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9
By Ethan Alter

Shane Acker's new post-apocalyptic animated adventure 9 began its life as the young director's thesis project during his grad school days in UCLA's animation department. In that original incarnation, the film was an 11-minute silent short that plunged viewers into a desolate, destroyed world inhabited only by diminutive rag dolls loosely stitched together out of whatever odds and ends survived the unseen cataclysm.

The short's striking visuals more than made up for its slender-some might say, inscrutable-plot. Synthesizing elements from Eastern European animation, Japanese anime and such live-action visions of the apocalypse as James Cameron's Terminator films, Acker created his own distinct futurescape that won the applause of audiences, several awards (including a 2005 Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short) and, best of all, the attention of A-list movers-and-shakers like Tim Burton, who set him up with the funds to turn his short into a full-length feature.

Wisely adhering to that old maxim "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," Acker uses this opportunity to expand the scope of the original short without fundamentally altering his vision to appeal to a broad mainstream audience. His only major marketplace concession was giving his characters voices, a decision that, while understandable, also turns out to be the film's most significant creative misstep.

9 unfolds almost in real time at a breakneck pace. As in the short, viewers experience events through the eyes of the title character (voiced by Elijah Wood), one of nine dolls whose origins are shrouded in mystery. The movie begins with 9 gaining consciousness in a dilapidated room in a bombed-out building inhabited only by a long-dead body. Venturing outdoors, he crosses paths with another one of his kind, who escorts him to a carefully hidden bunker where the surviving dolls live, making sure to avoid the mechanical creatures that roam the ruins hunting down any remaining signs of life.

At the hideaway, 9 trades angry words with the group's leader 1 (Christopher Plummer) over whether any attempt should be made to learn why the planet was reduced to rubble. While 1 favors inaction, 9 and the equally rebellious 7 (Jennifer Connelly) can't allow themselves to stand by idly. Venturing into the open, they're forced to outrun killer robots and explore uncharted territory in an effort to learn the reasons behind their existence…and what happened to their creator.

As a purely visual experience, 9 more than holds its own with the best dystopian sci-fi tales-films like Blade Runner, The Road Warrior and Pixar's Wall-E. In addition to inventive character design and dazzling CGI landscapes, Acker imbues the world with a wonderful tactility. Instead of wielding advanced technology, the characters have to fashion tools and weapons out of whatever is at hand in the giant landfill that is this future Earth.

It's just a shame that these exceptional visuals aren't accompanied by equally strong dialogue and vocal performances. Burton tasked his Corpse Bride collaborator Pamela Pettler with turning the silent short into a talkie, but her words end up adding very little to the proceedings. Truth be told, 9's narrative is straightforward enough that it doesn't really require dialogue, except perhaps in a few key scenes. More often than not, the characters end up spouting basic exposition and observations that could just as easily be communicated visually. The filmmakers would have been wise to follow in Pixar's footsteps and keep the extraneous dialogue to a minimum. In the case of a film like 9, the pictures really do say a thousand words.

'EXTRACT'
FLAVORED JUDGE
By Sean Chavel

With Extract, writer-director Mike Judge is looking at the flipside of his cult classic “Office Space.” In that film, he was looking at corporate drones overly policed by their dehumanized bosses. But this time, Judge makes his protagonist a company president who has to fend against flunky employees who constantly take their eyes off of the production line at a flavor factory. With less than thirty employees, it's a small business that produces such things as vanilla extract among other additives.

Jason Bateman (the PR guy in “Hancock,” the accountant in “Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium”), the go-to guy for bottled-up contempt, is Joel, the once proud owner of this company before he hit a personal rut. It's not so much scorn for his employees - he seems to give them regular passes even after mistakes - it's disdain for his marriage at home. He can't figure out what is wrong with his wife Suzie played by Kristen Wiig who seems perpetually disinterested. When she wears sweat pants at home, it's the modern day equivalent of a self-applied chastity belt.

One day a bad accident at work severs off the testicle of his would-be floor manager Step (Clifton Collins, Jr.). Joel and his right-hand man Brian (J.K. Simmons) convince their pushover employee not to sue. Everything seems settled on the legal front; all during the course of this time Joel is negotiating an offer to sell the factory. Yet during these negotiations, he becomes smitten with a replacement employee, the smoking hot Cindy (Mila Kunis), a devilish vixen in blue plaid who schemes to romance the testicle-less employee Step and convince him to sue the company.

