Now, where to start with this one, the build from 5 years ago, that first image of Carl in his house, opening the door to the sky, silhouettes of the interior with a colourful outside. The first teaser with the house flying past and Carl on the porch, saying afternoon. The first time I saw the trailer in 1080 on my computer, the beauty of the balloons flying past, so colourful and wonderful. The introduction of Dug the Dog in a trailer "Squirrel!" everything was going so well.
Pete Docter being in charge, the man who went and did Monsters Inc, a film that pays in re-watches in comparison to the first time as a 10 year old, returns for a second Pixar film with this, a story about an old man who lives out the adventure he and his childhood friend/one true love always wanted to go on, as he floats away to South America with helium balloons from his stand at the zoo, not going to a retirement centre, just wanting to live out his days alone. But a big dumb wilderness guide kid manages to come along, making things a bit more hectic when involved with Dug the Dog and Kevin, this big mysterious bird, very funny too.
The start is amazing, it's uplifting, and then there's this montage of the two characters getting married, living their lives, going through infertility, and finally death, it's amazingly tearjerking. And it doesn't let up, there's like 5 times in the film where you could tell the crowd was really on the verge of tears, something a film rarely, if ever, manages to succeed and not look like some dull crybaby drama. The humour though is a winner too, sometimes shifting dramatically from the incredibly sad to the brilliantly hysteric. Sometimes the humor is a tad off, a little too broad, maybe just annoying and interrupting important parts.
The plot falls apart about 45 minutes in after the duo make it to South America and have to move over a large wealth of land, moving from the two to a whole bunch, ala WALL-E in the Axiom, but the group of dogs who talk don't work, making it feel like some crappy live action Disney flick, before the film we suffered a G-Force trailer, with Bill Nighy, Will Arnett and Tracey Morgan, the kind of cack kids eat up but doesn't work on anyone normal.
The baddie of the piece is given so little time to really be evil he just seems to be servicing the thin plot of the second half as opposed to having any real personality, original ideas or the like. The lack of originality seems to affect a lot of the film, there's great laughs and sad moments, interesting characters, but it's not Pixar being new and improved, it just feels like another Bolt, only far far superior of course. The limited voice actors creates a homely feel, only a select number, and the graphics are absolutely amazing, but not as mind blowing as last year's WALL-E, WALL-E was of course an ultimate Pixar film, but this cannot compare, it is shadowed by the former.
The music was average, it never had anything amazing to make you hum out of the cinema, the action sequences, whilst too many, especially one near the end being far too cartoony, are well done and intense, even though what was going to happen was incredibly predictable. It's a shame some elements are just flawed to bits, because if they had made them a tad better this film would have been an absolutely brilliant Pixar on form film, still, it's better than Cars and Finding Nemo, it's like A Bugs Life, it's good, but it's not what it could have been.
Also the 3-D Pixar logo is disappointing, I like the static image of the text, now they move around to make it 3-D, it doesn't work.
9/10
Sunday 31 May 2009
Thursday 14 May 2009
A Devil of a Film, A God-Like Review
Just back from sitting through my first proper Summer Blockbuster (A film in the summer line-up that I had high hopes for/expressed any genuine interest/hope in)
Angles & Demons, a film in which Symbologist in a grown man's body Colin Hanks' Dad runs around looking at statues and finding out at which exact angle they point towards near Rome and The Vatican in hopes of uncovering the truth about the Acuteinati, an ancient society who worshipped angles less than 90 degrees.
I was a huge fan of the De Niro Code, which saw the same character go around France with Amelie watching Scorsese films to uncover why he wasn't chosen to be Jesus in The Last Temptation Of Christ, and the shocking truth of what the church did to make Scorsese go with Willem Defoe instead.
The first was a poorly received long slow-paced slow burning thriller from Richie Cunningham, and writer Daniel Tertiary Colour.
The sequel was actually the first book, and it's a different entity.
In this one the pace is amped up, it's not a chase through France from the law, Bobby Langston is working with the force to stop some bad people murder cardinals in more and more interesting ways for the audience, it's like that sequence in The Fifth Element where they open the props up with the elements, mixed with Seven, with less gore, but still shocking mainly for the age rating, hell, there's an eye on screen out of socket for about 2 seconds, enough to take it in, and it looks real-er than in Kill Bill Vol. 2.
