If you’ve read Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, you know one of the biggest challenges for writer-director Gavin Hood was bringing the Battle Room to life.
When Ender (Asa Butterfield) is recruited by the International Fleet, he’s sent into space to Battle School to learn how to defend the planet against the Formics, an alien race that nearly decimated humanity and is expected to return. While there are classes in Battle School, the central element of the curriculum is actually a game.
While on the film’s NASA Michoud Assembly Facility set in New Orleans, producer Linda McDonough explained, “They have two different ‘gates.’ They accumulate points by hitting each other with these lasers. The lasers don’t injure you; they freeze parts of your suit. But if either team is able to get a man through the other team’s gate, they completely win the battle.” Now just picture all of that in a zero-gravity environment.
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Haunter could have been an ugly little blemish on Abigail Breslin’s resume, but instead she turns it into a chance to prove herself, solidifying that she’s got the acting chops to take a predictable narrative, poor supporting performances and loads of familiar camera tricks and make them watchable.
How do you make a movie set in the future about a six-year-old recruited by the military to wipe out an invading alien race? If the answer were simple, perhaps Ender’s Game would have been adapted to film far sooner. Orson Scott Card’s novel was first published back in 1985, after which the rights sat at Warner Bros. for 12 years, the film never making it past the development stage. Finally, the rights lapsed and Linda McDonough and her producing team snatched them up to make the movie their way — independently. As she proudly points out, “We think we may be the largest independently financed film ever put together.”
Director Brad Anderson and writer Richard D’Ovidio definitely have something here, but “The Call” falls into B-movie territory with a mix of notable highs, but also a handful of rock bottom lows.
World, watch out for Abigail Breslin. Thanks to nine years of work, we know she’s a talented actress, but Janie Jones really proves she’s on another level. The film not only reveals her as an incredibly talented singer, but as an actress who can take a subpar script, breathe life into it and make it somewhat enjoyable.
Thanks to Little Miss Sunshine, we know Abigail Breslin has some dance moves… kind of. But since when can she sing? Her Janie Jones co-star, Alessandro Nivola, already had some musical ability having sung in Laurel Canyon, but Breslin was going in cold. Well, as quickly as this young actress adapts from character to character is as quickly as she picked up on singing and guitar-playing because she and Nivola successfully take their performances one step further in David M. Rosenthal’s Janie Jones, creating not only compelling characters, but a fantastic soundtrack, too. 
I walked into Zombieland in a terrible mood and walked out a completely different person. No, I wasn’t turned into a zombie; I just walked out unreservedly delighted. Seriously, like twinkle-in-your-eye happy. Zombieland is filled with the horror genre’s standard overdose of blood and guts, but it’s also packing something else; humor. Add in the charming band of misfits and you end up with something disturbing, thrilling, hilarious and sweet, all at the same time. Whether you’re in a good mood, a bad one or indifferent, Zombieland is an incredibly fun film. Forget the twinkle in your eye; you know that dumb grin you get on your face when you’re really into a great movie? The one you hope you caught yourself making before anyone else notices? You’re going to be stuck with that grin long after Zombieland is over.