Most of the comedy is about lust and what self-destructive mistakes it drives a man to commit. Joel, a usually reasonable and pragmatic guy, can't see the writing on the wall with Cindy. He gets drunk and stoned one night with his bud Dean (Ben Affleck, who proves he's best when he's playing a regular beer-swilling guy) and hatches an idea. In what is a wickedly imagined subplot by Mike Judge, he has his inebriated Joel character - intoxicated on beer and horse tranquilizers - agree that he would cheat on his wife if she were to cheat on him first, a conceit that would not make him feel guilty about adultery. Dean sets him up with an imbecile gigolo (Dustin Milligan) who is to pretend to be the pool boy who goes over to his home to seduce his wife while Joel is away at work during the day.

Joel wakes up with a hangover, realizes his reckless behavior and the foolish transaction he made the previous night, and decides to call the whole thing off. Only thing is it is too late, as the gigolo shows up forty-five minutes early and has already seduced his wife. Joel doesn't confront his wife about her unfaithful behavior right away, which becomes a mistake when his temper starts to boil. It's harder for the incident to slide off his shoulders when the gigolo makes repeat unscheduled house visits. When Joel finds out about the repeats, he is understandably outraged. “15 times?! It hasn't even been 15 days!”

We are really looking at the comic stressors of a small business owner over the course, of say, five or six days. Maybe more, maybe less. The slack narrative doesn't really let us feel the passage of time. We do care though about certain aspects of the plot like whether Joel will figure out Cindy's gold-digging nature, about whether he will tame his desire for Cindy, about whether he will reignite the flame in his marriage, and about whether or not he will go through and sell the company and retire young.

If you consider yourself a person with a healthy sense of humor, then it's possible you'll lose count with the number of laughs you have with this movie. I know some people however that will hardly burst out laughing but still nod approvingly. From my astute point of view, there is plenty of good material here. On the checklist is a whacked-out cameo by Gene Simmons as Step's ambulance chasing attorney, and David Koechner is the intrusive neighbor who has no clue that he invades Joel's personal space on a daily basis. Also, stay tuned for a deliciously smutty mock '70's porno style dream sequence.

As you can probably tell, there's a lot of funny touches outside the central plot perimeter. This modest, medium-simmered comedy however is less ambitious than Judge's previous films - it doesn't blow the lid off of its potential. “Extract” is not on the level of Judge's cult classics “Office Space” and “Idiocracy,” but it contains such shrewd nuances that you could probably turn it into repeat viewings on video.

'EXTRACT'
INTERVIEW WITH MIKE JUDGE
By Sean Chavel

“Extract” is everything good you'd expect out of a Mike Judge comedy, but I love Judge's previous films so much that I can hardly contain myself. You know, the one from 2007 that was released on very few screens nationwide sans critics screenings and no publicity? I am talking about “Idiocracy,” of course, and while Judge seemingly wants to embrace the present - his new workplace comedy stars Jason Bateman - someone like me wants to sneak in a few questions about “Idiocracy.” Now if you've ever followed anything I've ever said about “Idiocracy,” which could be described as George Orwell meets “Dumb & Dumber,” you would know that I regard it as the great stupid movie of the decade. “Extract,” ironically isn't stupid, it's actually a smart comedy, but it is unmistakable Judge - a companion piece to his 1999 cult classic “Office Space.”

“Extract” is Judge's third live action film following his career that began in animation with “Beavis & Butthead” and “King of the Hill,” two shows that put the genius back in low brow. Judge attended a press junket recently at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles to promote his new film.

Q: What life experiences of yours inspired the story for “Extract?”

JUDGE: I worked in factory settings a couple of times, and um, I wanted to do another workplace comedy. I just decided to put the world in the point of view of the boss this time. I worked so many jobs. By the time I got into animation I was pushing 30 years old. I had so many jobs. Suddenly when “Beavis & Butthead” happened I had 30 to 90 people working for me. And I just became very sympathetic to my old bosses. I was thinking that half of these people don't appreciate anything. You try to be a nice boss and that doesn't work. So I thought that would be funny. Especially with someone like Jason Bateman playing a guy who has to babysit all these people.

Q: What is your fascination with dumb people? They seem to appear in everything of yours?

JUDGE: You know, I think that I find it interesting, I guess. I feel dumb myself sometimes even though supposedly I'm not.

Q: You always pop up in your films in disguise. Do you do that strictly for the fans?
JUDGE: In “Idiocracy” only my voice is in there. In “Office Space,” it was something I had written at the last minute. I had read a bunch a people for the part, but couldn't find somebody that could get it. They were trying to make the guy sound silly and goofy. But I really just wanted the guy to be passive-aggressive - the [Chotchkie's restaurant] manager really wants her to wear more pieces of flair but just didn't want to come out and just say it. That was a really simple thing to me. I finally just said, well, I know how to do this. I actually auditioned myself; I got a camcorder so I can look at it. So they aren't deliberate cameos.

Q: How about your new cameo in “Extract?”

