Film Review - 3,000 Years of Longing (2022)

 3,000 Years of Longing is based off of a novel and is directed and co-written by Dr George Miller best known for the Mad Max series as well as Babe, Happy Feet and Lorenzo’s Oil among other films and stars Tilda Swinton as Alithea a Narratologist in London who on a trip to Istanbul for a conference she picks up a strange bottle and when she opens it out comes a Djinn (or Genie) plated by Idris Elba and well Alithea has never had a friend, never had a friend, never had a friend like Hiiimmmmm.

 

Sorry I couldn’t resist.

 

3,000 Years of Longing may well be one of my favourite films of the year as the more I sat with the film after seeing it the more it really won me over and firstly this film is not the strange trip through time where the Djinn sees the galloping hordes, a hundred bad guys with swords, 75 golden camels, exotic type mammals and a whole new world with a new fantastic point of view that the preview for this movie tells you it is instead its more of a love story at its core and it really worked for me as it felt very heartfelt and Swinton and Elba have great chemistry together.

 

Secondly the films historical moments when the Djinn is telling his history to Alithea do show off that wild imagination that has help make George Miller one of my personal favourite directors, those moments really come to life and feel big and wild and could only have come from the man that gave us Mad Max and Mad Max 2 with the Toecutter and his bikers, the Humungous and his gang, the Immortan clan etc and those moments are great even if over advertised in the preview.

 

And lastly I really liked the whole concept of a Narratologist a person who spends their working life devoted to the study of stories, histories, mythology and how they might all interweave within each other in more ways than we might think they do and while the film runs a little long at times I was really taken with this one.

 

I must also say that there were times where I kept thinking of Disney’s Aladdin especially with some of the wishing aspects of this film I sat there thinking “But remember the love rule in Aladdin” or “It never fails you get in the bath and there’s a rub at the lamp.”

 

And so that was 3,000 Years of Longing and I really enjoyed this movie, its romantic, imaginative and tells an interesting story, this is a sight lovely to see on the big screen but remember those rules when you rub that bottle or lamp the Genie knows his stuff, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Ticket to Paradise (2022)

 Ticket to Paradise stars George Clooney and Julia Roberts as David and Georgia Cotton a now divorced couple who really do not get along very well and bicker all the time but this time they’ve gone to Bali to stop their daughter Lily (Kaitlyn Dever) from marrying Gede (Maxime Bouttier) a man she only met some 40 days beforehand but they’ll have to put their differences aside if their going to stop their daughter from marrying young and early.

 

Ticket to Paradise is good fun and first off I have to talk about the visuals in this movie even though it is a rom com at heart the film makes nice use of its Australian filming locations to double for Bali (the film was shot in Queensland during the pandemic) though watching the movie you wouldn’t tell its Bali and not Queensland and there are lots of nice watery locales, islands and on a cinema screen it acts as a nice travelogue.

 

As for the movie itself its okay and Dever is pretty good as Lily and she has a good wingman in her Booksmart co star Billie Lourd as her best friend and often steals a lot of the films best laughs but this is Clooney and Roberts’s movie through and through and they are wonderful together reigniting that old Oceans 11 chemistry as if they’d never left it behind.

 

In fact I wish that the movie had been about them instead of the daughter as every time it went away from Clooney and Roberts it felt the film just lot a lot of its spark and snap and if the movie had been about their marriage falling apart only to find themselves together again by a coincidence only to discover they still love each other and regret leaving years before I think it would’ve been a much much better film than the one we have.

 

And that was Ticket to Paradise but I wouldn’t pack your bag to leave tonight to go watch it I’d wait for a budget ticket to see this one and hope you don’t lose your luggage, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - DC League of Super Pets (2022)

 DC League of Super Pets is a new Warner Bros Animated film and sees Krypto the Super Dog (Dwayne Johnson) who is Superman’s (John Krasinski) best friend but when he and the other members of the Justice League are captured by Lex Luthor (Marc Maron), he has to find help with other pets who have been granted super powers to help save the day and his friend.

 

League of Super Pets is fine, its nothing unremarkable but its also not as bad as I thought it would be either and I frankly thought that this would be awful especially after seeing the previews for this movie for what felt like months.

 

And the main reason for this is actually the Superman moments in this film, Johnson and Co are fine in their roles and him and Kevin Hart do their usual comedy routine that they’ve done elsewhere but Krasinski makes for a pretty decent Superman and watching those moments in this movie made me yearn all the more for a proper live action Superman film that would prove itself worthy of the legacy of Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve who’s first 2 films with the character still remain the benchmark for me.

 

As for the rest of the film it’s the usual fare that will get kids in during the school holidays, it has colourful animation, plenty of action moments and jokes and a big voice cast full of people that kids and adults will recognise as the voices and again it is nowhere as bad as how it sounds but its not really anything more than just a fun 100 odd minutes at the movies during the school holidays.

 

And so that was DC League of Super Pets and its fine on the whole but the Superman moments made it work more than the rest of it did so a 2 out of 5 from me.