The Jungle Book - Oo-oo-oo I want to be like you-ou-ou!

Not sure if you heard but The Jungle Book came out this last weekend and it is making more than a distant drumbeat among movie-goers. Opening weekend receipts topped out at over $100 million and with 94% of critics and 92% of audiences giving it a thumbs up on Rotten Tomatoes you can be sure word of mouth will spread quicker than a jungle fire and the money will keep rolling in for some time with this one. 
So the obvious question is whether it matches the opening hype and whether it's worth the trip to the big screen. And let me just come right out and tell you - if you have seen the original (you know, the classic from 1967?) - well this is better...in just about every way.
The beautiful, rich and stunning imagery is awesome and I know that the word "awesome" seems like a bit of a modern and casual word but it truly is...awesome!
The cast is perfect and I am going to say cast because while someone told me that this was a film full of computer generated imagery (CGI) I didn't see it and I don't believe it. I was watching the real Mowgli with real animals that somehow talked and I understood them and they were real! It was all so real. You will be terrified by Idris Elba's Shere Khan because he is a real tiger and he is standing snarling and scheming in front of you. You will fall in love with Bill Murray's older, wiser but still bumbling Baloo. You will be bowled over by Christopher Walken's King Louie and hypnotized by Scarlett Johansson's entrancing Kaa and impressed with the smooth, serene sleekness of Ben Kingsley's Bagheera. But still the star of the show is Neel Seethi's Mowgli. He somehow just is Mowgli - young and naive and scared and brave and clumsy but clever as he makes his journey through the jungle from man-cub to man.
Award season is a long way away, with many contenders to come but Jon Favreau and his team just outdid a classic by recreating just enough familiar imagery from the original and mixing it with the best technology and craftsmanship and imagination Hollywood has to offer today.
I'm just imagining, somewhere in the old archives, the original can be heard playing on an old projector. And there in the dark, in the flickering frames, deep in the jungle, the faint echoes of old King Louie can be heard singing homage to this masterpiece of a movie, "Oo-oo-oo want to be like you-ou-ou"...

Go see this movie, go see it in all its glorious colour and 3D, go and enjoy what movies were made for! This is a family experience, a movie experience, an experience no-one should miss.

World War Z

Swarming Zombies in World War Z

This summer has been about big budget flops with Lone Ranger, White House Down and Pacific Rim leading the charge downhill!
Prior to release, much of the online chatter had World War Z heading the same way.
With a budget of over $200 million spiralling out of control and widely reported script changes and reshoots, World War Z was looking like it was fast turning into World War Zzzzzzzz.
Instead, director Marc Forster has given us a simple yet extremely effective and entertaining zombie action flick.
Brad Pitt plays a retired UN investigator, Gerry Lane, who has swapped the horrors of war crime investigation for the rigours of making pancakes for breakfast for his hard-working wife (an effective, if slightly 2-dimensional Mireille Enos) and their two daughters. As a global zombie pandemic erupts, our homely Mr Mom is called out of retirement to trace the original infection and help find the solution that will save what remains of the world population.
The plot is hardly original and the script is not going to win any awards but a couple of key decisions make this movie inescapably enjoyable.
Firstly, Marc Forster created zombies that, rather than slowly lurching and dragging themselves somewhat aimlessly after their prey (leaving you increasingly mad at each victim for not having moved a little bit quicker), are fast and furious and swarm at astonishing speeds. In essence you get the feeling very early on that if you are in plain view of them, you are a dead man walking...running...dead man..hmm. Well you get the idea. It's scary and that's what you wanted walking in right? It's non-stop action and intense.
The second thing director Marc Forster did to great effect was to change the balance of the movie. Most movies have an opening act, a middle act, and a final or third act. Each act is designed to build to the climax in the third act where the protagonist (generally the good guy) duels the antagonist (generally the bad guy) and wins the day (see The Avengers and Man of Steel as classic examples). That final scene is the scene where you get all the big action sequences and huge CGI productions. Its the fireworks at the end of the parade or after the big countdown. Except in World War Z there is no big countdown. Within two scenes of the movie opening, the fireworks have already been set off and they keep going until the final third of the movie. Then the brain work begins for the final third of the movie. And amazingly, it works! Part of what makes it work is Brad Pitt's understated acting ability. Really. He actually is a good actor and he shows it as he carries the final third of the movie to it's natural conclusion.
If you don't walk into this movie with preconceived ideas of what you want this movie to be you will walk out thoroughly entertained. And isn't that all you really want from a movie? If so, quit reading now and go see this movie while it is still in theatres.

If you are still reading, chances are you are a bit of a movie geek like me. Maybe action and escapism and a decent review are not enough for you. Maybe you like to see deep meaningful parallels between the movies you watch and the world we live in. You want relevancy. Who knows why. I mean isn't the entertainment business there to simply entertain and provide some escapism from our world? Well if you disagree, fear not. While the masses swarm in and out of movie theatres, dead to everything but the most basic of instincts there are some who believe in gleaning more from what we watch. And World War Z has a little bit of that too - just for us movie geeks - not so deep that it gets lost in its own importance but enough that it adds to your experience and just for a few seconds it adds to your perspective on life.

The truth is we all live in a world that is getting faster and faster and more and more congested, a society consuming all in its wake and a society that dares you stand still for even a second without fearing you may be left for dead. What World War Z does very well and not so subtly is suggest that maybe the best way to survive as a society is to stop, maybe even disassociate ourselves completely from the world, or at least slow down, quiet down a bit and turn off the technology if just for a few moments. From an opening scene where the TV news channel is never completely tuned out by the dad trying to play happily retired Mr Mom to the scene where a cell phone creates an all too familiar disturbance with devastating results, it's clear to us geeks that the enemy here is not so much the zombies but the speed and direction that society and technology and social media is taking us.
Not surprising then that the final third of the movie plays out away from the global scenes of chaos and CGI swarms and without the aid of technology, ending up on a beautifully remote landscape in Novia Scotia. It's a simple truth that gives you pause to think............but really this is just a cracking action movie and I want you all to blog, twitter, text and facebook this instantly to your friends and family before you move on to the million and one other things you have to get done today!

