"I am going to die surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy"

Hello :-)

Marvel are the bookends of the 2014 blockbuster season. They kicked things off in April with ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ and now they’re wrapping it up with ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’.

‘Guardians…’ follows five outlaws in a fight to save the planet of Xandar from a band of rebel aliens. After scavenger Peter Quill aka Starlord (Chris Pratt) steals a mysterious orb he finds a bounty on his head put there by space pirate Yondu (Michael Rooker). Super Assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana) is sent after Starlord to retrieve the orb by Kree rebel leader and azure nutjob Ronan (Lee Pace).

That all seems like a paint-by-numbers search for the MacGuffin and it’s hard not to make it sound like that when you’re laying out the basics of the plot. Thankfully Marvel, in their infinite wisdom, have made ‘Guardians…’ much more than that.

There is a quite a lot of setting up elements that will be tied into the Marvel Cinematic Universe at a later date but it’s done in a super fun way. In fact everything about this film is super fun. It’s got the same irreverent humour as the Iron Man movies and Marvel seems to be relishing their reputation as the perky yang to DC’s moody yin.

It’s gorgeous to look at as well. In terms of colour it reminded me of the opening scenes of ‘Finding Nemo’ when Nemo is on the back of Mr Ray with his class mates. The sheer amount of colour and vibrancy in each frame just adds to this fairground of a movie.

Although rumour has it that (and if the recent Ant Man furore is anything to go by) Marvel like to keep their Directors on a tight leash, it must be said that James Gunn’s name is printed through the centre of ‘Guardians…’ like a stick of rock. I’m a fan of his previous output and it’s lovely to see that he’s been able to channel his brand of humour into this project.

Another pleasant surprise is how even handed the film is with its characters. The film’s focus could so easily have been Starlord and whilst he is a major player, Gunn hasn’t short changed the other four Guardians.

The performances are fantastic across the board. Chris Pratt continues on his upward career trajectory as Peter Quill. With a gorgeous mix of charm and arrogance if you aren’t a bit in love with him now, you will be by the end of the film.

Zoe Saldana is great as Gamora. I did start to panic when the film appeared to be taking her character in a particularly clichéd direction but thankfully they didn’t go through with it. Her being pitched against Nebula is nice and their final fight scene is fantastic.

A pleasant surprise is Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer. As a Professional Wrestler, I wasn’t expecting much but Bautista puts in a good show with a nicely deadpan, fantastically physical performance.

Stealing the show is the wonderful tag team of Rocket and Groot. Many (including myself) had doubts about Bradley Cooper’s casting as the voice of Rocket but he’s brilliant. Consistently getting the best gags there’s also another level to the character that’s surprisingly poignant, not bad going for an anthropomorphic Raccoon. Groot managed to steal the heart of everyone in the screening I attended, in spite of his limited vocabulary. If you have children to buy for this Christmas be prepared to be buying a fair amount of Groot based merchandise.

There’s a lovely set up to Thanos as the big bad with Ronan as his underling, in a way not too dissimilar to the Chitauri and Loki in ‘The Avengers’. I’m enjoying this Puppet Master approach to the character and it’ll be good to see how Taneleer Tivan aka The Collector fits into the jigsaw too.

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ is a riot. Super fun but not at the expense of character development, this film is the love child of Star Wars and Indiana Jones with a liberal helping of R-rated language. This is a much over used phrase but ‘Guardians…’ really is a game-changer, expanding Marvel’s horizons beyond our own pale blue dot and into the stars.

 And, you know, a foul mouthed Raccoon shooting guns… what’s not to love?!?!

After that fun lets have some

Reasons to be cheerful :-)

1. Frozen are getting an animated short due out in 2015! For those who can’t wait for a second dose of Arendelle it looks like you’ll be getting it in Spring next year :-)

2. Teaser Trailer for Agents of Shield Series 2! I’m beside myself waiting to find out what’s happened to Fitz…

3. New characterposters are out for Mockingjay Part 1. They’re all very dark and moody but if you’re anything like me your first thought is “OH MY GOD IT’S FULTON REED!” (Fulton Reed of the Mighty Ducks was my first childhood crush!)

That’s all for today :-)

Goodbye till Next time!

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"There's only one guy in this world who can save us! There's only one frog who can restore order, bring justice, and set things right!"

