(1 People gave this 5.00 out of 5)

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“I became obsessed with this premise that fear can deny a good father from being one.” Director/Writer/’Crush’ – Andrew Stanton

Swift shot:  Under the Sea . . . in 3D!  It’s hard to perfect perfection, but the miracle workers at Pixar seemed to have done just that.  When they first started putting together Finding Nemo, they thought of it as Bambi underwater.  And, really, that is exactly what they achieved.  It is a magical, treacherous story about a father doing anything to get back his lost son and the critters move with a natural authenticity that makes these fish seem like more than just digital images on a screen.  The “fish are friends,” in other words, “not food.”  It’s now a classic story of one father’s overprotective nature actually causing his son to become lost.  The film’s creator, Stanton brilliantly captures the trap that is fatherhood, a delicate balance of being friend and protector and hoping that whatever you do is always “the right thing.”  This is a must see for dads or dads to be.

Marlin (Albert Brooks) plays an unfunny clown fish, who right from the start learns that life can be cruel and yet full of wonder.  As his mate, Coral is taken early in the film, and all but one of their eggs is lost.  One small cracked egg with a glimmer of hope, Nemo (Alexander Gould) emerges to be raised alone by his very protective father.  You can’t really blame a fish who has lost everything in a matter of seconds for being a little protective.  Not to mention that his son has yet another hardship in that he was born with a slightly smaller right fin, which his dad lovingly refers to as his “lucky fin.”  But, all this overbearing concern smothers Nemo on his first day of school.  Again, fate intervenes and Nemo is now lost, but Marlin will stop at nothing to get him back.  His journey becomes legend.

Immediately after Nemo is lost, Marlin literally runs into Dory, a blue tang with a short-term memory disorder played by the incredibly talented Ellen DeGeneres.  While her real face is never on screen, the over-exaggerated expressions the Pixar team gave her will always make me laugh . . . like on the worst day of my life, that Dory will always make me laugh.  I sure hope so anyway.  She is overly optimistic, which is needed to balance the ever pessimistic Marlin.

Shortly after they run into one another, they make the company of a trio of sharks: a Great White . . . named Bruce (Barry Humphries); Anchor, the crazed Hammer Head (Eric Bana) and Chum, a Mako shark with a bit of an impulse control issue.  Oddly enough though, Nemo and Dory manage to survive the encounter, which is all ‘shot’ in a sunken submarine surrounded by unexploded mines.  The tightness of that sequence, contrasted with the vastness of the big blue is well translated into 3D.

Nemo is not dead; he has been placed in an aquarium at a well renowned dentist’s in Sydney.  He might have endured there too, if not for the fact that the dentist has a tendency to give little fish to his niece ‘fish-killer’ Darla (who has her own Psycho music when on screen).  Nemo gets the help of his new aquarium friends to try and escape back to the ocean.

His friends in the aquarium are, in order of importance, Gill (Willem Dafoe), Peach (Allison Janney), Bloat (Brad Garrett), Gurgle (Austin Pendleton), Bubbles (Stephen Root – one of my favorite character actors of all time), Deb & (Flo) (Vicki Lewis – another News Radio alum with Root), and Jacques (the late Joe Ranft).  There are wonderful sequences in the aquarium that I really got to appreciate at my Cinemark XD screening, particularly when he goes through the volcano to earn his new title of ‘Shark Bait” – hoo haa haa!

All the while as Nemo is trying to escape back to the ocean, his dad is trying to get to him in Sydney. After surviving the sharks, he and Dory must navigate more ocean perils, all whilst Dory keeps forgetting . . . well, everything!  They eventually come across a 150 years-young sea turtle named Crush (Stanton), who teaches Marlin that sometimes you have to let a kid try on their own, or they will never grow.  Crush’s son, Squirt (Son of Pixar’s Brad Bird, Nicholas) provides the real cutesy factor that even Al’Qaeda would be hard pressed to admit isn’t the cutest creature ever created by Disney!  I mean, lock them in a room with Squirt for six months and see if they are still so mean . . . just sayin’.

Finding Nemo is a heart-warming story, but its got adventure, style, comedy and a great message about courage and faith of the heart when hope is the only thing that lets you “just keep swimming.”  Visually it is perfect, exceeding what I could possibly ever imagine it would be like to live under the sea.  At times, with the 3D, you really do become immersed, in every sense of that word, in the ocean.

If you’ve never seen the original Finding Nemo, get out there tonight and watch it in 3D, it is the same movie, there weren’t any real gimmicky additions to the film that I could find, personally.  When the film-makers decided to do the 3D version, they clearly dissected each scene, but as the original film was already impeccably rendered in 2D, with such amazing attention to detail, it was almost like in 2003 they planned on doing this someday.  Finding Nemo is one of those films I really appreciated in 3D.  For the record, I never saw the 2D in theaters, but my original DVD is due for a Blu-Ray upgrade . . . how about yours?

(2 People gave this 4.50 out of 5)

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“Freedom is life’s great lie.” — Loki of Asgard.

Swift shot:  This was the best film I have reviewed since claiming the Rick Swift title!  When you were a little kid dreaming of making a film, The Avengers is the film you were dreaming about making.  Joss Whedon has again done the incredible on film, bringing together some of the strongest, or remarkable people in Hollywood to create a film that will stand the test of time and will be measured as the finest action film ever put on screen!  I am calling it the Gone With the Wind of comic-book movies.

