Category Archives: Anika Goes to the Movies

Anika Goes to the Movies: Into The Woods

Posted on by

0

MV5BMTY4MzQ4OTY3NF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNjM5MDI3MjE@._V1_SX214_AL_

Quick review: 2/5 stars- Um, yeah. Roughly two hours of semi-painful, not really PG rated broadway oddness. Definitely wait for the Redbox or skip entirely. All you are missing is Meryl Streep.

All the spoilers ahead are part of a spoilers union. You don’t want to anger them with comments regarding their presence.

This was awful. I have seen the full video version of the original broadway cast with Bernadette Peters. And that was fun. It was also not for children.

But let’s start with the few redeeming factors. Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, and James Cordon did some excellent acting. And Daniel Huttlestone (you might remember him as Gavroche from Les Miserables in 2012) who played the boy Jack did a fantastic job. The music wasn’t terrible most of the time, though let’s face it Jonny Depp can’t really sing, and Chris Pine lip-syncing himself wasn’t great. Also the cinematography and the CG stuff was lovely. It was visually interesting to say the least, though occasionally claustrophobic since, you know, they are in the woods all the time.

Other than that. . . this is not a PG movie. I had seen the headlines floating around that Disney had seriously tamed this down, and in some respects they did. But they obviously pushed this through to get the audience they wanted. None of the violence is visual or graphic, but people still die and get blinded and have bits of their feet cut off. They cut out Rapunzel’s pregnancy, but not the Prince and the Baker’s Wife’s infidelity. One man, supposedly a good guy, knowingly kisses another man’s wife. And of course, the song where she waxes philosophical about whether or not it was wrong stayed as well. Not sure about y’all, but I usually think of PG as 7yrs and up. There is no way that anyone under the age of 13 should be exposed to the concept of infidelity in a movie, let alone in a fairytale context. (Yes, I understand there are kids in the real world that have to deal with their parent’s immoral choices all the time, and that PG means parental guidance is suggested, but I’m glad I didn’t take my 8 year old with me to the PG Disney movie today, and that should say something.)

Furthermore, the acting styles of the various players just don’t mix. You have Anna Kendrick playing Cinderella with some real sincerity and then Chris Pine is the hokiest prince of all time. The song, “Agony” is agony to watch on the big screen. Jonny Depp’s adaptation of the wolf, while intentionally a mix of woodland and neighborhood predator, is just skin-crawlingly creepy. There is so much about this movie that on the big screen is just uncomfortable rather than comedic.

Marrying a musical to the cinematic screen is a tough business. You either have to give it a definitively “on stage” feel so that the music and the campy theater stuff doesn’t feel out of place, or you have to scrap that and find a way to make the music meld into a film setting. And frankly, the last movie I can think of that did it well was the 2005 version of Rent.

And this is just a personal thing, but I forgot how repetitive the lyrics are in this one. Don’t get me wrong they are rather clever most of the time, but after two hours of awkward disappointment I got a headache from the singsongy style and the word repetition.

I know this film is up for awards. Whatever. It didn’t work for me. It neither did what is was meant to do as the play did, bringing real moral questions to some of these fairytale stories, nor did it mellow enough to be a fun twist on the originals for most of the family.

My overall response to the Christmas movie today: Bah! Humbug!!

But better things are coming I promise. I got The Hundred-Foot Journey on DVD. So next time Anika Goes to the Movies in her living room, there will be a really happy review.

Anika Goes to the Movies: Big Hero 6

Posted on by

0

MV5BMjI4MTIzODU2NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMjE0NDAwMjE@._V1_SY317_CR0,0,214,317_AL_

Yes, I know this one is late. We went to see it on Thanksgiving. I took my oldest (8yrs) and my nephew(6yrs I think) and it was all the fun! Also for anyone hoping to see a review of Mockingjay, I remind you, I don’t review books. And since I have read the book, I won’t be reviewing the movie. Sorry. Anyway, back to. . .

Quick rating: 4.5/5 stars Super Cute!! Super nerdy! I will probably pre-order and wait by the mailbox with baited breath. You know, for the kids. <_<  >_>

All my reviews contain spoilers. You have been warned.

Hiro is adorable! And sarcastic. And fun! And his brother Tadashi is thoughtful and brilliant and kind of epic in the superhero type way. Except, you know, he dies. Within the first third of the movie. I knew that going in and my kid handles that sort of thing really well, but I forgot about his cousin. Being a little younger and not being someone I get to hang out with often, I wasn’t as sure about him. So when the unthinkable happened I looked over at my nephew to see how he was handling it. He seemed to do ok, but I did have to explain to his mom that someone died and she might want to talk to him about it. But if you have really sensitive kiddos, or really young kiddos that haven’t dealt much with death yet, maybe you wait to watch this one, yeah?

