Reviews from the Dark Side presents
Life of Pi
Released 11/21/12, now in theaters
Ang Lee directs the adaptation of Yann Martel’s 2001 novel, Life of Pi. The film stars Irrfan Kahn, Gerard Depardieu, Tabu, Suraj Sharma, and Adil Hussain.
Pi was born “Piscine Molitor” Patel, named after a swimming pool in France as the adult Pi retells his story to a reporter. His parents owned a zoo in India as he grew up. Due to growing political concerns in the country, the family decides to journey to Canada on a Japanese freighter with some of their zoo animals to start over. Pi is a teenager at this time. A few days into the journey, a fierce storm arises and Pi hears an explosion on the freighter. Through luck and accident, Pi finds himself on a lifeboat with four of the zoo animals: a hyena, an orangutan, an injured zebra, and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The freighter, it’s human occupants, and the remainder of the animals sink into the ocean and either drown or become meals for sharks near the sinking ship.
As the storm subsides, Pi believes only the zebra and orangutan are on the boat with him. To his surprise, the hungry hyena emerges from a tarp it had used as protection from the storm. Pi is barely able to keep it at bay with an oar. An undisclosed amount of time passes and the hyena succumbs to its hunger and attacks and kills the zebra. Not satisfied with only this meal, it attacks the orangutan as well. After a fierce fight, the hyena is again victorious. The victory is short-lived as Richard Parker leaps from the tarp he was also using for shelter and kills the hyena. Pi is only able to survive because the tiger is unable to get a foothold (clawhold?) on top of the tarp where the boy is located. Pi is able to build a makeshift raft out of supplies under the tarp to keep a safe distance from the boat’s striped occupant.
Through a survival book that was placed among the boat’s supplies, Pi is able to survive the rigors of the ocean and the sheer panic of being stranded for an undisclosed amount of time. He resorts to catching fish so the tiger has something to eat succumbing to eating some of the raw fish as well (he’s vegan). He even comes to somewhat train Richard Parker not to attack him every time he comes to the boat for supplies.
The boat/raft combo eventually touches land on an unknown island whose only inhabitants seem to be thousands of meerkats. Pi and the tiger leave the island after a couple days recuperation as Pi discovers a deadly secret. The boat washes up next on the coastline of Mexico where Pi is found facedown on the beach by sailors. Before he drifts out of consciousness he sees the tiger run into the nearby forest never looking back.
Investigators from the freighter’s company interview Pi in the hospital and don’t quite believe his fantastic story. So Pi tells another tale equally fantastic in its own right. But which one is the actual truth? As the adult Pi asks the reporter interviewing him, which story do you prefer?
I went into this movie with very few expectations that I would like it and I found it to be pretty decent. Granted the film is a bit slow until the shipwreck. Granted the whole thing does start to feel a bit like Cast Away. I half expected Pi to call Richard Parker “Wilson” a couple of times. It is a harrowing tale of survival against impossible odds and a test of one’s faith under terrible circumstances. In this sense, Life of Pi is an interesting character study of a boy who is forced to grow up very quickly. The film also provides a dark twist as Pi’s original story may not quite be the truth of what happened after the shipwreck which provided the type of shocker element I usually find pleasing. And for all the literary buffs out there, there’s a good deal of symbolism to whet your appetite.
Life of Pi is decently acted although much of the action takes place between a teenager and a tiger. The CG on the tiger is good as it depicts a robust animal slowly becoming emaciated through the lack of food on the lifeboat. The film also does a very good job of reminding the audience of the constant danger that Pi faces on the water. He’s really not safe anywhere he stays whether it’s on the boat or his makeshift raft. He’s got the snarling hyena and ravenous Richard Parker to contend with on the boat and hungry sharks constantly circling in the water. Nature is not kind to him.
Life of Pi is an entertaining enough film that deserves one viewing. More viewings will be up to the individual. I’m good with one.
The Dark Lord of the Sith says:
*** stars
Ratings
Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good
for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing.
Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price
of a non-Matinee.
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of
Fame material here.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
Skyfall
Reviews from the Dark Side presents
Skyfall
Released 11/9/12, now in theaters
Daniel Craig reprises the role of James Bond for the third time in this weekend’s “Skyfall.” It’s directed by Sam Mendes and is the 23rd film in the franchise overall.