The trickster, demi-god, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is in a void in the darkest regions of space, and to capture the throne of humanity, he has made a deal with a dark force of aliens to obtain the mysterious tesseract cube.  It is this mysterious cube that ties in the other Marvel films, Captain America and Thor specifically.  But, if you missed either film, you won’t be lost much, as they manage to bring everyone up to speed as the Avengers . . . assemble.

Loki teleports to Earth using the tesseract cube and quickly “recruits” S.H.I.E.L.D. agents into his devious fold.  One of the Avengers is “un-made” and then “re-made” to serve Loki.  Remember, he is a god, so he has all manner of tricks up his sleeve for dealing with puny human minds.  Even the strongest of hearts are susceptible to his mind-control.  Loki wants to essentially free humans from their one true fault, free-will.  See, he figures that only a strong leader can unite humanity under his rule, only then will they find peace.  But, really, he just wants to subjugate humanity, or Earth, because his ‘brother’ Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is sworn to protect it and us.  It was interesting, at one point you saw brother fighting brother to determine if slavery was acceptable . . . like our U.S. Civil War.  Not sure if that was intentional, but it was a nice touch for history nerds like me to appreciate either way.

After Loki makes his grand appearance, Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson) realizes that the planet is very much at war with a force they are embarrassingly under-prepared to deal with.  As the leader of S.H.I.E.L.D., with his plucky, ALWAYS polite, Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and his lethally sexy, lady in leather, Agent Hill (Cobie Smulders), Fury determines it is time to count on heroes . . . what he calls the Avengers initiative.  Left with little options, he tries to bring them all together under the S.H.I.E.L.D. banner.  As I mentioned, one of the heroes was brain-washed to serve Loki, so he is out of the picture.  Fury recruits Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) also known as The Widow, or more specifically, Black Widow to gather up a gamma radiation specialist, Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), who has some slight anger issues but immediately understands the capacity for power the tesseract holds.  But, as the team soon learns, maybe clean energy isn’t the only thing holding S.H.I.E.L.D.’s interest with the cube.

Reluctantly, Captain Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) who has just been sleeping for 70 years, also gets pulled into another war.  The one real stand-out would have been Tony Stark, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) but even he has to pull away from the gorgeously jean-shorted Pepper (Gwneyth Paltrow) to assist S.H.I.E.L.D. when he sees how high the stakes are, from his recently created Stark Tower, using an arc-reactor to run on pure, clean energy.  [Swift aside, Pepper and her shorts may be the only reason I would give to see this one in 3D, as I did.  3D is just not a big draw for me, I can live with it or without it, either way - so don't ask me about that]

How each member is recruited is right out of the comic panels, lots of character nods to the classic books are in there, with some new funny twists to tie into the recent Marvel films mentioned above.  There are so many quick one-liners and so much attention to detail that you will miss things on the first screening, so you have to see this film at least twice.  And, really, this is one of the few films I would pay money to see in theaters more than once.  The recruitment sequences lead up to the required hero vs. hero battles that I am not overly fond of in comic books, but watching them via Whedon-vision ala ILM, well, even I had to appreciate the green on green combat.  By my take, you had Thor vs. Iron Man, Thor vs. Hulk, Captain America vs. Iron Man/Thor, Black Widow vs. Hulk, and well, pretty much they are the worst team ever assembled and I am sure I missed one or two battles there.  But it isn’t until one of the heroes falls that they finally stand up to become THE AVENGERS!

The plot is simple, aliens are invading the Earth, led by a twisted misguided god, but even he isn’t the ultimate puppet-master.  There is one revealed during the film, but another sinister influence is behind the real test of humanity, and that doesn’t get revealed til AFTER the end credits, so, yes, stick around.  And, if you took the time to read my whole review, right here is where I tell you to stick around til the FINAL credits for one little amusing scene for the die-hards who do stick around.  I just hope Marvel and all these great team-members assemble again to give us another Avengers film in the near future, featuring some new faces, new enemies, and the same old awesomeness that we have come to expect from this glorious franchise!

I could literally write a book about why I loved this film so much, so let me attempt some brevity for your sake.  From the minute you see the Paramount scroll, there is a tingle in your spine, it is finally here, that moment almost five years in the making . . . The Avengers.  The opening sequence starts right out with the action, as Loki introduces himself to S.H.I.E.L.D. and pretty much destroys everything in the process.  The explosions and implosions are seamlessly painted onto the silver canvass as only Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) can pull off.  From that moment on, you are, pardon the cliche, blown away by the special effects.  The action is almost non-stop, with just enough spacing in between to let you catch your breath and take in all the lightning paced one-liners from Stark or others.  The colors and sounds and miracle of movie making are used to such an incredible balance that is like watching a living work of violent art play out seemingly just for you.  The only time you even become aware of the fact you are in a theater is when the crowd busts out in applause, which happened seven times at my screening.  You know a film is good when people are very interactive yet shutting the hell up because they don’t want to miss anything on screen.

Where other action films failed, The Avengers fills in the gap for a team story, which is hard to balance, because all of the characters could (and obviously some did) have their own films.  Much like any great franchise, Marvel’s Avengers is the gift that keeps giving to expand our imaginations and push the limits of what a film can deliver.  We are all very lucky to be able to see this one in theaters, again it is the Gone With the Wind of comic-book films.  It was bad-ass!  Yes that’s it . . . remember being a kid and saying that about some great action film?  That is how I felt walking out . . . MAN THAT WAS BAD-ASS!!!!  If you don’t see this one in theaters . . . dude (or dudette), just, what the hell is your excuse!?!  Assemble your team and see it today!!