Anyway, Baymax is about the cutest character I have ever seen. I want an oversized plush with a warmer so that I too can spoon a giant warm marshmallow. Get on it Disney! He is the embodiment of compassion and courage. There is nothing he won’t do, except hurt people, for Hiro’s wellbeing.

The voice acting was nuanced and well done, the morals were good (though one of the characters who is a jerk gets off with barely the trauma of someone trying to kill him), and the animation was wicked cool. And the story was smart without trying too hard. But I think the good guy turns bad guy thing was a little overplayed. And while the Hiro’s nerd friends-turned-super-heroes are great, the real hero of the movie is Tadashi. But he’s dead. It’s frustrating. And it illustrates one of my biggest frustrations with pop culture representations of the good guy. Why can’t the good guy just be the man making a robot that can act as a personal health companion. It’s brilliant, and as Tadashi says to Baymax, “You are going to help a lot of people.” I get that this doesn’t make for the most exciting story telling, and I am really happy that they included someone like Tadashi in such a glowing light. But in the end Baymax still has to be outfitted with armor and made to learn karate in order to be “heroic.” If a sequel is forthcoming, then I want to see Baymax saving the day with his compassion and his medical capacities more.

Of course, as a story teller I wanted more. More of the back story. What happened to their parents? How does Hiro go from traumatized kid to genius? There is just a ton there that I would love to know. And there are gaps, big old science doesn’t work like that gaps.  This is after all a kids movie so the story arch is more important than little details about how AI and inter-dimensional travel would really work. You just go with it. Ironically, in the movie you have the genius characters telling their mascot friend Steve, that his requests for on command animal transformations, etc. are not science.

Overall I loved it. If you haven’t taken your kids to see it (ages 6 and up), DO IT!! I hope they do a sequel, but not in the grand tradition of Disney sequels that suck rocks. Let’s break that mold this time guys, what do you say?

Happy watching ’til the next time Anika Goes to the Movies!

 

Anika Goes to the Movies: Interstellar

Posted on by

0

MV5BMjIxNTU4MzY4MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMzM4ODI3MjE@._V1_SX214_AL_

Technically, the title should have been Intergalactic. But I suppose Interstellar is technically correct, too.

Quick rating: Somewhere between 3.25 and 4 stars/5 depending on the portion of the movie. It was long. REALLY long. But some of it was really good. So I’m glad I saw it on the big screen, but I’m not going back for seconds, either in the theater or at home.

In complete antithesis to the movie this one is quick. The movie is worth the long sit through. Really wonderful in terms of provoking thought and playing with science and realistic future hardships. And just conceptually wow. Really. Wow.

Execution is not terrible. I didn’t even hate Anne Hathaway one time (a first for me since Devil Wears Prada). Matthew McConaughey is great. That is almost always true, but this time it really is. I didn’t find Casey Affleck annoying. A pleasant surprise. And really the whole cast was pretty great.

I keep feeling like there had to be a way to condense the thing, though. I mean, three hours? It’s not that I regret it, and frankly I wish that more film makers would make films that warrant real length to accommodate their depth. But with this one, it just felt a little forced from time to time. Almost like if we shaved 20 minutes it would have been perfect. I’m just not 100% sure where those minutes would come from. Apparently neither was Christopher Nolan, cause he left it all in there.

And I’m sorry, but the score is just not great. Or least it isn’t well placed. The one bit that made me really happy because it was perfectly jarring was the cut to silence when MM is getting his 23 years worth of messages. Just gut wrenching enough to be awesome. The rest. . . whatevs.

There you have it. I could go deeper and divulge all kinds of stuff, but it would just take the fun out of it. No need to pick this one apart. Go see it in the theater, the big screen is where the impact is. The chances of me owning this one are slim to I-hope-it-comes-with-a-gift-reciept.

For anyone curious, I have read the Hunger Games series so I will not be reviewing the upcoming film. But I’m totally going to go see it! In all likelihood the next few posts will not be me at the movies *sigh* Too much else to do.

But I do have a great series and a giveaway coming up for the first week of December so stay tuned. Keep reading. Keep watching. And I’ll be back the next time Anika Goes to the Movies.