Skyfall begins in Turkey with Bond and another MI6 agent, Eve (Naomie Harris), on a mad chase of a mercenary who has stolen a very valuable commodity from another agent. He’s in possession of a computer hard drive containing the names of all NATO agents currently working undercover in terrorist organizations. After wild car and motorcycle chases through the city streets, Bond and the mercenary grapple on top of a speeding train. Eve perches herself on a nearby hill waiting to take the killing sniper shot, but Bond and the mercenary are so entangled she doesn’t have a clear opening. Desperate to re-obtain the drive, M (Judi Dench), monitoring the action from MI6 headquarters in London, orders Eve to take the shot. Eve does as ordered and hits Bond instead of the intended target. He falls off the train to his seeming death while the mercenary escapes.
With 007 presumed dead and the loss of the computer drive, M comes under political pressure to retire during a meeting with Security Committee Chairman, Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes). On her way back to headquarters, MI6 is hacked and an explosion occurs in the headquarters killing several personnel.
Meanwhile, Bond has been enjoying his “death” as he’s taken his MIA status to informally retire from the spy game. However, when he sees that MI6 has been attacked on a news telecast, 007 reluctantly ends his retirement to serve Queen and country again even if he still isn‘t too happy with M for ordering the shot that nearly took him out in the first place. But, Bond is not quite the same agent he was originally as he is put through a battery of tests to determine his worthiness to go back into the field and unknowingly fails them all. It is only by M’s order that Bond is reactivated as a field agent to hunt down, as we learn, a cyberterroist who is now in possession of the list. Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) has a personal ax to grind with M , and he’ll go to any lengths to publicly embarrass her , and, eventually, kill her.
Let me say this right now. I love Daniel Craig as James Bond. I wish he would never age so he could play 007 forever. I was never a fan of the character before Casino Royale. The Craig movies add a human element to Bond that was never there before. Craig brings a sadness and loneliness to the character that makes him a bit more relatable to me. You get the sense that Bond does what he does solely out of duty to his country, not because he particularly loves what he’s doing. He’s not infallible. He screws up sometimes. He’s not the pretty boy that most of the other Bonds have been, although he still has the classic Bond swagger. You believe this Bond can actually bust heads if the situation calls for it, but still have a certain panache about it.
Skyfall is energetic . My one complaint might be that it lasted a tad longer than needed as I don‘t think the film keeps the same energy throughout. There’s likely good and bad news for the staunch Bond fan. Skyfall sees the reintroduction of Q and Moneypenny. But don’t expect any exploding pens (inside joke in the movie) or machine gunned remote controlled sports cars. The only tech here is a gun coded to Bond’s handprint and small radio that acts as a homing beacon. The film does something that I don’t remember seeing before. It hints at Bond’s past before he entered the military and MI6. I’m not sure how to read Bardem’s performance. It’s not that it’s not good, it’s just a little weird and creepy at times, particularly when he interrogates Bond while the spy is restrained in a chair (Bond’s comeback is classic). Silva’s motivations aren’t impossibly grandiose. He has a very simple mission of revenge against M.
Overall, Skyfall is a great entry in the Bond series that fans of Craig’s version of the character should enjoy. My greatest fear that I have gotten from blogs I’ve read is that the powers that be go back to classic Bond silliness which always turned me off. I don’t want my Bond as a lounge lizard lothario who happens to be a super spy. I want him tough as nails, complicated, conflicted, and, well…human.
The Dark Lord of the Sith says:
**** stars
Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee.
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here.
Skyfall
Released 11/9/12, now in theaters
Daniel Craig reprises the role of James Bond for the third time in this weekend’s “Skyfall.” It’s directed by Sam Mendes and is the 23rd film in the franchise overall.
Skyfall begins in Turkey with Bond and another MI6 agent, Eve (Naomie Harris), on a mad chase of a mercenary who has stolen a very valuable commodity from another agent. He’s in possession of a computer hard drive containing the names of all NATO agents currently working undercover in terrorist organizations. After wild car and motorcycle chases through the city streets, Bond and the mercenary grapple on top of a speeding train. Eve perches herself on a nearby hill waiting to take the killing sniper shot, but Bond and the mercenary are so entangled she doesn’t have a clear opening. Desperate to re-obtain the drive, M (Judi Dench), monitoring the action from MI6 headquarters in London, orders Eve to take the shot. Eve does as ordered and hits Bond instead of the intended target. He falls off the train to his seeming death while the mercenary escapes.
