Water For Elephants (2011) ** 1/2

First Bella, Now Renee.....

             I've actually never been to a circus before, though I always wanted to. All of my friends who had seen one told me that it was a very magical event in their whole entire lives, and that they would never forget it. Well, Water For Elephants captures that amazing circus experience, and much more.
           In the drama, Jacob Jankowski (Robert Pattinson) almost gets his veterinary college degree, when his parents get killed in a car crash. Since this is the Great Depression, he is kicked out of his house, and finds work at the Benzini Brothers Circus as a vet for the animals, including a smart elephant. ( Looks like movies always finds a solution.) While he's there, he falls in love with the star attraction, Marlena, who's gorgeously played by Resse Witherspoon. As always in these movies, they fall in love, which really upsets her husband, August. He's also the circus owner, animal trainer,Marlene's husband, the main evil antagonist, the ringleader, and played by Oscar winner Christoph Waltz. Uh-oh.
          This film was filmed in the old-fashioned sense of entertainment, in which life is very magical, and everything is cotton candy, popcorn, champagne, and elephant dung. For example, I kept being mesmerized by the beautiful circus scenes, especially when Resse does something extraordinary with the horses and the elephant. It's just so amazing and perfect, that I wish I saw it in a real circus.
      However, it also shows viewers the darker side of show business, and nothing comes close to representing darkness than its villain, August. Throughout this entire movie, I could remember hating this evil, greedy, temperamental, psychologically troubled, hypocritical, wickedly charming, and loathing brat. There I wrote it, and I feel better. If an actor plays someone so malicious and you write bad words about him, he's doing a really good job.
          Fortunately, we've got our romantic couple to lean on for support, and they did really great acting. We could feel the inner demons that they suffer from, and we really sympathize with them. The chemistry between them was okay, but not like the Spencer and Kate playful love type at all. At least, it worked for the movie's magical tone. The only real complaint was that I found Jacob really bland/average. (America, please don't hate me. I know that he won the Teen's Choice movie award, which he deserved, but that's how I felt what his character felt like. I felt like that role could have been played better by Leonardo DiCaprio.) However, Resse was great and perfectly cast as the female love, and she really brings out her best in this role.
        The rest of the acting was terrific, and Rosy the elephant is wonderful and smart. In one scene, she took out her stake, and went to drink some lemonade, and then she went back to her spot, and made it look that it never happened. :) The art direction was appropriate for the time period, the filming was awesome and I learned a lot more about circuses than I did before.
              However, there just seem to be too many cliques in Water For Elephants. In fact, I could do a side by side comparison with the movie Titanic (1997), and I'd get the same results. For both films, there's an old guy tells story, a big disaster, and a love affair that's smack dab in the middle of it. The only real difference is the time period and setting. Another problem I had with this was that it was very predictable. Even though I never read the book, I could already tell what was going to happen, and predictability always frustrates me.  Grr.
          My major concern comes from Roger Ebert's review, in which he states that this is " pure family entertainment". Sorry, Roger, but you're wrong. This had way too much sex, violence ( Rosy, Jacob, and Marlene gets beaten a lot during this movie), and drinking to be allowed as a family film. I think the reason why he said it was because of the musical score by James Newton Howard. The haunting score reminds us of our childhood, where the magic of circuses was and still is everywhere.
   

Contagion PG-13 (2011) B-

Spoiler: Wash Your Hands!

                Note to users: After seeing Contagion, make sure that you wash your hands with a lot of soap and water,for you will never take touching a less serious thing ever again.  The reason is that this movie is about a virus that can kill you and many movie stars! :0
              After visting Hong Kong for a business trip, Beth (Gwyneth Paltrow) goes home and unexceptedly spreads a very deadly/contagious virus all around the world, thus killing her and 26 million others.  (Sorry fo the spoiler alert, but I had to do it, because that happens from the first moment of Contagion.) Anyway, this film centers its attention on a world that panics and decays as scientists tries to get a vaccine.
              Contagion works in the old fashioned style of the very popular disaster movies ,( Earthquake, The Towering Inferno), by telling the tales of a lot of people who are stuck in this situation, and seem to be played by famous stars. Matt Damon plays the husband of Beth, and he changes from a carefree man to a scared father. Kate Winslet plays a doctor who investigates the virus, Laurence Fishborne plays an officer who tries to keep the public calm, Jude Law plays a freelance reporter who tries to panic the public, and both Marion Cotillard and Jennifer Ehle play scientists who try to prevent the disease from spreading. Along with director Stephen Soderbergh's masterful direction, the cast is superb and very believable that you want to congradulate  them. Oh wait, they are in a pandemic movie. :(
                This film also presents a very compelling and accurate prediction of what would happen if a Black Death type happened in our modern, connected society. That makes it even more creepier, which is what Soderbergh wants us to do. Well done. I also liked the way that certain characters try to help out others in a collasping world. For example, before one of the main characters dies, she gives out her coat to a fellow victim, so he can have extra blankets.
              Despite the good, this movie manages to cough up some bad moments. It was really thrilling at the beginning, but in the middle, it got very boring and slow. Thus, it wasn't very thrilling or scary. That mistake is almost a death threat, because we the audience don't want to get uninterested or we'll leave the theater! Another probelm was that Contagion seemed to be missing important parts, which we will never knew what happened. For example, when one character finds out that a certain stricken village has been given a fake medicine, she rushes out from the airport to try to save them. Before we find out what happens, the movie switches other to another scene! Come on, Soderbergh! We knew that you got to tell us what happened to her!
            The ending was really amazing, as it shows how the virus got onto poor Beth. In fact, this whole movie tells us a very important lesson--- be careful what you do, or dreadful consquences will happen. Contagion tells us that when we touch, we're spreading germs, which made the film an even more threatening and important film to watch.
           Contagion gets a B-, which means that one day, as more and more people get freaked out by it, health classes will be showing this unique warning.
        7/10