Hey all. Sorry I’ve haven’t posted for a while, I’ve mostly been helping Kitacon run another kick-ass anime convention up in Birmingham and also been covering Kapow for Geek Planet Online. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t watched some films recently. Here is some brief nuggets of Genre-Giant wisdom.
Director: Carlos Saldanha
Stars: Jessie Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, Jamie Foxx, George Lopez
Domestic bird put in a place he can’t handle. Yep, it’s the good old fashion fish out water storyline. Just with birds and set in Rio. Despite some lovely looking animation and solid voice work from Eisenberg, Hathaway and even Flight of The Concords Jermaine Clement, Rio is just lazy with a formula we’ve seen in countless films; animated or not. Talented the vocal cast is at singing, the musical touches don’t help it fly from its stale generic birdcage either.
Director: Tim Hill
Stars: Russell Brand, James Marsden, Hugh Laurie, David Hasselhoff
The moment when James Marsden is revealed as the first human Easter Bunny, the words that came out of my mouth were “seriously?” This hybrid animated live action fest is a weird creature indeed. Easter Bunny to be, E.B (Brand), doesn’t want to be Easter Bunny and goes to Hollywood to become a famous drummer. Jobless James Marsden accidentally runs him over and hilarity begins. Er, kinda of. Hop is marginally better than Rio simply because Marsden move into comedic roles like Sex Drive, Death At A Funeral Remake, and Enchanted to name a few has been entertaining to see so watching prattle about again for 90 minutes isn’t a bad thing. Oh yeah and that Russell Brand meta moment where actor and animated character meet might have been an attempt to blow the kids tiny mind when in fact it’s just weird. That word perfectly sums up what I think of Hop.
Director: Werner Herzog
This is my first encounter of a Herzog documentary so I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. His subject for Cave of Forgotten Dreams is the recently discovered centuries old artwork in The Chauvet Caves in southern France. Armed with 3D cameras, he succeeds in showing off these fascinating drawings and on the other hand, completely alienates me with his barking mad metaphors. Those with Herzog experience will be happy, newcomers might get a little confused at the 3D albino crocodile bobbing in front of your eyes.
Director: David Gordon Green
Stars: Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschannel
On paper, it sounds like it could have been a laugh. However, when that proposed idea is taking a mystical fantasy quest and putting a swear word in every spout of dialogue, I’m not pleased. There are some genuine chuckles in this farce but again it’s all about being crude with the humour. It’s all about the sex jokes, the fart jokes, people swearing over and over again thinking it’s always funny. It might be from the same talent as Pineapple Express, but Pineapple Express was an Apatow clan film. Tells you something, doesn’t it? You want a fantasy quest film with actual humour; check out The Princess Bride instead. This will infuriate many.
I did also check out Scre4m (or Scream 4) (which briefly I'll say here that I liked it...a lot) and will get a full in-depth review posted up soon.
Now if you excuse me, I have to go see Winnie The Pooh! That honey junkie fiend