The Lone Ranger

I grew up watching the re-runs of the Lone Ranger on a Saturday afternoon. I got excited hearing the William Tell Overture announcing the beginning of the next episode. It's galloping tune fired up images of strong convictions and justice and a man determined to see things were done properly. This cowboy was the superhero of cowboys. He was the best shot, he could lasso anything and he had the smartest horse. In those early days, he stood tall in his saddle. For a young boy like me who loved heroes and loved cowboys - he was not just as good a role model as any other - he was the best role model.

As I have grown up, while still harboring a penchant for such heroes and ideals of yesteryear, I recognize that the world has shades of gray and that our heroes are not all dressed in shining armour but can be dark knights in fact. So when I heard that Disney were looking to reboot The Lone Ranger I was not expecting a carbon copy of that classic cowboy hero from my childhood. In fact some of the more recent hero reboots - Batman, Spiderman, Man of Steel - have done a fantastic job of reinterpreting the outdated material in darker tones. So I expected an edgier darker view of this masked man.

Wow! Was I ever wrong.


Firstly, this movie was all over the place. When they cast Johnny Depp as Tonto, something inside nagged at me - in this day and age why could they not cast a more serious native American actor in the role, but I dismissed that as nervous excitement. What could possibly go wrong? Alright, so casting Johnny Depp tells us it is going to be a somewhat comedic turn but nothing could have prepared me for his performance. Sometimes he speaks half sentences like a painted desert Tarzan -"Me, Tonto" and other times he speaks in full sentences. One minute you think he is part of an action hero double act and then you think he is the missing act from the Four Stooges.
The same chaos reigns supreme with the title actor Armie Hammer. He is built for the part, he looks the part but for most of the movie he plays the chastened fool to the apparently sometimes wise, sometimes wrong Tonto - as if he is still playing the puppy dog scene from "Mirror Mirror".

The William Tell Overture played at various times but with no purpose other than it seemed they thought they put it in at some point just to announce an action scene was coming up. Given the benefit of the doubt I'd say they didn't know what to do with it.

Then somebody thought, "...wait a minute Helena Bonham Carter usually plays a part in movies with Johnny Depp, where is she?"-  and so suddenly there she is - with no apparent purpose but written in anyway - much like a dead crow on someone's head: visually noticeable but pointless.


And finally, I hate to put spoilers in but seeing as they spoilt my movie experience and I don't want you to go see this movie anyway...well I'm just going to spoil it a little bit more.

Could someone please tell me - what on earth are cannibal rabbits doing in this movie?

Was this some kind of homage to Monty Python's Holy Grail? And if so why?
And what was the point of having a General Custer-like character in there without actually naming him and if we are going Little Big Man on the audience to frame our story why not bring Dustin Hoffman in and forego the expense of make-up?

Come award season this is going to earn some Razzies! That is for sure.

Now to sum it all up in the old movies Tonto used to respectfully call The Lone Ranger "kemosabe" which means "trusty scout" or "faithful friend". Disney took it upon themselves to re-define the word with Tonto, disrespectfully (for comedic effect) telling The Lone Ranger it means "the wrong brother", meaning that all along this Lone Ranger was not the real Lone Ranger. The real Lone Ranger died at the beginning of the movie and we were left with his half-wit brother's version.

So what does that leave us with? Well I don't know about you but it left me feeling like I just came out of the hospital with the wrong baby.

And you know what is most disconcerting of all? I think they wanted me to feel this way. If I didn't know any better, the makers of this movie actually hated all that The Lone Ranger stood for and decided to make a movie that pretended to honor him but ultimately mocked him and what he stood for.

Final exhibit against the defence: the last scene with The Lone Ranger and Tonto together. The "heroics" are done and The Lone Ranger raises Silver on his hind legs and shouts the final "Hi Yo Silver". To which Tonto retorts "Don't ever do that again."

Well I am left with just one more thing to say to Disney, Gore Verbinski, Johnny Depp et al, "Don't ever do that again"!

In Bruges

Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes.

First of all, to enjoy this movie you need to not be bothered by the f-bomb. It is used and it is used frequently. You should also not be surprised by the occasional graphic violence - it is after all a story about two hitmen. And then you have to be somewhat savvy with the English culture to get all the jokes. But if none of this is a hindrance, you will discover a gem of a movie in this dark comedy.
Cleverly written and well acted, In Bruge is hilarious and oddly touching and most importantly - original.
Ray (Colin Farrell) is a simpleton hitman plagued with a conscience who is sent to Bruges with his mentor Ken (Brendan Glesson) to wait for their next instructions. Ken wants to sightsee but Ray doesn't and instead ends up finding himself in a number of surreal situations with a few of the locals including a racist dwarf, an arms dealer called Yuri, and a local drug peddler called Chloe. When Ray's boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes) joins the mix, things are set for a killingly funny film.

Don't be fooled by the trailers. This is one of those rare movies where the film is better than the trailer. It is clever, funny, touching and - fan or not - you will love Colin Farrell. He and Brendan Gleeson make a good case here for a more modern and layered version of Laurel and Hardy. Not to be missed also, is Ralph Fiennes performance as the principled crime boss with Tourette's!

Some people's sensitivities may make this film offensive, but that is kind of the point and the joke!
Not necessary to see on the big screen but definitely worth watching sooner rather than later.