With 007 presumed dead and the loss of the computer drive, M comes under political pressure to retire during a meeting with Security Committee Chairman, Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes). On her way back to headquarters, MI6 is hacked and an explosion occurs in the headquarters killing several personnel.
Meanwhile, Bond has been enjoying his “death” as he’s taken his MIA status to informally retire from the spy game. However, when he sees that MI6 has been attacked on a news telecast, 007 reluctantly ends his retirement to serve Queen and country again even if he still isn‘t too happy with M for ordering the shot that nearly took him out in the first place. But, Bond is not quite the same agent he was originally as he is put through a battery of tests to determine his worthiness to go back into the field and unknowingly fails them all. It is only by M’s order that Bond is reactivated as a field agent to hunt down, as we learn, a cyberterroist who is now in possession of the list. Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) has a personal ax to grind with M , and he’ll go to any lengths to publicly embarrass her , and, eventually, kill her.
Let me say this right now. I love Daniel Craig as James Bond. I wish he would never age so he could play 007 forever. I was never a fan of the character before Casino Royale. The Craig movies add a human element to Bond that was never there before. Craig brings a sadness and loneliness to the character that makes him a bit more relatable to me. You get the sense that Bond does what he does solely out of duty to his country, not because he particularly loves what he’s doing. He’s not infallible. He screws up sometimes. He’s not the pretty boy that most of the other Bonds have been, although he still has the classic Bond swagger. You believe this Bond can actually bust heads if the situation calls for it, but still have a certain panache about it.
Skyfall is energetic . My one complaint might be that it lasted a tad longer than needed as I don‘t think the film keeps the same energy throughout. There’s likely good and bad news for the staunch Bond fan. Skyfall sees the reintroduction of Q and Moneypenny. But don’t expect any exploding pens (inside joke in the movie) or machine gunned remote controlled sports cars. The only tech here is a gun coded to Bond’s handprint and small radio that acts as a homing beacon. The film does something that I don’t remember seeing before. It hints at Bond’s past before he entered the military and MI6. I’m not sure how to read Bardem’s performance. It’s not that it’s not good, it’s just a little weird and creepy at times, particularly when he interrogates Bond while the spy is restrained in a chair (Bond’s comeback is classic). Silva’s motivations aren’t impossibly grandiose. He has a very simple mission of revenge against M.
Overall, Skyfall is a great entry in the Bond series that fans of Craig’s version of the character should enjoy. My greatest fear that I have gotten from blogs I’ve read is that the powers that be go back to classic Bond silliness which always turned me off. I don’t want my Bond as a lounge lizard lothario who happens to be a super spy. I want him tough as nails, complicated, conflicted, and, well…human.
The Dark Lord of the Sith says:
**** stars
Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee.
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Flight
Reviews from the Dark Side presents
Flight
Released 11/2/12, now in theaters
Denzel Washington returns to theaters in Flight, a film directed and co-produced by Robert Zemeckis. The ensemble cast features Don Cheadle, John Goodman, Melissa Leo, Kelly Reilly, and Bruce Greenwood.
Airline captain William “Whip” Whitaker (Washington) is a highly respected pilot. He’s divorced and estranged from his teen-aged son. He’s also an alcoholic and drug addict. After a decadent night of sex, alcohol, and very little sleep with one of his crew’s flight attendants, Katerina, in Orlando, Whip prepares for his flight from Orlando to Atlanta the next morning with a few lines of cocaine to wake up.
The flight and its 102 people on board seem doomed from the start as it takes off in a bad rain storm. Whip expertly maneuvers the plane out of the storm with nervous co-pilot, Ken. He then takes his moment to relax. And for Whip, relaxing means two small bottles of vodka in his morning OJ and a nap. He is jolted awake by a loud mechanical noise as the plane begins to nosedive only a few miles out from its destination. Whip is able to crash land the plane in a field by using a rolling maneuver.
