Toy Story 4 is the newest in the series and once again sees Woody (Tom Hanks) and the gang adjusting to life at Bonnie’s house but one day when Bonnie does her Kindergarten orientation day she makes a new toy called Forky (Tony Hale) who dreams of freedom and the trash so when he escapes Bonnie’s family RV Woody goes to save him only to find his old friend Bo Peep (Annie Potts.)
Oh boy was I very sceptical about this movie as Toy Story 3 while having some minor setbacks was a great end to the film series and the Toy Story short Cartoons and TV Specials were a perfect continuation of the series and its characters in their new home with Bonnie but alas Pixar wants to clear its sequel list so we got one more movie but does it soar to Infinity and Beyond or is it clearly proof that this series should go sailing no more.
Well it is actually a bit of both as I have very mixed feelings on this movie which I will explain further.
Firstly to start with the positives the animation here is beautiful and there were times when I was sitting there watching the film and thinking to myself “Is this Real Life” as it looked so realistic that part of me was fooled into thinking it was live action, there’s one scene in particular with the rain that looked gorgeous and some of the night scenes with the carnival lights were great to look at as well.
Secondly some of the new characters in the film are good fun my favourites being Ducky and Bunny voiced by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele and their timing is great and I could not believe it was Mr Peele in this movie as he’s made such a name for himself for his horror work like Get Out and most recently Us and that man has enormous talent in both shades of light and dark.
But alas I have to talk about my negatives with this movie and firstly I have to talk about the storytelling in this 4th film as it didn’t really grab me very much, every time I’ve watched the first 3 I’ve felt a strong emotional investment in each of them in terms of both their storytelling and characters be it Woody and Buzz’s dynamic in the first film to Jessie’s arc in the second film or the overall “This is the end” feeling to the third film.
Here that just wasn’t the case sure I was watching what I was seeing being projected in front of me but I just didn’t quite feel that same involvement emotionally be it that sense of the journey or wanting to laugh along with the characters or wanting to cry which the end of the third film makes me do every single time I watch it I just didn’t feel all that moved by it very much nor did I feel any kind of strong emotion while watching it.
Also as much as I like Ducky and Bunny the new characters which were a real highlight of the second and third film whether its Jessie, Bullseye, Stinky Pete and Evil Emperor Zurg in the second film or Lotso Hugging Bear, Ken, Trixie, Buttercup, Mr Pricklepants and Big Baby in the third film didn’t really register much for me, Forky barely has any screen time in the film save for a few lines in the beginning and then a few scenes in the third act he virtually disappears in the second act and he’s meant to be the chief new toy in Bonnie’s life and the central figure of this new film.
Also Duke Caboom voiced by Keanu Reeves has some fun gags but didn’t really do an awful lot for me either and Gabby Gaby voiced by Ms Christina Hendricks feels like a very weak villain to me now Toy Story villains are hard to do as every aspect that could be explored has been explored with the villains in the other films but here I just didn’t really get into this villain much.
And so that was Toy Story 4 and save for some nice animation and Ducky and Bunny I didn’t really get into this new movie all that much I felt the story was weak, most of the new characters barely registered for me and the villain felt anticlimactic, 2 and a half out of 5.
Saturday, June 22, 2019
Film Review - Childs Play (2019)
Childs Play is the remake of the 1988 original and this time Mark Hamill is the voice of Chucky the Doll who in this version is also known as Buddi, a doll that like Google Home and Alexa can tap into your home environment so when Andy (Gabrielle Bateman) gets one from his mother (Aubrey Plaza) little do they know that its safeguards have been removed.
This new Childs Play I originally had little to no interest in seeing as I wasn’t a huge fan of the original film, I thought it was fine enough but really just another horror film but when it was announced that Mr Hamill was going to voice Chucky this time around I instantly had a change of heart and wanted to see this movie.
And I am very glad I did as I had a great time watching it in the cinema on a dark Friday night and firstly Bear McCreary’s Score is really good and adds a lot to the atmosphere and tension of the movie plus the Buddi song that plays throughout the film is a lot of fun and great to listen to.
