Wes Anderson's highly anticipated "Fantastic Mr. Fox" is generally amusing but too rigid and self-consciously hip to really engage. "Old Dogs" is as bad as comedies get, with Robin Williams and John Travolta doing absolutely nothing to help a film that is not recommended for kids, families or humans overall. The big-screen adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" looks right but is redundant and shallow, and certainly won't put you in the holiday spirit. "Ninja Assassin," which my colleague Geoff Berkshire hated and I didn't like much better (see below for my capsule review), just had to deliver some cool action sequences and an OK plot to succeed, and at that it pretty much fails miserably. On the bright side, you can still catch "The Messenger," the great indie drama that opened last week.
'Ninja Assassin'
*1/2 (out of five)
Based on the never-ending gush of blood generated from fight after repetitive fight in "Ninja Assassin," the film must be intended as porn for vampires. It certainly can't be pitched as a kickass action film, not with so many identical, murky sequences in which cloaked villains lurk through the shadows and chop up victims like a cucumber waiting to be sprinkled into a salad. The plot, if that's what you want to call it, involves Europol agent Mika (Naomie Harris) investigating the existence of secret assassins and their connection to politically related murders. That introduces Mika to Raizo (Korean pop star Rain of "Speed Racer"), a killer who really, really, really believes in the value of revenge after separating from the clan that raised him. There's some so-bad-it's-funny dialogue and the final showdown at last becomes badass, not just ultraviolent. But the betrayals here are as familiar as they are flimsy, and when all else fails blood is literally the answer to everything.
What do you think of the Thanksgiving releases?
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