There are 96 survivors of the 102 passengers and crew. Whip is taken to a hospital to be treated for superficial injuries where he learns from the National Transportation Security Board that Katerina was one of the casualties. The NTSB also has their hands on Whip’s toxicology report which proves he was intoxicated while flying. Enter attorney, Hugh Lang (Cheadle), a Chicago criminal lawyer brought in by the Pilot’s Union to defend Whip’s claim the jet went down due to mechanical failure, not his intoxication. But the NTSB is hot on Whip’s heels, and it doesn’t help that he just can’t seem to stop drinking or sever his association with his drug dealer buddy, Harling (Goodman). Whip needs to pull himself together quickly before he goes down for six counts of manslaughter.
Flight offers another notable performance from Denzel Washington, as well as, Don Cheadle. Zemeckis directs a gripping story of one man’s downward spiral into addiction and the demons that haunt him night and day. It’s a great story, but, therein lies the problem. It’s extremely depressing. Whip ruins/has ruined his share of relationships in this movie because he can’t crawl out of the bottle. And he tries. And tries. And tries. It’s indicative of addiction, but make no mistake, it’s not a lot of fun to watch this type of downfall. Although there is a somewhat positive ending , following this man on his journey is jolting and leaves you with a great sense of melancholy. That said, Washington still manages to pull off a dignity and grace in his character that few actors would be able to manage.
Flight is very good movie that you will only want to sit through once due to the content. It’s not what I would call entertaining, but it is very compelling and well-made.
The Dark Lord of the Sith says:
***1/2 stars
Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee.
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here.
Flight
Released 11/2/12, now in theaters
Denzel Washington returns to theaters in Flight, a film directed and co-produced by Robert Zemeckis. The ensemble cast features Don Cheadle, John Goodman, Melissa Leo, Kelly Reilly, and Bruce Greenwood.
Airline captain William “Whip” Whitaker (Washington) is a highly respected pilot. He’s divorced and estranged from his teen-aged son. He’s also an alcoholic and drug addict. After a decadent night of sex, alcohol, and very little sleep with one of his crew’s flight attendants, Katerina, in Orlando, Whip prepares for his flight from Orlando to Atlanta the next morning with a few lines of cocaine to wake up.
The flight and its 102 people on board seem doomed from the start as it takes off in a bad rain storm. Whip expertly maneuvers the plane out of the storm with nervous co-pilot, Ken. He then takes his moment to relax. And for Whip, relaxing means two small bottles of vodka in his morning OJ and a nap. He is jolted awake by a loud mechanical noise as the plane begins to nosedive only a few miles out from its destination. Whip is able to crash land the plane in a field by using a rolling maneuver.
There are 96 survivors of the 102 passengers and crew. Whip is taken to a hospital to be treated for superficial injuries where he learns from the National Transportation Security Board that Katerina was one of the casualties. The NTSB also has their hands on Whip’s toxicology report which proves he was intoxicated while flying. Enter attorney, Hugh Lang (Cheadle), a Chicago criminal lawyer brought in by the Pilot’s Union to defend Whip’s claim the jet went down due to mechanical failure, not his intoxication. But the NTSB is hot on Whip’s heels, and it doesn’t help that he just can’t seem to stop drinking or sever his association with his drug dealer buddy, Harling (Goodman). Whip needs to pull himself together quickly before he goes down for six counts of manslaughter.
Flight offers another notable performance from Denzel Washington, as well as, Don Cheadle. Zemeckis directs a gripping story of one man’s downward spiral into addiction and the demons that haunt him night and day. It’s a great story, but, therein lies the problem. It’s extremely depressing. Whip ruins/has ruined his share of relationships in this movie because he can’t crawl out of the bottle. And he tries. And tries. And tries. It’s indicative of addiction, but make no mistake, it’s not a lot of fun to watch this type of downfall. Although there is a somewhat positive ending , following this man on his journey is jolting and leaves you with a great sense of melancholy. That said, Washington still manages to pull off a dignity and grace in his character that few actors would be able to manage.
Flight is very good movie that you will only want to sit through once due to the content. It’s not what I would call entertaining, but it is very compelling and well-made.
The Dark Lord of the Sith says:
***1/2 stars
Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee.
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Hotel Transylvania
Reviews from the Dark Side presents
Hotel Transylvania
Released 9/28/12, now in theaters
Adam Sandler, Steve Buscemi, Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, David Spade, Molly Shannon, Cee Lo Green, and Jon Lovitz lend their voices to the animated comedy, Hotel Transylvania. The film is produced Sony Animation.
