The Island Movie Review

Director Michael Bay is notorious for making movies with lots of high intensity action and tons of special effects. Not all of his movies are good; in fact some are just flat out stupid. Even when the movie is ridiculous and hard to take seriously, it cannot be said that the action isn't awesome. Somehow I missed the release of The Island (2005). I've had several people recommend it to me in the past few weeks, so I made sure to see it. It's pretty interesting for a Michael Bay movie.

Lincoln Six-Echo (Ewan McGregor) is a resident of a seemingly Utopian, but contained, facility in the year 2019. Like all of the inhabitants of this carefully controlled environment, Lincoln hopes to be chosen to go to "The Island," reportedly the last uncontaminated spot on the planet. But Lincoln soon discovers that everything is not what it appears to be. He makes a daring escape with a beautiful fellow resident named Jordan Two-Delta (Scarlett Johansson). The two are relentlessly pursued by the facility's administrator, Dr. Bernard Merrick (Sean Bean), and his hired mercenaries. Lincoln and Jordan race to find help and protection in a world they know nothing about.

Surely you've seen a Michael Bay movie before. Transformers, Armageddon, and Pearl Harbor probably come to mind. If you've seen these movies then you already know they are special effects intensive, feature lots of action, and an uncommonly high number of explosions. That's basically the main reasons to watch a Michael Bay movie. The man is a genius when it comes to orchestrating beautiful pyrotechnic stunts.

In The Island, however, it's almost like he's done a double feature of some sort. The first part of the movie is similar to the "escape from paradise" movies that were popular in the 1960's and 70's, like Logan's Run or Fahrenheit 451. It acts as a creepy, yet relatively calm, science fiction parable, which later shifts into a high-tech adrenaline-pumping action movie. The second half is more like a Michael Bay movie. Both "halves" of the movie are great fun individually, but they contrast each other so much in terms of pacing, theme, and tone that I'm not sure if they work well together. It's almost like watching a double feature with the same cast.

The Utopian facility at the beginning of the movie is not terribly complicated to figure out. The inhabitants are childlike and blissful, all except for the few troublesome characters like Lincoln who wants bacon for breakfast but is given oatmeal. This causes him develop something that all closed systems fear, curiosity. McGregor and Johansson do a phenomenal job of playing characters raised to be docile, obedient, and frankly not very bright. It's great to see how Bay gradually thrusts upon them carefully controlled amounts of knowledge which both moves the plot forward and shows the characters losing their illusions.

The second part of the movie is an insane series of chase scenes by train, car, and hover-cycle, that showcase some stellar special effects with absurd urgency. How our heroes discover the underlying truth about their world while moving so fast is beyond me. Maybe people in the facility aren't as slow witted as we thought. Car chases on highways are difficult to film, but Michael Bay has a knack for filming great chase scenes. There are a good number of crashes, explosions, and cliffhangers which by every right should have killed everyone involved. Yet our heroes escape and keep going. How? I have no idea. But it was really fun and exciting to watch!

I didn't feel like The Island draws much of a conclusive ending. The climax of the film certainly fulfills the requirements of the second half of the story, but it leaves questions raised in the first half unanswered. We get a satisfactory ending to all the action, but it's as if the movie completely forgot about the first half. That's part of the reason why I think each half of the movie is good, but they don't quite work well together.

The Island is a fun movie. It's got lots of crazy action, some good acting, reasonably decent writing, good directing, and a story that is as illogical and full of plot holes as any other Michael Bay movie. If you're looking for something deep and intellectually stimulating, you shouldn't bother with a Michael Bay movie. The Island was fun and exciting. That's all it is, and that's what Michael Bay is good at. Like any good sci-fi movie, The Island should cause you to reflect on contemporary issues. If you don't think of something like stem-cell research or government monitoring, you might be missing one of the few intellectually stimulating bits of The Island. I recommend seeing this movie; it's not a classic for the ages, but it's achieves what it sets out to do. I think it might even be worth owning a copy for the next time you're in the mood for a crazy action movie.

