Author: Rachel's Reviews

Dreamworks 4: Over the Hedge

| Rachel's Reviews

One of the frustrating things about reviewing Dreamworks films is many of their movies come close to being good but can’t quite pull it off. Particularly their comedies often have great casts, promising premises, inviting animation but the jokes fall flat leaving me annoyed. Over the Hedge, made in 2006, is no exception to this rule.

In fact, Over the Hedge is particularly frustrating because it starts out with such potential! I kind of wish it had just been a 30 minute short because that first 30 minutes is great. Unfortunately,  it can’t hold that momentum for the 83 minutes run-time and becomes a generic at best kids movie.

The set up is a raccoon named RJ becomes indebted to a bear for stealing his food. To pay the debt he must replace the food in a weeks time. He stumbles upon a bunch of forest creatures waking up from hibernation and begins to school them on the glories of human food consumption. This sequence is the highlight of the movie:

This food glory sequence is funny because it is relevant social commentary. It still makes me laugh how it shows driving and dressing like food. From an alien perspective (or animal) we really do focus way too much on food in America. There’s no doubt about it and that is funny.

However, once this setup is over the rest of Over the Hedge becomes a Toy Story rip-off. Verne the turtle is Woody and RJ is the new hip Buzz. You have a ton of other characters voiced by famous comedians but they aren’t really given anything to do (Plus they repeat the same jokes over and over again). Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Steve Carell, William Shatner, and Wanda Sykes are all wasted in their roles.

The last act of the movie is the animals trying to steal food from a woman who has a heavily fortified house. Why wouldn’t they just pick another house? It’s a subdivision so they have lots to chose from. It’s clearly just to manufacture tension and a dramatic car chase scene at the end. Instead, it all feels like filling time, like they were stretching 30 minutes of an idea into over an hour, which is probably accurate.

It is very predictable and nothing really engages the viewer. We know RJ is lying to the crew and exactly when he is going to feel bad, be exposed and make up with everyone. Formula movies are fine but there needs to be more to entertain than in this.

I also think it is a little weird the characters spend the entire movie stealing from the humans and are never really punished for this. Not the greatest example for kids!

As a plus the animation is pretty decent and kids will be moderately entertained by it. It’s not awful but not very memorable either.  I would say watch the first 20 minutes and then find something else to do with your day!

Overall Grade- C-

Review Rewinds 5/1/2017

| Rachel's Reviews

Hello friends! I have a new monthly series I am finally going to announce to you.  This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time. Today I bring to you Review Rewinds. This is where I take a look at previous reviews and how my opinions have changed on the rewatch both for good or bad.

What? I can hear you say.  How can we trust you if your reviews change? Well, I’m a human being and my experience at a film can be impacted by a variety of factors. I could be tired, annoyed, sick of a particular actor or director. There could be a number of similar films coming out at the same time which might make me more critical and on the rewatch when I’m separated from that experience I appreciate it more.

The other factor is I often struggle to come up with a grade that adequately expresses my feelings. This is why I am very happy about my new smile and frown worthy approach. I don’t think very many movies go from being smile to frown worthy on the rewatch. They just might drop from an A to a B or a B to a C+.

Anyway, I thought this would be fun and show my history with a film not just an initial viewing.

Avengers: Age of Ultron- Original score A-. Rewind score- B-

From my original review “Got to see Avengers Age of Ultron and loved it!!  It’s a great movie and right up there with the original”. That was how I felt at the time so it was an honest response. I still love the first Avengers movie and I admire the sequel but the two movies aren’t close on the rewatch. The original film has Loki as the ideal villain and the death of Agent Coulson to gather the gang together. In Avengers: Age of Ultron you have Ultron who is fine but fairly basic. I still like James Spader as the voice of Ultron, but there’s not much to him.

But the biggest difference is they try to create emotion with Hawkeye and his family and it doesn’t work nearly as well as Coulson who we’d gotten to know in all of these other Marvel movies. I love the party scene in Ultron and the banter between the characters. That still holds up but certain scenes are bit boring like the Hulkbuster scene. Speaking of the Hulk, Bruce should put way more of a fight up against Tony’s insane ideas but he doesn’t. Especially with all Bruce has been through with the gamma radiation he should be very hesitant to do all these experiments.