Count Dracula (Sandler) has retreated from the human eye and opened a swanky, five-star hotel (for his monster buddies, anyway) complete with zombie bellhops, witch maids, shrunken head door ornaments and Quasimodo (Lovitz) as the lead chef. Drac calls all his pals including Frankenstein's Monster (James) and his wife (Drescher), Murray the Mummy (Green), Wayne and Wanda Werewolf (Buscemi and Shannon) and their litter of cubs, the Invisible Man (Spade), and other assorted ghouls to his daughter, Mavis' (Gomez), milestone 118th birthday party.
Dracula loves his daughter a great deal and would do anything to protect her which leads to his great distress when Mavis wants to venture outside the hotel walls for the first time and meet humans. Dracula distrusts humans. So much so, that he orders his zombie bellhops to build a fake human town near the hotel. He has the zombies themselves pose as angry villagers to discourage Mavis from ever wanting to leave the confines of the hotel again. It seems like it's mission accomplished until a young traveler named Jonathan stumbles upon Dracula's fake town and follows the zombies back to the hotel. Drac can't have a human roaming the halls because as the monsters' undisputed leader, he's made all the others as paranoid of man as he is. To usher him out of the hotel as quickly as possible, Drac disguises Jonathan as a monster to blend in. He makes up a cover story that "Johnny-stein" is a relative of one of the real monster's body parts. Things become complicated when Mavis takes a liking to the new monster in town and Drac has to compound the lie by saying Johnny is the birthday planner. What's a vampire who has sworn off drinking human blood to do? Does he protect the sanctity of his business or let his beloved daughter find happiness with a human "when there are so many eligible monsters to choose from?"
Hotel Transylvania is light, harmless kid's flick. It's funny, but I wouldn't say most of the gags are particularly clever, only absurd. It's kind of like an animated Adam Sandler movie of sorts. That's not bad if you're a Sandler fan which I am, but I don't know how many adults will like it if they aren't. The animation is decent if not spectacular. There are a couple of great belly laughs, particularly when Drac uses his flash hypnosis. For me, the characters who stole the show are the werewolves. Poor put upon Wayne, has a gaggle of wild male cubs that do nothing but cause mischief and mayhem. And he has another one on the way! The funniest cub is his youngest, a daughter, that seems to be the smartest and toughest among her siblings.
Hotel Transylvania is a good, but not great animated feature that children should like. I may have reviewed this one differently had I not seen Wreck-It Ralph a day earlier. They're two totally different movies with different premises, I know. But, I think children and adults will have more fun with Ralph if parents are choosing between the two. It's just more clever and eye-popping. But that's not to say that Transylvania doesn't have its fun moments as well.
The Dark Lord of the Sith says:
***1/4 stars
Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee.
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here.
Hotel Transylvania
Released 9/28/12, now in theaters
Adam Sandler, Steve Buscemi, Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, David Spade, Molly Shannon, Cee Lo Green, and Jon Lovitz lend their voices to the animated comedy, Hotel Transylvania. The film is produced Sony Animation.
Count Dracula (Sandler) has retreated from the human eye and opened a swanky, five-star hotel (for his monster buddies, anyway) complete with zombie bellhops, witch maids, shrunken head door ornaments and Quasimodo (Lovitz) as the lead chef. Drac calls all his pals including Frankenstein's Monster (James) and his wife (Drescher), Murray the Mummy (Green), Wayne and Wanda Werewolf (Buscemi and Shannon) and their litter of cubs, the Invisible Man (Spade), and other assorted ghouls to his daughter, Mavis' (Gomez), milestone 118th birthday party.
Dracula loves his daughter a great deal and would do anything to protect her which leads to his great distress when Mavis wants to venture outside the hotel walls for the first time and meet humans. Dracula distrusts humans. So much so, that he orders his zombie bellhops to build a fake human town near the hotel. He has the zombies themselves pose as angry villagers to discourage Mavis from ever wanting to leave the confines of the hotel again. It seems like it's mission accomplished until a young traveler named Jonathan stumbles upon Dracula's fake town and follows the zombies back to the hotel. Drac can't have a human roaming the halls because as the monsters' undisputed leader, he's made all the others as paranoid of man as he is. To usher him out of the hotel as quickly as possible, Drac disguises Jonathan as a monster to blend in. He makes up a cover story that "Johnny-stein" is a relative of one of the real monster's body parts. Things become complicated when Mavis takes a liking to the new monster in town and Drac has to compound the lie by saying Johnny is the birthday planner. What's a vampire who has sworn off drinking human blood to do? Does he protect the sanctity of his business or let his beloved daughter find happiness with a human "when there are so many eligible monsters to choose from?"
