directed by Justin Kurzel
written by Jacob Koskoff, Todd Louiso and Michael Lesslie
William Shakespeare's tale of treachery, murder and absolute power corrupting absolutely gets a fresh treatment in 2015 courtesy of director Justin Kurzel and stars Michael Fassbender as the title character and Marion Cotillard as his scheming wife. Paddy Considine plays Macbeth's faithful colleague Banquo, David Thewlis plays King Duncan and a very capable bunch of British actors including the bad guy from the latest Mission Impossible movie round up the cast of supporting characters.
Bringing Shakespeare's work to screen is always a challenge, and whoever does it, and at least attempts to do it well usually deserves kudos just for the effort, but Kurzel deserves a huge pat on the back here for getting one of the finest young actors of this generation to play one of literature's most infamous villains. The story of a lord who thirsts for power when his destiny is revealed to him by three mysterious old women is one that has been done several times over, but what Fassbender brings to the table is something very special.
Since taking the Magneto role in X-Men: First Class, which was more of a tortured anti-hero than anything else, Fassbender has gone full-on bad guy in films like 12 Years a Slave. Here, his malevolence is tempered by the madness and paranoia that overwhelms the murderous Scot when he realizes the people he has to kill to consolidate his hold on power. It's a nice, meaty role for Fassbender to sink his teeth into, and I daresay he makes the most out of the opportunity.
It's a rather spartan production; the colors are muted and just about everyone is dressed in black, white or gray; the sets are simple and unobtrusive, and at the end it's really down to the actors, mainly Fassbender and Cotillard, to carry the proceedings, which they do quite well.
I don't consider myself a Shakespeare buff or expert by any means, and perhaps it was this that makes me view this film as successful in telling the story, which is told in an English that is no longer spoken. It's worth noting that the distributors had the courtesy to put subtitles for all the dialogue. I doubt this will win over the blockbuster crowd, but as an exercise in effective storytelling this is a very good one.
8.7/10
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Friday, January 22, 2016
Good Grief! A Review of Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie
directed by Steve Martino
written by Brian Schulz, Craig Schulz and Cornelius Uliano
Fifteen years after the death of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, his beloved characters have come to the big screen in a film that is reverent, innovative and full of the heart that has made the original comic strip well-known the world over.
The Peanuts Movie is the story of Charlie Brown (voiced by Noah Schnapp), an insecure elementary school student and his quirky dog named Snoopy (voiced by Bill Melendez). Charlie Brown's life gets turned upside down when a pretty red headed girl (voiced by Francesca Capaldi) moves in next door to him, and enrolls at his school. The film follows his efforts to impress the girl, invariably with results that are both hilarious and cringe-inducing.
The film hews pretty closely to both the comic strip and the various hand-drawn animated features based on it that have come out over the years. Charlie Brown's entire supporting cast of Linus and Lucy, Schroeder, Peppermint Patty, Marcie are all in attendance, along with the indecipherable adults who dialogue consists of muffled audio. It's a very traditional take on the cartoon, and even though the dialogue has been updated, much of remains charmingly, almost defiantly old-fashioned, like the characters' clothes, hairstyles, and almost everything else (although in the end, the characters do play in an inflatable playground). It's safe and charming and that was, to be honest, pretty much the best way to go with characters and a world this well-loved. Innovations made possible by computer-generated imagery, like the amazing detail put into rendering the characters' hair, and other little touches, were most welcome.
The good news about this movie is that it's accessible even to people who've never read a "Peanuts" strip in their lives, which would probably characterize most of the young viewers who would watch it (like my younger daughter), but it is a much richer experience for longtime readers of the strip, and even moreso for kids who have read the strip and have seen the cartoons. As someone who's done both, I quite enjoyed the film, and was happy to see that both of my children who watched it with me did as well. The highlight, for me, was the realization of Snoopy's "World War I flying ace" fantasy.
It was really pleasant viewing, and I recommend it highly to lovers of the long-running Peanuts strip and people who have yet to discover it.
8.5/10
written by Brian Schulz, Craig Schulz and Cornelius Uliano
Fifteen years after the death of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, his beloved characters have come to the big screen in a film that is reverent, innovative and full of the heart that has made the original comic strip well-known the world over.
The Peanuts Movie is the story of Charlie Brown (voiced by Noah Schnapp), an insecure elementary school student and his quirky dog named Snoopy (voiced by Bill Melendez). Charlie Brown's life gets turned upside down when a pretty red headed girl (voiced by Francesca Capaldi) moves in next door to him, and enrolls at his school. The film follows his efforts to impress the girl, invariably with results that are both hilarious and cringe-inducing.
The film hews pretty closely to both the comic strip and the various hand-drawn animated features based on it that have come out over the years. Charlie Brown's entire supporting cast of Linus and Lucy, Schroeder, Peppermint Patty, Marcie are all in attendance, along with the indecipherable adults who dialogue consists of muffled audio. It's a very traditional take on the cartoon, and even though the dialogue has been updated, much of remains charmingly, almost defiantly old-fashioned, like the characters' clothes, hairstyles, and almost everything else (although in the end, the characters do play in an inflatable playground). It's safe and charming and that was, to be honest, pretty much the best way to go with characters and a world this well-loved. Innovations made possible by computer-generated imagery, like the amazing detail put into rendering the characters' hair, and other little touches, were most welcome.
The good news about this movie is that it's accessible even to people who've never read a "Peanuts" strip in their lives, which would probably characterize most of the young viewers who would watch it (like my younger daughter), but it is a much richer experience for longtime readers of the strip, and even moreso for kids who have read the strip and have seen the cartoons. As someone who's done both, I quite enjoyed the film, and was happy to see that both of my children who watched it with me did as well. The highlight, for me, was the realization of Snoopy's "World War I flying ace" fantasy.
