GRANDKID’S EYE VIEW
By James Feinberg

MOVIES

MONSTERS VERSUS ALIENS
Every preview is like a movie in itself, one that predicts what its pre-viewing will be about. Well, even the preview of the new DreamWorks film Monsters Vs. Aliens is sensational, and the movie - I mean this literally - is the most amazing example of storyline, acting and comedy I have ever seen. I may truthfully say that not going to see it as soon as possible should be a federal crime. This movie, a parody of the monster and alien movies of the 1950s, was originally produced in 3D. I am one of the few critics that saw it originally in 2-dimension, and I believe that even in 3D it could not be any better. Stephen Colbert as the President, Rainn Wilson as the evil alien Gallaxhar, and Seth Rogen as B.O.B., an impossibly stupid blob made from “a… tomato and a chemically altered ranch dessert topping,” stole the show completely. Seth Rogen, in his bluish indestructible gelatinous mass form, slurs such astoundingly funny non sequiturs as: responding to his friend’s “B.O.B.! Help me!” (she is about to be destroyed by an alien robot probe) with “Oh, sorry. I was just staring at this bird over there.” Rainn Wilson does an excellent job as the antagonist of the film, and still manages to put a few moments into the movie that makes you want to believe he’s the opposite, such as when Susan, with her enormous strength, escapes from her cage, he screams, “What the flagnard?” in a voice that could win an award any day. Add to that a sequence where he clones himself while telling Susan his life story, leaving huge chunks out as the machine opens and closes, and you’ve got an amazing acting job. Colbert, as a paranoid, yet cool President Hathaway, portrays him perfectly as the idiotic klutz that Hathaway is. (A running gag in the movie is that, in the secret conference room of the Pentagon, the President has designed two gigantic unmarked red buttons, one of which fires the nuclear weapons and the other of which gets Mr. Hathaway a latte.) This movie also makes great use of music, with the President first making contact with an alien probe with the four notes of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and then merging into “Axel F (Crazy Frog)”, as well as Dr. Cockroach, one of the monsters (similar to the Fly) break dancing on a colorful pad to bypass an alien ship’s security systems, to the tune of a catchy pop song. As for the story, it involves Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon), a woman from Modesto, California, who on her wedding day is hit with a meteorite filled with a substance called quantonium, which makes her grow to be 49 feet 11 inches tall. Sound like a familiar B-movie? Susan is then captured by the government and brought to a monster containment unit within the Pentagon, where she meets B.O.B (Seth Rogen), a blob created as a science experiment at a snack-food plant, Dr. Cockroach, the most brilliant man in the world, who, in an attempt to give humans a cockroach’s ability to survive, accidentally turns himself into one, a 20,000 year-old fish-man named The Missing Link (Will Arnett), and a gigantic caterpillar with a horny nose and spines down its back, affectionately named Insectosaurus by its constant caretaker, Missing Link. When an evil alien named Gallaxhar discovers that quantonium is the most powerful substance in the world, has landed in Susan’s hometown, he sends a gigantic robot probe to Earth, giving the government a reason to use the monsters. After taking down the probe (but destroying the Golden Gate Bridge in the process), the monsters face an army of Gallaxhar clones and other tasks which teach them to work together. To be short, it is a masterpiece. The directors and writers of this movie are brilliant, as is the casting director. Definitely a job well done. See it!

THEATER

(L-R) Don Stephenson (John Adams), Robert Cuccioli (John Dickinson), Conrad John Schuck (Benjamin Franklin), Kevin Earley (Thomas Jefferson), and members of the Second Continental Congress. Music and Lyrics by Sherman Edwards .Book by Peter Stone. Photos: Kevin Sprague

Conrad John Schuck Kevin Earley and Don Stephenson as Franklin, Jefferson and Adams

Oh say can you see 1776? If you can’t, you’ve missed out on one of the best shows to ever play at the Paper Mill, and yes, it’s right up there with Importance of Being Earnest. This musical/comedy/tragedy/if you can name it they got it production is exactly what everyone wants to see. The amazing spectacle spins a beautiful and hilarious yarn, telling the story of our insatiably argumentative founding fathers. It’s great for children of all ages (though occasionally you might have to explain to the young ‘uns what the man with a wig is singing about) and hosts great lyrics, music, actors, and voices, as well as an intricate historical storyline about the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It was almost better than the movie, and that, coming from me, is saying something. This is more memorable than you could ever imagine. Millburn’s Broadway has turned out another amazing performance for the whole family. Tell your friends! Be on the look out for The Full Monty, the last show of the season at the Paper Mill, and their upcoming 2009-2010 season, featuring Little House on the Prairie- The Musical (with Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura in the popular television series, as Ma), the New York spectacular On the Town, Neil Simon’s Lost in Yonkers, the musical revenue Smokey Joe’s Café, and Peter Pan. (A search for “The New Peter Pan” will begin soon, the winner to play Peter in Paper Mill’s musical.)