Tag: review

Movie review: The Jungle Book

The standout of The Jungle Book, both visually and aurally, may be King Louie.

jungle-book-2016I’ve never read the 1894 stories by Rudyard Kipling known as the Jungle Book. Nor did I ever catch the 1967 film that was the last full-length animated film produced by Walt Disney himself. And no copy exists in the Albany Public Library; I may have to get a copy through interlibrary loan.

I have watched scenes of the older film featuring the songs I Wanna Be Like You and especially The Bare Necessities.

So seeing the 2016 version, done with special effect animals and scenery, plus a real boy (Neel Sethi as Mowgli) in the center of the action, was a very different experience. The technological challenge was daunting for director Jon Favreau, who has piloted such diverse fare as Iron Man and Chef.

He succeeded.

My wife claims that I flinched more in this film that the three of us saw at Albany’s Madison Theatre on Sunday than she can recall, especially with the appearances of angry tiger Shere Khan (voiced by Idris Elba). I recognized right away the voice of Bill Murray as the crafty bear Baloo, and that was actually a relief after all the action that had taken place up to that point.

All the voice actors were quite fine: Ben Kingsley as Bagheera, the panther; Lupita Nyong’o as Mowgli’s wolf mother, Raksha; Giancarlo Esposito as Akela, the wolves’ father; and Scarlett Johansson as the snake Kaa. The late Gary Shandling had a small role as Ikki, the porcupine. Even Favreau got into the act as a pygmy hog, and used his kids Madeline and Max as Raquel the rhino and a young wolf.

Still, the standout, both visually and aurally, may be King Louie, voiced by Christopher Walken, who’s seeking the “red flower.” My spouse, who’s not a Walken fan, even said so. This is NOT Walt’s Louie.

If The Daughter had been five, I believe this film would have terrified her, but as a tween, she’s more impervious to scary movie action.

This is a fine film. Read SamuraiFrog’s review.

Movie review: Zootopia

The police procedural about political corruption in Zootopia takes several turns I simply did not anticipate.

zootopiaIsaiah 11:6 reads, “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb.” In Zootopia, the newish animated film from Disney, the big city is populated by anthropomorphic mammals, who, in our world, are predators and prey. Yet they work together, usually in harmony.

Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) is a rabbit from rural Bunnyburrow who wants to be the first rabbit officer in the Zootopia Police Department, much to the misgivings of her go-along-to get-along parents (Bonnie Hunt, Don Lake).

Judy graduates at the top of her class, but is assigned to parking duty by Chief Bogo (Idris Elba), a water buffalo who doubts she can do the job. When Mrs. Otterton (Octavia Spencer) arrives to plead for someone to find her missing husband, one of over a dozen missing mammals, Judy volunteers. Assistant Mayor Dawn Bellwether, a sheep, (Jenny Slate) texts Mayor Lionheart (J.K. Simmons) the news of Judy taking the case.

Beyond this, the less you know about Zootopia, the better. Jason Bateman is tremendous as Nick Wilde, a red fox who is a small-time con artist. Tommy Chong is an enlightened yak, and Shakira plays Shakira if she were a gazelle. A bunch of voice actors, who you’ve probably never heard of, are marvelous.

Without being too preachy about it, this movie is ultimately about stereotyping and prejudice. The animation looks great, and the police procedural about political corruption takes several turns I simply did not anticipate. The sloths at the DMV seem to be out of a great Bob and Ray routine, and The Godfather is referenced.

My whole family saw Zootopia, in 2D, not 3D, on a Sunday afternoon at the local Madison Theatre. Parts of it may be too intense for very small children. But it is a very fine film, and worth seeing, even if you don’t have a child to take with you.

But don’t read the Wikipedia page, which is spoiler city.

Movie Review: Hello, My Name Is Doris

Hello, My Name Is Doris has a hint of recognition of people I know in real life.

dorisSince I really like Sally Field, the Wife and I decided to see her new starring vehicle, Hello, My Name Is Doris, at the Spectrum Theatre, on a Monday matinee. The IMDB description is refreshingly succinct: “A self-help seminar inspires a sixty-something woman to romantically pursue her younger co-worker.”

Doris had put her life on hold before that seminar by Willy Williams (Peter Gallagher), which she attended with her best friend Roz (the ever solid Tyne Daly). Her boss Sally (Natasha Lyonne) had recently introduced the staff to the new art director, John (Max Greenfield), who is half her age. He also has a nice girlfriend named Brooklyn (Beth Behrs).

With the assistance of Roz’s granddaughter (Isabella Acres), Doris becomes tech savvy enough to discover John’s hangouts.