It was really pleasant viewing, and I recommend it highly to lovers of the long-running Peanuts strip and people who have yet to discover it.
8.5/10
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
My Turn to Weigh In: My Review of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
directed by J.J. Abrams
written by J.J. Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt
A bit of personal tragedy kept me from watching (and reviewing) this film immediately upon its release, but even though just about everyone I know has most likley seen the film by now I still want to write how I feel about it.
It's been several decades after the fall of the Galactic Empire. Out of the ashes of the old Empire, a new threat has emerged, the First Order, which has been cutting a swath of destruction across the galaxy in an effort to destroy the newly-reinstated Republic and restore the Empire. Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi knight and one of the architects of the demise of the Empire, has vanished. The First Order, headed by the mysterious Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is in search of Skywalker, as is the Republic-supported Resistance, who have dispatched their best pilot, Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) to find Skywalker as well. Their searching brings them to the planet Jakku, where Dameron finds out crucial information before the First Order does, but thanks to ensuing chaos he is forced to store it in his trusty robot, BB-8, who then wanders the planet in search of someone who can help get him back to the Resistance. He finds scavenger Rey (Daisy Ridley). Meanwhile, a First Order stormtrooper named FN-2187 (John Boyega), horrified by what he sees during his very first combat mission, becomes the very first stormtrooper to break ranks, a decision that puts him on the path towards meeting Dameron, and later, Rey, but which, more importantly, puts him on a collision course with his former bosses, who are none too pleased with his decision. Amidst all of this, the question of where Skywalker has gone lingers and the threat posed by the First Order and their mysterious boss Snoke (Andy Serkis) looms large.
Given all that's been written about this movie I think it's fair to say that I won't really have anything new to say, especially since the criticism that this movie is basically a rehash of Episodes IV and V has been pretty much done to death by now. Like most people I still enjoyed the movie despite its almost slavish attempt to recapture the magic of the original series that George Lucas squandered with his widely-ridiculed prequels. Like Jurassic World, which played more like a remake of the original Jurassic Park than the direct sequel it actually was, this film borrows so liberally from the original trilogy of films it feels more like a retelling of the old story than its continuation, but the good news is that Abrams does it a lot better than Colin Trevorrow did (which is a little worrying considering that Trevorrow will be taking the director's reins for the third film). At least Abrams and his writers didn't commit some glaring narrative and logical gaffes to drive their movie forward (How did they get DNA from a water dinosaur from amber-encased mosquitoes? How is it so easy to start up a jeep that hasn't been used for two decades? And the list goes on and on...).
For me, what highlighted the shortcomings of this film was the movie that basically got Abrams the job of making it, or his 2009 reboot of the other wildly popular science fiction franchise Star Trek. That movie basically knocked my socks off when I saw it, because I had grown up with the Shatner movies and later, the ones featuring the Next Generation cast, and if I may be honest, Abrams' treatment of the property was a much-need shot in the arm. He basically reinvented the wheel, and the franchise was much the better for it, creative missteps of the follow-up, Star Trek: Into Darkness notwithstanding.
Here, whether it's due to the dictates of Disney or his own self-professed reverence for the Star Wars Universe, Abrams seems deathly afraid of introducing anything fresh to the franchise, though I do give him full marks for making Rey a full-blown action heroine instead of a supporting character. Sure, Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher, who appears here as a general) was a tough cookie in the day, but she always played second fiddle to Luke Skywalker (Mark Hammill, who also makes an appearance) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford, who likewise shows up). Abrams turns that on its head, even though he's effectively just gender-swapping Luke Skywalker with this film.
Apart from Ridley's Rey, though, Abrams has introduced some memorable if not necessarily compelling characters in Boyega's stormtrooper-turned-good-guy Finn and Isaac's Dameron. Finn being the only stormtrooper in the history of the movies to actually turn his back on what is effectively the Empire, to my mind at least, has the potential for being the most interesting new character of the bunch, provided the writers know what to do with him. Dameron is more of a traditional hero complete with wisecracks and a great aim, but Isaac plays him with such charisma I honestly think he could merit his own spinoff film. A minor quibble I have with Isaac is how strange he looks in his X-Wing pilot's helmet. Maybe I just don't like the design in general, though I am a fan of the tweaked design of the X-Wing fighters themselves.
Finally, my biggest beef with this movie has to be Kylo Ren, who was massively hyped in the marketing materials as some kind of Darth-Vader-level menace, but who, all exaggeration aside, turns out to be nothing more than a Darth Vader wannabe. I can say this without spoiling any significant plot developments here, and I have to say that the filmmakers taking over the franchise from Abrams, namely Rian Johnson and the aforementioned Colin Trevorrow, had better give this character some serious tweaking or he will be very difficult to take seriously as the trilogy progresses to its conclusion.
The good news is that this film hits all the notes that Lucas' ill-advised prequel trilogy missed. The bad news, as many have observed, is that it's still very much the same song. Still, as a kickoff to a brand new trilogy, Abrams and his writers could have done a lot worse. What's interesting now is if their successors can take the story into new directions, and I remain cautiously optimistic that they can and will.
8/10
written by J.J. Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt
A bit of personal tragedy kept me from watching (and reviewing) this film immediately upon its release, but even though just about everyone I know has most likley seen the film by now I still want to write how I feel about it.
