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Who hasn't gazed up into the big blue sky and felt really, really small? For those of us who have contemplated the other worlds that may exist out there, we are in good company. Dr. Seuss created the imaginative story of Horton Hears a Who more than fifty years ago. Now the story has been brought to life with the help of CG technology and the amazing talents of Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, and Carol Burnett.

Carrey voices Horton, the large and lovable elephant who teaches the young creatures of the forest. Carol Burnett is the over-protective Kangaroo who despises Horton and does not allow her young son to attend his class. One day Horton hears a faint cry for help, coming from a speck that flew off of a flower. Because his ears are bigger than anyone's in the forest, no one can hear the cries except for Horton.

Horton discovers that an entire world exists on the speck called Who-ville, and is run by the well-intentioned Mayor voiced by Steve Carell. Horton tries desperately to find a new, safe home for Who-ville, all the while being chased and ridiculed by Kangaroo and her followers, a scary pack of monkeys and a destroy-for-hire vulture named Vlad (voiced by Will Arnett of Arrested Development fame).

As Horton journeys through the woods in hopes of settling the speck at the highest peak of a mountain he unwittingly inspires the children and other characters in the forest to think about the complex issue of existence and how there may be worlds all around them that they are not aware of.

"If you were way out in space, and you looked down at where we live, we would look like a speck," said Horton.

The works and words of Dr. Seuss have resonated with audiences through generations upon generations. This is evident in the casting of this film, which includes the legendary comedy of Burnett, the bonafide stardom of Carrey and Carell, and the cutting-edge talent of Arnett, Isla Fisher, Amy Poehler, Seth Rogan, and Jonah Hill.

Carrey and Carell thought about how they could help such an aged story transcend time and demographics to bring it to life for audiences now. "I don't think as a five or six year old you think about how things transcend anything, you just think about how it resonates, however much anything resonates in a five or six year old," said Carell. "This is a book that I think resonates with kids and they don't understand the metaphors and the richness to it but at the same time it resonates. There's something very specific about the theme that I think even a little kid can understand and that is that everyone deserves an equal footing in life, and I think that's just a very basic tenant of being a creature of the world."

Carrey agreed, "I think that as far as kids go the thing that attracts them to this is not the deeper concepts involved, really [it's] just the fact that Seuss' creativity was so incredible," he explained. "If you give a kid a character that he's never seen before in a world he's never seen before, [he is] able to completely lose [himself] in an imaginary space and at the same time [he is] getting all those wonderful lessons."

Carrey can easily relate to the works of Dr. Seuss and how children today feel about his stories because he sees some similarities in his own childhood. "I guess my father was strange and I looked at him and I said 'wow, everybody's looking at my dad and everybody's laughing at my dad' and I immediately wanted to be that," he said. "So I locked myself in my room when all the other kids were outside playing and was devising ways to make myself appear to be different."

Working with animation can be tricky for an actor, especially when they have no one in front of them to work off of. Most of the time they have a producer reading lines across the room and they are responsible for bringing all the magic to the microphone. "It's a huge leap of faith because you don't know how anything you do will synch up with what anyone else is doing," explained Carell. "So it's all based on how the director sees it and hears it. He's the one threading all these performances together. So you give him a hundred [or] a thousand different variations on a scene and he then crafts it with the rest of the performances."

Carrey loved watching the finished product and was in awe of what the animators had done. "That's the great thing about this, you are surrounded by artists who are just as creative, or more so, than you are and I love being handled by nerds," he laughed. "Just to spew something out and then have somebody put wings on it - it's fantastic."

The theme of the film really struck a chord with all the actors involved and made them think twice about the potential worlds around them. "I know I'm a speck," said Carrey. "That's how I feel honestly. How can you look in the sky at night and not feel like you're a speck? I saw a picture on the Discovery Channel of Earth from Mars, and you could hardly find it, it was a speck."

Carey's serious pondering was transposed by Carell's take on the vantage point of a speck. "That's why we're paralyzed. That's why now, after doing this movie, I can hardly move, because essentially I'm afraid I will be crushing tiny universes wherever I go. Even in your laughter and the saliva that's coming out of your mouth, you are killing worlds," Carell contended.

Both Carey and Carell had a great time making Horton Hears a Who and are looking forward to sharing Dr. Seuss' legacy with the young children of today.

Horton Hears a Who is a feel-good family film with a significant message. You may be a big and important person, but never forget "a person's a person, no matter how small."

There are some people that without a doubt are likely going to walk out of Vantage Point calling it ludicrous. I am at least willing to call it sensationally ludicrous. It's been awhile since an action thriller has at least contained some semblance of a story structure since most action movies these days are like pinball machines that go from one loud pop to the next in constant motion without much regard to plot. This film is at least sensational enough to keep you guessing at whodunit.

What we have here is a puzzle piece mystery with events leading up to an assassination of a fictional U.S. President (William Hurt) while on tour

in Spain. The President is supposed to perform an address on the global war on terror to be media broadcast worldwide. Before he makes even his first statement he is shot twice to the upper body, leading to a pandemonium outbreak of hundreds of spectators. Secret Service agents Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) and Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox) must think fast and act faster - the vanished shooter could be anyone.