Also the films performances are also very good, young Mr Bateman is very good as Andy and throughout the film when he was on screen I was reminded a little bit of Eddie Furlong from Terminator 2, Ms Plaza is also good as Andy’s Mum while Brian Tyree Henry is also good as the police detective who lives down the hall.
But the show stealer here is Mr Hamill, his voice work switches from being friendly like “Your my Best Friend” to evil and “If they don’t let us play, they all go away” on a dime and its great to watch and listen to and it put a big smile on my face as it felt like I could have fun watching a horror film character much like I did James McAvoy in Split and Glass whereas I feel with a lot of horror films these days its hard to have that dark twisted fun with them as they either go for the endless quick cuts, loud noises and jump scares and/or take themselves so seriously that I just get bored with them.
And lastly the film has some great horror violence kills, the film is rated MA15+ here in Australia for a reason and there is plenty of tense and bloody violence that again really appealed to me and thankfully I wasn’t having to sit through these endless quick cuts, jump scares and loud noises on the sound mix, there’s proper buildup and tension to the kills here and it makes a big difference at least for me.
And so that was Childs Play and if you had said to me at the beginning of 2019 that this would be one of the most fun times I had at a cinema this year I would’ve said “Yeah Right” but here we are, 3 and a half out of 5.
This new Childs Play I originally had little to no interest in seeing as I wasn’t a huge fan of the original film, I thought it was fine enough but really just another horror film but when it was announced that Mr Hamill was going to voice Chucky this time around I instantly had a change of heart and wanted to see this movie.
And I am very glad I did as I had a great time watching it in the cinema on a dark Friday night and firstly Bear McCreary’s Score is really good and adds a lot to the atmosphere and tension of the movie plus the Buddi song that plays throughout the film is a lot of fun and great to listen to.
Also the films performances are also very good, young Mr Bateman is very good as Andy and throughout the film when he was on screen I was reminded a little bit of Eddie Furlong from Terminator 2, Ms Plaza is also good as Andy’s Mum while Brian Tyree Henry is also good as the police detective who lives down the hall.
But the show stealer here is Mr Hamill, his voice work switches from being friendly like “Your my Best Friend” to evil and “If they don’t let us play, they all go away” on a dime and its great to watch and listen to and it put a big smile on my face as it felt like I could have fun watching a horror film character much like I did James McAvoy in Split and Glass whereas I feel with a lot of horror films these days its hard to have that dark twisted fun with them as they either go for the endless quick cuts, loud noises and jump scares and/or take themselves so seriously that I just get bored with them.
And lastly the film has some great horror violence kills, the film is rated MA15+ here in Australia for a reason and there is plenty of tense and bloody violence that again really appealed to me and thankfully I wasn’t having to sit through these endless quick cuts, jump scares and loud noises on the sound mix, there’s proper buildup and tension to the kills here and it makes a big difference at least for me.
And so that was Childs Play and if you had said to me at the beginning of 2019 that this would be one of the most fun times I had at a cinema this year I would’ve said “Yeah Right” but here we are, 3 and a half out of 5.
Saturday, June 8, 2019
Film Review - Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Godzilla: King of the Monsters is directed by Mike Doughtery who directed Krampus back in 2014 and was a writer on X-Men 2 and Superman Returns and the story here concerns a machine called the Orca which has the audio of every known Titan to exist and when the Titans do rise and wreak havoc on the world Godzilla must now re-emerge to assert his place as King.
Godzilla is not a bad movie to watch but it was also one that I felt was very meh and very forgettable but before I delve more into those aspects of the film I want to first touch on the positives and first and foremost the monster battles in this movie are a lot of fun whether its Godzilla roaring and breathing fire or King Gidorah and its 3 heads (“Will you forget the Head Slicing Thing” from Hercules came to mind when I watching his fights) or Mothra with her graceful beauty or Rodan the fire god these creatures really get to strut their stuff in a very large scale way and I really enjoyed that aspect of the film.
I also enjoyed Bradley Whitford’s performance as one of the Scientists in the movie but here is where I will delve more into the negatives and first and foremost comes the screenplay, a lot of it feels very clunky in terms of its storytelling and characters, the character motivations seem to change from one subplot to the next, a lot of the human characters feel very underwritten as if the screenwriters (and Mr Doughtery is one of them) didn’t really know what to do with a lot of them but had to do something with them to keep the budget down and minimise the monster fights within an affordable price tag.
