Films round-up
Apr. 9th, 2015 08:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rich_jackoBig Hero 6 - "I fail to see how karate makes me a better healthcare companion." This is another very good release from Disney. Superficially it's a by-the-book superhero origin story, but the twist is that the robot our hero (named Hiro) teams up with, designed by his brother, is really not designed for fighting. As films go it's not a must-see but it is very good at what it does. The characters are well-rounded and sympathetic, the story has real depth of emotion to it, the gadgets and action are amazing, and the city of San Fransokyo (See what they did there?) is beautifully realised. I took Jamie and Evie to see the film, and they both declared it to be awesome, so it definitely works for its target audience.
Project Almanac - Timey-wimey silliness. A bunch of college students discover the secret plans for a time machine developed by the late father of one of their group. Naturally they decide to build it for their science project. Naturally they start using it for all the things teenagers would - winning the lottery, getting back at bullies, getting laid. Naturally it all starts to go horribly wrong in a butterfly effect way. It's very tongue-in-cheek and references most other time-travel movies you'd care to name, from Back to the Future and Bill & Ted through to more recent efforts like Looper. It's a whole lot of fun. A slight warning though - It will make you feel old when the heroes travel back to the time they were young kids in the distant past... of 2004.
Shaun the Sheep - Aardman, how we love you. What more is there to say? That a claymation film with no dialogue about a bunch of sheep looking for their farmer can be such a hit in this day and age is nothing short of brilliant. The jokes come thick and fast and there's not a single dull moment from start to finish. This is up there with the best of Wallace and Grommit. Stay to the very, very end for the credit cookie.
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - It's more of the same from this sequel which reunites a stellar British cast of aging legends, enjoying their retirement in India (plus Dev Patel trying to run the place with rather more enthusiasm than ability). Unfortunately it rather lives up to its title - This is definitely second best. It coasts along on the strength and charm of its cast with very little story or serious drama and some pretty obvious "twists". This charm is enough to keep the film going, but only just. The best bit comes right at the start, as Dame Maggie Smith berates a conference room full of powerful Americans for their nation's inability to make a decent cup of tea.
Chappie - Neill Blomkamp does it again with this story of an artificial intelligence experiment who falls in with a Johannesburg gang. The critics didn't particularly rate this film, but I don't know why. If you enjoyed District 9, you'll enjoy this (and if you haven't seen District 9 yet, go watch it). It's gritty, witty and bad to the endoskeleton. Issues from the ethics of automated warfare to philosophical questions about the nature of self are tackled head-on in a popcorn entertainment way, without feeling too dumbed-down. There are some great performances and a well-developed cast of characters (although Hugh Jackman's is a tad one-dimensional). The only real irritation is that, like most recent Sony films, the excessive product placement of Sony electronics is distracting and deeply annoying.
The Tale of Princess Kaguya - Studio Ghibli's newest film is based on a Japanese folk story, "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter". Not knowing the original tale, I can't say how good an adaptation it is, but for a Ghibli effort I found it disappointing. The animation was surprisingly crude and unfinished-looking. The story, of a humble peasant who finds a magical baby and is determined to raise her as a princess, whether she likes it or not, is okay, but apart from "Li'l Bamboo" herself and one or two others, it's lacking memorable characters. It also ends on a real downer.
Still Alice - Julianne Moore gives her Oscar-winning performance as a brilliant university lecturer developing early onset Alzheimer's. A difficult film to watch, particularly as I saw it very shortly after the death of Sir Terry Pratchett, but it's a very moving and remarkably un-Hollywoodish insight into what it must be like to have to come to terms with such a horrible disease, and to watch someone you love waste away under it. It offers no easy answers but hopefully raises understanding and awareness of the disease. Recommended, but not if you're after a light-hearted evening's entertainment.
Home - Dreamworks' latest is a tale of bumbling aliens who invade Earth thinking they are doing the human race a favour, and are shocked to eventually discover that they really aren't. It's bright and colourful and funny enough, but it falls a little flat. Jim Parsons is lazily typecast, as if the producers went, "He's funny when he misunderstands normal human behaviour; let's do a whole movie based on that!" The thing is, there's a lot more to Sheldon Cooper's character, whereas there really isn't to Oh's. There's also too much Rihanna. Casting her as one of the two leads is fine. Having her sing on the soundtrack is fine. Casting her as a character who listens to Rihanna music all the times comes across as narcissistic. Disappointing.