So, there's this plot which is kinda dumb completely, but you just go along with it, there's some nicely set up murder scenes and action sequences, long dialogues that lead to the audience beating the characters to the scenes, thanks to the fast paced cameras, and the twists, thanks to criminally obvious double twists, but as it's well acted, interesting for what it is, and fast paced, it's like an episode of 24, you know, the good times, season 1 stuff, where each episode a mole was revealed or revealed as an anti-mole mole or some stupid writing out of a corner.
And I have to admit, I enjoyed the funk out of it, it was well made, and had much more authority in camera than the first, Howard has come very far, and it felt like I cared about the Catholic Church ever so slightly for once, not enough to want a happy ending, but still, and even a helicopter explosion/priest parachute sequence couldn't make me think it was dumb.
I enjoyed the original and I'm glad to see they made the sequel a superior film, a different beast, as this is a murder mystery/race against time, the first was a what-the-heck-is-going-on-and-lets-not-get-arrested-or-killed-Amelie-ok? film. I look forward to a thrid film, proveided there's a third novel of course, yes it's trash, but it's summer trash, and it's slow enough and with the lack of action it's not Star Trek bang bang gun-ho crap that I detest if trying to be serious, this is the trashy novels of cinema, and I love it.
9/10
Angles & Demons, a film in which Symbologist in a grown man's body Colin Hanks' Dad runs around looking at statues and finding out at which exact angle they point towards near Rome and The Vatican in hopes of uncovering the truth about the Acuteinati, an ancient society who worshipped angles less than 90 degrees.
I was a huge fan of the De Niro Code, which saw the same character go around France with Amelie watching Scorsese films to uncover why he wasn't chosen to be Jesus in The Last Temptation Of Christ, and the shocking truth of what the church did to make Scorsese go with Willem Defoe instead.
The first was a poorly received long slow-paced slow burning thriller from Richie Cunningham, and writer Daniel Tertiary Colour.
The sequel was actually the first book, and it's a different entity.
In this one the pace is amped up, it's not a chase through France from the law, Bobby Langston is working with the force to stop some bad people murder cardinals in more and more interesting ways for the audience, it's like that sequence in The Fifth Element where they open the props up with the elements, mixed with Seven, with less gore, but still shocking mainly for the age rating, hell, there's an eye on screen out of socket for about 2 seconds, enough to take it in, and it looks real-er than in Kill Bill Vol. 2.
So, there's this plot which is kinda dumb completely, but you just go along with it, there's some nicely set up murder scenes and action sequences, long dialogues that lead to the audience beating the characters to the scenes, thanks to the fast paced cameras, and the twists, thanks to criminally obvious double twists, but as it's well acted, interesting for what it is, and fast paced, it's like an episode of 24, you know, the good times, season 1 stuff, where each episode a mole was revealed or revealed as an anti-mole mole or some stupid writing out of a corner.
And I have to admit, I enjoyed the funk out of it, it was well made, and had much more authority in camera than the first, Howard has come very far, and it felt like I cared about the Catholic Church ever so slightly for once, not enough to want a happy ending, but still, and even a helicopter explosion/priest parachute sequence couldn't make me think it was dumb.
I enjoyed the original and I'm glad to see they made the sequel a superior film, a different beast, as this is a murder mystery/race against time, the first was a what-the-heck-is-going-on-and-lets-not-get-arrested-or-killed-Amelie-ok? film. I look forward to a thrid film, proveided there's a third novel of course, yes it's trash, but it's summer trash, and it's slow enough and with the lack of action it's not Star Trek bang bang gun-ho crap that I detest if trying to be serious, this is the trashy novels of cinema, and I love it.
9/10
Monday 4 May 2009
I Find The Weinstein's Lack Of Faith Disturbing
Now, I had to download this one cos I don't know if it'll ever come over to the UK, it had 14 screens or so in America over it's release, though as a comedy film, PG-13 certificate and lots of famous names, and a Star Wars theme it could have been a box-office Smash, Fanboys lies dormant as a cult classic for the future.
After the Weinsteins got their grubby hands on the film, they redid it as an R-rated comedy and removed the cancer storyline that makes the friends team up to steal a workprint of Episode 1, so I guess they'd just be very naughty fans, as opposed to the best of friends trying to do one last thing for their friend before he dies.
