36 Months Later

Movie Review: I AM LEGEND
Rating: ** 1/2 (two and 1/2 stars)

Whatever you've said you would or wouldn't do to Will Smith if he were the last man on Earth, now's your chance. For much of "I Am Legend" he appears to be the last uninfected human after a virus kills 90 percent of the population and transforms most of the rest into "Dark Seekers," who prey vampire-like at night.

Lt. Col. Robert Neville (Smith) happens to be immune to the virus (could an AIDS analogy be intended?), which was developed in 2009 as a cure for cancer and was briefly celebrated before the side effects became apparent. (Emma Thompson appears in the opening scene as Dr. Krippen, for whom the deadly virus will be named. Talk about a cure being worse than the disease!) Robert's still dedicated to finding a cure and saving the human race, if only so he'll have some company besides his faithful dog, Sam.

Robert spends his days roaming with Sam, hunting the deer that now run freely through the streets but never shooting any. (He's got lots of packaged goods at home but has he checked the expiration dates?) He broadcasts an announcement that he'll be at a set location every day at midday in case there are other survivors who want to hook up. At night he and Sam hunker down in their Washington Square townhouse. It's been fortified against the beasties, which can be heard outside.

Because there has to be some action there are occasional confrontations, as when Sam runs into a dark warehouse in the daytime and Robert has to go after him. There are also some flashbacks to the night Manhattan was officially sealed off in an effort to contain the plague. Only uninfected people, including Robert's wife (Salli Richardson) and child (Willow Smith), are allowed to leave. The exodus is reminiscent of "War of the Worlds."

The best thing about "I Am Legend" is the production design, which shows what might happen to Manhattan if no people lived there for three years. Broadway musical fans will want to know that according to Times Square billboards, "Rent," "Wicked," "Hairspray," "Avenue Q," "Legally Blonde" and "The Producers" were still running at the end. There's also a poster for "Justice League of America," but is it the Cartoon Network series or the feature film currently scheduled for 2010 release?

If the deserted city scenes look familiar they may be reminding you of "28 Days Later," which showed a deserted London. This is the same idea on a bigger budget. The plots are similar too, although "I Am Legend" is based on the 1954 novel of that name by Richard Matheson. It was filmed twice before under different titles, with Vincent Price ("The Last Man on Earth") and Charlton Heston ("The Omega Man").

Despite best efforts to keep it moving, the movie is too suggestive of the monotony Robert's life must be. Relief finally shows up in the persons of a mother (Alice Braga) and son (Charlie Tahan), fellow survivors looking for more, again recalling "28 Days Later."

Will Smith is a victim of his own success. As the go-to guy for Fourth of July movies, and more recently Christmas movies, he's set the bar too high to just tell a nice little story. Fans may be surprised that "I Am Legend" runs well under two hours, yet seems unduly padded (a scene from "Shrek," an extended tribute to Bob Marley, etc.).

Director Francis Lawrence made the similarly decent but unmemorable "Constantine" a couple of years ago. You won't hate "I Am Legend" but you wouldn't want it to be the last movie on Earth either.

Rodent Problem 

Movie Review: ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS
Rating: ** (two stars)

Who says you can't have your nuts and eat them too? "Alvin and the Chipmunks" mocks and puts down exactly what it's doing - milking a clever idea for its full commercial potential.

It's been nearly 50 years since a guy named Ross Bagdasarian created the Chipmunks as an audio gimmick on a record. He was a clever songwriter whose catchy tunes went largely overlooked until 1958 when he recorded a novelty song, "Witch Doctor," under the name David Seville.

That Christmas he introduced "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)," which became second only to Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" among best-selling holiday singles. It was followed by several albums and a Saturday morning cartoon, "The Alvin Show," before Chipmunkmania waned.

It's been revived periodically when Ross Bagdasarian Jr. (his dad died in 1972) needed another million or two. There have been occasional albums, another TV series and an animated feature, "The Chipmunk Adventure," among other ventures; but "Alvin and the Chipmunks" is the focus of a 21st-century multimedia push.

Except for the CG Chipmunks the movie is live-action, with Jason Lee playing a fictional David Seville. He's a struggling songwriter who finds success when he discovers three young singing chipmunks - Simon, Theodore and Alvin - and writes a Christmas song for them.

Jett Records is headed by Ian Hawke (David Cross), Dave's old college chum. When he recognizes the Chipmunks' potential Ian breaks up what has become a happy family - although commitment-phobic Dave won't use that F-word, even to win back his ex, Claire (Cameron Richardson) - and starts working the "kids" to death, or at least bad health.

This isn't the kind of movie where anything really bad can happen because it's designed to be safe to leave the kids at. Believe me, you won't want to stay to watch it with them, even if it is better than director Tim Hill's last effort, "Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties."

The Chipmunks don't have much individuality. You can recognize Simon because he wears glasses but Alvin had more personality on the original record than he shows in the whole movie. I suppose it's a tribute to the animation that I'm critter-cizing the performances in these terms, because the animals are better than their human co-stars. Lee overacts the way you do when you're entertaining preschoolers, leaving Cross' mugging looking relatively restrained by comparison.

The world has changed in 49 years. The Chipmunks haven't. Kids as young as you were when you first heard them should enjoy "Alvin and the Chipmunks."

A Perfect Couple, an Imperfect Movie

Movie Review: THE PERFECT HOLIDAY
Rating: ** (two stars)

If African American families looking for holiday movies they can relate to find their cups running over this year, they should know two things about "The Perfect Holiday": it's closer to the dregs than "This Christmas" and it's suitable for a slightly younger audience (PG v. PG-13).

Queen Latifah opens the picture with the same sort of perky narration that failed to save "Arctic Tale." This time she appears on screen playing a sort of positive Spirit of Christmas, with Terrence Howard as her negative counterpart. As they pop up periodically in silly bits unrelated to the story, Howard looks appropriately ashamed of himself.

Anyway, Latifah prepares us for a holiday love story and introduces us to Benjamin (Morris Chestnut), who writes love songs but can't find his own true love; and Nancy (Gabrielle Union), a divorced mother of three who has no time for herself yet seems to hang a lot with her friends, Robin (Jill Marie Jones) and Brenda (Rachel True).

Benjamin is working as a mall Santa with his pal Jamal (Faizon Love) as his elf. The kids drag Nancy there and little Emily (Khail Bryant) tells Santa about her beautiful mom and how she'd like to meet a nice man.

It takes a couple of tries but they meet and a rapid courtship follows. Despite the fact that Nancy's older son John-John (Malik Hammond) loves his rap star father, J. Jizzy (Charlie Murphy), and wears his clothing line exclusively, Benjamin doesn't find out that his true love's ex is the man he's been trying to peddle his songs to - at least not until he succeeds.

Even sillier than the Latifah-Howard skits is the idea that Jizzy's label is waiting until Christmas Eve to drop his holiday album, thus missing the prime sales season. It's his producer (Katt Williams) who insists he needs one more song, which is how Benjamin gets good news close to the holiday.

Aside from the career conflict, J. Jizzy is suing Nancy for custody of the kids, even though he doesn't have time for them on his scheduled visits unless he needs them for a photo op.

So the script for "The Perfect Holiday," by director Lance Rivera, is imperfect, to say the least, but the chemistry between Chestnut and Union is palpable and when they're on screen together it often doesn't matter what they're saying or doing.

It's safe to take kids to "The Perfect Holiday," if you don't mind them telling you it was stupid afterwards; otherwise it works best as a date movie.

Steve Warren is a local actor and film reviewer. His reviews can also be seen weekly in the Sunday Paper.