The Lego Movie 3D ****

A surprise hit when it opened Feb 7, "The Lego Movie" has continued to dominate the U.S. box office through this weekend. And with good reason. It's a wonderfully inventive, fast-paced animated movie entirely constructed of Legos that cracks wise while skewering pop icons and delivering a message extolling creativity over conformity. Clearly there's much more than needed to keep the little ones interested, and reports are surfacing on Facebook of twenty-somethings seeing it multiple times. Yes, it's fine for the kids, but it's the adults who will laugh loudest.

Among a host of good voice work, I particularly liked the unmistakeable cadences of Morgan Freeman as the godlike prophet Vitruvius, Liam Neeson as the Good Cop/Bad Cop, and Will Farrell as President Business. Animation props go to the huge crew that put it all together, especially the impressive water surfaces, and to the directing team, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who also brought us "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" and "21 Jump Street." I saw the version in 3D, which was consistently well used.

The topical, historical, and pop culture references came so fast and furious, it was difficult to catch them all. Now that I consider it, I might have to see it again.

Gloria ****

Gloria is a woman of a certain age, single, divorced, with two grown children, who lives, works, and plays in Santiago, Chile. She is open to new experiences and loves to go to the clubs to dance and have a good time. At one of the clubs she meets Sergio, a retired naval officer, and they start to see each other more and more often.

In the course of the story we get to know Gloria very, very well. She is in virtually every shot as director Sebastián Lelio, who also co-wrote and co-edited, follows her everywhere. It's a demanding role played flawlessly by Paulina García, who so fully inhabits the character it feels like a documentary at times. Thank goodness she's likable and interesting.

Lelio's character study is close-up, unflinching, and non-judgmental. "Gloria" the movie, like Gloria the character, is warm, funny, wise, and sympathetic. "Gloria," in Spanish with English subtitles, is a portrait of a woman who becomes more than a single person in Santiago, while remaining uniquely herself. It's fantastic.

Pompeii 3D **

"Pompeii" suffers from a lack of imagination on the story side and an excess of enthusiasm on the special effects side. For a glimpse into the vibrant life of a thriving center of commerce and leisure for the Roman upper class in 79 AD we get, what, another gladiator movie?

With much of the story line echoing the original "Gladiator," we see a boy in Britannia whose family was murdered by the Romans in front of him and whose later prowess in the gladiatorial ring brings him to the big time in the arena at Pompeii. In Pompeii he catches the eye of a high-born lady who is being courted by - guess who - the very general, now a Roman Senator, who ordered the slaughter in Britain. The Senator (Kiefer Sutherland) and his main henchman seemed to have been locked in a time machine for 20 years, because they look exactly the same as they did in the first scenes.

Our hero Milo (Kit Harington of "Game of Thrones") is a wonder in the ring, but there's no time to explain his fighting skills or even pause for a setback. He befriends the veteran gladiator who is to be his rival (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and has a moment with the lady (Emily Browning) at her villa when he has a chance to calm her horse, spooked by the pre-eruption rumblings of Vesuvius. It's a semi-"Titanic" moment, but alas, the wooden-faced Harington is no Leonardo DiCaprio.

Finally we get to the real focus of the movie, when all hell breaks loose. Clearly, eruption and destruction is what engages director Paul W.S. Anderson, and "Pompeii" hits its stride. The scenes of destruction are imaginative and thrilling, and 3D is put to good use. Never mind that the phases of the eruption do not follow the eye witness accounts we have. Never mind that there was no tsunami, which would have had to originate offshore, and Vesuvius lies inland. Never mind that no giant chasms opened up, swallowing people and houses and horses. The movie rushes to its inevitable end, the world of Pompeii meets its fiery burial, and we're left sitting in the theater, drained and exhausted as the credits roll.

RoboCop IMAX ***

Yet another reboot of an earlier hit, this one largely successful, "RoboCop" updates the technology, widens the perspective, and amps up the star power to present a new version of Paul Verhoeven's 1987 classic story of man in machine.

In 2028, OmniCorp, once again based in a crime-ridden Detroit, supplies the Pentagon with a variety of robots (tellingly called "drones") for its world-wide policing activities, including the streets of Tehran. Indeed, the Pentagon seems to be in charge of policing worldwide; everywhere, that is, except the "robo-phobic" United States, where it's illegal to put a gun in the hands of a machine.

But OmniCorp's head man, ruthless master-marketer Raymond Sellars (a solid, well-cast Michael Keaton) has an idea: Put a man inside the machine, someone with feelings and a conscience that people can relate to, can trust to do the right thing. The RoboCop program is born and given to top researcher and developer Dr. Dennett Norton (a superb Gary Oldman), who really does have a conscience. The cop chosen is Alex Murphy (Swedish actor Joel Kinneman), a straight-arrow crime fighter going after corruption who was critically injured in a crime syndicate's bomb blast.  Abbie Cornish as Alex's wife is both supportive and steely as the situation requires.

Throughout development and testing, it's always the human element that gets in the way of progress it seems, from the shock Alex feels when he wakes up mostly machine, through the feelings that overwhelm him when the crime history of Detroit is downloaded into his memory. On OmniCorp's side, however, we see the opposite problem: a lack of feeling and a pursuit of profit at the top that leads to real evil being done.

