Despicable Me

When this first came out most of the reviews were pretty meh, you know, it’s OK but it’s no Toy Story etc. And I kind of ignored it at the time even though I usually enjoy this sort of thing and the teaser trailers with the minions had looked good and all that stuff, but it went into the “maybe watch on telly at some point list” along with Over the Hedge Open Season which Silvery Dude assures me has one of the very rare uses of the word “bahookie” in modern cinema (and which he thought was a made-up word until he heard me use it in conversation). [Updated as Silvery Dude pointed out (gently) that I had confused my cuddly animal animations beginning with O]

But I digress.

So this had been off the radar until we watched 9 (reviewed here) and they ran a coming soon trailer which ended up with a fat American kid deflating a fake pyramid erected because the original had been stolen, and the Book God and I both giggled and wondered where the clip had come from.

Despicable Me was purchased the very next day.

And we watched it the following Saturday and fell in love with it. So Gru is a failing supervillain whose desire to get hold of a shrink ray to help him steal the moon leads him to take in three orphan sisters. And you can absolutely see where this is going to end up, cuteness, redemption and so on.

But it was done really nicely, the jokes were amusing, the kids were cute without being mawkish and the minions were really, really cool. I particularly liked the fact they had ordinary names like Stan.

It was so sweet and cuddlesome that it s on the list for our feel good film to watch on New Year’s Eve.

I recommended it to Silvery Dude for his boys (aged 6, 4 and not quite 3) to watch and although the youngest thought that the dog was a bit scary at first, it was apparently enjoyed by all. And what more can you ask than that?

9

This is not the Daniel-Day-Lewis-with-lots-of-singing-actresses-9 but the Elijah-Wood-voicing-tiny-wee-animated-puppet-thing-post-apocalyptic-9.

So the lack of Nicole’n'Penelope is deliberate.

Anyone who has hung around this blog for any length of time will know that I am a sucker for animation and a strong advocate of the “not just for kids” approach to such films. And I don’t just mean the inclusion of jokes for the grown-ups which go over the heads of the ankle-biters, but proper animated films for adults.

I’m not entirely sure who the target audience is for this film; it’s a 12 because of the moderate sustained threat (there is a really good mechanical monster in this) but most of the little characters are quite cute, especially the two who live in the library whom I thought were really sweet.

Anyhoo, plot wise this is a science-gone-wrong film, where something that was meant to be beneficial for mankind has gone berserk and the scientist responsible has created these little creatures with a life-spark to fight the machines and perhaps re-start civilisation in some form, though of course it isn’t quite as simple as that.

This has loads of things that press my buttons:

• I love Tim Burton, even when what he does isn’t wholly successful (still haven’t been able to watch all of Planet of the Apes, but loved Mars Attacks (for example))
• I like what I’ve seen of Timur Bekmambetov’s work (Nightwatch and Wanted spring to mind)
• Christopher Plummer is one of my acting heroes, ditto Martin Landau
• I love steampunk (or as its described in the blurb “stitchpunk”)

And on the whole I thought this worked well. The design of the world after disaster was cool, there was a reasonable sense of jeopardy for the creatures, and the end was rather sweet.

So, not a masterpiece by any means but an enjoyable Saturday night movie and one I would watch again.

True Grit

Well, this is an interesting one. Only because my Dad is a huge John Wayne fan so I have seen the 1969 version of this film more times than I can remember, and the iconic firing-two-guns-while-controlling-horse-with-reins-in-teeth scene is a particularly vivid memory. So although I had heard really, really good things about this film, and had seen quite few clips as part of the whole Oscars thing, I approached this with a wee bit of trepidation.

I needn’t have worried; this True Grit is magnificent.

It looks absolutely wonderful, much more authentic than many other Westerns (but that seems to be the trend now anyway) and was beautifully shot; there’s a scene of a night ride which is especially wonderful and moving. It benefits from returning to the source novel; the dialogue is brilliant to listen to.

The acting is also of a really high standard:

• Hailee Steinfeld is a talent to watch, I think we can expect great things from her in the future;
• Josh Brolin is brooding and quite scary as the villain;
• Matt Damon and Jeff Bridges are both excellent, the latter becoming craggier with each year that passes.

It’s just wonderful, a real masterpiece, and I say that as one who can take or leave Westerns – after a childhood dominated by them I went off the genre in a big way with only some old favourites (Gunfight at the OK Corral) and a few good modern ones (Silverado, Tombstone) considered worth my time. However, the Book God is a huge Western fan so I do get the chance to have a look every so often and there are a couple of interesting ones sitting on the to-be-watched pile.

So final verdict is that this elegiac film should probably have won best picture; serious words from someone who loved The King’s Speech.

Monsters

I had heard lots of really good things about this film and had intended to go and see it on the big screen but life got in the way as so often happens and I had to wait for the DVD release.

Someone (and I wish I could remember who it was as I’d like to credit them – may even have been the director himself – who knows, memory like a sieve) described the film thusly: if Independence Day was 9/11 than Monsters is Afghanistan (I do hope I’ve remembered that correctly; I’m sure someone will put me right if I haven’t).

So, plot thing = half of Mexico is quarantined because it has been infected by alien lifeforms which escaped from a returning space probe which crashed, the aliens have a sort of migrating season which makes them a bit rampage-prone and a young woman is injured during one of these incidents; a journalist working for her dad is tasked with getting her home by ship before the country shuts down, but this doesn’t work and they end up having to trek through the infected zone to get home.

This is a great film, largely because it isn’t really a monster movie but a proper road movie where two people who don’t really know each other have to rely on working together to get back to where they need to be. And of course they become close, which is all the more interesting to watch when you know that the actors are a couple in real life.

I thought it was very realistic, given that there are aliens in the background; you could have set it in any war-torn country and got the same messages across, but the external threat thing adds more to the examination of how people behave in extreme situations.

This was a low-budget film but it doesn’t show, and if its true that the director, Gareth Edwards, did most of the special effects on a computer in his bedroom (that might be an exaggeration) then he did a fantastic job because I thought the aliens were magnificent.

And let’s face it, any film whose lead actor is called Scoot is bound to be fabulous.

So, definitely one to be watched again.

The Illusionist

So, as part of the Book God’s combined 60th birthday and retirement celebrations he got to choose the film to watch while eating special birthday lasagna (home-made of course) and special birthday pink champagne. And because we both loved Belleville Rendezvous he suggested The Illusionist, also un film de Sylvain Chaumet.

Not to be confused with The Illusionist starring Edward Norton (also watched, enjoyed and reviewed here)

So, quick plot summary: old style French magician finding himself out of favour on his home turf heads to the UK and lands up on a Scottish island where a young local girl takes a shine to him, believing that he is genuinely magical. When he leaves to head for Edinburgh she follows him, an act that changes his life.

This is just a beautiful film, sad and funny, and exquisitely drawn, making Edinburgh look incredibly gorgeous. The story is based on an unfilmed Jacques Tati script and it would have been fascinating to see what his version would have been like. The story is set in the 1960s so there are several digs at old variety versus new pop stars.

I loved the air of melancholy that pervades the whole film, and the misunderstandings that arise between two people who don’t share the same language but still manage to muddle along. The scene with the magician, his rabbit and the soup was particularly amusing.

Very, very enjoyable.