Fortunately the theatrical one was Cancer Storyline full, so it had the dramatic effect at the end, and gave the characters more will to steal the film.
I don't want to spoil things for people, but I will go through the cameos, and there are a lot, so if you just want to be surprised, just read the final paragraph for the overview.
The film contains such great cameos as:
Christopher McDonald as one of the main characters' father.
Danny Trejo as a Peyote smoking "Chief"
Ethan Suplee as Harry Knowles
Billy Dee Williams as a Judge
Jaime King as a Hooker
William Shatner as William Shatner (How can he get anything? Because he's William Shatner, duh)
Carrie Fisher as a doctor.
Kevin Smith as himself, Jason Mewes as himself, forced to suck people off in a public restroom, Zak Knutson in this case (The Donkey Show guy)
Ray Park as a THX style Security Guard (Genius)
Will Forte and Craig Robinson as two bumbling THX guards.
Danny McBride as the head of Security.
And each cameo actually works, it's like Dodgeball where they make fun of some of the ones, except whilst it knows how many there are, it's more applause worthy for a face appearing.
Add to that an astonishing cast, with Seth Rogen being the most famous as a Treker who constantly runs into the guys on their quest, and subsequently a Star Wars loving pimp too, no explanation, maybe a deleted scene.
The gang consists of Chris Marquette as Linus, the man with cancer, who doesn't have as much time as you'd think to suffer some of the effects, but is always in a scene.
Sam Huntington as the other normal guy, Eric, a man who left his friends to grow up, and is finally redeeming his nerdy nature here.
Jay Baruchel as Windows, the nerdiest of the bunch, dating online as his only way, and being a complete knowledge dock, and he's as brilliant as usual, just absolutely true to life and hysterical.
Kristen Bell isn't given much time as she's out of the film within 10 minutes and only resurfaces about 50 minutes in, and wraps her stuff up extraordinarily quickly, but she's still as every nerd's dream.
Finally there's Dan Fogler, and here's where I was shocked.
My Fogler knowledge only stems from average voice acting in Horten Hears A Who and Kung Fu Panda, but I know he was in Luck Chuck as the annoying fat funny friend, who seemed to have no funny lines if the trailers said anything, and I know 02 detested him back then.
Here he plays Hutch, a man still living with his parents, driving a van full of Star Wars graffiti and with a big red button for lightspeed, and has full knowledge of, and I quote from Steve Brill here, "The Wars". Many of his comebacks in the film are quotes from Star Wars taken in a new light, and you know what, it's effing hysterical. I'm a fully fledged Star Wars geek ("Oh I'm the geek?") so just hearing him riff on the Emperor and doing a spot on impression of him, and many amazing impressions of Billy Dee Williams, was fantastic, and in fact spawns most of the humour, more next paragraph. A superb performance that's made me actually love Fogler.
The film's comedy is a mix, there's slapsticky running around, cerebral dialogue jokes, quotes and situations, and even just costumes and sound effects and music cue jokes, and most of the time I was pointing, clapping and laughing, saying the lines with the characters, first time I've seen it, but they were Star Wars quotes and had to be placed there, and were, perfectly.
Add to that the emotion behind the final 15 minutes, cued by Remy Zero's fantasic song "Fair" (As heard in Garden State) it's a moving montage of pure beauty leading to the inevitable, and it's darn sweet, with a final sequence that's funny and nice, which sums up this film. It's not some edgy R-rated kind of adult fare, it's soft, but it knows Star Wars enough to be extremely geeky whilst being broad enough for anyone to laugh.
And whilst you may think the film won't work after so many other Star Wars parodies, well, the opening scrawl is twenty million times funnier than the Blue Harvest Family Guy one, really, you'll stop the jokes for a long talk about Angelina Jolie's breasts? No, this one has a countdown to Episode 1 in it, and it's hysterical.
The film, whilst slightly too broad and rushed at some points, still has so many genuine laugh out loud moments, sweet sequences, references, call backs, cameos et al to really become a classic to Star Wars fans, and an easy comedy to watch even for the uninitiated, as in the end it is about friendship too, it's worth importing fro America upon it's DVD release on May 19th, as I can't see it making it to UK shores for a year or ten.
10/10
After the Weinsteins got their grubby hands on the film, they redid it as an R-rated comedy and removed the cancer storyline that makes the friends team up to steal a workprint of Episode 1, so I guess they'd just be very naughty fans, as opposed to the best of friends trying to do one last thing for their friend before he dies.