What's your favorite "escape from paradise" movie? I kind of liked Logan's Run. Comment below and tell me about yours!

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Movie Review

I remember having the picture book Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs read to me in first grade. In 2009, a CGI animated movie based on the children's picture book was made. It's one of the few examples I can think of where the movie is better than the book it's based on.

Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) thinks he's a genius, but none of his inventions are useful or even make sense. He has the support of his mother, but after she passes away, he's left alone with his father (James Caan) who thinks Flint should give up inventing. After the world discovers that sardines are "super gross" the demand for the small island town of Swallow Falls' primary export, canned sardines, plummets, leaving the town to subsist on nothing but the tiny fish. Flint decides to try his latest invention, a machine that can turn water into food. But something goes wrong and the machine ends up in the atmosphere. Later it starts raining food. The Shifty Mayor (Bruce Campbell) tries to use this as a way to help their community, but when Flint senses something wrong with the machine, the mayor convinces him to ignore it. However, as Flint predicted, chaos ensues. Flint enlists the help from his pet monkey (Neil Patrick Harris), weather intern Sam Sparks (Anna Faris), former sardine cannery mascot Brent (Andy Samberg), and an overzealous police officer (Mr. T) to help stop the food-weather storm destroying their town and keep it from spreading to the rest of the world.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs differs greatly from its source material. The picture book is all about grandpa's silly stories about a place where food falls from the sky. The movie has nothing to do with that other than the fact the food falls from the sky. The movie is actually well written and has a fairly complex plot for a family feature.

The characters are great. Flint is unappreciated for his efforts and is comically awkward. Sam is intelligent and talented in meteorological science, but feels she needs to hide that "nerdy" aspect of herself so she can fit the pretty, ditzy weather forecaster stereotype. Flint's Dad is a technophobic fisherman, a single father and widower who has no idea how to relate to his son. Officer Devereaux is basically a parody of Mr. T, who also provides the voice for the character. He's hyper-manly, ridiculously athletic, passionate about his job, and loves his young son dearly. Even the character's partially bald head is a reverse of Mr. T's signature Mohawk. He often delivers hilariously wacky lines like, " My chest hairs are tingling! Something's wrong." All the characters are well written, relatable, and loveable.

The animation in Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is fantastic. The characters' movements are hilariously spastic and expressive, similar to an old Saturday morning cartoon. There is no subtlety anywhere in the movie when it comes to movement. The stretchy facial expressions that Flint in particular makes are hysterical and really conveys the characters' thoughts and feelings. They're easily on par with the laughable expressions used in Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes comic strips.

Remarkable detail was put into the animation. Props like a water pitcher made of glass, have little imperfections that distort the background a little bit as you look through the pitcher, and it has dated 70's style floral design painted on it. The explosions were beautifully animated and astoundingly colorful. The movie's color palette made everything look beautiful to look at.

The dialogue is absolutely hysterical. After Flint discovers he cannot remove his spray on shoes invention, he narrates a somber, melodramatic tone, "I wanted to run away that day, but you can't run away from your own feet." Flint's dad tries to console his young son by saying, "Not every sardine was meant to swim" to which Flint responds, "I don't understand fishing metaphors!" One of my favorite line was when Flint renewed his commitment to be great and fix the problems he created. He then says, "Come on, Steve! We've got some diem to carpe!" The movie is quotable, but the delivery from the talented voice actors makes it all the funnier.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is an incredibly funny and creative movie that features gorgeous animation, fun characters, a well written script, hilarious comedy, and is genuinely fun to watch. The movie pays homage to other disaster movies like Twister, Armageddon, The Core, and The Day After Tomorrow, except with over-sized food rather than meteorological phenomena. It's a fun, slapstick family adventure comedy and viewers of any age will likely get a kick out of it. It's a little formulaic, but I can't think of another movie that features the hero dangling above a chasm of razor-sharp peanut brittle while grasping onto a red licorice rope held by his girlfriend who has a peanut allergy. It's a great movie and is worth owning a copy.

What's your favorite disaster movie? Comment below and tell me why!