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Moana (2016)
Another beautiful and memorable classic from Disney
Moana falls in line next to Tangled and Frozen as an instant classic 'Disney Princess' movie. The stand-out performance of Auli'i Cravalho as the voice of Moana carried the emotional weight of the movie through some of Disney's most beautiful songs to date, while Dwayne Johnson's experience as an actor provided the necessary humour and comedy to support the young Hawaiian-born actress in her acting debut. Dwayne Johnson's performance singing 'You're Welcome' was also a very pleasant surprise.
The supporting cast is also full of surprises, and so many of the lesser songs are still immensely moving. The film is certainly transported from scene to scene by the music, and the native languages featured in some of the numbers shows Disney's respect and appreciation of the culture they're exploring.
Disney's animation has also taken another leap, and the quality of the movie's visuals is surpassed only by the immense care and detail the animators showed in every scene.
It has its issues, of course, as all films do. The plot is predictable, and as bitter-sweet as the ending is, it's certainly not going to be a surprise. As is the case with all animated family films, there is rarely a fear of the protagonist being in any significant danger, and a happy ending is inevitable.
If you want a feel-good movie with fun songs, good laughs, and a simply happy, yet still rewarding ending, Moana is definitely the top movie of 2016 for you.
Home (2015)
Near-perfect family movie
Dreamworks never manages to disappoint with its beautiful animated films, and Home is another it can add to the trophy case alongside Kung Fu Panda, Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon, and Madagascar.
The all-star cast bring such life to the characters, and the animations hold up so much emotion even without the voices that it's easy to get lost in the story. I even found myself tearing up at the end.
Jim Parsons makes a perfect Oh; the lovable and intellectual, but confused Boov. His voice is unfortunately very recognisable; and this is certainly a type-cast for him.
On the other side of the screen; Rihanna brings such a wide range of emotion to Gratuity "Tip" Tucci; it's impossible to not fall in love with the young protagonist, and feel true empathy for her as the plot unfolds.
The story itself offers several moral lessons, and while they're reinforced; they're also not blunt. Other methods of communicating the story - such as the Boov changing colours to match their own moods and emotions; are both incredibly creative and clever, but also allow even small children to follow the story easily, without bland dialogue telling the audience what they should be able to see.
In the end; this is definitely a movie I would recommend, and I would gladly have my kids watch it over and over, because I know I would enjoy it just as much as them.
The Duff (2015)
Cheesy, but funny and heartwarming
Sure, this film is a teenage love drama, and that fact is reflected in the script and themes, but it's surprisingly charming. It reminds me of older teenage dramas like Mean Girls and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The sort of movies that you watch in school when you have a substitute, or a school event gets canceled.
Those classic films, however, fall down flat in front of today's young audience because they're outdated. The DUFF has the same cheesy humour, but in a much more modern setting, and honestly, a good-quality movie about cyber bullying was sorely needed.
While the chemistry between some of the actors was misleading, the lead characters were all surprisingly lovable. It was easy to empathise with Mae Whitman's portrayal of a socially-awkward "DUFF" in a way that made the embarrassing and awkward plot device all high school dramas have even more depressing than comparable films.
Ultimately, the comedy was entertaining as well, and the more experienced comedy actors such as Romany Malco and Ken Jeong played a big part in fueling the laughs.
The biggest problem I found with this film is the vulgarity. The chalkboard drawings of penises and erotic dream sequences are nothing that a teenager nowadays hasn't seen before, but it's still not the sort of movie you can watch with the family, or show a child before they enter high school.
It's unfortunate that such an enjoyable film has limited its most likely target audience with its own graphic imagery, and I don't imagine this will join the ranks of classic high school dramas, because I doubt it will ever be shown in a school setting.
Run All Night (2015)
Not a bad movie, but nothing special either
There's nothing particularly unique about another mob movie where someone's running around with their life in danger, or another movie where Liam Neeson plays a dad protecting his kid.
It's a fine movie: the acting is well-done, the stunts and effects are impressive, and the overall production value of the direction, sound, and cinematography are all of a high quality.
This film, however; is let down by its story line. It's interesting, but it's a little cliché. And while I did find myself rooting for the protagonist; I wasn't emotionally invested in his plight, as is often the case with anti-hero protagonists: they're unlovable characters.
