The James Logan Courier

By Robert W. Butler
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

The most ambitious film yet from the House of Pixar, "WALL-E" is an intergalactic epic about robot romance, furious physical comedy and the fate of humanity.

If that's a lot of ground to cover, if the film's reach exceeds its grasp ... well, this critic is in a forgiving mood. You can't advance an art form without taking risks and making a few missteps. "WALL-E" bravely charges into thematic territory and a presentational style that few movies — much less animated ones — have dared to explore.

In the wordless but exhilarating first half-hour of Andrew Stanton's film we find ourselves on a barren dusty planet littered with the remains of civilization. People once lived here, but they're long gone, leaving behind a ravaged landscape of skeletal buildings and mountains of trash.

By Roger Moore
The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)

Cheekbones, eye shadow, tattoos and lips — that's the essence of Angelina Jolie.

And guns. At least, that's what the skinny action heroine amounts to in "Wanted," a nervy, stylish and deeply silly movie about a clan of assassins training its newest recruit.

James McAvoy is that recruit, a downtrodden Chicago cubicle drone who suffers from anxiety attacks and apologizes for everything. Until, that is, "Fox" (Jolie, natch) shows up and "rescues" him from his dull life of victimhood, shows him "your long-awaited destiny to join us" and teaches him to use "the weapons of fate."

From wikipedia:
Andrew Jackson Foster (1925 - 1987) was a missionary to the Deaf in Africa from 19:56 until his death in 1987. He became the first Black Deaf person to earn a bachelor's degree from Gallaudet College and the first to earn a master's degree from Eastern Michigan University. Eventually receiving a Master's Degree from Seattle Pacific Christian College, he founded Christian Mission for Deaf Africans in 1956, and set for Liberia, Africa.

Read more about Andrew Foster and his mission, free from the Christian Mission for the Deaf.