I’ve been away from writing reviews
for a bit. I now share my thoughts on a Perth Radio Station Curtin FM 100.1 every Friday at 12:40. But we
are on break until the end of January, so I thought I’d better write some quick
reviews so you know what to see on the big screen.
My recommendations for the
family films over the holiday break are Big
Hero 6 & Paddington. Both are
fabulous for the whole family. If you’re an Aussie, why not support Australian
film and go see the Water Diviner.
If you would like a break from
movies, why not grab an e-copy of BACK AGAIN my time travel novel. It’s been
making some best of lists recently, so I know you would enjoy. Click here to check it out.
THIS WEEK'S PREVIEWS
Big Hero 6 ✪✪✪✪½
Opens in Australia: 26th
December 2014
Other Countries: Release Information
Disney are so good at
these animations. This one is no exception to their quality releases. They just have the formula so
right. Great, unique characters, interesting layered plots, and beautiful,
colourful animation, along with jokes that are actually funny. Baymax, the robot, is absolutely adorable,
and it looks like this one has been set up as the beginning of a series. I certainly
hope so. Very young, young, old, and in-between, go see it. You will love!
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The special bond that develops
between plus-sized inflatable robot Baymax, and prodigy Hiro Hamada, who team
up with a group of friends to form a band of high-tech heroes.
The Water
Diviner ✪✪✪½
Opens in Australia: 26th
December 2014
Other Countries: Release Information
Perth: Luna Palace Cinemas
I didn’t expect to
like this film, directed by and starring Russell Crowe, but it’s a good little
tale well crafted and with a good pace. It’s a different take on World War 1, and we gain a perspective on the opposing point of view, the Turkish side, and
their losses. It’s quite a heart-wrenching tale, but the material is handled
well, and I came away impressed. If you’re an Aussie, do get along to see it and support our Australian film industry. This year we’ve had some really wonderful
films that just weren’t given their due. This one does deserve to be seen on
the big screen.
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An Australian man
travels to Turkey after the Battle of Gallipoli to try and locate his three
missing sons.
The Imitation
Game ✪✪✪✪
Opens in Australia: 1st
January 2015
Other Countries: Release Information
This is a fascinating
true-story film of how WW2 was shortened by a group of mathematicians, chess
champions, intelligence officers and other unlikely heroes who cracked the almost
unbreakable German enigma code. Benedict Cumberbatch is fabulous as Alan Turing
the genius leader of the pack. He is perfectly cast. I thoroughly recommend
this film, and as well as being entertained you will learn about some amazing
history of which you were probably unaware.
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During the winter of 1952, British
authorities entered the home of mathematician, cryptanalyst and war hero Alan
Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) to investigate a reported burglary. They instead
ended up arresting Turing himself on charges of
‘gross indecency’, an accusation that would lead to his devastating
conviction for the criminal offense of homosexuality – little did officials
know, they were actually incriminating the pioneer of modern-day computing.
Famously leading a motley group of scholars, linguists, chess champions and
intelligence officers, he was credited with cracking the so-called unbreakable
codes of Germany's WorldWar II Enigma machine. An intense and haunting
portrayal of a brilliant, complicated man, THE IMITATION GAME follows a genius
who under nail-biting pressure helped to shorten the war and, in turn, save
millions of lives.
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb ✪✪✪
Opens in Australia: 26th
December 2014
Other Countries: Release Information
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Get ready for the wildest and most
adventure-filled Night At the Museum ever as Larry (Ben Stiller) spans the
globe, uniting favorite and new characters while embarking on an epic quest to
save the magic before it is gone forever. (c) Fox.
Annie ✪✪
Opens in Australia: 26th
December 2014
Other Countries: Release Information
Ugh, this film is
really not very good. I love the other versions of Annie and the songs from the musical, but this one
left out some of the songs, added some new ones, and just took all the magic away.
Cameron Diaz is woefully miscast and Quvenzhané Wallis cast as Annie, who was
so charming in Beasts of the Southern
Wild, just lacks the necessary precociousness to pull this off. This is the type of fare you see on the
Disney Channel, but you shouldn’t be laying down $60 to take your family to it. A bad idea and
a bad film.
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A foster kid, who lives with her mean foster
mom, sees her life change when business tycoon and New York mayoral candidate
Will Stacks makes a thinly-veiled campaign move and takes her in.