The action was always exciting, but that's where it peaked - the slower moments of dialogue and character development slowed the movie down too much. Too often; the biggest moments of character development came from inside jokes, unknown references, and brand-new characters being introduced.
I will say the audience was well-kept in the dark, and right up to the final seconds of the film; no one could've predicted exactly how it would end, despite the hints throughout the film. It made a better thriller than it did an action movie.
It did honestly take twenty minutes for anything interesting to actually happen in the beginning, but the final ten minutes made up for that, as they were powerful both emotionally, and dramatically.
Lincoln (2012)
Not interesting for a non-American
Movies that feature two and a half hours of debate over politics are usually not my favourite to begin with, but I assume that this movie's target demographic was people that already knew what the movie was about.
As an Australian, I had little knowledge of the events that the film explored, and I had never heard of most of the characters in the events themselves.
I imagine this kind of a movie is something that makes Americans proud and patriotic, but I just couldn't sit through any more political dialogue, and I turned it off.
More often than not, it felt like a history lesson. There was nothing exciting or dramatic, it was barely even eventful. So many times there would be a big moment in the film that got all the characters worked up, and I had no idea what was going on.
Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention, but I found it nearly impossible to concentrate that hard on perhaps the driest subject matter a screenwriter could choose for over two hours.
Don't get me wrong, it's a well-put-together movie, and Daniel Day-Lewis makes a very convincing Abraham Lincoln, but simply put, it's boring
When all is said and done, I knew how it was going to end, so there was no suspense, I had no ties to or interest in the subject matter, so it wasn't inspiring, and I didn't understand what was going on, so it wasn't entertaining.
I can't say for Americans, but I certainly wouldn't recommend this for anyone else.
Django Unchained (2012)
Somehow action-packed, comical, and emotional
I'm not usually a fan of dark humour; but this movie had me genuinely entertained throughout. The protagonists were both lovable and dangerous, and the plot was both action-packed and heartwarming.
The exceptional cast all do a terrific job of bringing truly multidimensional characters to life in a way that is incredibly bad-ass, yet also engagingly emotional.
It's truly impressive to have such strong, emotional characters in such an exciting action-packed movie, but Quentin Tarantino really nailed it, even if the run time is closer to three hours than it is to two.
It has all the stereotypes of both a Tarantino film and a classic Western, and not in a tacky way; but in a self-aware way. Everything is deliberate: the lines, the camera work, and the action.
All this is maintained while tackling one of the most dark and sober topics filmmakers have tackled thus far. And yet; it's still enjoyable to watch.
The movie could've easily been a depressing look at slavery in the United States, but Jamie Foxx, and Christoph Waltz especially, bring a welcome surprise of comedy.
The blood and gore was without a doubt over the top, and while the run time didn't detract from the enjoyable experience; it is a long movie.
But I am nonetheless impressed at the way Tarantino has made a movie about an incredibly dark subject matter while somehow maintaining epic action scenes, cleverly-written comedy, and an emotional quest that could inspire fairy tales.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Pleasantly and persistently confusing
I was never quite sure if this story within a story was meant to be a comedy or a tragedy, French or German, modern or period. It was delightfully puzzling, and I was generally excited to see what was going to happen next.
It made the film artistic and cutting-edge, but also a little bit confusing. There was a great number of characters, locations, and plots to keep track of, all moving along at the fastest speed imaginable for a film.
To actually follow the entire story required my fullest attention and focus. While that wasn't difficult for a movie that mostly kept me entertained; the flurry of cuts and transitions, narrated by several characters in both modern and period settings would've easily lost me at any given junction.
It's artistic nature and rather... unique sense of humour made it enjoyable, to be sure, but it's the kind of movie you watch for the sake of having watched it. It reminded me of comical classics like 'Rat Race' and 'What's Up, Doc?'; but without the laid-back easy-to-watch nature.
It's like someone took a classic comedy, filled it to its brim with characters on either side - without telling you who's a good guy and who isn't, and then cut it together like Inception; deliberately leaving the audience in the dark the whole time.
It's funny, and delightful, and the protagonists are easy to love; but you would almost certainly need to watch it twice to take in the bombardment of story.
