Movie Reviews By Movie Reviews Pro

 

 

Beginners

Rating:

Movie: Beginners (2011)

Studio : Olympus Pictures

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 105 min

Website : beginnersmovie.com

Rating : R

Trailer :
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xgs7j6

Review:

This is a tale of the relationship between a father Hal (Christopher Plummer) and his son Oliver (Ewan McGregor) and their strong bond that is broken when Hal dies of terminal cancer and Oliver is left to contemplate how life will go on without him. He relives the lives they shared, the good times and the bad, and the fact that his father was gay, even though he’d stayed married to his mother until she died. The loss had left him empty inside, but when he meets a French actress (Melanie Laurent), who has had just as much of a hard life, they use their shared tribulations to find new life in each other. Read more…

Drama, In Theaters, Limited, Romance beginners, christopher plummer, death, Drama, ewan mcgregor, Family, homosexuality, melanie laurent, r

Alice in Wonderland

Rating:

Movie: Alice in Wonderland (2010)

Studio : Paramount Pictures

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 108 min

Website : aliceinwonderland

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcevm5

Review:

Roger Ebert was the person who got me started reviewing movies for my middle school newspaper. In preparing for my reviews, I usually read his, and he came to an epiphany about Alice in Wonderland: Lewis Carroll didn’t write it for children. As I watched the film, I reflected back to when I was six years old, when I first saw the film. I remembered being completely confused throughout the film and somewhat frightened when Alice was being chased by the Queen and her mob of cards (I also thought back to why my friends and I were so fascinated by it during college). As I write this review, I realize Tim Burton was the perfect candidate to direct this version, which plays like a tripped-out nightmare (which Carroll’s story essentially is).

This version starts off with little Alice having just returned from Wonderland, being comforted by her father. We quickly cut to Alice at age 19 (likably played by Mia Wasikowska), who is about to enter an arranged marriage with Hamish Ascot, a total doofus (Leo Bill). Rightfully afraid of the monotonous life that awaits her, she flees in the middle of the ceremony and chases another white rabbit down a hole. Two seconds later, she’s back in Underland and off on a new adventure.

The visual elements here are amazing, as is characteristic of Burton. Bonham Carter has (literally) taken on a swelled head for the role of the vengeful, jealous Red Queen, and Tweedledee and Tweedledum are complete grotesques. Burton also gives this world a very dark-looking tone, which is actually even more fitting for the story than the generally pleasant-looking one of the 1951 animated version.

Burton mainstay Tim Burton gives the Mad Hatter (who turns out to be an instrumental ally in Alice’s quest) a third dimension. The story, while slow in spots, picks up when Alice is thrust into a war between the Red Queen and her sister, the benevolent White Queen (Anne Hathaway). There’s also one memorable exchange between Carter and Hathaway that allows us to peer into the mind of the evil Red Queen and infer how she came to be the creature that she is.

I enjoyed the movie, but I’ll warn parents of very young children that this is only for ages 8 and up. A very young child left the theater with his mother, in tears at one of the more violent sequences. However, in a few years, the kid probably will be enthralled by it, as will the parents.

-Craig Wynne

Adventure, Family, Fantasy Adventure, Alice in Wonderland, Family, Fantasy, tim burton

The Princess and The Frog

Rating:

Movie: The Princess and The Frog(2009)

Studio : Walt Disney Animation Studios

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 97 min

Website : disney.go.com/disneypictures/princessandthefrog/

Trailer :
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xaghsp

Review:

Set in New Orleans (or “N’awlins” if you’re a local), Disney’s newest “Princess” is anything but that. Tiana is not a girl who makes demands but fulfills them. She is a workaholic who loves her parents enough to make it all she ever thinks about. Her goal is not a fantastic dream, but the American dream: starting her own restaurant where the world will come and acknowledge her late father’s cuisine.

Her foil is a prince who is comparable to the villainous Gaston from Beauty and The Beast. As royalty, he cares only to entertain himself, and to woo women. When he is cut from his parent’s fortune with an ultimatum to marry into a rich family, he immediately accepts until he encounters a Shadowman (voodoo magician) with plans of his own. It is only their adventure along the way that slowly lets these two understand what they actually wanted and needed in life.

This film is so different from what you would expect out of Disney that I consider it a welcome surprise. One point I particularly like to point out is Tiana’s best friend Charlotte, who is not only someone who shares a mutual friendship with her, but is not the rival you would expect these kind of movies would shape her into. Even more surprising, there is actually a subtle suggestion of racism from one of the characters that gets in the way of Tiana’s dream. To be frank, even the idea of an interracial relationship may not seem very daring these days to a generation that grew up past Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever, but in my eyes it’s another surprise from a conservative company like Disney.

Originally, I was led to believe that this film was going to be totally cel-drawn, but then found out that it was not totally done that way, and I’m glad. There are certain scenes in the film that could only be done with CGI without looking messy. That aside, everything about this film melds together and you really feel this tapestry of N’awlins as you are guided along.

After dealing with a lineup of films that included such awful ideas like an endless torrent of Dwayne Johnson movies and show-inspired teeny bopper fodder, I am glad Disney has finally come to their senses and brought something not only a little more daring, but something that everyone can enjoy for once that doesn’t have a Pixar logo on it.

-Donald Lee

Animation, Family, In Theaters 2009, animated film, daring disney films, disney, Family, princess, princess & the frog, return to Disney's roots

Ponyo

Rating:

Movie: Ponyo (2009)

Studio : Studio Ghibli

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 103min

Website : disney.go.com/disneypictures/ponyo

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9nxls

Review:

Ponyo is the name of a fish that escapes to the world of men and befriends a young boy, Sosuke, who lives in a harbor town. Ponyo’s father disagrees with her interacting with the world of man and tries to stop her, and what results is a sort of modern fairy tale of young love.

It seems that after Studio Gibli mastered the use of integrating cgi into animation, Ponyo returns to an emphasis on hand-drawn cel animation. You can tell the difference from the unpolished feel of the art that makes it feel more homey and even enhances the storybook feel in certain parts.

I applaud the effort, but at the same time it feels like the animators have been out of touch with this medium for quite some time. While there are some amazing scenes that I am impressed at, a lot of the basic animation is, well… really basic! There is almost no consideration for integrating the characters with their backgrounds, and this difference becomes distracting. I may sound like I am being harsh on Miyazaki’s vision here, but compare this film to his earlier work like, say, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and you can tell that the same crack team that made such a detailed and interactive world is not there this time around.

For a story there really is not much of a tale here, either. There is a dramatic push in the film for some sort of climax, and it never really gets there. That’s fine that a film of this nature should have no sense of emergency, but the “danger” inherent in the story seems tacked on. Add this with an ending that feels rushed and you have one of the weaker films of the Miyazaki legacy.

Still, this may just be a stepping stone for him to return to those days in the past. His approach may have even been the encouragement behind Disney’s work on their newly anticipated film The Frog Princess, which touts a return to hand-drawn cel animation and so far looks visually stunning. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing Miyazaki’s next project in the hopes that he really pushes his vision back into this old medium.

-Donald Lee

Adventure, Animation, Family, Fantasy Adventure, Animation, Family, Fantasy, Hayao Miyazaki, ponyo