Anika Goes to the Movies: The Book of Life

Posted on by

0

So last week I asked everyone what I should see and no one had an opinion so I went to see The Book of Life with my sister. It was fun-ish. I had buyers remorse. I was hoping for the Hispanic equivalent (in terms of greatness and setting the bar) of The Nightmare Before Christmas. It was not so.

Quick Rating: 3.25/5 It was cute. But wait until it comes to Redbox, and then you might even want to have a “free night” code.

*In sign-song neener-neener voice* Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers.

*And again* Spoilers, Spoilers, Spoilers!!

*waves flashing sign* DETOUR! Spoilers ahead.

After the previous posts I am deciding to trust you now. . . let’s hope that’s a good choice.

The animation- was good-ish. Really cool in the “land of the remembered” Relatively lame everywhere else, especially in the town. Not much that felt original or authentic.

The characters- The guys were fairly two dimensional. The girls were absurd, but I think I will save a deeper discussion of that for a later post I am working on about female characters in storytelling. Just know that I have no interest in my girls becoming like any of the characters presented in this film. Everyone who was not a main character, with two exceptions, just sort of blends into the background. The priest, turned luchador(sp? my computer seems to hate all the spellings of this word since it’s Spanish) is amusing. Not original, but amusing. And the pink pig is pretty cute. Other than that and the nun choir that sings everything, it’s pretty much, meh. And it’s almost like the writers wanted it that way. They had dozens of characters or groups of characters that are obviously meant to be caricatures. It’s a style choice, I guess, but it was so not working for me. Also we learn that even when you don’t have to put up with his stupid facial expressions, Channing Tatum is not a good actor. And his accent did this stupendous disappearing act from time to time. Poof! Gone! And then back again! I was not amazed.

The story- Is not terrible. In fact, the merits of the story are pretty much what save the movie. The action is fast paced, but not so much so that you get to the middle or end and think, “Wait, how did we get here?” There are plenty of places where things slow down just enough for us to appreciate the few things that are done well in characterization. You get the epic quest feel without it being too campy, some fun surprises along the way, and a rather satisfying(though fairly hokey) last stand. I won’t give away too much, as that is the one thing you can look forward to, an interesting story. My one beef is that the female protagonist, Maria, is pressured into marrying Channing Tatum so that he will stay and protect the town. Why wouldn’t he stay anyway? It’s HIS home town, too. Is it because the town couldn’t pay him enough? Did other towns need him more? Why does she have to marry him to keep him there? No good explanation for this at all. Boo.

The music- One thumb up, One thumb down. Most of the songs throughout the film are covers. Some are great, like the latinized version of Mumford and Sons’ “I Will Wait for You.” Others were sad grasps after a specific feeling that just came off cliche and painful. “Fools Rush In” should not be rerecorded. It’s done. Let it go. And in my opinion, even as a ridiculous joke, the lyrics, “If you think I’m sexy, and you want my body, come on baby, let me know,” don’t belong in a PG film. Yuck. Oddly, the few original pieces done for the movie were lovely or fun and upbeat. So. . .*shrug*

The cultural over tones: I’m pretty baffled as to how a hispanic writer/director could willingly pour so much obvious stereotype into a kids film. If it was meant to be ironic or sarcastic in someway, kids aren’t going to get that. Examples: The mariachi band of the town is three fat guys of sequential height with clothes that don’t fit who never prove to be decent musicians, the “men” of the town are four nearly identical super thin guys with mustaches who cower every time anything vaguely frightening happens; the young women of the town are also nearly identical, what most of us would call fairly pretty, hide behind their fans, and look down on the female protagonist because, “she reads books for fun;” the bandits also all look the same except for the big scary boss that must be defeated in the end. He gave the country of Mexico a mustache. Like you zoom in over the country, map style, and it has this massive mustache. So all valid hispanic men have mustaches or something? Again, if it is supposed to be a joke, I don’t get it. Going back to the animation, it is almost like the director/screen writer, Jorge R. Gutierrez, thought that it would be really cool to animate a movie in the style of the Dia De Los Muertos aesthetic, and needed a story to go with it. He found himself having to make stuff up for the living in order to animate the dead and fell back on his training from MAD TV where he animated for two years. *shrug*

Overall: It was cute. It was interesting. It was a little dumb and not something I want to own. *shrug* Which seems to be my reaction to just about all of it.

Well, enjoy whatever you are watching until the next time Anika Goes to the Movies. And by the way, I am always willing to entertain suggestions. That’s what the comment section is for.