Oh well. I still enjoy Age of Ultron but not as much as I did when I first saw it. Review Rewind!

Rio- Original Score C+. Rewind score- B

From my original review “They are entertaining to watch, pleasant to look at, but in the end kind of forgettable.” To my surprise I gave Rio 2 a C despite admitting it is “weaker than the original”, so that must have been some kind of mistake. I watched Rio for family movie night last summer and I found it quite charming. It’s not the greatest movie I’ve seen in my life but I enjoyed it and felt I was too hard in my original review.

One of my main problems with the film was the voice acting. I said “Of all the voices the only one I liked was Jermaine Clement as the bad Cockatoo named Nigel.” On the rewatch I didn’t have a problem with the voice acting. Sure Anne Hathaway doesn’t sound like someone from Brazil but I guess I’ve been worn down so I didn’t care. You don’t need the celebrity voices but they do fine. None of them are annoying like Kevin Heart in Secret Life of Pets.

I say the “extended musical numbers that don’t do anything for the story and are just kind of average.” Again on rewatch I like musical sequences. I think they have color and life and are a lot of fun to watch. It’s so weird because I’m usually won over by musical sequences!

I certainly think Rio is much better than Rio 2, which has a main appeal of the insane frog in love with the bird. I think if Rio came out now I would probably treat it a lot like Smurfs: the Lost Village and be dazzled by the pretty animation. I’m such a softee…

Edge of 17– Original Score B+, Rewind Score- C-

This was a mini review and I admitted ” it is expertly crafted but I found it kind of unpleasant to watch”. Sometimes this happens with a film. I will walk away saying ‘boy they did a good job…and I never want to see that film again”. I can honestly say the makers of Edge of 17 did a great job doing what they were trying to do. However, I can also say it left me depressed for the rest of the day and I never want to see it again.

It goes back to the lead character Nadine who is the quintessential surly teenager. It’s very well done. The problem is I have no desire to spend 2 hours with a surly miserable 17 year old. It reminded me of my surly days and honestly I called my Mother and apologized after, so I guess it was positive on that level. The performances are all good but it left me feeling cold and sour.

In the review I said “Everyone is comparing this to John Hughes and I guess it is like 16 Candles the most but I prefer this”. I’m not sure what I was thinking there because at least 16 Candles has some joy and goofiness in it. This is just so caustic and I found it even more so on the rewatch.

The Circle Review

| Rachel's Reviews

If I was going to give a subtitle to this review it might be The Circle: Buzz Words without a Buzzy Story. On the surface the The Circle looks like an intriguing thriller about social media and there are moments of that but they are buried inside a very dopey script, poor character development and tons of exposition.

Based on the novel by Dave Eggers, director James Ponsoldt takes a dopey book and turns it into an even dopier movie. Some elements in the novel like the suicide of a character have a lot of emotion and depth to them. In the movie that suicide is made into an accident and its impact is minimal. It’s just everything is neutered emotionally but then explained as if we were toddlers in the audience that it becomes hard to watch.

I felt like saying “movie we all get it! Social media can be invasive and take away from actual relationships”. The odd thing is within The Circle they never really address the true darkness of things like cyberbullying or trolling. It’s all on a level of ‘isn’t that uncomfortable this information or moment got shared”.

Emma Watson stars as Mae who gets a job at a facebook-like company called The Circle. It’s really like Google and Facebook combined. She is initially skeptical but then is won over…but then she’s skeptical again and won over again. There is no sense of here’s where this character starts and here’s what she learns in the end. Watson is fine in the role but it’s for a hopeless endeavor of a bland character. There’s one point where she commits a crime and that came out of nowhere. Why would she want to do that in the middle of the night? I have no idea.

Tom Hanks plays Eamon the head of The Circle and I guess he is supposed to be scary? It is certainly portrayed that way in the marketing with the label “the only thing he can’t control is her”. Far from it, he controls her very well, literally manipulating every aspect of her life for most of the movie. He’s not in the movie that much and mostly gives presentations to large groups, which makes for weak character development.