It's been several decades after the fall of the Galactic Empire. Out of the ashes of the old Empire, a new threat has emerged, the First Order, which has been cutting a swath of destruction across the galaxy in an effort to destroy the newly-reinstated Republic and restore the Empire. Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi knight and one of the architects of the demise of the Empire, has vanished. The First Order, headed by the mysterious Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is in search of Skywalker, as is the Republic-supported Resistance, who have dispatched their best pilot, Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) to find Skywalker as well. Their searching brings them to the planet Jakku, where Dameron finds out crucial information before the First Order does, but thanks to ensuing chaos he is forced to store it in his trusty robot, BB-8, who then wanders the planet in search of someone who can help get him back to the Resistance. He finds scavenger Rey (Daisy Ridley). Meanwhile, a First Order stormtrooper named FN-2187 (John Boyega), horrified by what he sees during his very first combat mission, becomes the very first stormtrooper to break ranks, a decision that puts him on the path towards meeting Dameron, and later, Rey, but which, more importantly, puts him on a collision course with his former bosses, who are none too pleased with his decision. Amidst all of this, the question of where Skywalker has gone lingers and the threat posed by the First Order and their mysterious boss Snoke (Andy Serkis) looms large.
Given all that's been written about this movie I think it's fair to say that I won't really have anything new to say, especially since the criticism that this movie is basically a rehash of Episodes IV and V has been pretty much done to death by now. Like most people I still enjoyed the movie despite its almost slavish attempt to recapture the magic of the original series that George Lucas squandered with his widely-ridiculed prequels. Like Jurassic World, which played more like a remake of the original Jurassic Park than the direct sequel it actually was, this film borrows so liberally from the original trilogy of films it feels more like a retelling of the old story than its continuation, but the good news is that Abrams does it a lot better than Colin Trevorrow did (which is a little worrying considering that Trevorrow will be taking the director's reins for the third film). At least Abrams and his writers didn't commit some glaring narrative and logical gaffes to drive their movie forward (How did they get DNA from a water dinosaur from amber-encased mosquitoes? How is it so easy to start up a jeep that hasn't been used for two decades? And the list goes on and on...).
For me, what highlighted the shortcomings of this film was the movie that basically got Abrams the job of making it, or his 2009 reboot of the other wildly popular science fiction franchise Star Trek. That movie basically knocked my socks off when I saw it, because I had grown up with the Shatner movies and later, the ones featuring the Next Generation cast, and if I may be honest, Abrams' treatment of the property was a much-need shot in the arm. He basically reinvented the wheel, and the franchise was much the better for it, creative missteps of the follow-up, Star Trek: Into Darkness notwithstanding.
Here, whether it's due to the dictates of Disney or his own self-professed reverence for the Star Wars Universe, Abrams seems deathly afraid of introducing anything fresh to the franchise, though I do give him full marks for making Rey a full-blown action heroine instead of a supporting character. Sure, Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher, who appears here as a general) was a tough cookie in the day, but she always played second fiddle to Luke Skywalker (Mark Hammill, who also makes an appearance) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford, who likewise shows up). Abrams turns that on its head, even though he's effectively just gender-swapping Luke Skywalker with this film.
Apart from Ridley's Rey, though, Abrams has introduced some memorable if not necessarily compelling characters in Boyega's stormtrooper-turned-good-guy Finn and Isaac's Dameron. Finn being the only stormtrooper in the history of the movies to actually turn his back on what is effectively the Empire, to my mind at least, has the potential for being the most interesting new character of the bunch, provided the writers know what to do with him. Dameron is more of a traditional hero complete with wisecracks and a great aim, but Isaac plays him with such charisma I honestly think he could merit his own spinoff film. A minor quibble I have with Isaac is how strange he looks in his X-Wing pilot's helmet. Maybe I just don't like the design in general, though I am a fan of the tweaked design of the X-Wing fighters themselves.
Finally, my biggest beef with this movie has to be Kylo Ren, who was massively hyped in the marketing materials as some kind of Darth-Vader-level menace, but who, all exaggeration aside, turns out to be nothing more than a Darth Vader wannabe. I can say this without spoiling any significant plot developments here, and I have to say that the filmmakers taking over the franchise from Abrams, namely Rian Johnson and the aforementioned Colin Trevorrow, had better give this character some serious tweaking or he will be very difficult to take seriously as the trilogy progresses to its conclusion.
The good news is that this film hits all the notes that Lucas' ill-advised prequel trilogy missed. The bad news, as many have observed, is that it's still very much the same song. Still, as a kickoff to a brand new trilogy, Abrams and his writers could have done a lot worse. What's interesting now is if their successors can take the story into new directions, and I remain cautiously optimistic that they can and will.
8/10
Sunday, December 20, 2015
A New Take on a Modern Classic: A Review of The Little Prince
directed by Mark Osborne
written by Irena Brignull and Bob Persichetti
based on the novel by Antoine de St. Exupery
While the entire world is captivated by Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, I have finally found the time to review a brand-new adaptation of a somewhat different cultural icon, Antoine de St. Exupery's The Little Prince.
Directed by Kung Fu Panda director Mark Osborne, this film is the first ever animated adaptation of the classic novel, and faithfully reproduces the narrative, right down to de St. Exupery's wonderful, whimsical illustrations.
Given that the rather brief novel is inherently difficult to stretch out to a feature-length film, however, the screenwirters Irena Brignull and Bob Persichetti add another layer to the narrative.
In this film, the aviator/narrator of the book is a strange, lonely old man (voiced by Jeff Bridges) whose antics make him a difficult neighbor to live with, as a result the immediately adjacent house to his plummets in value and becomes the perfect residence for an upwardly mobile mother (Rachel McAdams) and her daughter (Mackenzie Foy), especially since it is near the exclusive prep school in which the mother wishes to enroll her daughter. The daughter lives a highly-regimented life with a very strict schedule designed to get her into the prep school, and at first, the old man and his eccentricities, such as an incident in which a propeller from his airplane smashes clear through the house wall, are an unwelcome distraction, but as the old man, in a peace gesture, begins to send the little girl paper airplanes which are folded up pages of a story with whimsical illustrations about a strange little prince, she changes her mind about him and, while her mother is off at work, befriends him. In the course of this friendship, she hears the aviator's extraordinary story about the time he was stranded in the Sahara desert, and met a strange little boy (Riley Osborne) who lived on an asteroid. It's a very interesting a story, to be sure, and before it's over the little girl discovers the importance of being a child.