Meanwhile, Doris is being pressured by her brother and sister-in-law (Stephen Root, Wendi McLendon-Covey) to sell the house she shared with her late mother. They encourage/nag her to see a therapist (Elizabeth Reaser) to deal with her problem with clutter.

I really need to try harder to avoid the reviews for movies I might be interested in seeing, even the 85% positive ones from Rotten Tomatoes. One review suggested that Doris Miller was just a stereotype of a wacky older woman. I thought she was far more nuanced that that, though she DID have ONE cat.

Another critic said that John should have figured out that Doris was romantically interested in him. I don’t believe that AT ALL. Doris had been, in many ways, all but invisible.

Doris was working in a dead end job, staying in town to take care of her mother, whose funeral pretty much starts the film. She was cast in the caretaker role for years, delaying her own dreams.

I recommend Hello, My Name Is Doris. There were some laughs, and a couple groans, but more than that, a hint of recognition of people I know in real life in the title character.

Movie review: Eddie the Eagle

Eddie the Eagle is one of those “feel good” stories, like Cool Runnings

eddie-the-eagle-official-posterThe Wife and I saw Eddie the Eagle, the movie about British Winter Olympics athlete Michael “Eddie” Edwards, back in late February at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany.

It’s the story about a boy with a dream to be in the Olympics, much to the disdain of his father. Because of childhood illness and/or injuries, Eddie (Taron Egerton) doesn’t have the skills to do the Summer Games sports and is eventually cut from the Olympic ski team.

With the support of his mother, Eddie travels to Germany to see if he can become a ski jumper. He, almost literally, runs into Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman), a former ski jumper who now works as a snowplow driver who holds his liquor quite well. He too dismisses Eddie’s dream but eventually changes his mind.

This is one of those “feel good” stories, like Cool Runnings, the movie about the unlikely Jamaican bobsled team, the story of which is briefly mentioned. My favorite thing about seeing Eddie the Eagle in the movie theater is this brief snippet of dialogue with Egerton and Jackman thanking us for seeing the film in a cinema.

My maybe-it’s-a-problem is that it so uses the caveat that the story, while based on a real guy, is largely fiction. For me, the story is compelling primarily if he had to win over the British sports establishment, other athletes, the fans, the totally fictional Peary, and especially Eddie’s father. Reading the Wikipedia entry about the athlete, it’s a very different narrative.

More distracting is this book that Eddie carried around with the face of Peary’s former coach, Warren Sharp. The guy on the cover looked very much like Christopher Walken. And, of course, eventually, we meet Sharp, who of course IS played by Walken.

Eddie the Eagle works much of the time. My wife liked it more than I, but I think it’d not be a waste of time to see it as a rental.

Movie review- Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Some guy I follow on Facebook gave out a big reveal from The Force Awakens in late January. Ticked me off,

I said it’d be a cold day in February before I’d bother to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Well, the Saturday of Presidents Day weekend started out at 10 degrees F (-12C) and DROPPED during the day. Then there was the wind, which made it considerably worse.
star wars 7
This was the opportunity for the Daughter to see her first Star Wars film, at the nearby Madison Theatre. She’s actually a better gauge of this film than I, although she seemed to know plot points and background better than her mother, who had seen the original trilogy. I too saw the first three, which is now the middle three, though not in many years. I may have seen the original film on video once subsequently, but probably not the others.

I also saw the first prequel, which bored me silly, a greater sin to me than whether Jar Jar Binks was a stereotype. It kept me from seeing #2 or #3, and I’m unfamiliar with the various items in the interregnum, such as Clone Wars.

Some guy I follow on Facebook gave out a big reveal from The Force Awakens in late January, assuming, incorrectly, that anyone who was going to see this film had already done so. Ticked me off, and ruined some of the suspense.

For me, the fact that the leads, Daisy Ridley as Rey and John Boyega as Finn, with the help of Oscar Isaac as Poe, held my interest until Han Solo and Chewbacca show up; that’s not much of a spoiler, as they appear in the trailer, and the poster. And they were well-developed characters in their own right.

The geek controversy over the black stormtrooper – aren’t they all replicants, or something, blah, blah – I found…[yawn]…sorry, what was I about to say? Oh, that those folks stressed about a female lead are just…hmm. Anyway, whatever. I did like Oscar Issac, whose character was SO depressing in Inside Llewyn Davis.

How do I feel about the politics of J.J. Abrams’ essentially a variation on the original theme, designed to make lots of money for Disney, especially with the next episode nicely set up? At some level, I suppose I’m a tad bothered by it. But it’s a tsunami. In its ninth week, it’s still the seventh leading film for the weekend. It cost $200 million but grossed $900 million domestically, and over $1.1 BILLION in the foreign market.

More to the point, I got sufficiently sucked up in the story to want to see the next chapter.

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