The biggest problem with Eamon and The Circle is we don’t understand the motivation. Is it to make money? Because clearly most of the stuff going on in The Circle doesn’t make them money. For example, they have a promotion to get everyone in The Circle to vote. Why does Eamon want this? For political control? If that is the case it is not clear what he wants to do with that power when he gets it.  Does he want to start a cult? This could be but aside from protecting people there doesn’t seem to be an underlying philosophy usually associated with cults.

John Boyega’s character is also a huge miss. Without spoilers, let’s just say there is no way The Circle would keep him around. He’s basically there to occasionally pipe in and give Mae exposition.

The rest of the actors like the late Bill Paxton are fine but in such a lame story it is such a shame. Even the editing and directing felt cheap and rushed.

There are a few good moments and thought provoking ideas but for the most part The Circle was a bad movie. Poor characters, writing and tone.

Oh well! Can’t win them all.

Overall Grade- D-

The Lost City of Z Review

| Rachel's Reviews

There are some movies I feel bad for giving a negative review to. In a world of bland board meeting films I especially want to love passion projects and movies where all involved had ambition and a grand scope. However, that ambition can only get you so far and the movie has to be able to stand on its own. James Gray’s recent The Lost City of Z is such an ambitious miss and it pains me to say it. There is a lot of good but in the end I can’t recommend it mostly because of the poor script that let’s the whole movie down.

The Lost City of Z is based on a book about a man named Percy Fawcett who at the turn of century led several expeditions in Bolivia to find the  ancient Lost City of Z. This might sound exciting but in truth this film is more like The Treasure of the Sierra Madre than an exciting exploration movie. You might also be able to compare it to the Revenant in the way it explores the harshness of another climate and culture. However, both Sierra Madre and the Revenant have something Lost City of Z does not have- a concise narrative and compelling script (especially Sierra Madre which has a masterful script).

In Lost City of Z we get the entire life of Percy Fawcett. This not only makes the movie very long but also quite sprawling in nature. We get 3 expeditions and a long war sequence wedged in between. If the movie decided to focus on one of these expeditions it would have been so much better. It would have had a clear goal and the accompanying challenges, heroes, villains, etc.  Here it seems like every time the movie gets momentum you are back in London, or off to war, and then back again to the Amazon.

It’s the same way with the characters. Sienna Miller is good as Fawcett’s wife but we see her so intermittently that she basically becomes a ‘ra ra’ character for him. Robert Pattinson is good as his first mate but the script doesn’t really allow us to get to know him either. At one point in the story they are starving and we see suffering but I was left asking questions- why did they not bring enough food, what happened to the food, why did they not fish or hunt, what exactly are they looking for etc. If I was more invested in the characters than I wouldn’t have been asking those questions.

I also thought the dialogue was very clunky. Charlie Hunnam tries his darnedest but he always felt like he was giving speeches not talking like an actual person. There is one scene where he argues with his wife about her coming on the expedition that felt real and human. (Sadly that is undermined by it coming out of nowhere for her character). Aside from that, everything he said just felt so wooden and clunky to me.

For example, towards the end he has a chance to say something emotional and meaningful to his son (Tom Holland). Instead of sharing a memory or a personal story of his life he says something like ‘we’ve got to fight on until the end because we are explorers’.  It was stale when it should have been raw and emotional.

I know I have been very tough on this movie- probably more so than it deserves, but it has so much potential it is frustrating. I honestly think if the script had gotten a few more run-throughs and was made a little bit better it could have been one of the best of the year. As it is, it is an ambitious miss.

Overall Grade- C

Colossal Review

| Rachel's Reviews

** Some that are very spoiler sensitive might find spoilers below but I tried to keep it clean

2016 seemed to be the year that original indie films didn’t work for me. Movies like Swiss Army Man and The Lobster that others loved I found repetitive and frustrating. So, it was with a little trepidation I went to see the latest creative ‘science fiction comedy’ Colossal (which btw is a hard word to spell…). While it is admittedly uneven, I walked out having enjoyed myself and can recommend the film.