For me, the tragedy of this movie (not the story) in this particular market is twofold: first, The Little Prince is not a particularly popular book in the Philippines, and second this film was destined to be overshadowed by the two tentpole films between which it was released: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part II and Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. The American distributor of this film, Paramount Pictures, was somewhat cannier as they have scheduled its release for a relatively uncrowded March of next year. My children and I were among ten people in the movie theater at the time we watched it.
Whatever its eventual fate at the global box office, this is a masterfully-realized film, which is almost on par with some of Disney/Pixar's best output.
While the "modern day" framing device helps keep the story moving, it's the Prince's otherworldly adventures, and his interaction with the youthful pilot and his other colorful supporting cast like the Rose (Marion Cotillard), the Fox (James Franco), the Snake (Benicio del Toro), and the inhabitants of the various asteroids he visits (Albert Brooks, Ricky Gervais among others), that matter most, and Osborne's use of stop-motion to depict these scenes is wonderfully innovative and reminiscent of craft paper and contrasts wonderfully with the more "traditional" computer-generated imagery. The all-star cast of supporting actors disappear into their roles, and it was only at the end credits that I realized who they were, and it was equally impressive that Riley Osborne was able to hold his own. The director's choice of his son to dub the title-character raised my eyebrow at first, but to be fair the younger Osborne proved a very capable voice actor who captured the spirit of this timeless character. Mackenzie Foy, the actress behind the nameless "hero girl" is more talented than Osborne and has both more "voice time" and the arguably greater challenge of making her scenes, which are rendered with very little color and which are meant to depict a bland world in which what is "non-essential" is discarded, more engaging.
Notably, the movie challenges the ending of the book, which I'm sure many readers over the years have found anticlimactic, in the form of an interesting sequence that may or may not be a dream. Osborne the elder cleverly leaves it up to the audience to decide, though the actual ending of the film leaves no room for doubt that this is an thoroughly satisfying movie.
I don't claim to know St. Exupery, but I like to think he would love this adaptation of his wonderful novel.
9/10
written by Irena Brignull and Bob Persichetti
based on the novel by Antoine de St. Exupery
While the entire world is captivated by Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, I have finally found the time to review a brand-new adaptation of a somewhat different cultural icon, Antoine de St. Exupery's The Little Prince.
Directed by Kung Fu Panda director Mark Osborne, this film is the first ever animated adaptation of the classic novel, and faithfully reproduces the narrative, right down to de St. Exupery's wonderful, whimsical illustrations.
Given that the rather brief novel is inherently difficult to stretch out to a feature-length film, however, the screenwirters Irena Brignull and Bob Persichetti add another layer to the narrative.
In this film, the aviator/narrator of the book is a strange, lonely old man (voiced by Jeff Bridges) whose antics make him a difficult neighbor to live with, as a result the immediately adjacent house to his plummets in value and becomes the perfect residence for an upwardly mobile mother (Rachel McAdams) and her daughter (Mackenzie Foy), especially since it is near the exclusive prep school in which the mother wishes to enroll her daughter. The daughter lives a highly-regimented life with a very strict schedule designed to get her into the prep school, and at first, the old man and his eccentricities, such as an incident in which a propeller from his airplane smashes clear through the house wall, are an unwelcome distraction, but as the old man, in a peace gesture, begins to send the little girl paper airplanes which are folded up pages of a story with whimsical illustrations about a strange little prince, she changes her mind about him and, while her mother is off at work, befriends him. In the course of this friendship, she hears the aviator's extraordinary story about the time he was stranded in the Sahara desert, and met a strange little boy (Riley Osborne) who lived on an asteroid. It's a very interesting a story, to be sure, and before it's over the little girl discovers the importance of being a child.
For me, the tragedy of this movie (not the story) in this particular market is twofold: first, The Little Prince is not a particularly popular book in the Philippines, and second this film was destined to be overshadowed by the two tentpole films between which it was released: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part II and Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. The American distributor of this film, Paramount Pictures, was somewhat cannier as they have scheduled its release for a relatively uncrowded March of next year. My children and I were among ten people in the movie theater at the time we watched it.
Whatever its eventual fate at the global box office, this is a masterfully-realized film, which is almost on par with some of Disney/Pixar's best output.
While the "modern day" framing device helps keep the story moving, it's the Prince's otherworldly adventures, and his interaction with the youthful pilot and his other colorful supporting cast like the Rose (Marion Cotillard), the Fox (James Franco), the Snake (Benicio del Toro), and the inhabitants of the various asteroids he visits (Albert Brooks, Ricky Gervais among others), that matter most, and Osborne's use of stop-motion to depict these scenes is wonderfully innovative and reminiscent of craft paper and contrasts wonderfully with the more "traditional" computer-generated imagery. The all-star cast of supporting actors disappear into their roles, and it was only at the end credits that I realized who they were, and it was equally impressive that Riley Osborne was able to hold his own. The director's choice of his son to dub the title-character raised my eyebrow at first, but to be fair the younger Osborne proved a very capable voice actor who captured the spirit of this timeless character. Mackenzie Foy, the actress behind the nameless "hero girl" is more talented than Osborne and has both more "voice time" and the arguably greater challenge of making her scenes, which are rendered with very little color and which are meant to depict a bland world in which what is "non-essential" is discarded, more engaging.
