The Wind Rises review

Who knew an animated movie about planes could be so damn touching.
I have never seen a Hayao Miyazaki film until now. I am a bit ashamed of this fact, but it is true. People have always raved about Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke, I just never got into any of it. After watching his newest film, The Wind Rises, I know I've been making a huge mistake. The Wind Rises was pretty terrific. It's about a budding young aviation expert and engineer named Jiro Horikoshi. When Jiro was a child, he dreamt of airplanes. They fascinated him on another level. Then he grows up and works for a company making planes for the Japanese and German governments. He is a genius, having the best mind for aeronautics in the entire company. Jiro tries to be a successful engineer, while also having a personal life and keeping a sane in a world filled with war and hurt. Soon he finds love, but many obstacles stand in his way. This is the story of Jiro Horikoshi. This is The Wind Rises. As I said before, I am in no way versed in the works of Hayao Miyazaki. So I wasn't familiar with his style or anything like that. In fact, the only reason I saw this movie in the first place was because it got nominated for Best Animated Film and was supposed to be good. I had medium expectations because I never really was a fan of anime. Yet, The Wind Rises "rose" to any expectations I had and made me just stare in wonder at the movie screen. Which is fitting because in a way, The Wind Rises is all about wonder. Wonder and dreams and even movies themselves. Tragedy too, but mostly wonder. Jiro is captivated by aviation and engineering as soon as he comes in contact with it. His awe and wonder is 100% genuine. He compares planes to dreams, and they appear in his dreams. It may seem far fetched, but I think  Miyazaki is talking about his (or anyone's) love of film. I completely related to Jiro's love and fascination of aviation, except with movies instead. It made a lot of sense to me. It could be that I am just unconsciously projecting my own thoughts and persona into the story. If that's the case (which it most likely is), I applaud Miyazaki even more. To make a film so emotionally relatable is amazingly hard. What he has done, is created a movie about wonder and the importance of dreams. Then pumped the movie with hope and a good story, to create the ultimate cathartic film. The movie has many dream sequences throughout it, often really helping display its themes. One in particular, shows Jiro looking in amazement as his idea for a plane be brought to life through the power of his dreams. Anyone who has ever made a film, or really done anything creative, can relate to this. The sense of sheer joy at seeing your creation come alive, even if it's just in a particularly vivid dream. All the use of hope and wonder is great, but it'd be useless without a decent story and the other things that make a good movie. Luckily, The Wind Rises has all these things. And it does them quite well.  It also keeps a nice balance between whimsy and historical tragedy, not blurring the lines between them and not going overkill on either one. Keep in mind, although this is an animated movie, it isn't necessarily for your kids. While it has a lot of wonderful visuals and things that they may enjoy, it's also about World War II and tuberculosis. The story is sad at times, but it's also a great story. Occasionally it borders on overplaying the emotion factor, but it never actually does overplay it. The voice actors are great at breathing life into the story too. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is very solid as Jiro, as he usually is. Emily Blunt teams up with her Looper co-star as his love interest, Nahoko. Mae Whitman plays Jiro's sister, but she came off very whiny and annoying. Maybe that's just the "little sister" character, but it didn't make her any less grating. Frozen won Best Animated Film at the Oscars. I haven't seen it, and it probably is good, but I highly doubt it's better than The Wind Rises. And I do wish this had taken home the award, however impossible that may be. The Wind Rises is as successful in storytelling and thematic tools as practically any of the better films of last year. Apparently, this is Hayao Miyazaki's last movie. This makes me quite sad, for I'm just getting started on this guy. Happy Viewing everyone. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @WhitsMovies and like me on Facebook at Facebook.com/WhitsMovies.  