Hello :-)

We all know I’m a huge Muppets fan and, following 2011’s comeback film ‘The Muppets’ I was eagerly awaiting this year’s follow up ‘Muppets: Most Wanted’. I recently re-watched the film on a flight to Greece and it's currently out on DVD and Blu-Ray so here are my thoughts :-)

We rejoin our felty friends exactly where we left them at the end of ‘The Muppets’. The gang hear they’ve been given a sequel and decide to capitalise on this with a world tour at the suggestion of their new manager Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais). The Muppets unwittingly get involved in a crime spree which leads to Kermit having his identity stolen by the world’s biggest criminal and getting locked up in a Russian gulag.

I’ve been back and watched ‘The Muppets’ many times since I first saw it and, as I said in my original post, the ending is a a problem. Also the ‘Maniacal Laugh’ gag that runs throughout just doesn’t work; there’s no set up to it and, like I said, the ending is so rushed they gloss over the resolution that the bowling ball to the head actually cured Tex Richman of his inability to laugh. But still, flawed as it is, I love it. With this in mind, it’s quite a statement to say that I think ‘Muppets: Most Wanted’ is on a par with, if not slightly better than it’s predecessor.

The main sea change is a shift in terms of human involvement from the first film to this one. Where ‘The Muppets’ was quite Gary and Mary-centric, in this film we deal almost entirely with the Muppets. This puts me in mind of the original Henson films, all of which were Muppet led and I love that.

There is a raft of brilliant cameos. At times it does feel a bit like you’re playing a live action version of Where’s Wally but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

The three main human presences are Ricky Gervais’s Dominic Badguy (it’s pronounced Badge-ey…), Tina Fey’s Gulag officer Nadya and Ty Burrell as Jean Pierre Napoleon, a French Interpol inspector who works with CIA agent Sam Eagle on finding Constantine.

Fey is dealt a bit of a bum deal, she gets a pretty decent song but other than that she isn’t really left with much to do. Gervais is an admitted Muppet fanboy and you can see the joy in his face from start to finish. My favourite is Ty Burrell. Jean Pierre (a role originally meant for Christoph Waltz) is brilliant and his scenes with Sam Eagle are highlights in a film full of chuckles.

The songs are all strong and, importantly, all original. Admittedly there's nothing here as life affirming as 'Life's a Happy Song', as heart wrenching as 'Pictures in My Head' or as potentially award winning as 'Man or Muppet' but how can you not love a song called "I'll Get You What You Want (Cockatoo in Malibu)"?

The film is a machine gun of gags, firing one after another; as with the previous film it doesn’t matter if one of them doesn’t land because there’ll be another one along almost straight away for you. There’s also something for everyone. If you thought the ‘Fart Shoes’ gag in the last film was the peak of comedy there’ll be something in here for you, if it’s jokes about French stereotypes and the European working times directive, we’ve got you covered too.

The song says “everybody knows the sequel's never quite as good” but if that is the case I don’t think anyone’s told James Bobin. There’s slightly less heart-string tugging here but that hole is filled by some classic comedy and an increase in Muppet screentime.

With disappointing box office figures it’ll be interesting to see where the future of the Muppets is heading. Nicholas Stoller and James Bobin have both expressed an interest in returning to write (and in Bobin’s case direct) a third instalment to this reboot but there has also been talk of the Muppets returning to their televisual roots. Either way I’m interested to see the Muppets “do it all again…”

Now I fancy some…

Reasons to be Cheerful :-)

San Diego Comic Con happened the other week so there’s been a rush of news heading out from California and stuff being released to coincide with the biggest dates in popular culture. Here are some of my favourite titbits.

1. Teaser Trailer for Mockingjay! For those who haven’t read the books ‘Mockingjay’ is a massive departure from the previous two Hunger Games instalments. It’s the most political book and structurally it’s completely different. Some love it, some hate it; I’m in the former group. I must admit I had my reservations when I found out they were going to split the book in two and I am still a little bit anxious that the film is going to be a bit bottom heavy in terms of action. I guess we’ll have to wait and see :-)

2. First picture of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman has emerged. I quite like it as far as female Superhero costumes go. Yes, it’s a bit Xena but then Xena itself was influenced by Wonder Woman so I suppose, to borrow an adage, pop culture will eat itself. I have issues with female superhero costumes in general, the lack of material, the impracticalities of a strapless/plunging neckline and don't even get me started on high heels, that can wait for another time…

3. New posters, images and a Trailer for 'Horns'. This looks super interesting! I like the idea (it sounds like a gothic take on the Green Clarinet sketch from 'That Mitchell and Webb Look') , I like the posters and obviously I like the central casting of Daniel Radcliffe very much looking forward to this :-)

4. Finally we’ve had the first posters from ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ and they’re pretty sexy! They all join together to make one big banner (how very apt) which you can pour over in great detail here.