Notably, the movie challenges the ending of the book, which I'm sure many readers over the years have found anticlimactic, in the form of an interesting sequence that may or may not be a dream. Osborne the elder cleverly leaves it up to the audience to decide, though the actual ending of the film leaves no room for doubt that this is an thoroughly satisfying movie.
I don't claim to know St. Exupery, but I like to think he would love this adaptation of his wonderful novel.
9/10
Monday, November 30, 2015
A Dinosaur...Western?!? A Review of A Good Dinosaur
directed by Peter Sohn
written by Meg LeFauve, Peter Sohn, Erik Benson, Kelsey Mann and Bob Peterson
When Pixar started marketing its new film The Good Dinosaur a few months ago, the trailer called a lot of attention to the "what if" premise of the extinction of dinosaurs never actually taking place, paving the way for a world where humans and dinosaurs could co-exist. Unfortunately, apparently the only thing Pixar really wanted to do with that heady premise was turn dinosaurs into cowboys and humans into dogs. No, really.
As unlikely as this may sound, The Good Dinosaur while being a coming-of-age film about a young apatosaur, actually plays out, in terms of atmosphere, script and even music, like a Western.
It is the story of Arlo (voiced by Raymond Ochoa), the smallest of three dinosaur siblings born to a loving couple of dinosaur farmers (Jeffrey Wright and Frances McDormand). As Arlo and his siblings Buck (Marcus Scribner) and Libby (Maleah Padilla) grow, the two of them prove very capable around the farm, while he struggles with his chore of feeding the chickens largely because he is afraid of them. Both Buck and Libby are able to "make their mark" on the family's grain silo or put their footprints in mud alongside the marks of their parents, but Arlo, at the beginning of the film, has apparently not yet earned the right to do so.
Wanting to help his son, the father dinosaur comes up with a task for him: kill the creature that has been stealing grain from the silo. The task goes awry, and tragedy ensues as a rainstorm and flash flood hit. Arlo finds himself separated from his family and far from home. What follows is a journey of discovery, peril, courage and unexpected friendship.
Following their finest original film in years, Inside Out, perhaps there was some inevitability that their next film would disappoint, but even careful management of expectations could not dispel the distinct impression that Pixar made The Good Dinosaur more as a way of sharpening their technical skills than as the celebration of the art of storytelling that their very best movies are.
On a technical level, this film is utterly beyond reproach and I could swear that, time and time again, I was sure I was looking at an actual, filmed environment rather than an animated one.
In terms of story and character development, though, the film comes conspicuously short of the kind of excellence viewers have come to expect from Pixar, especially after their last, pitch-perfect movie. It leans on one narrative cliche after another, and while it effectively turns the premise of anthropomorphism on its head, there's nothing else about it that's particularly remarkable.
It really is a technical marvel, even though I wasn't particularly fond of the cartoony design of the dinosaurs. I realize that a more realistic look for them could have alienated children, who were quite clearly the target audience here, but the hyper-realistic environments, which even included meticulously rendered storm clouds and flood waters, seemed distinctly incongruous with the stylized characters. Pixar has done this before, of course; its characters have inhabited meticulously-rendered worlds like the retro-futuristic environs of The Incredibles or even the fantastic, Monte Carlo-inspired, European coastal city depicted in the narrative disaster Cars 2. The thing about this movie, though is that it takes realistic animated environments to the next level, and yet is content to tell a very ordinary story using some truly extraordinary techniques. Another technical achievement worth mentioning is Mychael and Jeff Danna's striking music score which, while reminiscent of some pretty conventional "western" themes, still manages to be emotionally resonant.
The movie trots out so many story tropes in succession that it gets rather tedious after awhile, though I'll readily admit I got a good laugh out of the "drug trip" scene in which the two main characters hallucinate after eating rotten fruit.
The "cowboy dinosaur" element was pretty novel, though, especially the scene where three tyrannosaurus rexes, who are this world's cowboys to the apatosaurus' farmers, ran; they basically galloped and it was pretty amusing to watch. Sam Elliott is always a treat, even when he's just lending his vocals, and he was quite well cast here as the patriarch of a family of t-rex cowboys.
This film takes the visual aspect of animated storytelling to another level, but unfortunately, this time at least, the more important elements of storytelling were left by the wayside, which is odd, considering how much doctoring the script underwent.
For my part, I hope that in Pixar's future movies featuring their patented brilliant storytelling, the environs are given this much detail. The viewing experience is much richer for it.
Incidentally, the short film that opened for this film, Sanjay's Super Team, which featured Indian deities as superheroes, was a lot more interesting than the main feature, and considering its distinctly Asian storytelling flavor it makes me wonder if Pixar isn't ready to take a significant step in a new creative direction. It was also given a sublime music score by Mychael Danna (sans brother Jeff) which hearkened back to his Academy-Award winning work on Life of Pi.
6.5/10
9/10 for Sanjay's Super Team
written by Meg LeFauve, Peter Sohn, Erik Benson, Kelsey Mann and Bob Peterson
When Pixar started marketing its new film The Good Dinosaur a few months ago, the trailer called a lot of attention to the "what if" premise of the extinction of dinosaurs never actually taking place, paving the way for a world where humans and dinosaurs could co-exist. Unfortunately, apparently the only thing Pixar really wanted to do with that heady premise was turn dinosaurs into cowboys and humans into dogs. No, really.
As unlikely as this may sound, The Good Dinosaur while being a coming-of-age film about a young apatosaur, actually plays out, in terms of atmosphere, script and even music, like a Western.
