I gave Character a zero because even though I am not normally one to care much about characters, I didn't feel that there was even one character that was remotely worth rooting for or caring about.

Remy was not really a very nice person, stabbing Linguini in the back at the first sign of trouble. Linguini is a dope who deserved to neither win Colette's heart nor the ownership of the restaurant. Colette is, at first, presented as a strong woman battling to make it to the top in a male-dominated field and then is relegated to the status of "girlfriend."

Plot/3 Characters/2 Visuals/3
Total/8

I will admit this was not one of my most favorite Pixar films ever, okay, Debbie? (Cars has that distinction still.) But I am not so down on this as you are by far!

Firstly, I don't believe the plotlines were stolen from different films like you do. I think it was a daring an unusual choice of plotline to have the main character interested in gourmet cooking of all things! I can't think of a single animated movie having to do with a love of cooking before! Was it a bit too esoteric for kids at times when Remy waxed raphsodical about good food or the ghost of the chef went on about how a kitchen worked? Maybe. But I don't think that kids minded that much and maybe a few budding chefs were inspired even! And the mantra oft repeated throughout "Anyone can cook" can be expanded to other activities kids might want to try, a message of trying new things and being optimistic about being able to learn new things.

I don't think there were too many plot points either. Disney movies always have to have a romance side plot (if not having that be the main plot like in The Little Mermaid, etc.) so that's nothing unusual. The background about Remy's family not being supportive of his interest in cooking is important to show how much he has to struggle against to achieve his dream.

The only plot point that they possibly could have dropped was about Linguini being the son of Gusteau. However, it would've been harder to engineer the plot to the point where Linguini could take over the restaraunt don't you think? And that was a pivotal point to the whole story!

Ratatouille
Plot/2 Characters/0 Visuals/3
Total/5

Ratatouille is a movie with far too many plotlines. It starts off American Tail-ish when a young rat named Remy (Patton Oswalt) loses his family when they're forced out of their home. But this plotline is dropped in favor of Remy's following his dream to work as a chef in Gusteau's restaurant.

Next there's the plotlines of young Alfredo Linguini (Lou Romano) trying to make his way in said restaurant, all the while avoiding the ire of his conniving boss, Skinner (Ian Holm) and co-worker Colette (Janeane Garofalo).

There's are subplots involving an heir to the late Gusteau's estate, a romance, friendship, family . . . holy cow, what is there not a subplot about?

In the end, this movie is about too many things, none of which are explored in any meaningful way, particularly since even though it runs fairly long for a kids' movie, much of it is tedious, didactic exposition while another good chunk of it, thankfully, is hilarious physical comedy.

A good drinking game would be to take a drink every time you spot a plot point cribbed from another, better movie. You will definitely be drunk by the time the movie's over.

I do recommend the adorable UFO short on the DVD. It may only be about ten minutes long, but it proves that brevity is the soul of wit.

I have to say there were some very strange camera angles in this film sometimes! I am not one to notice such things generally having never taken any film classes but even I noticed Scorcese sometimes panned the camera around in very strange ways. I don't think it detracted from the movie but I'm not sure if it really enhanced it either. As for Debbie's complaint about not seeing Boston, well there were so many Boston accents around---more than any other movie I've ever seen--that I didn't ever forget we were in Boston. It would have been interesting to see more of the city though since it is one I don't think we often see in films. (NY and LA have been done to death on the other hand!)

All in all, it was an engaging film but I'm not sure at all it was deserving of the Oscar. I really was left with the feeling it was a consolation prize for all the years Scorcese had been a "bridesmaid and never a bride" I am no expert on his films but I bet there are other films of his that were better that should have won Oscars that didn't and the Academy felt bad. That's just my theory of course.

The directing was interesting in spots and the cinematography gave us a greenish-tinted gritty world, but what bothered me about this movie was the fact that even though it was set in Boston, we never really saw much of it. To me the movie looked like it could have been set in any major city and it wouldn't have made much of a difference, and that's unfortunate because part of the point of the movie is that it's about an Irish Boston gang, not just any old gang of any random ethnicity.
*
I just saw Infernal Affairs, the Hong Kong movie that the Departed was based on. IA was mostly better. It was less violent and shorter, but had more tension, better acting and better writing. The only negatives were the (again) idiotic women characters (why couldn't Departed writer William Monahan improve on that?) and an awful, derivative soundtrack.