I don’t want to spoil anything in the movie so I will just tell you the basic premise. Anne Hathaway plays an alcoholic who is dumped by her boyfriend played by Dan Stevens. When she goes back to her hometown she meets old friend Jason Sudeikis and realizes she has a connection with a monster or kaiju that appears in Seoul Korea. For example, when she scratches her head or bends over etc so does the monster.

There are a lot of positives in Colossal. First of all, Anne Hathaway is great in the lead role. She has to play a lot of notes as Gloria and she pulls them off well. I also liked Dan Stevens as the boyfriend who can’t take living with the alcoholic any more. Jason Sudeikis is ok. He starts out great and then his character kind of goes off the rails in ways I didn’t care for but as an actor he is ok.The movie also says a lot (maybe too much) and I feel like it is one I could watch several times and get new things out of. It has something to say about bullying, toxic masculinity, addiction, technology, communication, news, our worldwide connectiveness etc. I liked that Gloria has a messy life and even when she has turned things around she still is kind of a mess. That felt real to life.

Colossal looks great with convincing special effects and cinematography. It had a real sense of place. Everything is always gray and cold and it just suits the story. The designs of the kaiju looked terrific especially on an indie movie budget. It reminded me a little bit of Gremlins in the feel and style of the creatures.

All that said, there are some negatives. For about 20 minutes the movie goes into ‘creepy stalker guy’ material that felt right out of a generic horror movie. This made me roll my eyes and was disappointing because everything else had been so creative.

Also I’m not really sure what the movie is trying to say about addiction? Gloria overcomes her addiction pretty quickly and makes some decisions that seemed completely out of left field. For example, she starts up a relationship with someone that made no sense and I didn’t understand what the movie was trying to say with that? Is the kaiju symbolic of addiction? I think it can be symbolic of many things but it got a little muddled.

Some people have had issues with the ending. I didn’t mind the ending because I felt it got out of the lame creepy stalker horror movie section that I didn’t like. It was back to the weird scifi stuff I do like. I found her solution to be innovative and clever. It worked for me.

Overall, Colossal has some problems but it is still entertaining and worth a watch. I’d be interested to see more from director Nacho Vigalondo as it showed a lot of potential for someone who has mostly done shorts up to this point (the shorts before the movie were terrible btw).

Have any of you seen Colossal? What did you think? What do you think it was trying to say and what messages did you take from it? Share in the comments section. Thanks!

As far as content it is rated R for language and it is on the mild side I’d say.

Overall Grade- B

Disney Release News

| Rachel's Reviews

I don’t often talk about news on this blog but a post appeared on twitter today that I just had to talk about.

All right. Let’s talk about each of these items

Untitled Disney Fairy Tale (live action)- We have all been wondering what the heck this was supposedly premiering in July. Well now it is next August but surprising they won’t just announce the title?

Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck it Ralph 2- Disappointed to hear this awful title is final but moving it from March to November is caused by the changes to Gigantic. This is fine for me.

Wrinkle in Time and Magic Camp- Wrinkle in Time is taking Wreck it Ralph 2’s spot. I love the book so I am soooooo hoping it will be good. Magic Camp is now officially announced and I’m very curious about it. I hope it will be fun!

Gigantic- Here’s the tragedy. Our update on Jack and the Beanstalk with music from Robert and Kristen Lopez is being moved from 2018 to all the way to 2020. I’m so sad 🙁

Star Wars: Episode IX- They are moving it from December to May and while I do like getting our Star Wars episodes sooner I kind of liked having a Star Wars surprise at Christmas. I wonder if we will get an animated Star Wars or something like that at Christmas? That’d be cool.

Indiana Jones- So this has moved to 2020. I bet this has more to do with Steven Spielberg than anything else with projects like Ready Player One working on right now. But seriously how old is Indy going to be in this movie!

Lion King (live action)- We have a date for this “live action” Lion King remake. The only weird thing is that another live action Disney movie is coming out the next month which seems very close together.

Frozen 2- I think most of us knew Frozen 2 was coming in 2019 but this is the official announcement and date. I know what I will be seeing Thanksgiving 2019!

The rest are all untitled projects so not much to say about them except I am curious what that Untitled Pixar Animation is!