The Hobbit: The
Battle of The Five Armies ✪✪✪
Opens in Australia: 26th
December 2014
Other Countries: Release Information
The title says it
all. It’s five armies battling it out in CGI. I don’t like this HFR (High Frame
Rate) that Peter Jackson keeps using. It just looks like you are watching
television and its very distracting. So be prepared. Just because we have this technology,
doesn’t mean we need to use it. This film, also, seems like it didn’t need to
exist, except to add some more gold to the studio’s bounty. However, I found it a reasonable watch, but
not as much fun as the previous two. The hand-to-hand combat scenes toward the
end, though, are truly spectacular. But nothing I say will deter Hobbit fans
from seeing this film. So if you enjoyed the first two, off you go!
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Bilbo and Company are forced to engage in a
war against an array of combatants and keep the Lonely Mountain from falling
into the hands of a rising darkness.
Paddington ✪✪✪✪✪
Opens in Australia: 18th
December 2014
Other Countries: Release Information
Perth: Luna Palace Cinemas
Paddington Bear has
never made his way into our household via books, films or toys. So the movie
didn’t rank highly on my expectation list. What a delightful surprise it was
then to experience this utterly charming film.
Paddington books
have been translated into 30 languages across 70 titles and sold more than 30
million copies worldwide, so that alone should guarantee this film’s success.
Even if there wasn’t a huge fan base, the clever script, extraordinary
animation, and energetic, on-note performances in Paddington will still put it up there with the top films of the
year.
Paddington
(voiced by Ben Whishaw) arrives in London from “darkest Peru,” sent by his Aunt
Lucy to find a better home after she moves to the Home for Retired Bears. His
expectation of the welcoming he will receive from Londoners is based on his
Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton) and Uncle Pastuzo (Michael Gambon) encounter
decades earlier with an explorer from London who’d told them they would always
be welcome. This explorer also introduced the bears to marmalade and gives
Pastuzo his hat, which Paddington inherits.
Bustling London,
though, is not welcoming to Paddington until he is found by the Brown family
and taken home—just for the night. Mr. Brown, (Hugh Bonneville) a risk
analysist, insists a bear in the house will increase the risk of disaster by
too high a factor, so Paddington must leave. The family decides that if they
can find the original explorer he may be willing to take in Paddington so they
begin a search with limited clues. Mr. Brown is correct on the risk factor as
Paddington immediately creates much mayhem and, also, attracts the attention of
a sadistic museum worker, Millicent (Nicole Kidman), who wants to capture and
stuff him.
Paddington will
do for bears what Stuart Little did for mice. It’s whimsical, wonderful, and a
joy to experience. Rating: five out five marmalade jars.
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A young English boy befriends a
talking bear he finds at a London train station. A live-action feature based on
the series of popular children's books by Michael Bond.
Exodus: Gods and
Kings ✪✪✪
Opens in Australia: 18th
December 2014
Other Countries: Release Information
Exodus: Gods and Kings has a cast of thousands, the lead roles are
household name actors, and the director,
Ridley Scott’s (Alien, Blade Runner, Hannibal, Prometheus) films are always
greatly anticipated, but, sadly, Exodus
falls short of its clearly ambitious mark.
Occasionally you
almost see its epic vision realized, but it’s dogged by a plodding script,
occasionally lifted up by spectacular special effects, only to come crashing
down again like the wave in the parting of the Red Sea scene.
The film tells
the biblical story of Moses (Christian Bale) leading the Hebrews out of Egypt,
but focuses initially on the sibling rivalry between Egyptian pharaoh, Ramses
(Joel Edgerton) and foster child Moses. When Moses is banished from the
kingdom, he assimilates into a new tribe, meets his wife, and fathers his
children while hiding his identity. After being commanded by God to free the
Israelites, he falls in with the rebellion’s leaders as they plot to rescue the
slaves from Ramses’ tyrannical rule.
It’s the
depiction of the plagues and the conflict between the two factions where the
film finally begins to build some momentum a good hour into the film. Exodus could have been so much more with
a tighter script. The story is grand, the cast including Sigourney Weaver, Ben
Kingsley, Aaron Paul, John Turturro, Ben Mendelshohn and many more are hugely
talented, but the impressive, epic scenes combined with the slow interlinking
expositional scenes do not add up to absorbing storytelling. In the end, Scott’s
helming of Exodus feels about as
self-indulgent as Rameses’ desire to build great monoliths to honor himself.
It’s simply an okay epic, if that isn’t an oxymoron.
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The defiant leader Moses rises up
against the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses, setting 600,000 slaves on a monumental
journey of escape from Egypt and its terrifying cycle of deadly plagues.
If you’ve enjoyed these reviews, please
share with your friends and followers on social media and I will be very
grateful. I love new readers who love film.