Project Almanac - Timey-wimey silliness. A bunch of college students discover the secret plans for a time machine developed by the late father of one of their group. Naturally they decide to build it for their science project. Naturally they start using it for all the things teenagers would - winning the lottery, getting back at bullies, getting laid. Naturally it all starts to go horribly wrong in a butterfly effect way. It's very tongue-in-cheek and references most other time-travel movies you'd care to name, from Back to the Future and Bill & Ted through to more recent efforts like Looper. It's a whole lot of fun. A slight warning though - It will make you feel old when the heroes travel back to the time they were young kids in the distant past... of 2004.
Shaun the Sheep - Aardman, how we love you. What more is there to say? That a claymation film with no dialogue about a bunch of sheep looking for their farmer can be such a hit in this day and age is nothing short of brilliant. The jokes come thick and fast and there's not a single dull moment from start to finish. This is up there with the best of Wallace and Grommit. Stay to the very, very end for the credit cookie.
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - It's more of the same from this sequel which reunites a stellar British cast of aging legends, enjoying their retirement in India (plus Dev Patel trying to run the place with rather more enthusiasm than ability). Unfortunately it rather lives up to its title - This is definitely second best. It coasts along on the strength and charm of its cast with very little story or serious drama and some pretty obvious "twists". This charm is enough to keep the film going, but only just. The best bit comes right at the start, as Dame Maggie Smith berates a conference room full of powerful Americans for their nation's inability to make a decent cup of tea.
Chappie - Neill Blomkamp does it again with this story of an artificial intelligence experiment who falls in with a Johannesburg gang. The critics didn't particularly rate this film, but I don't know why. If you enjoyed District 9, you'll enjoy this (and if you haven't seen District 9 yet, go watch it). It's gritty, witty and bad to the endoskeleton. Issues from the ethics of automated warfare to philosophical questions about the nature of self are tackled head-on in a popcorn entertainment way, without feeling too dumbed-down. There are some great performances and a well-developed cast of characters (although Hugh Jackman's is a tad one-dimensional). The only real irritation is that, like most recent Sony films, the excessive product placement of Sony electronics is distracting and deeply annoying.
The Tale of Princess Kaguya - Studio Ghibli's newest film is based on a Japanese folk story, "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter". Not knowing the original tale, I can't say how good an adaptation it is, but for a Ghibli effort I found it disappointing. The animation was surprisingly crude and unfinished-looking. The story, of a humble peasant who finds a magical baby and is determined to raise her as a princess, whether she likes it or not, is okay, but apart from "Li'l Bamboo" herself and one or two others, it's lacking memorable characters. It also ends on a real downer.
Still Alice - Julianne Moore gives her Oscar-winning performance as a brilliant university lecturer developing early onset Alzheimer's. A difficult film to watch, particularly as I saw it very shortly after the death of Sir Terry Pratchett, but it's a very moving and remarkably un-Hollywoodish insight into what it must be like to have to come to terms with such a horrible disease, and to watch someone you love waste away under it. It offers no easy answers but hopefully raises understanding and awareness of the disease. Recommended, but not if you're after a light-hearted evening's entertainment.
Home - Dreamworks' latest is a tale of bumbling aliens who invade Earth thinking they are doing the human race a favour, and are shocked to eventually discover that they really aren't. It's bright and colourful and funny enough, but it falls a little flat. Jim Parsons is lazily typecast, as if the producers went, "He's funny when he misunderstands normal human behaviour; let's do a whole movie based on that!" The thing is, there's a lot more to Sheldon Cooper's character, whereas there really isn't to Oh's. There's also too much Rihanna. Casting her as one of the two leads is fine. Having her sing on the soundtrack is fine. Casting her as a character who listens to Rihanna music all the times comes across as narcissistic. Disappointing.