If you've seen the theatrical trailer for the film it already spoils one of the film's pivotal twists. Too bad. But the film does have another half dozen twists at its disposal, so the studio advertisers probably didn't mind letting one twist out of the bag before the movie hit screens nationwide. "Vantage Point" does score points for untraditional plotting. The movie's repetitious but nifty device is to rewind the action shortly following the assassination and replay the incidents twenty-three minutes earlier from different character's outlook in an intersecting flashback structure.

We get agent Thomas Barnes' point of view. Then we get amateur videographer Howard Lewis' (Forest Whitaker) point of view whose camera captures everything but a clear shot of the shooter. And so forth until a collage has been mapped out to reveal possible suspects (Television news producer Sigourney Weaver is the least likely suspect, so cross her out). This kind of flashback method is hardly new, as this technique harkens back most famously to "Rashomon" (1950), but probably its' closest cousin is "The Killing" (1956) where a racetrack robbery is dissected through varying points of view.

The technique carries the movie when the movie is short on substance. This isn't exactly a thriller that should be confused with real topicality. Other than the idea that the summit is an address on the global war on terror, there are no real dissections of terrorist ideology or real value statements made by the President or his cabinet on the issue. It's a nuts-and-bolts thriller with occasional arbitrary dialogue that adds nothing to the proceedings. You could say that deciphering the essential information from the arbitrary information is part of the fun.

Once the varying points of view are all played out and the suspects are revealed the film leads to a contrived pay-off where all the characters seem to miraculously intersect at one locale. "Vantage Point" really turns out to be one of those movies where the set-up and the journey are more engrossing than the final destination. Seeing how all the characters traverse conveniently when they should have trailed off in polar opposite directions is quite simply a little too ludicrous. Particularly nonsensical are the bad guys who choose traveling on roads leading back to the assassination point instead of selecting an escape route that would take them the opposite direction.

Gus Van Sant has become the leading maverick in experimental film today (i.e., his audience is specialized of those looking for something different). His films of recent years have something to do with disaffected youth and long silences. Van Sant composes long tracking shots following characters endless walks to vacuity. His plots are minimal - just trancelike meditations of senselessness and carelessness of our youth. Paranoid Park, his latest film, is actually based on a novel by Blake Nelson which marks the first time Van Sant has gone to source material rather than conjure his own premise. The central premise here: A teen skateboarder accidentally kills a security guard in the vicinity of skater's alley, and decides to say nothing to anyone about the incident.

The young skateboarder's name is Alex, and he's played by non-actor Gabe Nevins. Van Sant cast this boy after finding him on MySpace.com just as he cast non-actors the same way in "Elephant," his 2003 Cannes Film Festival Palm d'Or winner. Most viewers are likely going to feel sympathy for its character Alex, whom can be judged as confused in this very awful predicament of causing an innocent person's death. I believe there is another way of looking at Alex.

The way Alex causes the death of the security guard is so gruesome and horrible that an ordinary person would be haunted by that imagery, and association with guilt, for the rest of their lives. "Paranoid Park" though is about the few days in Alex's life in how guilt follows him temporarily until he is able to shrug it off. "That sucks," says the apathetic mind, "but life goes on."

The movie solemnly tracks his daily routines through school, the skating park and his times with his chatty girlfriend (Taylor Jomsen as Jennifer). There are car drives that go nowhere (it's called cruising), browsing through the mall, and glib exchanges with his estranged father who appears in only one scene. Occasionally, Alex checks the newspaper to see if there are anymore reports on the accident. And the inevitable scene arises when a detective visits the high school to interview all known skateboarders. But the investigation rests in impenetrable obscurity - there's little contrast between any of the skaters' personalities and the Q&A goes nowhere for police.

Alex mentions to Macy, a schoolmate (Lauren McKinney), that he has an unspecific problem that is burdening him. The girl suggests that Alex write a diary on his problem to let it all wring out. Alex convinces himself that he can atone for his wrong-doings by confessing all to a diary. Alex is none too bright and you wonder if, and when, the police are going to get their hands on the diary. The diary would be damning evidence. Until then, Alex can go back to skating where he can just let it all hang!

The thing about teen alienation in Gus Van Sant's movies is that his characters never have that essential conversation with a mentor to reach any elevated understanding of what they're responsible for. They are hermetically sealed creatures who don't respect any individuals outside their own selves. I think that's the point of what Van Sant is doing, even though the director himself might disagree. Van Sant says that he doesn't judge any of his characters, but I think that's just his way of absolving himself from any criticism that he's a misanthrope.

It reveals Van Sant's intentions when he plays inappropriate music - heavy metal, country, classical - to counterpoint the seriousness of what's going on in the moment. The music is part of Alex's head, his detached psyche, and no matter how grim the stakes it doesn't much dawn on him what's going on. That disaffected aloof quality, emphasized through a jumbled non-linear narrative that seems to pop out of Alex's dissociated mind, can be a mesmerizing cinematic experience if you get Van Sant's jibe.