It is the story of Arlo (voiced by Raymond Ochoa), the smallest of three dinosaur siblings born to a loving couple of dinosaur farmers (Jeffrey Wright and Frances McDormand). As Arlo and his siblings Buck (Marcus Scribner) and Libby (Maleah Padilla) grow, the two of them prove very capable around the farm, while he struggles with his chore of feeding the chickens largely because he is afraid of them. Both Buck and Libby are able to "make their mark" on the family's grain silo or put their footprints in mud alongside the marks of their parents, but Arlo, at the beginning of the film, has apparently not yet earned the right to do so.
Wanting to help his son, the father dinosaur comes up with a task for him: kill the creature that has been stealing grain from the silo. The task goes awry, and tragedy ensues as a rainstorm and flash flood hit. Arlo finds himself separated from his family and far from home. What follows is a journey of discovery, peril, courage and unexpected friendship.
Following their finest original film in years, Inside Out, perhaps there was some inevitability that their next film would disappoint, but even careful management of expectations could not dispel the distinct impression that Pixar made The Good Dinosaur more as a way of sharpening their technical skills than as the celebration of the art of storytelling that their very best movies are.
On a technical level, this film is utterly beyond reproach and I could swear that, time and time again, I was sure I was looking at an actual, filmed environment rather than an animated one.
In terms of story and character development, though, the film comes conspicuously short of the kind of excellence viewers have come to expect from Pixar, especially after their last, pitch-perfect movie. It leans on one narrative cliche after another, and while it effectively turns the premise of anthropomorphism on its head, there's nothing else about it that's particularly remarkable.
It really is a technical marvel, even though I wasn't particularly fond of the cartoony design of the dinosaurs. I realize that a more realistic look for them could have alienated children, who were quite clearly the target audience here, but the hyper-realistic environments, which even included meticulously rendered storm clouds and flood waters, seemed distinctly incongruous with the stylized characters. Pixar has done this before, of course; its characters have inhabited meticulously-rendered worlds like the retro-futuristic environs of The Incredibles or even the fantastic, Monte Carlo-inspired, European coastal city depicted in the narrative disaster Cars 2. The thing about this movie, though is that it takes realistic animated environments to the next level, and yet is content to tell a very ordinary story using some truly extraordinary techniques. Another technical achievement worth mentioning is Mychael and Jeff Danna's striking music score which, while reminiscent of some pretty conventional "western" themes, still manages to be emotionally resonant.
The movie trots out so many story tropes in succession that it gets rather tedious after awhile, though I'll readily admit I got a good laugh out of the "drug trip" scene in which the two main characters hallucinate after eating rotten fruit.
The "cowboy dinosaur" element was pretty novel, though, especially the scene where three tyrannosaurus rexes, who are this world's cowboys to the apatosaurus' farmers, ran; they basically galloped and it was pretty amusing to watch. Sam Elliott is always a treat, even when he's just lending his vocals, and he was quite well cast here as the patriarch of a family of t-rex cowboys.
This film takes the visual aspect of animated storytelling to another level, but unfortunately, this time at least, the more important elements of storytelling were left by the wayside, which is odd, considering how much doctoring the script underwent.
For my part, I hope that in Pixar's future movies featuring their patented brilliant storytelling, the environs are given this much detail. The viewing experience is much richer for it.
Incidentally, the short film that opened for this film, Sanjay's Super Team, which featured Indian deities as superheroes, was a lot more interesting than the main feature, and considering its distinctly Asian storytelling flavor it makes me wonder if Pixar isn't ready to take a significant step in a new creative direction. It was also given a sublime music score by Mychael Danna (sans brother Jeff) which hearkened back to his Academy-Award winning work on Life of Pi.
6.5/10
9/10 for Sanjay's Super Team
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Turning Back the Clock: A Review of Spectre
directed by Sam Mendes
written by John Logan, Robert Wade, Neil Purvis and Jez Butterworth
After three movies in which Daniel Craig channeled Jason Bourne when playing cinematic superspy James Bond, in Spectre, the latest (reportedly Craig's last) outing, he trades in the brass-knuckle brutality of Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and even Skyfall for a decidedly more traditional take on the character.
Following the events of Skyfall, Bond tracks down an Italian assassin to Mexico City, where he prevents a mass murder but causes an international incident in the process. This, however, is only the beginning, as the assassin, as Bond soon discovers after observing his funeral and meeting his widow (Monica Bellucci), is part of a much larger and more sinister organization than Bond could have ever imagined, one that has direct links to the villains he has faced since the very beginning of his career. As Bond investigates, he eavesdrops on a meeting presided over by Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), a man with direct ties to Bond's past. In the meantime, MI6, which was physically destroyed in Skyfall, now faces complete annihilation with the arrival of C (Andrew Scott), a bureaucrat determined to replace the 00 program with electronic surveillance and drones, much to the irritation of M (Ralph Fiennes). These threats converge quite swiftly, and Bond soon learns from an old adversary of his, Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) the foe he faces is bigger than he could imagine, especially after they sic a larger-than-life henchman, Mr. Hinx (Dave Bautista) on him. It will take all of Bond's skill, with a helping hand from M, Q (Ben Winshaw) and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and even Mr. White's daughter, Dr.Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux), to defeat Spectre, but will it be enough?
There are a couple of things clear from this particular film, probably the foremost being director Sam Mendes' fondness for the franchise and in particular the kitsch that characterized the earliest films. I suppose one could say he's earned the right to take the franchise in whatever direction he sees fit; whether or not one loved or hated Skyfall (and I happened to like it quite a bit) it was, hands down, the most globally successful James Bond movie ever. Also, the gritty approach doesn't always work out for the best, as the creative misstep Quantum of Solace showed. The thing is, I'm not sure "retro" was the way to go, especially since this appears to be Craig's swansong to the franchise.
