"This is Berk. Life here is amazing. Dragons used to be a bit of a problem. But now they've all moved in."

Hello :-)

It is a truth, not universally acknowledged, that Children’s films aren’t easy things to get right. The perception is that you can churn out any old crap, slap a anthropomorphic critter on it and the kids’ll lap it up, but this isn't (and never has been) the case. 

Whilst it may appear that a children’s film is popular at the box office, the proof of the pudding is re-watch value. This is something the original ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ has in spades. With the success of the original, DreamWorks have ordered a sequel in the form of ‘How To Train Your Dragon 2’ (HTTYD2).

Five years have passed since the events of the first film, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is now 20 years old and wrestling with the pressure put on him by his Father Stoick (Gerard Butler) to take over as Chief of Berk. On top of that Hiccup and his dragon Toothless find themselves faced with Dragon trapper Eret Son of Eret (Kit Harrington), the terrifying Drago Bludvist (Djimon Hounsou) hell bent on creating his own Dragon Army and the enigmatic, mysterious Valka (Cate Blanchett).

It’s been four years since Hiccup and Toothless first graced our screens and in a world where film sequels get churned out in less time than it takes for a new series of Sherlock to make an appearance, a four year gap is a nice thing. 

It’s also proof that if your characters are good enough, on their return, it’s going to feel like they haven’t been away. It’s true that Hiccup has ‘Longbottomed’ but the central relationship and fully realised personalities of the characters make HTTYD2 comfortingly familiar.

The brilliant thing about HTTYD2 is that it has grown with it’s audience but still has enough to satisfy new viewers. There are still things to laugh at (the sheep basketball in particular) but overall the themes are more mature, the film tackles bigger issues like identity and duty to your family, the stakes are higher and the action scenes are bigger. However none of this has been done for the sake of it. The wonderful thing about the HTTYD series is it feels like the creative tem have a genuine affection for the story, characters and aren't doing things just because it’s a sequel and they have a bigger budget.

The voice cast is strong. I'm not overly keen on him in other things but I really like Gerard Butler as Stoick the Vast. Cate Blanchett as Valka is just the right level of affectionate whilst maintaining an air of mystique. Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse .J. Miller and Kristen Wiig as Snotlout, Fishlegs Tuffnut and Ruffnut bring the funnies as Hiccup’s Dragon rider friends. Sadly America Ferrera as Astrid doesn't have a great deal to do but the interplay with her and Hiccup is lovely to behold and a depiction of a healthy relationship between equal partners is never something to be sniffed at.

Anchoring the story is Jay Baruchel’s Hiccup. He is such a brilliant lead, especially for children. He favours diplomacy over violence, he has a disability but doesn't let it hold him back (also, points to the inhabitants of Berk because no one treats him differently because of it) and he has an unwavering faith in his best friend.

Toothless is another fully rounded character, despite the fact he can’t talk. I just love his character design, he’s gorgeous.

You will be unsurprised to hear that the utterly beautiful visuals are, in part, down to the inimitable Roger Deakins, who serves here as Visual Consultant. In short, it’s god damn stunning. Slightly off topic for a moment but WTF Academy?!?! 11 nominations and the man hasn’t won one Oscar. SORT. IT.OUT.

Combining familiarity with the new, action with more emotional moments and maintaining the likeability of it’s characters, HTTYD2 succeeds where countless children’s films (let alone sequels to children’s films) have failed. Knockout visuals, effective emotional punches and inherent charm puts HTTYD2 up there with ‘The Lego Movie’ as one of the best children’s films of the year. I can’t wait for the third instalment.

Right, let’s have a look at some...

Reasons to be Cheerful :-)

1. Sherlock is returning with a one off special and a new series! Four whole episodes… good lord BBC you are spoiling us. Don’t get too excited though, Martin Freeman let slip that the special was due to air at Christmas 2015 (presumably the series proper will air in 2016) so we’ve got a whole 18 months to wait. Oh well, my box sets will sustain me till then!

2. Speaking of Benedict Cumberbatch, the new teaser trailer for the Alan Turing biopic ‘The Imitation Game’ is out and it looks bloody good. Turing is a fascinating man who was hideously mistreated at the hands of the law. It seems as if the film is going to delve into his homosexuality conviction and some other key periods of his life so I'm really interested to see if they do justice to the memory of this brilliant man. If you're interested on reading up on Turing before the film comes out you should definitely read 'Alan Turing: The Enigma' by Andrew Hodges, it's really good.