The Monuments Men review

Old guys going to war. Kind of like The Expendables. Except with classical art and more talented actors.
The Monuments Men is the true story of a bunch of rag tag art historians who went into battle grounds and Nazi salt mines to save and retrieve stolen statues, monuments, and ancient art. The movie revolves around Frank Stokes (George Clooney), who recruits his team to tackle this truly "monumental" job involving Rembrandt, Da Vinci, and Hitler. (See what I did there? Monumental. Monuments Men? Get it?). I have to admit, when I first heard about this movie, I was monumentally excited. It just seemed like such a monumentally awesome film (Okay, I'll stop with the 'monument' puns). I happen to be a pretty big fan of most of George Clooney's directorial efforts. I loved Confessions of A Dangerous Mind. The Ides of March was pretty damn good. I'd heard Good Night, and Good Luck was great also. I admittedly am also a big fan of Clooney in general. I mean, how can you not like the guy? He's smoother than extra smooth peanut butter and he is the essence of suave. The other parts of this movie looked great too. The rest of the cast, for one. Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Cate Blanchett, and that guy from The Artist. It also had a seemingly exciting premise. I thought it was going to be a major Oscar contender. How could this not be good? It was originally slated for a Christmas Day release date, as were many Oscar hopefuls, like The Wolf of Wall Street for one. Then it was pushed to early February. Often, when a movie is pushed back like that, it is very bad news. This means it probably wasn't good enough for the Christmas slot, so it got pushed to be released next to stuff like I, Frankenstein and the RoboCop remake. I kept my hopes up still. Even when increasingly negative buzz kept rolling in, my blind Clooney loyalty pushed those doubtful thoughts away. Well, I'll tell you that The Monuments Men is nowhere near as bad as some reviews say it is, but it's nowhere near as good as I expected either. The Monuments Men isn't the groundbreaking Oscar bait it was originally marketed as. It's much more of an Indiana Jones-meets Oceans Eleven-meets Valkyrie adventure film. Which is to say, I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's not a really good movie, but it has a lot of good things about it and it's enjoyable to watch. The best and most obvious strength the film has is it's impeccable casting. The cast here is nothing short of legendary. Older "classic" greats like Bill Murray and John Goodman going up against new Hollywood talents like Jean Dujardin and Matt Damon. The chemistry with all the actors is terrific. They work together like they've been working together for years, which in the case of Clooney and Damon, I guess is true. Goodman is his usual jokey self. Which I have no problem with. Murray plays his deadpan comedic role like he often does, but adds some real emotion in there. Murray definitely has real talent. It's just a surprise how seldom recognized he is for it. Clooney and Damon seem to coast by on mostly charm, charisma, and dashing good looks. I actually don;t have a problem with that. For this flick, charm and looks are all they need. I think the fault of this film was marketing it as an Oscar contender. It's much more of a fun adventure film in the vein of Indiana Jones and National Treasure. Not a dearth of substance, but a lot of fun. You get to watch all these big stars have fun finding treasured paintings and planning "heists". I ate it up. The film is far from perfect though. It sometimes drags a bit. It isn't a huge problem, but occasionally I found it could have some parts left on the cutting room floor. The movie also felt very fragmented at times. Scenes would jump back and forth very choppily, and the tone felt off. At times it felt like it wanted to be darker and say more, yet then it would revert to a jokier, lighter, and more action-y vibe. The script, written by Grant Heslov and George Clooney, felt stilted and very unnatural at other times. It did bother me some, but it wasn't a wholly bad screenplay. It just really didn't work at times. And it also took very little time to develop some of it's characters. Like Cate Blanchett's character for instance. We know she's some French art worker type, forced to work for the Nazis, with a brother in the resistance, but that's about it. One character, who shall remain nameless as not to spoil anything,  is developed so little that when he dies it seems like little more then to spur on the plot. It's actually fairly tasteless in that aspect. But otherwise I did thoroughly enjoy The Monuments Men. It was very fun, had a terrific cast, and dug up old memories of fun adventure movies and old treasure hunter novels. Clooney has a long ways to go as a director, but I did like this film. Sue me, but compared to some of January's more dismal releases, Monuments Men is thin shaft of hopeful light. It's just not as hopeful as I expected it to be. I will recommend this. Just keep your expectations low and try and enjoy it. I did. I give The Monuments Men 3.5 out of 5 stars. If you haven't already, follow me on Twitter @WhitsMovies and like me on Facebook at Facebook.com/WhitsMovies! Happy Viewing!