SKY HIGH and STEALTH
Sky High was a fun, family oriented movie about coming of age superheroes attending a a high school that literally is "sky high". It has the usual cliches often found in lighter teen flicks. The movie "Mean Girls" comes to mind with some of its plot elements. (Awkward kid makes nice with other awkwards, does something that gains said kid acceptance with more of the in-crowd, kid discovers in-crowd's true colors, seeks redemption with dusted friends, and must go through a sort of hell to do so.)
Kurt Russell is always cool to watch. And the actress who played his wife was pretty hot. Both play highly revered superheroes who live their double lives as real-estate agents...whose work is occasionally interrupted by one crisis or another. They have a son who hasn't quite developed his superpowers yet...but they don't know that.
At Sky High, the students are broken down into two factions "Heroes" (the in-crowd), and "Sidekicks" (euphemistically referred to as "Hero Support"...less favorably known as "losers".) You're a hero if you have a particularly impressive and useful power (super strength, invisibility, flame-throwing, etc), and a sidekick if you either have NO powers, or if your powers are trivial by comparison (like melting, shapeshifting into a guinea pig, or ...glowing...only in the dark.)
Lynda Carter has better than a cameo appearance in the movie...she is Principal Powers, head of Sky High. Though her age is very apparent in the movie, she does hold it well, and she is still quite slim and well built. (She also has a great line close to the end of the movie).
I also loved the soundtrack to this movie. Like Herbie Fully Loaded, this movie is chock full of cool 80's tunes...the difference, several of the tunes have been remade...but they were done quite respectfully.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Sky HIgh. Good family fun. And "Harry Potter meets Spy Kids" is a very apt descriptor for this film.
On the other side of my double feature matinee today was Stealth.
At first, I sat with a rather ho-hum attitude about the film. The visceral style of the film is almost an exact text quote of the filmmakers school for Armageddon....right down to the percussive orchestral soundtrack. However, in the latter half of the film, things did get better.
If you thought that the cameras were shaky in the new Battlestar Galactica were cause for being put off.....you ain't seen NOTHIN' yet. The shaky camera technique that was used for many of the combat sequences in this movie was such that it was nigh IMPOSSIBLE to keep track of "who's zoomin' who?"
This story, set in the near future, centers on three of the U.S.'s hottest naval aviators who fly stealth fighters. After a successful test mission, they are shipped out to the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, where they are to be met by a fourth wingman...which turns out to be a computer, flying a new advanced UCAV/EDI. (Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle/Extreme Deep Invader). The computer (callsigned Tin Man by the human pilots after another test flight) performs well, and is constantly evolving to learn fighter combat from its human counterparts. After a lightning strike on Tin Man, following a strike into a terrorist country, Tin Man starts developing self-awareness, and starts to carry out its mandate to the letter. At the head of this program is a glory hungry, (and obviously morally conflicted) naval officer who will do almost anything to keep Tin Man in the mix.
This movie has an interesting (albeit predictable) twist. (Whad'ya think I wuz gonna spoil it for ya?)
Blow for blow, by the latter (and more entertaining) half of Stealh has as many ground based "Holy Frack" parts as it does aerial.
In short, Stealth is another "turn off your brain and wolf down the popcorn" flick. An interesting (if highly implausible) story, and good (if difficult to track) special effects.
Overall, I was more entertained by Sky High than I was by Stealth, but, as before with Herbie and War of the Worlds, it was not a wasted Friday afternoon at the movies.
Respectfully,
Martok2112
Sky High and Stealth