"RoboCop" cost a reported $100 million to make, and looks it. The production is beautifully designed, the special effects are superb, and informational screen overlays are clear, logical, and easy to grasp. Brazilian director José Padilha, a top award recipient back home for "Elite Squad," does a fine job with a top-drawer cast, although several action sequences were uninspired, sometimes confusing. In general the pacing is fine, and the fan boys should be happy.

The Monuments Men ***

In the throes of World War II and its immense destruction in Europe, President Roosevelt authorized the formation of a small group of art professionals and artists whose task would be to save nothing less than the artistic legacy of Western civilization. "The Monuments Men" is the movie based on that endeavor.

The movie steps us through the process: the proposal by Frank Stokes, his formation of the group, their basic training and posting to Europe about the time of D-Day, and their detective work trying to find the priceless art looted by the Nazis and destined for Hitler's planned grand museum or the houses of his favorites. Stokes is played by a very competent George Clooney, but he also directed and shares a screenwriting credit with Grant Heslov. And all that may have been a bridge too far.

The movie suffers from a slackness and lack of focus in the first act. A charitable view might be that it reflects the insecurity of the group and their own lack of a concrete plan, but the audience should not share in their puzzlement. The group splits up for various missions, but once again there is a looseness that loses the narrative thread. Various incidents illustrate their semi-soldierly status, but are badly handled. The sacrifice in defending a major piece is staged to seem pointless, and the fatal wounding of a member of the group is cloaked in confusion. These seem to be directing, not writing problems. 

Eventually there is a major breakthrough that reveals the Nazi grand plan, the movie finally gains some momentum, and there is a rush to a thrilling conclusion, helped along with some manufactured suspense that is more Hollywood than history, Argo style. Overall it's a interesting effort highlighting a little-known aspect of the war, with some memorable moments from Cate Blanchett and Matt Damon.

Oscar Nominated Short Films 2014: Live Action

Live action shorts, by definition, are more grounded than animated shorts, which create whole new worlds with strokes of a pen without regard for the heavy realities of the meat world. This year the nominated live action shorts include two very gritty and suspenseful entries, but there are three which manage, each in its own way, to slip the bonds of literal reality.

The more real ones:

"Aquel no era yo" ("That Wasn't Me")  ****
The most searing and brutal entry, from Spain, deals close-up with the horror of child soldiers in Africa. My pick for the Academy award.

"Avant que de tout perdre" ("Just Before Losing Everything")  ****
The French entry depicts a mother and her children in crisis in a film that in the midst of everyday life and work slowly reveals their circumstance and the source of their fears. I found it powerful.

And on the more fanciful side:

"Helium"  **
The janitor at a children's hospital strikes up a friendship with a young patient, relating a tale about the magical world of Helium. A bit cloying for my taste. From Denmark.

"The Voorman Problem"  ***
A doctor is called in to talk some sense into a prisoner who insists he is God, with, as they say, unforeseen consequences. Illuminated by the performance of Martin Freeman (the Hobbit). From the U.K.

"Pitääkö mun kaikki hoitaa?" ("Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?")  ***
A city couple with two young children oversleep and must rush around like crazy to make it to the wedding in time. Hilarious and surprising. From Finland.

Oscar Nominated Short Films 2014: Animation

Thanks once again to Shorts International for pulling together the Oscar nominated animated shorts this year, along with a couple of honorable mentions. It's a high quality group, as you can imagine, with interstitials enlivened this year with a running dialogue between two veteran animated actors, a seen-it-all ostrich and a blasé giraffe. These two tell insider stories about other animated actors, which were really funny - a nice surprise.

My take on the shorts:

"Get a Horse!" *** from Disney starring Mickey and Minnie, USA. This one I had seen before "Saving Mr. Banks" as I recall. It starts out as a classic-looking 'thirties slapstick tale of a bully in a motor car, then morphs into a full-color feature when the hijinks bust through the screen. The dialogue was apparently lifted from vintage cartoons (Disney himself is credited), and it did capture the look and feel of the old classics. However, it suffered from a lack of ideas beyond the usual knockabout, and the chases from black and white to color and back again were not original enough to keep the thing afloat.

"Mr Hublot" ***** from Luxembourg/France. In a steampunk world (see above) a mechanical man adopts a mechanical dog, with unforeseen consequences. For me, this was by far the most original and enjoyable of the shorts presented. Bravo!

"Feral" ** from USA. In a minimalist drawing style we see a feral child retrieved from the woods, who then uses the same survival tactics in the civilized world that he learned in the wild. The style and the story kept me at a remove from the piece.

"Possessions" *** from Japan. In a richly Japanese decorative flat style we meet a traveling tinker who takes refuge from a storm in a haunted house, where his skills are put to the test. It was entertaining and sweetly instructive.

"Room on the Broom" ** from the UK. Based on the children's book, it's an entirely predictable tale of a witch who collects a few friends and hangers-on in her travels. For the very young at heart.

The honorable mentions were amusing but not stellar. My favorite was from France, "A la Française," where we are treated to the full cast of characters at the Versailles of Louis XIV, all played by chickens. Also appearing is a near-photographic entry from Pixar, "The Blue Umbrella," which suffers from a lack of content, and "The Missing Scarf," from Ireland, which tackles some big themes in a short seven minutes.