See it or Skip it – Oct. 4
Robot & Frank
Imagine the film “Driving Miss Daisy,” but with a robot instead of Morgan Freeman and the Jessica Tandy character being a former jewel thief with dementia. That’s the basic plot of this film, which was the winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Despite a familiar premise, it should prove to be worth a look, since science fiction such as this is hard to come by.
In 1984, Tim Burton made a live-action short film that got him fired from his job at Disney. The film was “Frankenweenie,” which now, nearly 30 years later, the same company that fired him is allowing Burton to remake it as a stop-motion animated film. I don’t know whether this is vindication or just a sign that Burton is desperate for an idea. Just know that it’s in black and white and will contain a lot of references to the 1931 “Frankenstein” film.
It happened again? This is one of those sequels that merely recycles the plot of the previous film with very minor changes. It can work in some cases if they want to be more inventive and “up the ante,” like “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” but this is one of the worse examples, along with “The Hangover, Part II.” They couldn’t even be inventive with the title, like “Taken Again” or “Taken Seriously.” I guess “Taken” is going to be the “Death Wish” of our generation.
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Pitch Perfect
It’s the boys vs. girls a cappella groups in a film that presents everything I hate about modern music. It also doesn’t help that featured in the cast is the creepy, British-accented roommate from “Bridesmaids.” It’s not for me.
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