JUDGE: With this film [“Extract”], I screwed up. Miramax asked me if I was going to be in it. I said, 'Maybe I'll play that guy with the mustache.' I described him in the script as having a mustache, being really skinny but with a port belly. Once I said that I think the casting people got lazy and didn't look very hard. Because by the time we did readings it sounded cartoonish, like Elmer Fudd. So I said alright, I'll do it.

Q: Do you ever have specific actors in mind when you start writing character parts in your films?

JUDGE: In fact, well with this, I started writing it a long time ago and I hadn't thought of anybody. Then after I started watching “Arrested Development” I did a re-write thinking about Jason. With “Idiocracy” I was thinking of Luke Wilson when I did a re-write. Um, other than that actually, I was thinking of Benicio del Toro for President Camacho. Benicio wasn't [interested] anyway, Terry Crews came in it was just one of those times where it wasn't how I imagined it, but he just stole the part. He just did something with it that I liked a lot.

Q: What was it then about Jason Bateman and Luke Wilson in their respective parts that you identified with?

JUDGE: I guess both of them in different ways just how they react to certain things, react to crazy things. In “Office Space” also I was imagining a young Bob Newhart or Charles Grodin. With “Idiocracy” I was imagining somebody almost blue collar, somebody that you could believe could be in the Army and I think Luke has that… sometimes it is a hard thing to describe. But I like to find people that are fun watching react to certain-

Q: Have you ever thought about doing a DVD rerelease of “Idiocracy” so you could have a forum to talk about if finally? Do a commentary on it?

JUDGE: I haven't thought about that, but uh, I imagine… I would think at some point they might want to do that, yeah. [Meaning 20th Century Fox] It wouldn't be a bad idea.

Q: It's our new generation's “1984!”

JUDGE: Oooh, eh, thank you!

Rising Star: Actor to Watch Matt Lanter
By Staff Writer

As one of the hottest new names in Hollywood, actor Matt Lanter is making some noise starring on The CW's hit show "90210," playing bad boy "Liam." Last season teenage girls everywhere fell in love with his witty charm and drop dead gorgeous blue eyes on the small screen. He seemed to be just what the doctor ordered on the teen drama. Everyone is dying to know what is going to happen to his character Liam when the show returns on September 8th. This fall, Matt returns to the hit series officially as a series regular (which is rumored that he took the place of Dustin Milligan) while also continuing his work as Anakin Skywalker on the record-setting animated television series, "STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS," which can be seen on the Cartoon Network.

Most notably on the film side, Matt can be seen in the feature horror film "SORORITY ROW," starring alongside Briana Evigan and Rumer Willis in theatres September 11th. Thriller lovers will be excited to learn that in addition to the horror remake by Summit Entertainment, Matt will star alongside Leighton Meester in the Sony/Screen Gems' movie "The Roommate," due out in 2010. Clearly the chemistry between those two is going to cause some chatter in the female community!

Valley Scene Magazine: How does it feel coming back to 90210 as a series regular?
Matt Lanter: Great! We have a brand new look and feel to the show. I know that our producers want to really showcase LA hotspots. We also have new sets including the Beverly Hills Beach Club where all the kids can hang out. I think everyone is excited to be back, I know I am!

VS: Does the cast get along well?

ML: We actually all get along great. That's part of what makes working on this show fun.
VS: Have any spillers from the show?

ML: I can't really tell!! I do know that we get to see things from Liam's perspective a bit including getting to know his relationship with his family and his peers. Also, I can say that we'll get to see him integrate more into the core group of kids this year. Basically, I can say that some new relationships will form and that some will be broken!

VS: Tell us about your role in SORORITY ROW.

ML: Sorority Row is a horror film that I did due out shortly this month. I play Kyle, who is the son of a senator, and boyfriend of the sorority president. The two are kind of the power couple at the school. It's a fun horror film, so of course people start dying and chaos ensues!

VS: What was it like on set for the film?

ML: We all had a good time. Those are some of the coolest girls I've worked with! We filmed in an abandoned meatpacking plant in the middle of the winter in Pittsburgh. The place wasn't heated so it was freezing cold! It was a great experience though and our director, Stewart Hendler, is really cool and kept things light and fun. You have to be able to do that on a horror set or else the material weighs you down.

VS: Do you enjoy watching horror films?

ML: I actually prefer a good thriller. I have to be in the right mood for a horror movie and don't get much out of films that try to scare with a cheap "pop out" factor.

VS: Speaking of thrillers, tell us about your upcoming role in THE ROOMMATE.

ML: It's a story about obsession in a college setting, a story that makes you think, "What if that happens to me?" It feels a lot like "Single White Female" and has a great script and a good cast. Watch for that in 2010!

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