Fortunately the theatrical one was Cancer Storyline full, so it had the dramatic effect at the end, and gave the characters more will to steal the film.
I don't want to spoil things for people, but I will go through the cameos, and there are a lot, so if you just want to be surprised, just read the final paragraph for the overview.
The film contains such great cameos as:
Christopher McDonald as one of the main characters' father.
Danny Trejo as a Peyote smoking "Chief"
Ethan Suplee as Harry Knowles
Billy Dee Williams as a Judge
Jaime King as a Hooker
William Shatner as William Shatner (How can he get anything? Because he's William Shatner, duh)
Carrie Fisher as a doctor.
Kevin Smith as himself, Jason Mewes as himself, forced to suck people off in a public restroom, Zak Knutson in this case (The Donkey Show guy)
Ray Park as a THX style Security Guard (Genius)
Will Forte and Craig Robinson as two bumbling THX guards.
Danny McBride as the head of Security.
And each cameo actually works, it's like Dodgeball where they make fun of some of the ones, except whilst it knows how many there are, it's more applause worthy for a face appearing.
Add to that an astonishing cast, with Seth Rogen being the most famous as a Treker who constantly runs into the guys on their quest, and subsequently a Star Wars loving pimp too, no explanation, maybe a deleted scene.
The gang consists of Chris Marquette as Linus, the man with cancer, who doesn't have as much time as you'd think to suffer some of the effects, but is always in a scene.
Sam Huntington as the other normal guy, Eric, a man who left his friends to grow up, and is finally redeeming his nerdy nature here.
Jay Baruchel as Windows, the nerdiest of the bunch, dating online as his only way, and being a complete knowledge dock, and he's as brilliant as usual, just absolutely true to life and hysterical.
Kristen Bell isn't given much time as she's out of the film within 10 minutes and only resurfaces about 50 minutes in, and wraps her stuff up extraordinarily quickly, but she's still as every nerd's dream.
Finally there's Dan Fogler, and here's where I was shocked.
My Fogler knowledge only stems from average voice acting in Horten Hears A Who and Kung Fu Panda, but I know he was in Luck Chuck as the annoying fat funny friend, who seemed to have no funny lines if the trailers said anything, and I know 02 detested him back then.
Here he plays Hutch, a man still living with his parents, driving a van full of Star Wars graffiti and with a big red button for lightspeed, and has full knowledge of, and I quote from Steve Brill here, "The Wars". Many of his comebacks in the film are quotes from Star Wars taken in a new light, and you know what, it's effing hysterical. I'm a fully fledged Star Wars geek ("Oh I'm the geek?") so just hearing him riff on the Emperor and doing a spot on impression of him, and many amazing impressions of Billy Dee Williams, was fantastic, and in fact spawns most of the humour, more next paragraph. A superb performance that's made me actually love Fogler.
The film's comedy is a mix, there's slapsticky running around, cerebral dialogue jokes, quotes and situations, and even just costumes and sound effects and music cue jokes, and most of the time I was pointing, clapping and laughing, saying the lines with the characters, first time I've seen it, but they were Star Wars quotes and had to be placed there, and were, perfectly.
Add to that the emotion behind the final 15 minutes, cued by Remy Zero's fantasic song "Fair" (As heard in Garden State) it's a moving montage of pure beauty leading to the inevitable, and it's darn sweet, with a final sequence that's funny and nice, which sums up this film. It's not some edgy R-rated kind of adult fare, it's soft, but it knows Star Wars enough to be extremely geeky whilst being broad enough for anyone to laugh.
And whilst you may think the film won't work after so many other Star Wars parodies, well, the opening scrawl is twenty million times funnier than the Blue Harvest Family Guy one, really, you'll stop the jokes for a long talk about Angelina Jolie's breasts? No, this one has a countdown to Episode 1 in it, and it's hysterical.
The film, whilst slightly too broad and rushed at some points, still has so many genuine laugh out loud moments, sweet sequences, references, call backs, cameos et al to really become a classic to Star Wars fans, and an easy comedy to watch even for the uninitiated, as in the end it is about friendship too, it's worth importing fro America upon it's DVD release on May 19th, as I can't see it making it to UK shores for a year or ten.
10/10
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