How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon

Directors: Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders. Cast: Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson

This has got to be the best animated movie coming out of Dreamworks. Shrek was possibly the funniest, but this has some of the most beautiful sequences and a great heart too.I wasn’t so sure at the start, as it all felt slightly too noisy and a bit too busy, but once it got into the story, it was an absolute delight and even if it’s not up there with those 5 stars classic, it’s actually pretty close. For a start it is beautifully animated (Roger Deakins himself is credited as visual consultant): the flying scenes are breathtaking (one of the few instances the 3-D gimmick actually added something) and the action is slick and exciting (and never confusing).I also appreciated how the film took its time to develop the relationship between Hiccup, the protagonist and Toothless, the dragon, not only making it all feel more earned and rooted in reality but also adding an air of mystery to the proceedings. It clearly owes a lot to movies like ET (the fear, the bond… and then the flying) and it won’t break the mould for originality, but it managed to feel fresh and different even if the story at the core of it is very familiar.

There’s an infectious sense of joy and fun at play here (also thanks to the rousing score by John Powell) making this a perfect family film. One that excites the kids and doesn’t alienate the parents (and also doesn’t resort to the usual wink-wink post-modern jokes that only grown ups get).

And for once the moral lessons are not down pushed down your throat.

Honestly I can hardly find a single fault with this one.

And now we’ll be looking forward to its sequels.

Made In Italy

Made in Italy

Director. James D’Arcy. Cast: Yolanda Kettle, Micheál Richardson, Souad Faress, Liam Neeson, Lindsay Duncan,Valeria Bilello.

First things first: this film is cheesy like the Italian cheese, it’s got one of the most sentimental script you can find on Amazon Prime these days, it portrayals Tuscany in the most cliche way one could ever imagine and you can see where the whole plot is going from miles away. But you know what? None of that matters. This is also an extremely watchable film, in fact quite calm-inducing and I would be lying if I didn’t tell you I found myself laughing out-loud in a few places and actually at the end I was pretty chocked up and (and felt a bit dirty for falling for it).Not everything needs to be a masterpiece and once in a while a harmless film like this is not going to hurt anyone.The main appeal of course is the ever-wonderful Liam Neeson, here acting with is own son, who ’s actually rather likeable too. One cannot help but drawing parallels with the plot of the film and the actors’ real life events. Liam Neeson’s wife in the film has died in a car accident. Tragically his real wife died on ski accident in 2009. These echoes from real life infuse the film with strange atmosphere and add an extra layer of gravitas and poignancy to it: some of the scenes between father and son coming to terms with the death of the wife/mother (which must have been quite tough to do) are actually quite powerful, despite the syrupy music and the terrible scripted lines of dialogue which lack any subtlelty. Knowing what I know and because I really love Neeson, I just can’t be too critical towards this film.

I enjoyed it even if in a disposable sort of way… Bit like a warm bath.

On Amazon Prime

Godzilla vs Kong

Godzilla vs Kong

Director: Adam Wingard. Cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall, Kyle Chandler, Brian Tyree Henry.

The film certainly delivers on its silly title providing some epic and spectacular battle (in fact battles) between the two “titans”. This is why we’re here after all: they’ve been building up for three movies (the so-called Monsterverse mythology) to this moment. However beyond those fights, the film gets tangled up with one of the most untinteresting plots about something called “Hollow Earth” (some kind of mirror world beneath the Earth) and the search of some secret power source hiding beneath which not only feels like they belong to another film (A Sci-fi) but most crucially they are just utterly boring.

Having missed the previous film I had to try to put the pieces together to work out what was going on, but believe me, it’s not rocket science and actually, to be honest, who cares?

I hated this mixed of technology, spaceships and ancient lands. Robots and beasts. Wasn’t enough to have 2 of most incredible creatures in movie history? Why did they need to make it so complicated?It also goes without saying that despite the charismatic and quite decent actors every time the film tries to follow an of them and it stirs away from the monsters, it comes to a dead end (with the possible exception of the little girl who has some nice moments with Kong).

So when the first encounter and clash between the two monsters finally happens, at around the 40 minutes mark, I really wanted to scream “About bloody time!!”. It is an incredible sequence that almost redeems the idiotic dialogue scenes, the cardboard-thin characters and the dull dull dull plot.The effects are incredible. We have certainly come a long way since rubber-suit Godzilla and stop motion-Kong and however much I loved those early movies I don’t think anything is lost in terms of expression or phisicality.

