SAN ANTONIO - In this week's Flicker Footnotes, Jerrod Kingery and Kiko "The CineSnob" Martinez welcome Adam Rocha of the San Antonio Film Festival, and Kiko reviews Green Lantern, Mr. Popper's Penguins, The Art Of Getting By and more while Jerrod attempts to console internet friend Plumper about the Green Lantern movie.
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Green Lantern (C-)How Warner Bros. Pictures thought it would somehow be advantageous to spend $300 million on something as botched up as “Green Lantern” will forever be a comic-book movie mystery. While it might make a considerable amount of dough and reach that summer blockbuster echelon, it would be a surprise if the superhero flick broke even at the box office. Sure, it’s not as terrible as, say, DC Comics’ “Jonah Hex” of last year, but it does give competitor Marvel something to grin about at least until “Captain America” comes calling for justice in a few weeks.
Read more...Mr. Popper’s Penguins (C-)“Mr. Popper’s Penguins” is poppycock – a poorly prepared picture packed with pleasantries for the pipsqueaks and pathetic puns for parents who are paying the painful price. Alliteration aside, “Penguins,” a family film based on a children’s book from the 1930s written by Richard and Florence Atwater, . Jim Carrey (“Yes Man”) stars as title character Mr. Popper, a real estate businessman who is left a plethora of penguins by his estranged explorer father who has recently passed away.
Read more...The Art of Getting By (D+)While one could argue about where the line between brilliance and bull starts to blur with films like Richard Linklater’s 2001 mindbender “Waking Life,” Darren Aronofsky’s 2006 mystical sci-fi drama “The Fountain,” or anything from the conceptual mind of director Terrence Malick, the creative weight they carry should be considered when deciding whether you ultimately deem the work profound or phony. There is no need to do the same with “The Art of Getting By,” a self-important, stock indie that finds a way to hit every superficial cliche possible and still has the audacity to flaunt itself as a thoughtful look at teenage romance.
Read more...Super 8 (B)As much as filmmaker J.J. Abrams (“Star Trek”) would have liked for his nostalgic sci-fi “Super 8” to convey as much enchantment as a Steven Spielberg-directed masterpiece like “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” or “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” it doesn’t quite reach that ambitious goal. Nevertheless, “Super 8” is not without its own small trove of delightful moments. Standing on its own as a less aggressive version of the Abrams-produced 2008 creature feature “Cloverfield,” the movie doesn’t have all the elements necessary to make it a true classic, but there are some admirable things it accomplishes, especially when the enthusiastic kids are at the forefront.
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