclaimed director Tom Hooper (‘Les Mis,’ ‘The King’s Speech’) is perhaps doomed from the very start due to an ill-advised creative decision to utilize the much derided “digital fur technology” blending the faces and anthropomorphic shapes of its ensemble cast of talented and accomplished human actors with digitally rendered cat fur.  While I didn’t find the film’s aesthetic approach particularly unsettling or repulsive, this so-called “uncanny valley” effect apparently was too much to stomach for most.  Regardless, the song and dance numbers have a certain cheesy/burlesque-y 'Cabaret' and 'Moulin Rouge!' charm so I'm going to recommend it.

Grade: B+