As an offbeat anti-fairy tale, Rare Exports is quite unique. It certainly pushes our understanding of what might normally be a children’s story (and indeed, it received an M rating here in Australia). For those who feel like a uniquely ominous fantasy tale, then perhaps this is just the thing
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Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
When a story is split into two separate films for no higher purpose than to bilk the movie-going (and dvd-purchasing) public out of their hard-earned cash, it becomes irrelevant how well written or produced it is. This decision is the fundamental, unifying problem that ultimately betrays the film.
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If the alternative was a three hour, frenzied adaptation of the entire book, then I suppose this was the better option, but you can be certain that once the DVDs of both parts come out people will simply watch them back to back, anyway.
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Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
To see Pixar returning to the well was a bit of a letdown. I mean, it’s really good, possibly on par with the first two (and this franchise surely sports two of the best sequels ever made), but it just felt like more Toy Story, something which I hadn’t ever craved.
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Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Toy Story 3
All the good science fiction concepts are here – it’s Prometheus, Frankenstein and a cautionary nuclear power tale all in one. Some of the most dramatic moments of the film succeed in the face of the previously mentioned flaws simply because the story is that good.
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Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Astro Boy
Up is a brilliantly effective exploration of mortality, and how what were once hopes and dreams can one day turn into distant memories. Tinged with regret, it’s one of the saddest films in recent years to have followed a central character in their later years.
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Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Up
It’s all very obviously Gaiman – there’s a circus of sorts, a focus on the significance of names and above all his love of cats. Coraline has a wicked temper and a stubbornness that’s endearing rather than annoying, voiced perfectly by Dakota Fanning.
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Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Coraline
Sommers’ films always used to have a sense of fun about them, but somewhere along the way he’s forgotten how to pull this off. There is one flashback that is actually thrilling, and the chase through Paris has the right idea, even if it completely flops in the face of atrocious special effects.
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Continue reading G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Unprepared audiences may actually baulk at a movie – ostensibly made for children – that is visually so unrelentingly bleak. The tone matches the material, however, and provides for a refreshing change to the homogenised output of Hollywood.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Krabat
The film really drives home the idea that domesticated animals (well, dogs, mainly) would do anything for us, even when we mistreat them. Their whole world revolves around their human, and this film nails that idea perfectly.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Bolt
Like its predecessor, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is fine it its way, but never even seems to flirt with capturing the imagination. One wonders how many more of these disposable computer animated children’s films will be created in future given the decreasing time and money required to make them. Heaven help us all.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa