Smile Politely. Speak Directly. Champaign-Urbana's Alternative Daily

Friday brings us the release of Pixar’s Wall-E, and what better way to celebrate than a top five countdown? In the short history of computer-generated imagery, there have been some great feature length films, and it’s only fitting that we pay homage to the best of the best.

So here you have it, ladies and gents: my top five CGI films of all time.

5.) Kung Fu Panda (Dreamworks, 2008)

In what may be a terribly premature inclusion, I’m tipping my hat to Jack Black and the creators of Kung Fu Panda. When posters and previews for this movie first started springing up, I was ready to christen it this year’s Napoleon Dynamite. However, after giving in to the buzz and heading to theaters to see the flick myself, I won’t hesitate to spread the word: Kung Fu Panda is the real deal.

Did you know a praying mantis can help keep unwanted insects out of your garden? Our recently hatched garden friend will eat whatever he can get his "hands" on. You can order them online here. They will hatch in two to four weeks. Check out the super creepy but radical video after the jump.

This coming Sunday, authors Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank will be hosting a discussion of their new book, Red State Rebels: Tales of Grassroots Resistance in the Heartland, at the Illini Union Bookstore at 2 p.m. Red State Rebels is a collection of essays from various authors describing modes of activism in middle America. St. Clair kicked off their book tour with a date in Bloomington, Indiana on Wednesday night. He and Frank were kind enough to answer some questions:

Smile Politely: How did your first appearance go in Bloomington last night? Any significance to that being the site of your appearance on the book's release date?

Jeffrey St. Clair: Is there a better place for opening day than summer in Bloomington, where rednecks and eggheads converge in hop-induced harmony at Nick's on Kirkwood? Besides, I'm from Indiana and two of our contributors and one of our subjects resided there.

England has Stonehenge, Peru: Machu Picchu. And this summer solstice, Champaign-Urbana can count on Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

The Woody Woodward Trio along with singer Rachael Lee will be there, providing a stellar backdrop of jazz renditions on summer and the heavens.

I was talking to some friends who have lived for quite a while in Champaign-Urbana and was very surprised to hear that they have never been to Monticello, Ill. "What? How can this be!" I exclaimed. Not only is Monticello a great little town with all sorts of fun things to do, but it's where the wonderful Allerton Park is located. Home to an amazing glassworking studio, an independent record store and great restaurants, Monticello is definitely the place to visit this summer. And by the way, I've heard that Monticello puts on the best Fourth of July fireworks display in all of East Central Illinois (being held this year at Lodge Park north of Monticello at dusk on July 3).

What amazes me about M. Night Shyamalan is he seems to have friends. How else would he get such talented actors like John Leguizamo, Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel in one film? They certainly can’t be signing on because of the integrity of the project. And I don’t believe Shyamalan has enough money to coerce them into ruining their careers in one foul swoop. Maybe outside of his whiney press releases, where the writer/director/producer complains how Disney dumped him and explains away the bad reviews for his films as a failure to realize the “scope of his visions,” he redeems his name by throwing good parties. He probably spends hours telling his guests hilariously improbably stories, leaving his guests rolling, and in turn, mistakenly giving him the idea that these ridiculous premises could make good movies. If that’s the case, please, someone, direct Mr. Shyamalan into making comedies.

I am always a little skeptical of the self-help genre. I don’t say this from a place of smugness (trust me — I’m not above receiving help) but just from the sheer fact that it is hard to completely legitimize a section that also houses titles such as Why Men Love Bitches and has book covers plastered with Dr. Phil leering at you in the aisle. Nevertheless, there has been considerable press about the wonder of the book, A New Earth, so I decided to plunge forward.

Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t seen Sex and the City or do not want to know what happens, stop reading now.

As a devoted fan of Sex and the City, I eagerly awaited the release of a feature length film. I have seen every episode more than once and my friends and I felt a certain affinity to Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte. And even though we are middle class thirty-somethings and are more Payless than Prada, there is still a common bond between us.

What though, could we possibly have in common with a group of moneyed Manhattanites?

Therein lies the secret of Sex and the City.

"You Will Believe A Man Can Fly."

That was the promise made by director Richard Donner via the advance advertisements for his ambitious undertaking, Superman: The Movie and it was one that I and thousands of other comic book fans hoped he could deliver on. There were few movies from my youth that I anticipated more than this one. Sure, when the Star Wars and Indiana Jones sequels were being heralded, I too, was jockeying for my place at the front of the line to see them. However, Superman was different, primarily because fans of the last son of Krypton had waited so long for a big careen adaptation that would do their hero justice and the many false starts that preceded Donner’s film made us doubt it would ever get done. Thankfully, it did and surprisingly, it surpassed any of the preconceived notions that the audience might have had.

We really do have the best of both worlds living in Champaign-Urbana. We have all the comforts and benefits of city life and yet, in a matter of minutes, we can find ourselves in the beauty of the Illinois countryside. This truly is bliss.

By now most of us have seen the film Juno at least once. It’s now out on DVD — and you can even find a pretty decent online version of the movie. So many people loved this movie, and if they didn’t love it most people thought it was at least quirky and witty. Seriously, in my humble opinion, Juno sucked. It’s really difficult for me to organize my gripes about this movie with much coherency, but it’s worth a try.

I don’t want to say that Sex and the City: The Movie is only for faithful viewers of the HBO series, but I will say the uninitiated probably won’t “get” the film.

The movie thoughtfully begins with the clueless viewer in mind with a short montage of names, faces and their relationship status. This is a nice moment for those of us who have seen all the episodes to reminisce on why we loved these girls so much. There’s the centerpiece, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) who’s a sex columnist and author of three books; Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) manages an art gallery and lives with her adopted baby girl and her husband; Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) is a lawyer with a hubby and kid in Brooklyn; and Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) is a publicist for her boyfriend model/actor in L.A. Thankfully, the entire original cast remains, as does the snappy dialogue, the twisting dramas and the form of the characters.

We’ve all been there — going along in a relationship, thinking everything is hunky dory and then all of the sudden your partner lowers the boom on you.

While you’ve been in a state of bliss, they inform you that they’ve been suffering quietly and they need a change, they need to move on, they need to find themselves. They assure you that it’s not you, it’s them — but that doesn’t help when you’re left with a broken heart that will soon change into a festering heap of resentment and hate…or so I’ve heard.