If there's a pedigree of dumb movie that I have a soft spot for, it's Will Ferrell movies. Ferrell's humor derives entirely from egomania, and so whether he's playing a stock car racer, a soccer coach or a newsman, he is doing variations on the unaware snob (and unaware slob) who competes ruthlessly to become number one. The formula never gets tired for a Will Ferrell fan like myself, but if it's not the formula it's the jokes that get tired in Semi-Pro, a slumming effort with only a few sporadic laughs.

If there's a funny twist in the formula in "Semi-Pro" it's that Ferrell's basketball hothead isn't striving for first place with his ABA Michigan Tropics team, he's striving for fourth place. It's the mid-1970's and the ABA is going to be abolished and four lucky teams will be merged with the NBA. But it also has to be a team with fan support. The Tropics are far away from number one, but maybe number four is a practical ambition.

Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, the bad-boy swinger of the ABA who is still riding on his number one hit single "Love Me Sexy" on the record charts. He is the owner, coach, and power forward of the Tropics team. Upon learning that his team could be disbanded, he starts taking the franchise seriously. To lure fans into the stadium, he organizes a number of back-firing events such as corn-dog night, an exhibition wrestling match with a bear, and an Evel Knievel-type roller skate jump over a line of cheerleaders.

The roller skate jump is an anticipated moment that should be hysterical, but the laughs are suppressed because the filmmakers choose the wrong camera angles and spoil the humor. Most of the fun elsewhere is spoiled too.

the four letter words (it's rated R and unsuitable for small children) is gratuitous in what should have been a family comedy. Four-letter words are (theoretically) funny if there's some kind of driving desperation behind the action. Jilted characters in a Coen Brothers comedy, for instance, can be ridiculously funny using four-letter words. "Semi-Pro" wants a pat on the back for simply being potty-mouthed.

Even in the most turgid Will Ferrell vehicle - this one is without a doubt has the crummiest production values of any comedy he's made yet - he does manage to milk a few laughs. Ferrell portrays Jackie Moon as one of his trademark narcissistic sex maniacs, but it's a mistake that we don't see him interact with any "ladies." Woody Harrelson, as a wash-out former NBA player turned ABA Tropics captain, is issued a by-the-numbers relationship with Maura Tierney, a cutie but tough cookie actress not given much to do here. They're dull together, and you wonder why the screenplay didn't pair Ferrell up with Tierney.

If there's one, or two, gut-busters in the film it's in the first half: Ferrell, at poker night with his buddies, gets into a game of seemingly innocuous Russian Roulette without knowing there may be an unchecked bullet in the chamber. And one of the season games starts out riotous with Ferrell's squad wearing mascara to freak out their opponent, but the mascara smears and blinds the players in the eyes. That's funny. But the film's jokes most of the time shoots bricks.

SNOW ANGELS
SELF-IMPORTANT SLUDGE
By Sean Chavel

There is nothing confusing or unclear of what happens in Snow Angels, but I am hard-pressed in describing what it is about. Other than to say it is about raving mad adults and the children who suffer. This is a mirthless exercise of dysfunctional people in a small, wintry town. It's a rather large ensemble of hardheads and sorrowful people, but Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale stand out in the cast as embittered husband and wife working their way through a separation.

Everyone in the film is so self-consciously "flawed," you wonder when their good traits are ever going to show up. Sticking with Rockwell and Beckinsale, they are relentlessly prone to hurting one another. Rockwell is a grown man with the maturity of a 14-year old, getting into tantrums and breaking things. Beckinsale is a mommy who hates being a mommy. She's sleeping with Nicky Katt, whose wife works with Beckinsale at a Chinese restaurant.

Rockwell is still in love with Beckinsale, who can barely tolerate him over a candlelit dinner which Rockwell believes is an opportunity to patch things up. They have a daughter together, who goes missing, and neglectful parenting leads to a cascade of tragic consequences. Now let's leap backwards.

Rockwell and Beckinsale are center stage but the film is trying to keep in the point of view of a young high school teen named Arthur (Michael Angarano). He also works at the Chinese restaurant (most of the restaurant staff is white since the town population is mostly angst-ridden whites). Beckinsale was his once upon a time babysitter and the crush of his youth. Arthur is now dealing with divorce in his family, with the cowardly Griffin Dunne, as a smug college professor, who decides he's bored and therefore is going to walk out on his wife Jeannetta Arnette. Arthur is in love with a lovely decent girl named Lila (Olivia Thirlby). Together, they're like the best of youth still yet uncorrupted.

The photography of the film is top-notch, capturing the coldness and blurriness of winter - you can understand why some characters huddle inside, foaming in their depression, albeit to stay warm. The actors across the board are believable in their roles. The men are boors and the women are either boors or brokenwing victims. Yep it's all "well made" but it ain't any good.

It's easy to spot talent in director David Gordon Green ("George Washington" and "All the Real Girls" are among his previous credits), but sitting through this thing is a miserable endeavor. This separation marriage duress has been done countless times before in better ways. With hindsight to better movies about this similar subject, there's no enlightening revelation to get us to care as much as Green wants us to. I guess audiences should either cry, sulk, or yawn. Expect more yawning than anything else.