And this movie boasts a great cast aside from Mr Whitford, you have Sally Hawkins, Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown (who really looks like a young Ms Farmiga), Charles Dance and Ken Watanabe and almost all of them are wasted with little to nothing roles and while I was watching them I just kept getting the “Aww man not them” feelings as their roles just felt so flat and meaningless after a while and it’s a real shame.
And that was Godzilla: King of the Monsters and its not a bad movie just for me a very meh and forgettable one, 2 out of 5.
Godzilla is not a bad movie to watch but it was also one that I felt was very meh and very forgettable but before I delve more into those aspects of the film I want to first touch on the positives and first and foremost the monster battles in this movie are a lot of fun whether its Godzilla roaring and breathing fire or King Gidorah and its 3 heads (“Will you forget the Head Slicing Thing” from Hercules came to mind when I watching his fights) or Mothra with her graceful beauty or Rodan the fire god these creatures really get to strut their stuff in a very large scale way and I really enjoyed that aspect of the film.
I also enjoyed Bradley Whitford’s performance as one of the Scientists in the movie but here is where I will delve more into the negatives and first and foremost comes the screenplay, a lot of it feels very clunky in terms of its storytelling and characters, the character motivations seem to change from one subplot to the next, a lot of the human characters feel very underwritten as if the screenwriters (and Mr Doughtery is one of them) didn’t really know what to do with a lot of them but had to do something with them to keep the budget down and minimise the monster fights within an affordable price tag.
And this movie boasts a great cast aside from Mr Whitford, you have Sally Hawkins, Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown (who really looks like a young Ms Farmiga), Charles Dance and Ken Watanabe and almost all of them are wasted with little to nothing roles and while I was watching them I just kept getting the “Aww man not them” feelings as their roles just felt so flat and meaningless after a while and it’s a real shame.
And that was Godzilla: King of the Monsters and its not a bad movie just for me a very meh and forgettable one, 2 out of 5.
Film Review - Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019)
Secret Life of Pets 2 is the sequel to 2016’s Secret Life of Pets by Illumination Entertainment and this time Patton Oswalt replaces Louis CK as the voice of Max the Puppy as he comes to terms with his owner Katie having a son named Liam and he and his family head off to the Farm where he meets Rooster (Harrison Ford) meanwhile Gidget (Jenny Slate) loses his beloved Busy Bee squeaky toy and needs the help of Chloe the Cat (Lake Bell) to get it back.
Now I was very keen for this 2nd Secret Life of Pets movie for 3 reasons, firstly I was a big fan of the first movie and have always enjoyed watching it when it comes on, 2nd Chloe the Cat was my favorite character from that film as she was so much like a real Cat (I’m a Cat Lover okay) and 3rd Harrison Ford was joining the voice cast and he’s Indiana Jones and Han Solo and awesome all around despite his grouchiness of recent years.
And happily I can say that this sequel delivered the goods and I had as much fun with this movie as I did with the first film and firstly Mr Oswalt is a huge improvement on Mr CK as Max, his voice work really captures that sweetness and overprotective nature that Puppies develop for their human masters something that CK in the first film never managed to bring into the proceedings as it really just sounded like him doing his comedy act as a Dog so I don’t miss him at all.
Harrison Ford is the best I’ve seen him be in a long time, a long time in this movie and watching him as Rooster the Farm Dog it felt like the old Harrison Ford again the man who was Indiana Jones and Han Solo and who went “WHEN I CAME HOME THERE WAS A MAN IN MY HOUSE” in the Fugitive and who yelled “GET OFF MY PLANE” as the President in Air Force One and after what feels like a lifetime of watching him phone in an awful lot of roles it was certainly refreshing to see him back on top form.
But as a Cat Lover I have to mark this sequel down as sadly Chloe gets lost in the shuffle of characters and sideplots, there’s a third plot with Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish which was okay but I’m not the biggest fan of those 2 and after a while they tended to shout a lot of their lines to try and get a laugh and I didn’t really laugh all that much during that storyline and for me Chloe feels so much like a real life Cat in her behaviour that to see her sidelined to basically a side role as compared to the first film where she felt like a part of the main cast of Pets was very very disappointing for me hopefully if a 3rd film is made a Cat Lover will join the script team and she will get her due.