Unfortunately 8 minutes later, once the first the first round is over and done, we are going to have to wait more than half hour for the re-match.It really stretched my patience beyond belief. By the time the second fight happened I was so bored out of my mind that it took me a while to actually properly enjoy the spectacular night fight in Hong Kong, which admittedly is pretty awesome (Alas intercut with more boredom with some people)..

There’s also a surprise in the last act (mainly for the fans) which gives the film an excuse for another unexpected fight. Overall though I must say 2 monsters in one film is an idea that actually pays disservice to both, as not enough time can be devoted to any of them, even more so when the film is so concerned about filling up time with so many uninteresting characters (with so little to do).

I was expecting something silly and I would not have minded if it had been just that, but I wasn’t ready to be so bored.

The film is out now on streaming platforms and if you’re like enough to have cinemas open where you are, then it’s on the big screens too.

Seaspiracy

Seaspiracy

Director: Ali Tabrizi

Well, one thing is sure: Seaspiracy really lives up to its title. A British activists sets out “on a journey” (Yes, there are still documentaries that use that old terminology “I’m on a journey”, which my producers and I used to make fun of about 15 years ago) to uncover the ugly truths about our oceans. Cues for spooky music, over the top sound effects, shocking footage of dolphins and sharks being killed and wild stats and obscene claims which basically tell us that even organisations as big as WWF are hypocritical and lie about facts and the stark reality, which according to this documentary is that if we carry on like this in less than 30 years we would have exhausted all the resources from the oceans. This is grabby stuff of course and I’m sure many people will be horrified and appalled (as it’s proved by its very high rating on imdb), but look at it closely and you’ll find that this is essentially a mish mash of stuff made by a YouTuber with an expensive “Netflix-stamp-of-approval”.It looks flashy, it rattles along and it sells the idea it all to you pretty well and there are indeed some interesting moments here and there, as well as striking images (those in Thailand at the start for example), but let’s be honest, this is cheap “journalism” of the lowest calibre, with some very hammy lines of commentary (“you heard of blood diamonds, but this is “blood shrimp”) and very misleading facts, thrown at the audience and driving the message home that basically eating fish is a lot worse than an oil spill in the ocean or killing Wales. According to Seaspiracy, it’s impossible to have sustainable fishing and whoever tells you that they are doing it is lying. The labels on the fish you buy are lies and actually the fish you eat has more pollutant than anything else you might breathe. The scale of the conspiracy and the lies are too huge to even comprehend, all the way to our governments and ALL of our charities and organisations intending to protect our marine wildlife. And while of course I appreciate the core message, I think this sensationalistic approach, lack of depth (ops.. that came up naturally without thinking…haha, pardon the pun), conspiracy theories backed up by no interview no longer than a couple of soundbites, cherry picked facts and some guerrilla style secret-filming eventually harms the seriousness of the issue and make it look like something from Tik Tok. But then again, people will lap it up. I was tempted to rate it lower, but I recognise its strengths even if I’m beginning to be a bit tired of these one-sided conspiracy-filled pieces.

As I was looking for photos for this post, I came across this article, which just proved my point: https://www.theguardian.com/…/seaspiracy-netflix…

On Netflix

Tina

Tina (2021)

Directors:  Daniel Lindsay, T.J. Martin. Cast: Angela Bassett, Tina Turner, Oprah Winfrey, Ike Turner, Erwin Bach, Kurt Lode.

A great Tina Turner fan may see this documentary differently probably wanting to see more or to hear more, but as a casual Turner listener and somebody who was obvious to most of what I’ve just seen this was almost the perfect biography. It gave me enough to understand her greatness, her achievements, her story and get inside her mind like very few of these types of film do. Right from the start when she announces that her life wasn’t a good life and that the “bad” outdid the “good” you just sit up and listen. This is as candid and insightful as some of the best documentaries can get and by the time the ending comes along and you’ve been on the full journey I have to confess I found the epilogue overwhelmingly emotional.This is a survival story. A celebration of a truly remarkable woman, from the time when she first appeared on TV, performed in Las Vegas, through a nightmare which never seemed to finish, to her amazing comeback as a middle-aged woman and ending with her performing to a massing crowd of 186,000 people in Rio: it’s Inspiring, moving, empowering.

The documentary has some great archive material and some really strong interviews with only the people who matter.At times it’s slightly repetitious and it could have done with a few trims, but the end point is so strong that I was able to forgive it all.

On Sky in the UK and HBO in the US.