August 10, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES I, II, III & IV • Page 19 Moms in peril in motion-capture animated adventure by Dennis Seuling “Mars Needs Moms” (Disney Home Entertainment) is an animated film featuring Milo (Seth Dursky), a nine-year-old boy who doesn’t like to eat broccoli or take out the garbage. He also doesn’t appreciate his mother (Joan Cusack) -- until she is snatched by Martians. The Martians want Milo’s mother because she is the epitome of maternal instincts, which are completely absent on Mars, where humorless Amazonian women are in charge. Martian males live in garbage dumps and like to dance all day. Martian babies hatch out of the ground and are raised by robots programmed with a blend of love, discipline, and nurturing -- qualities extracted from Earth moms. Milo stows away on the Martians’ spacecraft and spends most of the movie trying to find his mother, assisted by Gribble (Dan Fogler), who came to Mars as a boy 25 years ago in search of his own mom and now resembles a cross between Charles Laughton and Jabba the Hut. The animation technique employed here is motion capture, in which real actors are photographed and used as the basis for computer animation. The result is creepylooking characters, even those intended to be charming, and a uniformly real/unreal look that is unsettling. Although the faces are more detailed than those of broadly drawn cartoon animals like Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny, they never register as truly human. For Milo, actor Seth Green provides the motion capture body basis, while young Dursky does the voice. The concept is strange, too. Martians seek bossy mothers rather than the June Cleaver variety because they admire these women as strong disciplinarians who put safety, health, and well-being ahead of fun and laughter. This sends a mixed message. Why emphasize bossiness as a plus while downplaying moms’ softer, caring qualities? The two-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo pack contains an alternative scene, an extended opening, featurettes on motion capture and the Martian “language” heard in the movie, a behind-the-scenes making-of mini-documentary, and deleted scenes. “Tactical Force” (Vivendi Entertainment) is a direct-to-DVD action movie. During a training exercise in a remote airplane hangar, Captain Tate (Steve Austin) and his Los Angeles SWAT team discover a covert meeting between two rival gangs that are hunting a rare and valuable item. Both gangs will kill anyone who gets in their way, and Tate finds his team vastly outnumbered, unarmed, and scrambling to survive. The upper hand in this deadly game soon changes as Tate’s team takes down each criminal, one by one. Michael Jai White and Keith Jardine also star. Gribble (Dan Fogler) and Milo (Seth Dursky) team up to locate Milo’s kidnapped parent in ‘Mars Needs Moms.’ Action pictures like this are made because they are popular both here and overseas and are produced fairly cheaply, assuring a profit, if only a modest one. When Hollywood turns out an action flick for theatrical release, at least there is a reasonable script and some star power attached. With “Tactical Force,” everything is bargain basement from the acting (or lack thereof) to the cliché characters and the mandatory gunfire and explosions that dominate the movie. Available in Blu-ray and DVD, “Tactical Force” contains a making-of featurette and a closeup of a fight sequence. “Jumping the Broom” (Sony Pictures (continued on Crossword page) Bistro Ristorante PRIVATE ROOM FOR PARTIES AND SPECIAL OCCASIONS Open Daily at Our Old Location: 97 W. ALLENDALE AVE, ALLENDALE Lunch Available On Our Patio 7 Days a Week Starting at $9.95 Right Across the Street! 96 W. ALLENDALE AVE, ALLENDALE Newly Remodeled. Beautiful Decor. Same Owners. Same Great Menu! Available On Our Patio Reservations Suggested for Parties of 6 or More OUR NEW LOCATION Complete Lunch Mon-Fri $9.95 BYOB at Both Locations Tel: 201-327-6556 Fax: 201-327-6679 www.mezzalunanj.com