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Chat Today the Emulsion Compulsion Way!

September 1st, 2009 by Scott Marks

Typical Emulsion Compulsion addict enjoying the Miley Cyrus posts.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Something new has been added!

Emulsion Compulsion takes one step further into cyberspace by bringing you an on line chat room. It’s easy to join and fun, too!

All you have to do is look at the sidebar, sign up by giving your name and creating a password and whammo, you’re an EC chatterbox! This will also link to other chat rooms, so hopefully we’ll lure more folks into the discussion. (Be careful of your spelling and grammar. We don’t want to offend Mark Centz!) And don’t forget to pick a wacky avatar to represent yourself. This will be more fun than laughing!

As anticipated, I will also be blogging live during this year’s Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon. Hope most of you have access to the WGN feed so we can keep our eye on that rascally Dean Richards.

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Review: BOLT / Byron Howard and Chris Williams (2008)

December 12th, 2008 by Scott Marks

Bolt (2008)
Directed by Byron Howard and Chris Williams
Written by Dan Fogelman and Chris Williams
Starring the voices of: John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Susie Essman, Mark Walton, Malcolm McDowell and James Lipton
Running Time: 96 min.
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Bolt is The Truman Show gone to the dogs. Bolt (John Travolta) is the canine superstar of a TV action series that houses such convincing special effects that the pooch actually thinks his super powers are real. Studio reps won’t let Penny (Miley Cyrus), his human co-star, adopt Bolt and one day the dog finds himself trapped in a parcel being shipped from Hollywood to New York. Believing that his mistress is in danger, Bolt embarks on a cross-country journey with the help of an alley cat with abandonment issues called Mittens (Susie Essman) and an adoring fanboy in hamster’s clothing, Rhino (Mark Walton), who makes the trip in an exercise ball.

For the first reel Bolt is silent and we are not allowed access to his thought patterns. Gradually we begin to hear him think, then speak. When around other pets, Bolt becomes quite vocal. That’s logical. When he begins speaking in front of people, that’s stupid. And while we’re on the subject of logic, if Bolt truly believes his super powers to be real, why didn’t he break out of his studio trailer long ago?

With references to everything from Hollywood or Bust and Oliver Twist to The Defiant Ones and Travolta’s own The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, the movie geek, if not the animation connoisseur, inside me was pacified. How does Pixar manage to make it all look so realistic? One expects sub-par product from DreamWorks, but Disney? With the exception of some beautifully realized pixel-sculpted pigeons, Bolt and friends look strangely synthetic as though their flesh were Vulcanized.

The action scenes are designed for people with no attention span. Instead of instantly informing us that Bolt is a TV star, the filmmakers hit us with the prolonged, hyper-edited and violent chase sequence that opens the picture. This would have gone down better had they presented it as satire and limited it to one scene. Before it’s over, the film becomes exactly what it was commenting on in the first place.

The character animation is appealing for the most part, however the lead bad guy bears an uncomfortable resemblance to Aladdin’s Jafar. The voices also tend to fit. Miley Cyrus dubs a teenage girl. How can you go wrong? Bolt is adorable until he opens his mouth. John Travolta’s voice does not fit the character as rendered by the computer artists. Not for so much as one second did I buy him as either the warm fuzzy Bolt or his televised alter ego. It’s simply Travolta pitched a few octaves higher. And for you Bob Hope fans, James Lipton, old Ski Schnoz’s former producer and gag writer, in addition to acting as our conduit Inside the Actor’s Studio, appears as “The Director.” I didn’t realize it was Lipton until I saw his name during the closing credits.

Honestly, I half expected to take the title literally and bolt. If it’s 2 pm on Christmas afternoon and the kids are all juiced up on eggnog and you’ve had enough Christmas cheer for this season, dump ‘em off at the mall and point them in the direction of Bolt.

And for all my Jewish readers, after you’ve finished devouring your Christmas helping of lox and corned beef, take your kids and throw your box office gelt to Defiance. More on that later…

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Filed Under Reviews, Theatrical

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