EXTRACTION

EXTRACTION (Mini-review)  

Director: Sam Hargrave Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Golshifteh Farahani, Rudhraksh Jaiswal, Piyush Khati, Shivam Vichare, Pankaj Tripathi.

If you are looking for any resemblance of a script, or character development or any original emotional arc, then forget about this film. However if you want about 100 minutes of incredible action non stop, look no further! “Extraction” must take the crown as the blockbuster of the year so far (and given that movie theatres will be close for a while, it’ll keep the top spot for a long time).The film literally starts with a bang and never lets go. It is absolutely relentless as the body count keeps rising and getting more and more bloody and the film gets more and more tense. In among all that, there’s a particular chase scene which probably goes on for about 20 or so in a seamless one-take-wonder (which clearly must have been several shots “magically” and invisibly stitched together): it is one of the best action moment I’ve seen in a very long time and I was on the edge of my sofa pretty much all the way through. The usual moaner will probably say that it looked like a “call of duty” extract, to which I’ll reply “So what!?”. It was the most exciting thing I’ve seen in quite a while and never got bored.
One final interesting fact: the final credits are about 15 minutes long!!! 😱

THE LITTLE PRINCE

THE LITTLE PRINCE

This is a reimagined take of the classic tale by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. There’s a completely new framing device, set in modern day (a city which seen from the above looks like a microchip from a computer), which I guess is needed for today’s audience so far away from the the sensibility of the 1940s when the original book was written. In contrast it is intercut with dreamy warm segments straight from the original book, beautifully rendered in 2D stop motion.
The central message that all grown-ups were once children, but few of them still remember it, is still at the core of the story. It is lovingly done and very respectful of the original, but despite some beautiful imagery, especially during the little Prince’s tales, the film is a little bit too opaque to be really loved by children, and it’s probably slightly too laboured, self conscious and artificial for adults.
Those who love the original book might be disappointed and enchanted in equal measure aware that this is one of those stories that is next to impossible to be reproduced on a screen.

THE LITTLE PRINCE is available on Netflix

Ratatouille

revisiting “RATATOUILLE”

I’ve been doing this little exercise on Facebook called  #AMovieADay, which is turning out to be a way to re-discover some gems and especially watching some of them with my son, it’s an excuse to pretend to be a child again and treat myself with a animated film like this.
Ratatouille is up there among the most enjoyable Pixar animated features.
The colours and the rendering of the food alone makes it a five star film, if on the top of that you add the infectious music by Giacchino, the sheer inventiveness of the story of a rat controlling a human by his hair, the splendid creation of the character of the food critic who lives in a room shaped as a coffin, that “inspired” moment with the ratatouille itself (with that priceless “jaws-counter-zooms effect), that masterful first scene in the restaurant kitchen, choreographed like the an action best, the chase sequence in the streets of Paris, the revelation of the city itself from the rooftops, the health inspector… and I could go on and on.
This is one of the richest, warmest, most colourful animated film of the last few decades. It may not have the ambitions of future Pixar movies like Inside Out, Coco, or even Wally, but it’s certainly one of the most delightful and enjoyable.
One finally bit of advise, you really don’t need a child as a excuse to rewatch (or even watch for the first time) a film like this: just do it. You’ll feel better.

Scary Story to tell in the Dark

Scary Story to tell in the Dark

Director: André Øvredal. Cast: Zoe Margaret Colletti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, Austin Abrams, Dean Norris, Gil Bellows ,Austin Zajur.

A horror story for teenagers I guess, which depending on what mood you’re in, you’ve got equal chances to love it or hate it.
The setting is your typical suburban American town in 1969, obviously at Halloween. Iimagine a cross between all the classic 80s horror B-movies (Creepshow, Children of the corn and so on), mixed with a bit of Stephen King’s It (and consequently, Stranger things too) and a hint of “Final Destination”. In other words, there is absolutely nothing original in this film. You could plot pretty much everything before it actually happens but maybe that’s part of the fun. In fact the first half at least of this film holds on quite well, proving that sometimes you don’t need to be completely original to create a suspenseful story. A few jumps scares here and there, some creepy imagery and fun-gory bits.
It often does feel like a collection of little segments put together and I do wonder whether at some stage this was meant to be an anthology film. However for what it is “Scary Stories” definitely outstays its welcome and after a while all the genre tropes become a bit tiresome. The last 20 minutes are insufferable and left me with a really sour taste, almost sorting enough to push it all down to “2 stars”.

The Goonies

THE GOONIES

Director: Richard Donner.Writers: Chris Columbus, Steven Spielberg. Cast:Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Cohen, Corey Feldman, Kerri Green, Martha Plimpton, Ke Huy Quan, John Matuszak, Joe Pantoliano, Anne Ramsey.

To talk about this film objectively is for me virtually impossible. I’ve grown up with the Goonies and I could probably recite the script by heart (in fact both in Italian and English). For us children of the 80s this was the film to watch over and over again. We all dreamed of adventures, hidden treasures, secret dungeons. When I was 15 or 16 I even made a short film with my friends (using a huge VHS camcorder) called the “poonies” which was a rip off (to put it kindly) of the idea of a band of kids solving a mystery.
Anyway back to the Goonies. Your appreciation of this will depend whether you’ve grown up with it (or whether you’re a kid today) or not.