Hotel Transylvania is light, harmless kid's flick. It's funny, but I wouldn't say most of the gags are particularly clever, only absurd. It's kind of like an animated Adam Sandler movie of sorts. That's not bad if you're a Sandler fan which I am, but I don't know how many adults will like it if they aren't. The animation is decent if not spectacular. There are a couple of great belly laughs, particularly when Drac uses his flash hypnosis. For me, the characters who stole the show are the werewolves. Poor put upon Wayne, has a gaggle of wild male cubs that do nothing but cause mischief and mayhem. And he has another one on the way! The funniest cub is his youngest, a daughter, that seems to be the smartest and toughest among her siblings.
Hotel Transylvania is a good, but not great animated feature that children should like. I may have reviewed this one differently had I not seen Wreck-It Ralph a day earlier. They're two totally different movies with different premises, I know. But, I think children and adults will have more fun with Ralph if parents are choosing between the two. It's just more clever and eye-popping. But that's not to say that Transylvania doesn't have its fun moments as well.
The Dark Lord of the Sith says:
***1/4 stars
Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee.
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Wreck-It Ralph
Reviews from the Dark Side presents
Wreck-It Ralph
Released 11/2/12, now in theaters
Disney releases the non-Pixar created animated comedy, Wreck-It Ralph, this weekend. Wreck-It features the voice talents of John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, and Jane Lynch.
Wreck-It Ralph (Reilly) is the villain of the popular video game, Fix-It Felix, Jr. When Ralph’s arcade closes and the game is shut down for the evening Ralph goes back to his lonely dump to sleep while hero, Felix (McBrayer), lives comfortably in his video game penthouse with the other penthouse residents who Ralph terrorizes everyday when the game starts. Lately, Ralph has grown disillusioned with his lonely existence going so far as to seek counseling from a video game villains support group. Ralph longs to be a hero like his video game mate, Felix, and…well, liked. At the “suggestion” of one of the penthouse residents in his game, Ralph goes on a quest for a medal like the one the game always awards Felix in the hope this will prove that he’s not a bad guy and that he will finally receive a hero’s accolades.
But how does an oversized villain obtain a medal? Why, he goes to Game Central Station (where all arcade characters can travel between games) and invades another game. He gets the idea while visiting the favorite watering hole for all the arcade characters, the video game, Tappers. Ralph meets one of the soldiers from the game, Hero’s Duty, who reveals that the game’s winner receives a medal. Ralph goes on his quest for the medal by “borrowing” the soldier’s body armor and sneaking in to Hero’s Duty. Let’s just say that Ralph is a bit out of his element in this first person shooter game and accidentally hatches a Cy-Bug (one of the games villains). Ralph and bug stumble into an escape pod that launches both out of the game and into another game, Sugar Rush, (a kart-racing game), where Ralph meets the obnoxious and annoying (to Ralph anyway) glitch,Vanellope von Schweetz (Silverman), who makes off with Ralph’s medal for her own ends. Thus begins a sequence of events that will turn Ralph and Vanellope into allies to thwart a nefarious conspiracy in the Sugar Rush game. Meanwhile, that Cy-bug that took the trip with Ralph is multiplying underground and will overrun not only this game, but all the other games in the arcade essentially shutting all of them down. But Ralph and Vanellope have allies in Felix who has come to bring Ralph back to his own game and the no-nonsense Sergeant Calhoun (Lynch) from Hero’s Duty who is in hot pursuit of the Cy-bug.
The fun of Wreck-It Ralph is the nostalgia it brings back of those great arcade games many of us used to play. There are several guest stars from Pac Man, Sonic the Hedgehog, Street Fighter, and Q-Bert (yes, I said Q-Bert). Play a game with yourself. See how many characters you can name.