And so that was Secret Life of Pets 2 and it’s the same fun time I had with the first film but Chloe the Cat getting a reduced role marks it down somewhat for me, 3 out of 5.
Now I was very keen for this 2nd Secret Life of Pets movie for 3 reasons, firstly I was a big fan of the first movie and have always enjoyed watching it when it comes on, 2nd Chloe the Cat was my favorite character from that film as she was so much like a real Cat (I’m a Cat Lover okay) and 3rd Harrison Ford was joining the voice cast and he’s Indiana Jones and Han Solo and awesome all around despite his grouchiness of recent years.
And happily I can say that this sequel delivered the goods and I had as much fun with this movie as I did with the first film and firstly Mr Oswalt is a huge improvement on Mr CK as Max, his voice work really captures that sweetness and overprotective nature that Puppies develop for their human masters something that CK in the first film never managed to bring into the proceedings as it really just sounded like him doing his comedy act as a Dog so I don’t miss him at all.
Harrison Ford is the best I’ve seen him be in a long time, a long time in this movie and watching him as Rooster the Farm Dog it felt like the old Harrison Ford again the man who was Indiana Jones and Han Solo and who went “WHEN I CAME HOME THERE WAS A MAN IN MY HOUSE” in the Fugitive and who yelled “GET OFF MY PLANE” as the President in Air Force One and after what feels like a lifetime of watching him phone in an awful lot of roles it was certainly refreshing to see him back on top form.
But as a Cat Lover I have to mark this sequel down as sadly Chloe gets lost in the shuffle of characters and sideplots, there’s a third plot with Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish which was okay but I’m not the biggest fan of those 2 and after a while they tended to shout a lot of their lines to try and get a laugh and I didn’t really laugh all that much during that storyline and for me Chloe feels so much like a real life Cat in her behaviour that to see her sidelined to basically a side role as compared to the first film where she felt like a part of the main cast of Pets was very very disappointing for me hopefully if a 3rd film is made a Cat Lover will join the script team and she will get her due.
And so that was Secret Life of Pets 2 and it’s the same fun time I had with the first film but Chloe the Cat getting a reduced role marks it down somewhat for me, 3 out of 5.
Film Review - X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019)
X-Men: Dark Phoenix is written and directed by Simon Kinberg who makes his directorial debut with this film after writing and producing several X-Men movies beginning with the Last Stand in 2006 and like that film this one seeks to tell the story of Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) and her interactions with the Phoenix force and how that affects the other X-Men (James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Evan Peters, Alexandra Shipp and Kodi-Smit McFee) and the mysterious Alien Vux (Jessica Chastain) as well as Magneto (Michael Fassbender.)
I held out hope for Dark Phoenix much like Charles Xavier always has his continuing search for Hope as I love and adore this X-Men franchise and like Star Wars, Dragon Ball, James Bond and the Avengers though that last one is to a much lesser extent I don’t want to walk out of an X-Men movie and say its bad as I absolutely love the first 3 movies in this series directed by Bryan Singer but was my search for hope in vain or was I to be the bearer of bad news.
Well dear readers it is with a heavy heart (a very heavy heart even) that I must say that this movie is not good, its not awful but it just isn’t very good at all.
Firstly Mr Kinberg had no business directing this movie one little bit, this was his first movie in that captains chair, his first time in that saddle and every instinct of that first time go is on show, he doesn’t know when to let scenes breath, how to pace a story in terms of plot moments, character interactions and action scenes which is a delicate balance in the best of circumstances as well as how to direct visual effects and action scenes and how to properly edit them and he had the fucking Academy Award winning editor of Dunkirk for Pete’s sake.
