Synopsis: After hundreds of lonely years doing what he was built for, WALL-E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) discovers a new purpose in life (besides collecting knick-knacks) when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL-E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet’s future, and races back to space to report her findings to the humans (who have been eagerly awaiting word that it is safe to return home). Meanwhile, WALL-E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets into motion one of the most exciting and imaginative comedy adventures ever brought to the big screen. Joining WALL-E on his fantastic journey across a universe of never-before-imagined visions of the future, is a hilarious cast of characters including a pet cockroach, and a heroic team of malfunctioning misfit robots.

Review: A clever and groundbreaking motion picture like nothing you’ve seen before, WALL-E is a hilarious, heartfelt and extraordinary comedy adventure that pushes animation to new heights while providing pure out-of-this-world summer fun.

Acting: Be prepared to fall in love with the most engaging and original new movie star in ages. The extraordinary performance here is a robot who utters sounds, not words, and comes brilliantly alive through state-of-the-art CGI animation and expert vocal design by legendary sound wizard Ben Burtt (R2D2 of Star Wars). He makes this non-human, love-struck piece of tin the most human element in the film. WALL-E does not need words to express his understanding of affairs of the heart. In fact, the early sequences in which he repeatedly watches an old video tape of the 1969 musical, Hello, Dolly (the only one is his obviously limited collection), we totally understand where his notions of romance come from – and from an 800 year-old semi-flop Hollywood movie, no less. The trip into space brings encounters with some misfit robots as well as the rotund immobile humans, competently performed by vets like Jeff Garlin, as the ship’s captain, Fred Willard, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy and Sigourney Weaver as the ship’s computer. But the real acting voice-over prizes belong to Burtt and his sound design colleagues this time.

Direction: Oscar take notice: Pixar has done it again. Co-writer/director Andrew Stanton won an Oscar for Finding Nemo and has worked in some capacity on just about every Pixar triumph from Toy Story; through last year’s Oscar winning Ratatouille. His creative need to stretch and explore uncharted ‘toon territory results in the offbeat WALL-E, which abandons the talking creature formats for a surreal, touching and environmentally-conscious love story. The film sets off alarms for the future of our planet but also offers hope that it’s not too late. Stanton’s most daring notion is to create almost a silent film for the first half and in so doing gives us an animated cinematic experience the likes of Chaplin, Keaton and Jacques Tati would have loved. The achievement of keeping an audience glued to the screen watching incommunicative non-humans who learn to communicate and care for each other is no easy thing. Stanton creates beautiful visuals and a well-crafted story to go with them. This is one from the heart.

Bottom Line: Hollywood.com rated this film 4 stars.

Synopsis: Wanted tells the tale of one apathetic nobody’s transformation into an unparalleled enforcer of justice. Twenty-five-year-old Wes is the most disaffected, cube-dwelling drone the planet had ever known. His boss chews him out hourly, his girlfriend ignores him routinely and his life plods on interminably. Everyone is certain this disengaged slacker will amount to nothing. There is little else for Wes to do but wile away the days and die in his slow, clock-punching rut. Until he meets a woman named Fox. After his estranged father is murdered, the deadly sexy Fox recruits Wes into the Fraternity, a secret society that trains Wes to avenge his dad’s death by unlocking his dormant powers. As she teaches him how to develop lightning-quick reflexes and phenomenal agility, Wes discovers this team lives by an ancient, unbreakable code: carry out the death orders given by fate itself. With wickedly brilliant tutors-including the Fraternity’s enigmatic leader, Sloan-Wes grows to enjoy all the strength he ever wanted. But, slowly, he begins to realize there is more to his dangerous associates than meets the eye. And as he wavers between newfound heroism and vengeance, Wes comes to learn what no one could ever teach him: he alone controls his destiny.

Review: Whoa! Wanted sets off the fireworks BIG TIME. This is the heart-stopping, extreme summer action movie of your dreams.

Acting: McAvoy simply rocks as the most unexpected action star of the summer, and that includes a season so far that has given us the quirky offbeat castings of Robert Downey Jr. and Edward Norton in Marvel comic book franchises. McAvoy (Atonement) has buffed up for the part but still looks like the average Joe, exactly why the audience has a rooting interest as he becomes a fish-out-of-water in a group of hit men (and women). You’re with him all the way. This unusual choice is exactly what sets the film apart and makes it a complete original in an over-worn genre. Jolie, on the other hand, is absolutely who you would expect to play the heavily tatted Fox. Guns blazing, feet slamming the pedal, gorgeous and talented at taking guys out (of life), Jolie’s a card-carrying member of a club previously thought only open to men. She exudes cool and has never looked hotter. Freeman is at his best. He commands the screen adding his usual stoic presence to the proceedings with a nice twist that lets him show a creepier side than we usually get. Other members of the “club” are competently played by ever-reliable Terence Stamp, German-born bad guy Thomas Kretschmann and rapper Common, who shows he can keep up with the big boys – acting and other-wise.

Direction: Hiring the Russian director Timur Bekmambetov for a summer action flick like this might have seemed an odd choice but anyone who’s seen his Hollywood-style homebaked hits, Night Watch and Day Watch would know this is a visual stylist with no current equal in the action genre. His English-language debut is vibrant and pulsating, alive in every way and thankfully more comprehensible story-wise than his previous work, if no less fantastic. You still have to completely suspend belief for complete enjoyment, but it’s all worth it. Bekmambetov seems incapable of staging anything in an ordinary way, taking routine set-ups and turning them into violent, bruising works-of-art. There’s not a single uninteresting shot in the entire movie which moves like the speeding train we see in one of the film’s most imposing sequences. Scene for scene this may be the most visually inventive, trail blazing film of its kind in light years. Bring on the sequel.

Bottom Line: Hollywood.com rated this film 4 stars.