10:35 p.m. AKST, November 28, 2012

2ND WEEK

 

Life of Pi

  Author Yann Martel’s tale of a shipwrecked youth cast adrift on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger is one of those lyrical, internalized novels that should have no business working on the screen. Quite possibly, it wouldn’t have worked if anyone but Ang Lee had adapted it. Lee (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,’’ ‘‘Brokeback Mountain’’) has crafted one of the finest entries in his eclectic resume with this gorgeous, ruminative film that is soulfully, provocatively entertaining. The filmmaker combines a lifetime of storytelling finesse with arguably the most artful use of digital 3-D technology yet seen to bring Martel’s story to life. It’s a delicate narrative with visceral impact, told with an innovative style that’s beguiling to watch and a philosophical voice that compassionately explores how and why we tell stories. Newcomer Suraj Sharma stars as Pi, an Indian teen lost at sea with the ravenous big cat from his family’s menagerie. This could be a one-note story — please Mister Tiger, don’t eat me. Yet Lee finds rich and clever ways to translate even Pi’s stillest moments, the film unfolding through intricate flashbacks, whimsical voice-overs, harrowing sea hazards and exquisite flashes of fantasy and hallucination. The computer-animated tiger is remarkably lifelike, seamlessly blended into the live action. And as in Martin Scorsese’s ‘‘Hugo,’’ Lee’s 3-D images are tantalizing and immersive, pulling viewers deeper into Pi’s world so that the illusion of depth becomes essential to the story. In 2-D and 3-D. (PG, 126 minutes)

 

Red Dawn

  The army invading the United States in this ill-advised remake of the campy 1984 original was changed in post-production from Chinese to North Korean. With a few snips here, a few re-dubs there, the filmmakers re-edited and re-shot, fearful of offending China and its increasingly important moviegoing market. The original, of course, was made at the height of Cold War paranoia and imagined a parachuting Soviet Union on American soil, with the likes of Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen (yes, truly the greatest generation) waging guerrilla warfare. Again, in director Dan Bradley’s remake, America turns to its high school football players in its darkest time of need. Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson and Adrianne Palicki are part of the gang who dub themselves the Wolverines. With the help of a returning Iraq veteran played by Chris Hemsworth, they mount an insurrection on the controlling North Koreans. The implausibility is dizzying all around. Real wars like those in Afghanistan and Iraq go hardly mentioned, replaced by a game of toy soldiers with make-believe foes. (PG-13, 93 minutes)

 

Rise of the Guardians

   A very odd assortment of mythical childhood figures, some of them afflicted with severe emotional insecurities and inferiority complexes, are thrown together as an unlikely set of action heroes in ‘‘The Rise of the Guardians,’’ an attractively designed but overly busy and derivative mishmash of kid-friendly elements. 

 A sort of Justice League or Avengers equivalent made up of the fearsome team of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman and Jack Frost, this final DreamWorks Animation production set to be distributed by Paramount will play in a predictably agreeable and profitable fashion to small fry but will skew young despite the presence of an excellent voice cast.

 Based on the book series ‘‘Guardians of Childhood’’ by William Joyce, as well as on the author’s short film ‘‘The Man in the Moon,’’ The script by David Lindsay-Abaire (“Robots,” “Rabbit Hole”) plays fast and loose with these legendary fixtures of childhood, attaching to them all sorts of neuroses, feelings of inadequacy and the sense, or threat, of being ignored. Some might find this tack delightfully mischievous, but it’s just as easy to reject as ridiculous the notion that Jack Frost suffers from an emotional trauma he suffered hundreds of years earlier. 

 Perhaps the most readily amusing of the gang is Santa, or, as he is more geographically named here, North. A muscular powerhouse rather than a fatso, North has heavily tatted forearms and, as wonderfully voiced by Alec Baldwin, sports a distinctive Russian accent not inappropriate to the proximity of that country to his palatial mountainside workshop. Also gathering here are the rangy and rascally E. Aster Bunnymund (Hugh Jackman), the hummingbird-like Tooth (or Tooth Fairy, delightfully rendered by Isla Fisher), the mute and tubby spinner of gold Sandman and, ultimately, Jack (Chris Pine), who has wandered the globe alone for centuries and feels woefully unrecognized compared to the others because he has no special day or occasion to make an imprint on the lives of children. The characters and settings are attractively designed, and the vocal performances have real color and a sense of fun that gently undercuts the treacle sincerity of certain obligatory kid-pandering moments. (PG, 97 minutes)

 

 

3RD WEEK

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2 (PG-13, 116 minutes)

 

Lincoln (PG-13, 150 minutes)