Quickie

This week's "Escape to The Movies" will be up in a few hours, but for those of you making weekend movie plans now, let me shoot some quick takes at ya:

"ParaNorman" is my favorite movie of the year, so far. Yes, more than "Cabin in The Woods." Yes, more than "Avengers." Better than "Coraline." An absolutely perfect movie with great characters, great mystery, and it eats "Super 8's" lunch in terms of Amblin-throwback "kid adventure" movies. Destined to be a cult hit, and will mark the point where Laika Animation dethrones Pixar as the hardcore film-geek Western animation house of choice (Pixar being "still good but too mainstream.")

"The Odd Life of Timothy Green" is one of the most eye-poppingly bad, ill-concieved train wrecks I've seen in years. Well-intentioned, but legendarily-bad - destined for a future as a RiffTrax and/or Channel Awesome mainstay. Imagine an M. Night Shayamalan pitch re-concieved by Tommy Wiseau. The sort of bad movie where, halfway through, you realize with a shock that Nicholas Cage isn't in it.

"Expendables 2" was hidden from the eyes of film critics. "Green" was not. That probably tells you something.

If "Beyond The Black Rainbow" plays near you, and you have a VERY strong affection for early-80s David Cronenberg/Ken Russell scifi/horror mindfucks; seek it out.