There’s fun for parent and child alike in Wreck-It Ralph. It’s a sweet tale of heroism and friendship while also being a fast paced adventure film. And, it is very funny at times. The main characters are kind of what you would expect from the actors who are voicing them. You have the lovably clodish Reilly as Ralph, the obnoxiously sarcastic Silverman as Vanellope, the caustic Lynch as Calhoun, and the overly upbeat McBrayer as Felix. This mix plays off each other very well. The visuals are outstanding, particularly in the Sugar Rush sequences. This land of candy and sweets is colorful and may give you a slight craving for a candy bar when you leave the theater. I don’t think the 3D in this movie is particularly worth the price. It’s not that it’s bad, but it’s not particularly eye-popping either. The animation itself should be attractive enough for most.
Wreck-It Ralph is one of the better animated features I’ve seen in awhile and I believe it’s every bit as good as anything Pixar has produced as of late. Give it a look. I don’t think parents, children, or old school gamers will be disappointed.
The Dark Lord of Sith says:
****stars
Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee.
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here.
Wreck-It Ralph
Released 11/2/12, now in theaters
Disney releases the non-Pixar created animated comedy, Wreck-It Ralph, this weekend. Wreck-It features the voice talents of John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, and Jane Lynch.
Wreck-It Ralph (Reilly) is the villain of the popular video game, Fix-It Felix, Jr. When Ralph’s arcade closes and the game is shut down for the evening Ralph goes back to his lonely dump to sleep while hero, Felix (McBrayer), lives comfortably in his video game penthouse with the other penthouse residents who Ralph terrorizes everyday when the game starts. Lately, Ralph has grown disillusioned with his lonely existence going so far as to seek counseling from a video game villains support group. Ralph longs to be a hero like his video game mate, Felix, and…well, liked. At the “suggestion” of one of the penthouse residents in his game, Ralph goes on a quest for a medal like the one the game always awards Felix in the hope this will prove that he’s not a bad guy and that he will finally receive a hero’s accolades.
But how does an oversized villain obtain a medal? Why, he goes to Game Central Station (where all arcade characters can travel between games) and invades another game. He gets the idea while visiting the favorite watering hole for all the arcade characters, the video game, Tappers. Ralph meets one of the soldiers from the game, Hero’s Duty, who reveals that the game’s winner receives a medal. Ralph goes on his quest for the medal by “borrowing” the soldier’s body armor and sneaking in to Hero’s Duty. Let’s just say that Ralph is a bit out of his element in this first person shooter game and accidentally hatches a Cy-Bug (one of the games villains). Ralph and bug stumble into an escape pod that launches both out of the game and into another game, Sugar Rush, (a kart-racing game), where Ralph meets the obnoxious and annoying (to Ralph anyway) glitch,Vanellope von Schweetz (Silverman), who makes off with Ralph’s medal for her own ends. Thus begins a sequence of events that will turn Ralph and Vanellope into allies to thwart a nefarious conspiracy in the Sugar Rush game. Meanwhile, that Cy-bug that took the trip with Ralph is multiplying underground and will overrun not only this game, but all the other games in the arcade essentially shutting all of them down. But Ralph and Vanellope have allies in Felix who has come to bring Ralph back to his own game and the no-nonsense Sergeant Calhoun (Lynch) from Hero’s Duty who is in hot pursuit of the Cy-bug.
The fun of Wreck-It Ralph is the nostalgia it brings back of those great arcade games many of us used to play. There are several guest stars from Pac Man, Sonic the Hedgehog, Street Fighter, and Q-Bert (yes, I said Q-Bert). Play a game with yourself. See how many characters you can name.
There’s fun for parent and child alike in Wreck-It Ralph. It’s a sweet tale of heroism and friendship while also being a fast paced adventure film. And, it is very funny at times. The main characters are kind of what you would expect from the actors who are voicing them. You have the lovably clodish Reilly as Ralph, the obnoxiously sarcastic Silverman as Vanellope, the caustic Lynch as Calhoun, and the overly upbeat McBrayer as Felix. This mix plays off each other very well. The visuals are outstanding, particularly in the Sugar Rush sequences. This land of candy and sweets is colorful and may give you a slight craving for a candy bar when you leave the theater. I don’t think the 3D in this movie is particularly worth the price. It’s not that it’s bad, but it’s not particularly eye-popping either. The animation itself should be attractive enough for most.
Wreck-It Ralph is one of the better animated features I’ve seen in awhile and I believe it’s every bit as good as anything Pixar has produced as of late. Give it a look. I don’t think parents, children, or old school gamers will be disappointed.
The Dark Lord of Sith says:
****stars
Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee.
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here.
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