In this movie we actually agree on more than one thing! Shocking! Not only did we both dislike the psychiatrist character we also both enjoyed the character of Digman. I also felt he was hamming up the part a lot at times but found it great fun to watch him and see what outrageous thing he'd say or do next. (Small spoiler: Liking him makes the grand finale of the movie much more satisfying indeed!) I also like Martin Sheen's character though, I really did feel for him. Of course I have a fondness for Sheen ever since he played Pres. Bartlett on West Wing for years so wonderfully so I am automatically inclined to like him when he's playing another fatherly, good guy like here.

I don't think it was necessary to have more background on Billy actually. Scorcese did such a great job of making me feel the constant danger and pressure he was constantly surrounded by day in, day out so much that I was rooting for him to get out of Dodge long before things really did blow up. My point is I didn't need to know what made him tick to feel for him because the horror of the situation he was stuck in made me pity him plenty. Dicaprio conveyed Billy's repulsion and disgust with what he had to be party to very effectively and thus I felt assured he was truly a decent guy who had tried to do a service to his country and gotten screwed in the process. That's a classic kind of American hero in movies I think, there's a long tradition in movies of this sort (though usually they're Vietnam vets, I think).

What was even more interesting was how Scorcese got us to feel for Damon's mole too, even though he was working for Costigan and hunting down Billy. He allowed us to see him sweat, be confused and vulnerable. He was not just a generic bad guy chuckling evilly as he caused mayhem. I even thought at one point that he was almost on the verge of changing his ways he seemed so conflicted. (I was wrong about that of course) Nicholson's Costello, on the other hand WAS just your generic, sleazy bad guy. No depth there.

Havivah seems to have stolen one of my major gripes about the characters -- I also hated the woman psychiatrist (Madolyn Madden, played by Vera Farmiga). To add an odd complaint: toward the end of the movie they had her wearing the same suit she wore earlier on. I don't know why, but that really irked me.

My other problem with character was that Billy Costigan was not well developed. We see him briefly in a couple of scenes before he embarks on his career as a lowlife. We never get to find out that he's somebody worth rooting for. Overall, I didn't really care one wit about the characters.

Except one. Sean Dignam, played by Mark Wahlberg, was just fun to watch. Wahlberg was hamming things up a bit but he seemed like he was the only person who wasn't thinking as they shot their scenes: "Look at me, I'm in a Scorsese film, so I'd better pile on the gravitas."

Plot/3 Characters/2 Visuals/2
Total/7

Well I knew what the plot was about before I watched it unlike Debbie and thought it was a good basic idea for a plot. And when it stayed focused on the actual tension between the two moles I found the movie to be at its best and most interesting. Problem is, I don't think the movie kept its focus on this enough and meandered off to side plots that I didn't find so interesting such as the mob boss Costello's homelife or pleasures. The whole issue of the female psychiatrist was a total waste of time and detracted from the flow of the plot altogether. It's as if Scorcese got the idea at the last minute that "Wait! I don't have any major female parts in this film or someone for the leads to ogle so I better stick someone in." And then on top of the that he got the even worse idea to engineer (very poorly) the contrived situation of both of the leads falling for her!

Never mind the character was unlikeable and it was never clear why either of the leads should have been so crazy about her, let alone one. The one time we saw her in her job as a psychiatrist she was very unproffessional and ineffective and she was pretty flat in her affect thereafter. But more on character in the next post...

The Departed
Plot/3 Characters/2 Visuals/2
Total/7

Despite all the hype and awards, I actually had no idea what movie was about until I saw it. So to enlighten anyone else who might be in the same boat, the Departed is the story of two Massachusetts State Troopers. One, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) who becomes a detective but is secretly a mole for mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), while Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) goes undercover in Costello's gang in order to gather evidence on some high-end heists. The movie mostly revolves around Sullivan's and Costigan's attempt to root each other out. Oh, and they date the same police psychiatrist Madolyn Madden (Vera Farmiga).

It's a pretty interesting movie, though it's full of plot holes and is not particularly original. At least one scene was ripped off from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. However, I gave it 3 on Plot because the ending was so completely unexpected. I'm not sure it was satisfying, but it was different, at least. Probably because it was a remake of the Asian movie Infernal Affairs; I doubt any Hollywood writer would have come up with that ending on his own.

I just watched Munich. It was too boring and poorly written for me to get annoyed with its moral relativism. Anyway, how can you hate a movie that contains the line "Don't f**k with the Jews," said with great relish by a criminally underused Daniel Craig?

Sorry for the lack of updates. Maybe there will be some soon, who knows.