No word on Disneytoons film which was previously announced for April 12, 2019. I still think it is going to be an Elena of Avalor movie because she is so popular but it could also be Star Wars. Who knows?

I am also surprised they announced this now and not at D23/Star Wars Celebration. It seems a little random but whatever.

The biggest bummer is Gigantic.  🙁

What do you think of these announcements? Would love to hear your thoughts

Dreamworks 3: Prince of Egypt

| Rachel's Reviews

Today in my 3rd Dreamworks film we are going to look at what in my eyes is their one and only masterpiece- The Prince of Egypt. Not only was it their first animated film but it hits on every level. The animation is stunning. The music both score and songs is nearly perfect. The story is classic but told in a fresh, awe-inspiring way. It just all works and it is one of my favorite movies.

So, we all know the story of the 10 Commandments and Moses from the Bible. Charlton Heston played Moses in one of the most famous movies ever made (that I love) and there have been other versions over the years. It’s the most cinematic Bible story because it has so many layers. There’s obviously religion, but culture, miracles, family, love and more. However, what I love about Prince of Egypt is it tackles the story with a spirit of reverence. While certainly full of drama, the writers chose to forgo most of the vibrato of earlier versions and in return gave us an intimate portrayal of 2 brothers and their goings-on with God.

Prince of Egypt starts out by establishing the 2 sides of Rameses and Moses. We get Deliver Us from the Hebrew slaves with Moses being left in the basket by his mother and then Rameses and Moses as teens racing in chariots.

This establishes the rivalry between brothers but also the humility that will become Moses and the pride of Rameses. It is here that Pharaoh first tells Rameses to “not become the weak link”, which leads to much of his pride (such a great script!).

I’m not a huge fan of the celebrity voice casting in the Dreamworks films and some of it is distracting here but I love Val Kilmer and Ralph Fiennes as Moses and Rameses. I also love they got Amick Byram to sing for Val in a seamless transition (and the amazing Brian Stokes Mitchell to sing for Danny Glover). Well done! These voice actors feel like brothers but also like they are somehow from different worlds. It is perfect!

Of course, Moses finds out about his Hebrew heritage and the way that is handled is so good. You get the mania he must be feeling especially when he sees the hieroglyphic art depicting what his father Pharaoh did to the Hebrew slaves. Sandra Bullock is a little modern as Miriam here but I still think it works for the role.

Stephen Schwartz is certainly no stranger to religious musicals with Godspell and Children of Eden but I love his songs for Prince of Egypt even more. Aside from Playing with the Big Boys Now I love every song here. I love the vocal performances, harmonies, choral hooks, everything. Hans Zimmer’s score is one of his best full of quiet moments of wonder even in scenes like the plagues.

One of the highlights of the film is the iconic burning bush sequence. It is the best I’ve seen of this moment on film. Again, it has such a spirit of reverence and peace about it. You understand why Moses would be overwhelmed and yet it is small and ephemeral. It’s exactly how I imagine it really happened.

After he is called, Moses goes to confront Rameses, his brother, and we get the plagues which is presented perfectly. You can feel the tension between them personally grow with each new plague.

And then we get the parting of the Red Sea. I mean what is there to say but perfection. It is some of the most jaw dropping animation I’ve ever seen. Some don’t like there is a shark in the Red Sea but I kind of feel sorry for them. That they can’t just get caught up in the moment of sound, color, and story. It’s breathtaking

The only real flaw in Prince of Egypt is Playing with the Big Boys now which feels like an attempt to pander to kids and doesn’t fit with the tone and feel of the rest of the movie. I was looking on rottentomatoes and the rotten reviews said it wasn’t ‘fun’ enough. It’s those kind of morons that get us Guy Like You in Hunchback or Big Boys in this. Shame on you!

Anyway, I love this movie. I watched it today trying to analyze it and be objective (and I think I was) but I really don’t see many problems. It has great characters, story, music, animation and everything else. My only regret is that Shrek came along and sent Dreamworks away from making films like Prince of Egypt and down the path of lame comedies. Sigh…

At least they started out with a bang!

