Your Donations support the Site

Buy Cranky stuff


Buy Movie Posters

Top Selling DVD     Books

        BLU-RAY DVDs:
Avatar
Bad Teacher
Batman Begins
Big Lebowski
Blade Runner
Conan the Barbarian
Cowboys and Aliens
Dark Knight
Fifth Element
The Hangover
James Bond 11 disc coll.
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Star Wars Saga
Super 8
Ultimate Matrix coll
X-Men First Class
X-Men Trilogy
X-Men Wolverine

BLU-Ray for Family DVDs
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Bambi
A Bug's Life
Cars
Chronicles of Narnia set
Coraline
Ghostbusters
Harry Potter 1-8 collection
Iron Man 2 combo
Kung Fu Panda
Lord of the Rings Trilogy Pinocchio
Pirates of Caribbean trilogy
Pixar short films
Ratatouille
Shrek the Whole Story
Sleeping Beauty
The Smurfs combo
Snow White & 7 Dwarfs
Star Trek motion pictures set
Star Wars Saga (1-6)
Toy Story combo
Toy Story 2 combo
Toy Story 3 combo
Wall-E SE

Search engine by FreeFind

click to search site

      Now in Release:
Adventures of Tintin
Albert Nobbs
Anonymous
The Artist
Carnage
Change-Up, the
Chasing Madoff
Cook County
Crazy Stupid Love
The Descendants
The Double
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
50/50
Hanna
Hugo
Iron Lady, the
J Edgar
Joyful Noise
Killing Bono
Kill the Irishman
Machine Gun Preacher
Melancholia
Mission Impossible GP
The Muppets
Passion Play
Puncture
Rampart
Sherlock Holmes
The Son of No One
Super
That's What I Am
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Trust
Tucker and Dale vs Evil
What's Your Number
Winnie the Pooh
Young Adult

IN SHORT: Best of the Year. [Rated PG-13 for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking. 162 minutes]

Writer/Director James Cameron, who knows more than a bit about Science Fiction (Terminator and T2) and Romance (Titanic) and Action (Aliens) movies, delivers the kitchen sink in Avatar -- all of the above plus a lot of special effects all in a very compact package that had critics sitting through the film, twice. [We ate a bad hot dog during the first press screening and had to go back a second time. We saw a lot of the same faces in the audience. They came back because they wanted to.] That out of the way, Cameron has done an exceptional piece of work here, creating an alien world so very deep that you could watch it again and agin and find new things in it each time . . . but you don't have to. Cameron's finished project works just fine if you're just looking to have a good time in a movie theater. For the latter viewer, the final product is just a wee slow to start but once all the background is in place, a monster is unleashed.

By the mid 22nd century, Earth has had it . We're out of oil. Solar tech isn't generating enough power for the planet and the only viable option is an almost unobtainable element -- the ridiculously named Unobtanium. To get it requires 4.4 light years in space to the planet Polyphemus in the Alpha-Centauri star system where mining operations have been established on a moon called Pandora. There, machines the size of ocean liners destroy the surface of the moon so that other machines bigger than the size of ocean liners can rip the raw rock from the planet . . . T'would be a piece of cake -- except that the atmosphere is toxic to humans and the natives, blue-skinned beings called the Na'vi, don't exactly want to move.

So, aside from issuing breathing equipment, the mining consortium working the moon has developed "avatars," biological forms that combine human and Na'vi DNA, remotely controlled by specially trained humans via some kind of telepathic link. [didn't they used to call that radio?]

The human/avatar one two punch at the center of Pandora is Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a Marine permanently confined to a wheelchair from a battle wound mentioned in passing in a voice over that begins the film. Jake's twin brother was supposed to be doing the space voyage thing but he died. The "avatar" being that was to be powered by the deceased Sully cannot be powered by any DNA but a Sully, so an offer is made to Jake. One that, potentially, could make him very rich. Off-planet he goes. Five years or so in cryo-suspension and a new home awaits. More important, once  he is powering the Avatar creature, Jake can once again walk.  And run, which he does enthusiastically, and against orders, until he finds himself lost in the jungle-like territory of Pandora and about to become breakfast for the ravenous beasties called Viperwolvesthat lurk in the dark. Sully is rescued by a Na'vi female, Neytiri (Zoë Saldana) of the Omaticaya Clan and this changes everything.

It changes things for scientist Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), who runs the Avatar Program and hopes that her avatars can help bridge the gap between human and native and fuel her research. It changes things for Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), commander of Secops mercenary army hired to protect the earthers, who promises Sully the operation needed to repair his spine, if he'll just be the inside man (eventually to be needed to take down the locals, by whatever means necessary).

And, of course, it changes things for Sully and Neytiri. She views the intruder as little more than a moron, but when assigned to train the being, she sets to work. Sully learns of the Na'vi's remarkable biological link to their planet -- there's a lot of yadda yadda you'll have to get from the film -- and comes to understand that the ecological disaster that humans are wreaking on Pandora is a lot closer to murder than you would think. As the film progresses, bonds and relationships and rivalries form. Sides are taken. Things blow up big time.

Rounding out the cast of characters is renegade Scorpion Pilot Trudy Chacon (Michelle Rodriguez), a tilt-rotor pilot who’s tasked with shuttling both humans and avatars from the base to science sites out in the wilderness. RDA Station Administrator Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi), who runs the Mining Operation on Pandora. CCH Pounder, Wes Studi and Laz Alonso round out the heavy hitters in the native population.

That sets up just about everything you need to know from us. Sit and get your mind blown.

On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Ten Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price to Avatar, he would have paid . . .

$7.50

Slow start. Big build. Bigger finish. Yum.

	Click to buy films by James Cameron
	Click to buy films starring Sigourney Weaver
	Click to buy films starring Sam Worthington
	Click to buy films starring Giovanni Ribisi