No introductions. Two movies to discuss. Let’s get right into it, you know the drill.

The Lorax (2012) – 6 (IMDb 6.3) – Animation, Family (USA)
The Lorax is an animated film based on the novel by Dr. Seuss. From what I’ve heard the film is not very faithful to its source material. Who cares really as long as the movie is good, right? Well, the film is not that great. Not bad either, that is if you’re a kid. What it is, is basically an environmentalist cautionary tale: If you chop off all the trees for your greedy profit-making industry, one day there might not be any left. Then you’ll have to pay to breathe fresh air, which is almost what’s happening right now to us. Some people still don’t realize this, anyway, let’s not get political. The film is okay, colorful designs and a funny Danny DeVito as the Lorax. In a way though the story, as presented on-screen, doesn’t need the Lorax character. Goofy main character, wacky songs à la Disney and Despicable Me minions rip offs (which now seems the standard thing to do, look at Hop, no wait scratch that: DON’T watch that movie). Fun fact: DeVito did the voice-overs for Lorax in Russian, German, Spanish and Italian too. There are some funny clips on YouTube. Actually, those are more worthwhile now that I think of it.

Stellet Licht (2007) – 6 (IMDb 7.1) – Drama (Mexico)
I don’t like the way this film was shot. They’re trying too hard to make it look good, but the lens they use distorts the image and just doesn’t look as cool as they might have thought. The film is deliberately slow-paced, though with no payoff, and I like a good contemplative picture, but I’m not sure why they’d go for that here. All my spider senses seem to indicate that they were trying to make a by the numbers art house film. It’s like they were thinking: “What makes an indie film?” So they did a little brainstorming, compiled a to-do list. All right: Distinctive visuals, slow-moving story, characters cheating, some spirituality thrown in there, long takes and interminable silence of course. Okay, let’s do this thing! No, it doesn’t work like that I’m afraid. You have to have something to say, something that hasn’t been said before, otherwise your film is just a copycat. Now, it may seem like I’m making fun of this film, but I do love art house cinema, so I can’t really hate this one, but I can’t say that it’s a masterpiece either.

That’s all for ‘meh’ films. Did you watch any films that were ‘just okay’ this past week? Tell me about it!