3. And finally my crush on Chris Pratt has reached new heights when I discovered he can do French plaits…

That’s all for today!

Goodbye till next time :-)

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“The Koreans bought the church back, so we had to move across the street... to 22 Jump Street.”

Hello :-)

‘Self-aware sequels’ is a micro-millimetre away from being its own sub-genre. With ‘Muppets Most Wanted’ having paved the way in March (my post about which is going up prior to the DVD release in August), now comes ’22 Jump Street’ from the creative duo, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.

We pick up where 21 Jump Street left off. Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are assigned by Deputy Chief Hardy (Nick Offerman) back on the Jump Street program to work for Captain Dickson (Ice Cube), now located across the street at 22 Jump Street. Their assignment is to go undercover as college students and locate the supplier of a drug known as "WHYPHY" that killed a student on campus.

’22 Jump Street’ works for exactly the same reasons its predecessor does; the chemistry between it’s leads is great, the script is brilliant and it’s just so bloody funny.

Kudos to Michael Bacall for another script that provides its fair share of laughs (I’d expect nothing less than from a man who had a hand in the screenplay for ‘Scott Pilgrim Vs the World’). It’s fun, it’s snappy, it keeps you entertained, everything you could want in a screenplay.

As with ‘Muppets Most Wanted’, ’22 Jump Street’ sets its stall out pretty early on. With perfect deadpan delivery Nick Offerman tells Schmidt and Jenko how “this department has invested a lot of money to make sure Jump Street keeps going.” From then on the film is stuffed full of thinly veiled references to the nature of sequels, franchises and studio interference.

On paper this looks like it would get dull pretty quickly but it doesn’t as we’re all in on the joke. It might be meta but nothing is ever throw-away or arch; Lord and Miller spend as much care and attention on bringing the in-joke funnies as they do on the charming central relationship.

Although the central draw is the rapport of Hill and Tatum we are treated to some nice supporting performances. Jillian Bell is a new addition to the cast as Schmidt’s love interest’s bitchy roommate, Wyatt Russell (son of Kurt) appears as Zook, Jenko’s new jock friend but it’s the expanded, super-angry role of Captain Dickson (Ice Cube) that really had me giggling.

The glue that binds is the joint strength of Hill and Tatum. Hill builds on a filmography that boasts both critical plaudits and commercial success, his neurotic nice guy shtick is fun throughout. As for Tatum, he is never better than when he is in these movies. Physically he can carry off the action involved in a film like this but crucially, he’s so likable. It’s this than makes me think that ‘Chambit’ isn’t the casting balls up that people initially thought…

It’s not a perfect film, but then neither was it’s predecessor. It’s a touch too long (although I wouldn’t cut the credits sequence for the world) and unfortunately Rob Riggle’s character is still there, albeit in only one scene. I’ve not yet been sold on Rob Riggle’s style, he tends to play the same kind of character in everything and it’s not a character I like very much…

All the way through the film treads the line between low and highbrow, never staying too far into either sphere. The action scenes are fabulously OTT and although ’22 Jump Street’ is treading a lot of the same ground as ’21 Jump Street’ the good-natured knowing humour laced throughout stops the film feeling like it’s predecessor’s left overs and more like a meal in it’s own right.

’22 Jump Street’ has something for all kinds of comedy lovers. If it’s snappy dialogue, childish comedy, in-jokes about the film industry or good old fashioned slapstick that you love, there is something here for you. Lord and Miller are at the top of their game and based on this evidence, no one is going to de-throne them as the Kings of Modern Comedy any time soon.

Right, I fancy some…

Reasons to be Cheerful :-)

1. Just the one RTBC today :-)
You may or may not know that one of my favourite shows, Community, was cancelled by NBC earlier this year much to my distress. However, at the 11th hour, when all seemed lost, Yahoo Screen (Yahoo’s streaming service) and Sony TV have done a deal for 13 more episodes to be helmed by the show’s creator Dan Harmon. This is enough of a reason to keep me cheerful for the rest of this year but the fact this was announced ON MY BIRTHDAY makes it all the sweeter :-) #SixSeasonsAndAMovie

So that’s all for today!

Goodbye till next time :-)

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