The plot sounds exciting, something we haven’t really hit upon before in a Superhero movie. The notion that the world is pretty big and six people in snazzy suits are going to have a tough time policing it. I’m looking forward to it, we’re all looking forward to it. Bring on Earth’s mightiest heroes :-)

That’s everything for today!

Goodbye till next time :-)

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"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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"Royalty. Nobility. Gentry. How quaint. Even the rabble."

Hello :-)

With the success of 2010’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and a touch of bandwagon jumping following ‘Mirror Mirror’, ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ and the Theatre success of ‘Wicked’, the House of Mouse has decided to come at one of their classics from a different, live action, angle and tell the story of ‘Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of the antagonist in ‘Maleficent’.

I’m not going to insult your intelligence because we all know the story; Evil fairy curses baby to prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die on her 16th birthday… or does she? What ‘Maleficent’ tries to do is give you a bit of backstory around our titular fairy and show the ‘true’ version of events.

From what I can see this film has polarised people; I have friends who love it with a passion but I know others that wouldn’t give it the time of day. Maybe it was because it was Saturday morning or maybe it was because there was a group of teenagers in my screening who literally talked from start to finish (and I mean LITERALLY), but I just didn’t get it.

It would be remiss of me (a dyed in the wool feminist) to totally dismiss a fantasy-adventure film with a female lead. I realise this is a step forward in terms of female-led cinema and Angelina  Jolie is on top form; if you are looking for a reason to go see ‘Maleficent’ she is it. The fact that this exists is a big deal for gender equality but creatively... not so much.

The trouble is this film is a massive pin in the balloon of Maleficent’s wrath. One of the reasons she works so well in ‘Sleeping Beauty’ is because she arrives ex nihilo. No real motive for what she does and then BOOM… cursed baby. If you wanted to compare her to anyone she’d be Disney’s ‘Joker’; doing stuff for the hell of it “to watch the world burn”.

What ‘Maleficent’ does is take the spiky horn hat adorning the posters and cover it in bubble wrap. Every hard edge the character has had been buffed into nothing. They’ve reinvented the character, that much is true, but to what end? To make her an example of how to get revenge on your ex-boyfriend? That’s like taking a Direwolf and teaching it to dance so you can enter Britain’s Got Talent’. We all know that If there was ever a character in this fairy-tale that needed a revamp it’s the Princess herself but sadly that hasn’t happened.

Speaking of the Princess, aside from Jolie, the cast is a bit flat. I suspect a lot of the other character’s development was lost to the cutting room floor but you really struggle to care when ‘Maleficent’ has no foil for the titular character. Instead there’s the tragically two dimensional, friend-to-the-animals Princess, histrionic Sharlto Copley (WEIRDEST. ACCENT. EVER) as King Stefan and the utterly useless Prince Phillip (Brenton Thwaites). Add to that the über irritating three pixies and there really isn’t anyone else to care about.

Technically it passes muster, I quite like how it looked. The animals and such all had a super cartoonish, candy-floss sweet look to them, which, in a world of tree giants and fairies, works fine for me. The Pixies, however, are a different matter. Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple and Lesley Manville are poorly served both in writing and visuals. The character design for the pixies is vomit inducing and all the while I wanted a giant something-or-other to come in and squish them.

‘Maleficent’ is not for me. I recognise it’s a big deal in the context of female representation in cinema but, as a film fan, that isn’t enough to recommend it. It’s like the producers have a tent but unfortunately only one, Angelina Jolie shaped, pole with which to prop it up.

‘Maleficent’ is still in cinemas if you want to catch it.

Now let’s have some…

Reasons to be Cheerful :-)

1. I know I’m a bit obsessed but OMG GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY! Here’s another TV spot and I love it. I just love it :-)

2. Just released yesterday it’s the first teaser trailer from ‘Mockingjay Part 1’. Deeply sinister and then OMFG!!!!!!!! Just watch it and you’ll see what I mean…

3. Louise Brealey joins Ripper Street series 3! YAY!!! God I love Molly Hooper. This is excellent news. As much as I love MyAnna Buring as Susan and Leanne Best as Jane Cobden the show needs some more awesome girls! I’m very excited about Ripper Street series 3!

That’s all for now!

Good bye till next time :-)

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