And as a result of all of this you just sit there in your cinema seat (and I saw it in the same theatre I saw Singer’s first X-Men movie in 2000) getting bored with it all after a while as you just see all of these mistakes and you say to yourself “Can someone please come in and take over this project, this is embarrassing” and even veteran directors like Singer, Matthew Vaughn who directed First Class in 2011 and James Mangold who made the Wolverine and Logan it can take time for them to get use to directing this huge size movie with mega dollarydoos on the line and requiring visual effects that won’t exist for months and Kinberg just fumbles his way through all of it and you just feel embarrassed after it ends.
As for the performances again like with Godzilla you have a great cast at your disposal and they are for the most part just going through the motions this time around, Ms Lawrence in particular just shows up, does her scenes, takes her cheque and goes to hopefully do something more worthy of her immense talent, Mr Fassbender just shows up and does his scenes while trying to bring something new to Magneto while the young cast of Ms Shipp, Mr Smit-McPhee, Mr Sheridan and Ms Turner again do their best with what they have but at times struggle.
Ms Turner in particular really struggles to transition to leading lady this time around and while she is said to have done great work on Game of Thrones (I haven’t watched that series so I wouldn’t know I’m afraid) she comes across as someone who desperately needs the guiding hand of a veteran director to get that type of performance out of her but Jessica Chastain is TERRIBLE in this, her character is of so little consequence to this story that you could write her out completely and the movie would frankly be better for it because at least then you could give your main cast more to work with but no we get this microwaved villain with a nothing plot that goes nowhere played by an actress who just stares off into fucking space.
There is one positive one and that is Mr James McAvoy who just finds a way to defy all odds and continue his winning streak, in all the time I’ve watched him I can’t think of a time he’s been bad in a movie or not given his all to a role and he is so good as Xavier once again that everytime he was on screen I loved it.
And so that was X-Men: Dark Phoenix and as someone who loves and adores this franchise this is probably my least favorite film of 2019 so far, a film that save for Mr McAvoy just makes every wrong move imaginable and as someone who held out hope to see that hope dashed just makes it feel 50,000 volts worse, 1.5 out of 5.
I held out hope for Dark Phoenix much like Charles Xavier always has his continuing search for Hope as I love and adore this X-Men franchise and like Star Wars, Dragon Ball, James Bond and the Avengers though that last one is to a much lesser extent I don’t want to walk out of an X-Men movie and say its bad as I absolutely love the first 3 movies in this series directed by Bryan Singer but was my search for hope in vain or was I to be the bearer of bad news.
Well dear readers it is with a heavy heart (a very heavy heart even) that I must say that this movie is not good, its not awful but it just isn’t very good at all.
Firstly Mr Kinberg had no business directing this movie one little bit, this was his first movie in that captains chair, his first time in that saddle and every instinct of that first time go is on show, he doesn’t know when to let scenes breath, how to pace a story in terms of plot moments, character interactions and action scenes which is a delicate balance in the best of circumstances as well as how to direct visual effects and action scenes and how to properly edit them and he had the fucking Academy Award winning editor of Dunkirk for Pete’s sake.
And as a result of all of this you just sit there in your cinema seat (and I saw it in the same theatre I saw Singer’s first X-Men movie in 2000) getting bored with it all after a while as you just see all of these mistakes and you say to yourself “Can someone please come in and take over this project, this is embarrassing” and even veteran directors like Singer, Matthew Vaughn who directed First Class in 2011 and James Mangold who made the Wolverine and Logan it can take time for them to get use to directing this huge size movie with mega dollarydoos on the line and requiring visual effects that won’t exist for months and Kinberg just fumbles his way through all of it and you just feel embarrassed after it ends.
As for the performances again like with Godzilla you have a great cast at your disposal and they are for the most part just going through the motions this time around, Ms Lawrence in particular just shows up, does her scenes, takes her cheque and goes to hopefully do something more worthy of her immense talent, Mr Fassbender just shows up and does his scenes while trying to bring something new to Magneto while the young cast of Ms Shipp, Mr Smit-McPhee, Mr Sheridan and Ms Turner again do their best with what they have but at times struggle.
Ms Turner in particular really struggles to transition to leading lady this time around and while she is said to have done great work on Game of Thrones (I haven’t watched that series so I wouldn’t know I’m afraid) she comes across as someone who desperately needs the guiding hand of a veteran director to get that type of performance out of her but Jessica Chastain is TERRIBLE in this, her character is of so little consequence to this story that you could write her out completely and the movie would frankly be better for it because at least then you could give your main cast more to work with but no we get this microwaved villain with a nothing plot that goes nowhere played by an actress who just stares off into fucking space.