Overall Grade A+

 

 

 

 

DISNEYNATURE 9: BORN IN CHINA

| Rachel's Reviews

This review is very exciting because it is has been 2 years since my last Disneynature review! Back in 2015 I reviewed the Disneynature canon finishing off with Bears. It was a lot of fun so I anxiously awaited their next release this year’s Born in China. Fortunately, the wait was worth while as this is a charming entry in this series of nature documentaries.

The last Disneynature release was 2015’s Monkey Kingdom which is one of the weaker entries as much felt staged but it still was entertaining. However, I was glad to see Born in China get back to more authentic feeling animal footage. In this case we are following 3 animals in China- a giant panda, golden snub-nosed monkey and snow leopard.

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The word to describe Born in China is adorable. Nearly everything about this movie is adorable. The animals are so cute and the story they create is very charming.

Some people might think it is a bit cloying with the narration by John Krasinski but I like how they create stories and characters (as long as it isn’t too staged like Monkey Kingdom).It keeps the nature documentary from getting boring because we have a story to draw us in. Yes, sometimes they go a little bit too far with the narration but I still enjoy it.

We follow these animals for an entire year and see the cycle of their lives. This does include some sobering realities but never too long. It shouldn’t be traumatic for kids. African Cats is the most traumatic of these Disneynature films.

The cinematography and footage they are able to get is remarkable. Especially in the leopard footage I couldn’t help but wonder how they kept themselves safe with these fierce animals that are very hungry! It’s amazing how close up to the animals they get. I realize that is from lenses but still it is very impressive.

Disneynature gives a portion of this week’s ticket sales to conservation efforts so if you can see it go to the theater. It will be a good experience for the entire family and would make a great family home evening. The kids in my theater were eating it up responding with big gasps and awes throughout the film.

I wouldn’t say Born in China is my favorite Disneynature film. That is still Crimson Wing and Chimpanzee but it is still very enjoyable and worth seeing.

Overall Grade- B+

smile worthy

Here is my youtube review. I would love if you took a look and gave it thumbs up.

Spark: A Space Tail Review

| Rachel's Reviews

Did you know an animated film was released in over 1,000 US theaters last weekend? No it is not My Entire High School is Sinking In the Sea (which I highly recommend).  No it is Spark: A Space Tail. This is a film out of Korea and is the same studio that brought us The Nut Job…

That may sound like a sassy introductory paragraph but a side of me wants to be easy on Spark: A Space Tail. I see potential with it and other foreign CG films that I wish I could nurture and develop. Too many are quick to discount these smaller studio efforts as immediate garbage but I try to have an open mind. In fact, I really think if you could get some writers involved who know what works for an American palate they could be successful. Movies like Spark, Wild Life, Rock Dog and more have solid animation, voice acting but suffer from poorly developed scripts.

Spark is my least favorite out of those 3 films. I was hoping I would enjoy it like I enjoyed Ratchet and Clank (yep, I liked that film). Unfortunately it was not to be.

There are some positives to Spark: A Space Tail. First of all, I enjoyed the animation and the world building. It may not be on a Pixar level but it was bright and full of colors. I also liked the various alien designs and how they moved and flowed in unique ways.

I also thought the voice cast was solid featuring Jace Norman, Jessica Biel, Susan Sarandon, Patrick Stewart and Hillary Swank.

The problem with Spark is I frankly found it extremely boring. The story felt so rehashed from other films and nothing was compelling or drawing me into the story. This kind of space adventure should be fun and nostalgic but it wasn’t. I’ll be honest I fell asleep and not just my normal nods. This was full on sleep for 5 minutes or so…Nothing interesting was happening and the story doesn’t even get really started for an hour into the 90 minute movie. The villain was super lame and felt like a rip-off of Mojo Jojo from the Powerpuff Girls and was shouting most of the time. The teenage angst of Spark didn’t interest me and everything about the story was so predictable and boring.

I hope in the future studios try to make their films more appealing to an American audience if they want their work to take off.  In Spark: A Space Tail I didn’t care about the characters or what was going on and I don’t think kids will either. They will be bored along with their parents and start begging to watch Star Wars again instead and I wouldn’t blame them!

Still, I hope these smaller studios can figure things out. Start selecting better scripts and make the good movies I can see in their future. The potential is there!

Overall Grade- D