The Elevator (2015)
Surprising, but needed trimming
I assumed this was a low-budget student-made film, based on the number of ratings and reviews, so I was not expecting anything good to come out of it. There were certainly moments that broke my suspension of disbelief; moments in plot that made no sense, ADR that sounded off, and brief moments of unbelievable acting, but overall, it was better than I expected.
In contrast, the main cast was phenomenal, both in performance, and in recognition. Imagine my surprise to see that an international director doing his very first feature-length film roped in three world-class actors.
In all honesty, it was the acting that held the entire thing together - as you may expect from a film set almost entirely in an elevator.
It was definitely slow to get going, though. It wasn't until the half-way mark that the plot actually got interesting. Occasionally things would happen that offered no value to the story line, and until the forty minute mark, a lot of it felt like filler, like the movie wasn't going to be long enough, so more scenes were added.
Nothing was more annoying than thinking something interesting was going to happen, only to realise that nothing was happening at all. I began to get bored after the opening sequence.
That being said, if you can endure the first act, you may be pleasantly surprised by the second, as things begin to pick up the pace, and the characters really begin to develop and take on their own stories.
In the end, I wasn't impressed by the actual plot, and its conclusion. It was an interesting idea, to be sure, but it made for a rather dull conclusion, when it was revealed what it's all about.
Basically, I was pleasantly surprised by the film, but only because I expected a no-budget indie film.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
Just a two-and-a-half-hour fight scene
As far as fight scenes go, Peter Jackson never disappoints with his Middle Earth franchise. Unfortunately, that's really all this movie is.
There was nothing introduced in this film that we didn't already see in the first two Hobbit movies. No new locations or characters or even plot. Only one character saw any development at all, and the story itself was predictable during dialogue, and absent during the fight.
In all fairness, if you're a fan of The Lord of the Rings, or The Hobbit, you may enjoy really enjoy this, but it made absolutely no sense to turn a short novel into three movies that are this long, because at the end of it all, this movie had no story.
It might not have been so bad if it didn't have a running time of two and a half hours, but there was so much filler in a fight scene that was dramatic and grand, for sure, but ultimately, boring.
It honestly felt like Jackson was trying to drag it out just to hold up his reputation of making movies that are extraordinarily long. It was bearable to watch, and the action and fight scenes were spectacular, but it's like Jackson has stated before, he makes movies for thirteen-year-old boys. It's just a highlight reel of swords and explosions.
If you're trying to entertain a group of prepubescent boys, good choice. If you're interested in story line, characters, or not wasting half your afternoon, pick something else.
American Sniper (2014)
A solid, but inartistic movie
This is another great biographical film with an inspired story, exciting climax, and beautiful acting from Bradley Cooper.
It offers an honest glimpse into the psychological effects of modern warfare on a man who has seen so many traumatic events; that his life at home is not the same as he returns to battle over and over.
That being said; the images presented are of a dark nature, and it's not the kind of movie you watch again, let alone show your friends and family.
While I don't think that the use of violence in the film was unnecessary, it wasn't particularly artistic. Where the director could've chosen more passive means of communicating the violence of war; he opted to blatantly throw it at the audience, as though trying to give the viewers the kind of psychological damage that the plot explores.
Some scenes didn't feel shocking for the sake of shock value, but just lazy storytelling, something that Clint Eastwood has been guilty of before.
It's a good story, for sure: but it's not well displayed. It's not something I'll ever watch again, or recommend anyone else watches. It wasn't interesting enough to enjoy, and not sad enough to cry at, just... shocking.
Ex Machina (2014)
Lacking in plot, a waste of an ending
I found the story to be rather lackluster. There were certainly moments that questioned the nature of the situation that each of the characters find themselves in, and while this certainly had me anticipating with excitement what was going on, and what was going to happen; the ending left me depressed and unfulfilled.
I came to love the characters and their plight, and I felt betrayed by the ending, and not in a clever or dramatic way. What could have been an exciting edge-of-your-seat movie full of twists and turns ended up being a sad and somewhat disturbing story.
It's a well put-together movie; with great characters, superb acting, and solid direction and production...
But the plot slowly got worse and worse, and the ending ruined it for me.