There is one positive one and that is Mr James McAvoy who just finds a way to defy all odds and continue his winning streak, in all the time I’ve watched him I can’t think of a time he’s been bad in a movie or not given his all to a role and he is so good as Xavier once again that everytime he was on screen I loved it.
And so that was X-Men: Dark Phoenix and as someone who loves and adores this franchise this is probably my least favorite film of 2019 so far, a film that save for Mr McAvoy just makes every wrong move imaginable and as someone who held out hope to see that hope dashed just makes it feel 50,000 volts worse, 1.5 out of 5.
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Film Review - Rocketman (2019)
Rocketman is directed by Dexter Fletcher who also directed Eddie the Eagle in 2016 and is produced by Matthew Vaughn and concerns Sir Elton John (Taron Egerton) and his rise to fame as a pop star as well as the downsides of that life as well as in his personal one.
I was really excited for Rocketman mainly because I love Sir Elton’s music and also last years Bohemian Rhapsody which Mr Fletcher had to step in and finish that film after Bryan Singer was fired from it in late 2017 was a movie I really had a great time at plus I had loved the trailers for this movie so could it live its life like a Candle in the Wind or would it be proof that indeed Sad Songs Say So Much.
Well happily this was a case of the latter as this movie is terrific fun on the big screen and firstly I have to start with Mr Fletcher’s direction as he does a great job here as he did on Eddie the Eagle where he brings a briskness and a looseness to the proceedings that makes the overall filmmaking here seem effortless and the musical sequences ranging from Wednesday Night’s-sorry-Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting to Rocketman to Crocodile Rock so much fun and it makes you want to get up out of your cinema seat and start singing and dancing along like in the film though you probably shouldn’t but at least you can still get your pretend mic-sorry-water bottle at least.
Also Mr Egerton is great as Sir Elton, he captures the pain, the anguish, the diva, the vocals and the larger than life personality of the man very well and he does a great job with the songs as well, Jamie Bell is also good as Bernie Taupin as is Richard Madden as John Reid while Stephen Graham pretty much channels Ray Winstone as Dick James.
If I have a minor quibble with the film (and its really only a minor one in the grand scheme of things) its that some of the second half with the drinking, coke sniffing, pill popping and overall self destructive behaviour kind of grated with me but not to the extent that it derails the entire film like it did last year with A Star is Born and also Bryce Dallas Howard is terrible in this, she does this really cartoonish British accent which just really got on my nerves after a while.
And so that was Rocketman and you can Feel the Love Tonight with this movie from me as I had a great time watching it, it looks and sounds great on the big screen and you should go and see it with a cinema crowd as it is WELL worth it, 4 out of 5.
I was really excited for Rocketman mainly because I love Sir Elton’s music and also last years Bohemian Rhapsody which Mr Fletcher had to step in and finish that film after Bryan Singer was fired from it in late 2017 was a movie I really had a great time at plus I had loved the trailers for this movie so could it live its life like a Candle in the Wind or would it be proof that indeed Sad Songs Say So Much.
Well happily this was a case of the latter as this movie is terrific fun on the big screen and firstly I have to start with Mr Fletcher’s direction as he does a great job here as he did on Eddie the Eagle where he brings a briskness and a looseness to the proceedings that makes the overall filmmaking here seem effortless and the musical sequences ranging from Wednesday Night’s-sorry-Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting to Rocketman to Crocodile Rock so much fun and it makes you want to get up out of your cinema seat and start singing and dancing along like in the film though you probably shouldn’t but at least you can still get your pretend mic-sorry-water bottle at least.
Also Mr Egerton is great as Sir Elton, he captures the pain, the anguish, the diva, the vocals and the larger than life personality of the man very well and he does a great job with the songs as well, Jamie Bell is also good as Bernie Taupin as is Richard Madden as John Reid while Stephen Graham pretty much channels Ray Winstone as Dick James.