The old Bond touches abound, like the tricked out Omega watch, the Aston Martin with an ejector seat and the indestructible henchman, to name a few. I was a little disappointed with the much-hyped Aston Martin vs. Jaguar duel; it lacked the intensity that a really good car chase should have. The thing is, considering that there was quite a bit of humor involved in the sequence I get the impression that it wasn't really played so much for thrills as it was for laughs. Maybe they had a deal with Aston Martin to show Bond's car drifting in slow motion so that audiences (and potential AM buyers) could get a good look at the product, even though the DB10 depicted here will never be sold in stores.
The good news, though, is that there are still generous helpings of well-executed action elsewhere in the film, like the incredible opening action sequence in Mexico City which was ushered in by one of the most extraordinary single, uncut shots I've seen in recent years as well as some pretty intense fighting sequences in Austria and on-board a train trundling across Africa. While James Bond films, especially the more recent ones, are cultural events of a sort, Mendes remembers that this is still, first and foremost, an action film, and in that respect, Spectre delivers.
The thing that disappoints a bit, though is that Bond films have, since Craig came on board, tended to be smarter than this, and this film feels like a bit of a step back, though I did appreciate the elegant Monica Bellucci in her glorified cameo, and even Seydoux as the feisty, sexy Swann. Fiennes, Winshaw and Harris all play their supporting roles quite well, and get their own action sequence, something unheard of in the Connery days, but Scott disappoints as C, and even more shockingly, Waltz fails to bring Oberhauser to the level of Javier Bardem's batshit-crazy ex-spy Silva, due in no small part to some rather weak scripting.
For example, I loved Silva's opening soliloquy in the scene in which he was introduced in Skyfall, telling Bond an anecdote about rats eating coconut, and quite honestly, Oberhauser doesn't have anything like that; rather, he spouts some generic spiel about conquering the world through information technology, with parts of his shtick even lifted from Silva's technobabble from the last film. It was all right, but I honestly would have expected more from Waltz, whose work I have enjoyed, even when he was just lending his voice to a cartoon character in 2013's Epic.
This isn't the strongest of the Craig bonds, but if nothing else, at least it wasn't the hot narrative mess that Quantum of Solace fell into after that stellar pre-credits car chase. If this indeed proves to be Daniel Craig's last outing as James Bond, it isn't the worst way he could have gone, but in my opinion he could have gone out so much better.
6.5/10
written by John Logan, Robert Wade, Neil Purvis and Jez Butterworth
After three movies in which Daniel Craig channeled Jason Bourne when playing cinematic superspy James Bond, in Spectre, the latest (reportedly Craig's last) outing, he trades in the brass-knuckle brutality of Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and even Skyfall for a decidedly more traditional take on the character.
Following the events of Skyfall, Bond tracks down an Italian assassin to Mexico City, where he prevents a mass murder but causes an international incident in the process. This, however, is only the beginning, as the assassin, as Bond soon discovers after observing his funeral and meeting his widow (Monica Bellucci), is part of a much larger and more sinister organization than Bond could have ever imagined, one that has direct links to the villains he has faced since the very beginning of his career. As Bond investigates, he eavesdrops on a meeting presided over by Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), a man with direct ties to Bond's past. In the meantime, MI6, which was physically destroyed in Skyfall, now faces complete annihilation with the arrival of C (Andrew Scott), a bureaucrat determined to replace the 00 program with electronic surveillance and drones, much to the irritation of M (Ralph Fiennes). These threats converge quite swiftly, and Bond soon learns from an old adversary of his, Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) the foe he faces is bigger than he could imagine, especially after they sic a larger-than-life henchman, Mr. Hinx (Dave Bautista) on him. It will take all of Bond's skill, with a helping hand from M, Q (Ben Winshaw) and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and even Mr. White's daughter, Dr.Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux), to defeat Spectre, but will it be enough?
There are a couple of things clear from this particular film, probably the foremost being director Sam Mendes' fondness for the franchise and in particular the kitsch that characterized the earliest films. I suppose one could say he's earned the right to take the franchise in whatever direction he sees fit; whether or not one loved or hated Skyfall (and I happened to like it quite a bit) it was, hands down, the most globally successful James Bond movie ever. Also, the gritty approach doesn't always work out for the best, as the creative misstep Quantum of Solace showed. The thing is, I'm not sure "retro" was the way to go, especially since this appears to be Craig's swansong to the franchise.
The old Bond touches abound, like the tricked out Omega watch, the Aston Martin with an ejector seat and the indestructible henchman, to name a few. I was a little disappointed with the much-hyped Aston Martin vs. Jaguar duel; it lacked the intensity that a really good car chase should have. The thing is, considering that there was quite a bit of humor involved in the sequence I get the impression that it wasn't really played so much for thrills as it was for laughs. Maybe they had a deal with Aston Martin to show Bond's car drifting in slow motion so that audiences (and potential AM buyers) could get a good look at the product, even though the DB10 depicted here will never be sold in stores.
The good news, though, is that there are still generous helpings of well-executed action elsewhere in the film, like the incredible opening action sequence in Mexico City which was ushered in by one of the most extraordinary single, uncut shots I've seen in recent years as well as some pretty intense fighting sequences in Austria and on-board a train trundling across Africa. While James Bond films, especially the more recent ones, are cultural events of a sort, Mendes remembers that this is still, first and foremost, an action film, and in that respect, Spectre delivers.
