Arthur & The Invisibles, Deja Vu

ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES. First of all, I thought that director Luc Besson was retiring from film making? I read about his supposed retirement via E Online last year- and now he's got a movie? Either he made this film before he "retired", or he changed his mind. Anyway... Arthur (Finding Neverland's Freddie Highmore) , a ten-year old boy (in a bid to save his grandfather's house from being demolished), goes looking for a much-fabled treasure in the land of the Minimoys (a tiny people living in harmony with nature). It's part live-action and part cg-animated. Like Luc Besson's other films (the ones that I've seen anyway), his "frenetic pace" is alive and well in this one. For both the live-action and cgi scenes. And it's actually that trademark that has put me off with Besson's work. Somehow it becomes (too) "campy" for my taste, it doesn't fit with certain scenes of or the entire movie. It may work in some scenes, but you kind of get the feeling (with the frenetic pace) that Besson is in a hurry to get the movie done (that also works for the audience if the movie does suck). The animation was slick, but the voice-acting was lacking. It was mostly missing with emotion, and it was (so) obvious that the (voice) actors - including Robert DeNiro - were only reading their lines, instead of giving (more) life to their characters. For me, the only one that stood out was David Bowie, who voiced the main baddie. Plus, I also think that it would have been better if I never knew (while watching the movie) that it was Madonna who had voiced the (young) Minimoy princess, whose love interest was the fifteen-year old Highmore. Do you see where I'm going with this? It was just... weird. Maybe they should have gotten someone else (younger) to voice said sassy princess, or that they should have just left her name out of the credits.
Bottom line : pretty good cgi, stellar cast wasted though. Highmore's charms is not enough to save the movie.

DEJA VU. Finally, my first "good movie" for '07. It's no Oscar contender , or anything like that, but it was certainly the first one I'd seen this year that I didn't feel restless in my seat. The plot is a bit over-the-top, as an ATF agent (Denzel Washington) travels back in time to save a woman (Paula Patton) from being murdered, falling in love with her in the process. Like I said, a bit over-the-top, but Washington somehow brings (more) credibility to his role and the movie. Even if the ending kind of got a bit sappy for me, Deja Vu was pretty much enjoyable all throughout.

'Nuff said.