If I have a minor quibble with the film (and its really only a minor one in the grand scheme of things) its that some of the second half with the drinking, coke sniffing, pill popping and overall self destructive behaviour kind of grated with me but not to the extent that it derails the entire film like it did last year with A Star is Born and also Bryce Dallas Howard is terrible in this, she does this really cartoonish British accent which just really got on my nerves after a while.
And so that was Rocketman and you can Feel the Love Tonight with this movie from me as I had a great time watching it, it looks and sounds great on the big screen and you should go and see it with a cinema crowd as it is WELL worth it, 4 out of 5.
Thursday, May 23, 2019
Film Review - Aladdin (2019)
Aladdin is a live action version of the 1992 animated classic and this time Guy Ritchie takes the directors chair and co-writes the script with John August, the story takes place in Agrabah where a young street rat named Aladdin (Mena Massoud) meets the beautiful Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott) but only a prince can marry a princess and with the help of the Genie of the Lamp (Will Smith) he hopes to win her hands though the evil Vizir Jafar (Marwan Kenzari) also desires the Lamp for his own purposes.
I have loved the original Aladdin since I was a boy back in 1994 which is when it came out on Video here in Australia, it was arguably the one film above all that did the most to shape my already developing love of movies and mould it into something tangible and meaningful, it is a movie I have also come back to multiple times over the years as I grew older and into adulthood and when I bought my 4K TV last year I put the Blu-Ray of Aladdin on to test the colours on it and it soared with flying colours.
I’ve also come to learn about the making of that original film itself from the original treatment done in 1988 by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken which had a full suite of songs and the bones of what would become the final film sadly completed after Howard’s passing in 1991 and I went into this new Aladdin fearing the genuine worst as the trailers had been abysmal showing shoddy effects, a director in Mr Ritchie looking out of his depth in directing visual effects and barely showing us the new cast inheriting these wonderful characters, how could this not end up in total failure?
Well surprisingly this does not end up in total failure but it is also not a very good film either, the main reason for this I feel surprisingly is Will Smith as the new Genie, he doesn’t try to redo what the late great Robin Williams did with the role (which is one of the greatest supporting actor performances of any movie ever) but channels some of his own Fresh Prince of Bel Air charm to the role that for the most part works and when he was just Will in an outfit and not Blue I thought it was pretty fun and I enjoyed that part of the film.
However this movie overall is a total mess and firstly I have to talk about the script and it is a real mess, it tries to pad out certain sections of the film while completely ignoring other sections the latter of which tended to be those crucial character building block moments that were so good in the original film beit Jafar’s quest for the Cave of Wonders, Aladdin and Jasmine bonding over their life circumstances, Al and Genie’s friendship and Jafar and Iago’s twisted partnership those elements just feel brushed aside and as a result you find it hard to connect with any of the characters in this new version.
Speaking of them both Ms Scott and Mr Massoud are good young actors and they try their absolute best with what they’ve been handed but they just cannot hold a candle (or a lamp even) to what Scott Weinger and Linda Larkin did in the original film, their versions of the characters had depth to them, a sense of confidence, a shared connection despite their very different lives and you could see why one would fall for the other Aladdin for Jasmine’s free spirit, her beauty and her take no nonsense personality and Jasmine for Aladdin’s charm, humour and that sense that he will love her no matter what.
But the one thing that did worry me the most about this new version was how it would handle Jafar as Jonathan Freeman was so good in that role the stage show basically went and brought him back to reprise the role for that show but here Mr Kenzari is pathetic, woeful and weak as all Smeg rolled into one, he does NOTHING to make this character work and it just feels like the script decided to turn him from an intimidating Vizir/Sorcerer into a buffoon who feels like a joke and after how good Thanos was in Avengers: Endgame this feels even more disappointing.
And I know I have said this so many times people have become so bored of hearing it their wanting to rip their own ears off so they don’t have to hear it anymore but having a strong villain in these kinds of genre films matters, they are so vital to this type of narrative that to me it can make or break your film again go back to Thanos in Infinity War and Endgame his writing and Josh Brolin’s performance were so good and so glued to that 2 parter that I don’t think they would’ve been anywhere near as successful without him and Disney used to pride itself on their villains:
- The original Jafar
- Scar in the Lion King
- Ursula
- The Wicked Queen
- Maleficent
- The Wicked Stepmother
- Gaston
I could go on of course but I’ll stop there and its just so sad that this crucial cog of storytelling seems to just be treated as an afterthought and that has to change.