The thing that disappoints a bit, though is that Bond films have, since Craig came on board, tended to be smarter than this, and this film feels like a bit of a step back, though I did appreciate the elegant Monica Bellucci in her glorified cameo, and even Seydoux as the feisty, sexy Swann. Fiennes, Winshaw and Harris all play their supporting roles quite well, and get their own action sequence, something unheard of in the Connery days, but Scott disappoints as C, and even more shockingly, Waltz fails to bring Oberhauser to the level of Javier Bardem's batshit-crazy ex-spy Silva, due in no small part to some rather weak scripting.
For example, I loved Silva's opening soliloquy in the scene in which he was introduced in Skyfall, telling Bond an anecdote about rats eating coconut, and quite honestly, Oberhauser doesn't have anything like that; rather, he spouts some generic spiel about conquering the world through information technology, with parts of his shtick even lifted from Silva's technobabble from the last film. It was all right, but I honestly would have expected more from Waltz, whose work I have enjoyed, even when he was just lending his voice to a cartoon character in 2013's Epic.
This isn't the strongest of the Craig bonds, but if nothing else, at least it wasn't the hot narrative mess that Quantum of Solace fell into after that stellar pre-credits car chase. If this indeed proves to be Daniel Craig's last outing as James Bond, it isn't the worst way he could have gone, but in my opinion he could have gone out so much better.
6.5/10
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Jack Black in Glasses: A Review of Goosebumps
directed by Rob Letterman
written by Darren Lemke, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski
I was never an avid follower of R.L. Stine's popular Goosebumps series of young adult horror books, so I had very little invested in this movie going in, apart from rather expensive ticket which promised unlimited popcorn (and, to be fair, delivered). The movie actually doesn't adapt any of his books but follows the unusual (but not unheard of) narrative strategy of being set in a world in which people have read the books, with the author himself (played by Black) being a character in the story.
Black's Stine, though, is more of a supporting character in the story of Zach (Dylan Minette) a high school age youth who moves to a new town with his mother (Amy Ryan) following the death of his father. His only friends are Champ (Ryan Lee) and his mysterious neighbor Hannah (Odeya Rush), who turns out to be the daughter of the reclusive Stine. After seeing Stine shout at his daughter through their window on a number of occasions, Zach suspects domestic abuse is going on and calls the police. When Stine convinces the small town police that nothing is amiss, Zach takes matters into his own hands, tricks Stine into leaving, breaks into his house with Champ's help, and finds something he doesn't quite expect, and, without knowing it, unleashes something terrifying on the town from the very pages of Stine's books. He'll need the help of Hannah, Champ and Stine himself to stop the monstrous rampage that follows.
This film really doesn't have a whole lot going for it, from its Logan-Lerman-clone of a lead to its treasure trove of cliche characters to its bargain-basement, barely-better-than-TV-movie computer-generated imagery, but it does have something that I really got into: Jack Black acting completely against type. With a few tweaks and outright exceptions (like his family friendly turns in Dreamworks cartoons, and his Mexican wrestler in Nacho Libre), Jack Black has basically played the same guy since the year 2000, namely Barry from High Fidelity, so to see him change gears like this is a real treat. He doesn't play Stine with condescension or caricature but, surprisingly, gives him some genuine emotional resonance, even amidst the comedy that drives the film. It's nice to see Black star in a comedy without delivering the loudest performance. That distinction goes to Lee, though barring any star-making turns after this I don't really see him breaking out.
Also, the movie has a few worthwhile things to say about the importance of human relationships, though ironically enough it betrays it premise slightly as far as the obligatory love story is concerned.
I would not recommend for anyone to go out of their way to see this movie, but it is a decent enough time-killer.
6/10
written by Darren Lemke, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski
I was never an avid follower of R.L. Stine's popular Goosebumps series of young adult horror books, so I had very little invested in this movie going in, apart from rather expensive ticket which promised unlimited popcorn (and, to be fair, delivered). The movie actually doesn't adapt any of his books but follows the unusual (but not unheard of) narrative strategy of being set in a world in which people have read the books, with the author himself (played by Black) being a character in the story.
Black's Stine, though, is more of a supporting character in the story of Zach (Dylan Minette) a high school age youth who moves to a new town with his mother (Amy Ryan) following the death of his father. His only friends are Champ (Ryan Lee) and his mysterious neighbor Hannah (Odeya Rush), who turns out to be the daughter of the reclusive Stine. After seeing Stine shout at his daughter through their window on a number of occasions, Zach suspects domestic abuse is going on and calls the police. When Stine convinces the small town police that nothing is amiss, Zach takes matters into his own hands, tricks Stine into leaving, breaks into his house with Champ's help, and finds something he doesn't quite expect, and, without knowing it, unleashes something terrifying on the town from the very pages of Stine's books. He'll need the help of Hannah, Champ and Stine himself to stop the monstrous rampage that follows.
This film really doesn't have a whole lot going for it, from its Logan-Lerman-clone of a lead to its treasure trove of cliche characters to its bargain-basement, barely-better-than-TV-movie computer-generated imagery, but it does have something that I really got into: Jack Black acting completely against type. With a few tweaks and outright exceptions (like his family friendly turns in Dreamworks cartoons, and his Mexican wrestler in Nacho Libre), Jack Black has basically played the same guy since the year 2000, namely Barry from High Fidelity, so to see him change gears like this is a real treat. He doesn't play Stine with condescension or caricature but, surprisingly, gives him some genuine emotional resonance, even amidst the comedy that drives the film. It's nice to see Black star in a comedy without delivering the loudest performance. That distinction goes to Lee, though barring any star-making turns after this I don't really see him breaking out.
Also, the movie has a few worthwhile things to say about the importance of human relationships, though ironically enough it betrays it premise slightly as far as the obligatory love story is concerned.
I would not recommend for anyone to go out of their way to see this movie, but it is a decent enough time-killer.
6/10
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