And so that was the new Aladdin and look its not a bad movie not at all but its not very good either and I just wanted to watch the original movie again after I got home from seeing this new version after all as Thanos says “Where did that bring you? Back to Me” 1.5 out of 5.
I have loved the original Aladdin since I was a boy back in 1994 which is when it came out on Video here in Australia, it was arguably the one film above all that did the most to shape my already developing love of movies and mould it into something tangible and meaningful, it is a movie I have also come back to multiple times over the years as I grew older and into adulthood and when I bought my 4K TV last year I put the Blu-Ray of Aladdin on to test the colours on it and it soared with flying colours.
I’ve also come to learn about the making of that original film itself from the original treatment done in 1988 by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken which had a full suite of songs and the bones of what would become the final film sadly completed after Howard’s passing in 1991 and I went into this new Aladdin fearing the genuine worst as the trailers had been abysmal showing shoddy effects, a director in Mr Ritchie looking out of his depth in directing visual effects and barely showing us the new cast inheriting these wonderful characters, how could this not end up in total failure?
Well surprisingly this does not end up in total failure but it is also not a very good film either, the main reason for this I feel surprisingly is Will Smith as the new Genie, he doesn’t try to redo what the late great Robin Williams did with the role (which is one of the greatest supporting actor performances of any movie ever) but channels some of his own Fresh Prince of Bel Air charm to the role that for the most part works and when he was just Will in an outfit and not Blue I thought it was pretty fun and I enjoyed that part of the film.
However this movie overall is a total mess and firstly I have to talk about the script and it is a real mess, it tries to pad out certain sections of the film while completely ignoring other sections the latter of which tended to be those crucial character building block moments that were so good in the original film beit Jafar’s quest for the Cave of Wonders, Aladdin and Jasmine bonding over their life circumstances, Al and Genie’s friendship and Jafar and Iago’s twisted partnership those elements just feel brushed aside and as a result you find it hard to connect with any of the characters in this new version.
Speaking of them both Ms Scott and Mr Massoud are good young actors and they try their absolute best with what they’ve been handed but they just cannot hold a candle (or a lamp even) to what Scott Weinger and Linda Larkin did in the original film, their versions of the characters had depth to them, a sense of confidence, a shared connection despite their very different lives and you could see why one would fall for the other Aladdin for Jasmine’s free spirit, her beauty and her take no nonsense personality and Jasmine for Aladdin’s charm, humour and that sense that he will love her no matter what.
But the one thing that did worry me the most about this new version was how it would handle Jafar as Jonathan Freeman was so good in that role the stage show basically went and brought him back to reprise the role for that show but here Mr Kenzari is pathetic, woeful and weak as all Smeg rolled into one, he does NOTHING to make this character work and it just feels like the script decided to turn him from an intimidating Vizir/Sorcerer into a buffoon who feels like a joke and after how good Thanos was in Avengers: Endgame this feels even more disappointing.
And I know I have said this so many times people have become so bored of hearing it their wanting to rip their own ears off so they don’t have to hear it anymore but having a strong villain in these kinds of genre films matters, they are so vital to this type of narrative that to me it can make or break your film again go back to Thanos in Infinity War and Endgame his writing and Josh Brolin’s performance were so good and so glued to that 2 parter that I don’t think they would’ve been anywhere near as successful without him and Disney used to pride itself on their villains:
- The original Jafar
- Scar in the Lion King
- Ursula
- The Wicked Queen
- Maleficent
- The Wicked Stepmother
- Gaston
I could go on of course but I’ll stop there and its just so sad that this crucial cog of storytelling seems to just be treated as an afterthought and that has to change.
And so that was the new Aladdin and look its not a bad movie not at all but its not very good either and I just wanted to watch the original movie again after I got home from seeing this new version after all as Thanos says “Where did that bring you? Back to Me” 1.5 out of 5.
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