Mitten Film Nerd

Week of June 9th – Back to Berk, Same as the First….

—

in

With my 20th tournament happening this week, I guess I could give you my rankings of what I think the Wes Anderson movies are for me.

  1. The Grand Budapest Hotel
  2. Fantastic Mr. Fox
  3. Moonrise Kingdom
  4. Asteroid City
  5. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
  6. The Phoenician Scheme
  7. The Royal Tenenbaums
  8. Isle of Dogs
  9. The French Dispatch
  10. Rushmore
  11. Bottle Rocket
  12. The Darjeeling Limited

Before anybody gets too mad about those rankings, all 12 are really good films. There are just ones I like more than other ones. Those top two are all timers though for me. On to the reviews!

This comedy is about a gay couple (played by Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells) who are very close to adopting a child, going on a vacation in Italy, where they barely know the language, and after series of misunderstandings, find themselves in an unraveling situation. Or other words, dumb Americans go to a foreign land without knowing the language. Most of the humor in this is the Italian people speaking Italian and it’s completely different from what our main characters think. For example, at a dinner restaurant they’re going to the host asked the two to kiss. The moment they do, she yells in disgust. They think it’s because of what they just did but what it really is is she just saw she used the wrong wine for what they’re eating. The humor system that over and over again. Them adopting a child really doesn’t really fit with the rest of the movie. Kroll was OK in this, but Rannells wasn’t really working most of the time in the movie for me. He always seems to be playing the same character in anything he’s in. Also, with this film, almost everything that happens is in the trailer. So, just watch that and it will save you a hour and a half. On the other hand, I’m never mad to see Amanda Seyfried show up in films. I wish she wasn’t more of it though.

It hasn’t been a secret that I have not been a fan of the live action remake in the last 10 years or so. While the quality of nearly all of them has been not great, they’re still making money. While it’s been primarily just been Disney doing it, DreamWorks decided they wanted some of that money too apparently. They only had one franchise that would work though, and that was How to Train Your Dragon. Having now watched, I have more questions for the House of Mouse, because this was a very good retelling of the the original version. It is basically a shot for shot remake, but I found myself drawn into it more than I thought I would be. The special effects were all very good, Toothless looked great, and the cast were all really good in their roles. I did find myself missing Baruchel as Hiccup, but that wasn’t any fault to Mason Thames who played him in this version. That was more due to Gerard Butler returning to the same role he had in the original trilogy, and kind of had me thinking back to the original a few times. Still, this was a great adaptation that puts the Disney remakes to shame. However, the other two in the series are a little wilder, and it will be interesting to see how they portray those two films. The sequel has already been greenlit for 2027. We will see if they can keep it going, and also hope they don’t try to adapt their other franchises. If there is loving God, we will never have to see a live action Boss Baby.

in Celine Song’s followup to her debut film (2023’s Past Lives), we follow Lucy (Dakota Johnson) a New York City matchmaker, as she finds herself in a love triangle between John (Chris Evans), her ex of 5 years, and Harry (Pedro Pascal), a private equity dealer, who is also a “perfect” match. What we have in the film is an exercise of how shallow dating can be when people have focused so much on things that just don’t matter. One thing I think Song might have gone a little heavy on is the importance of money to a relationship. I know it was there for character development, but it just made Lucy look like the bad person she tells John she is in the film. Johnson and Pascal were both very good, but it was Evans that stole the show for me. The dude can act when you give him good material to work with, and he breathes life into the film when everyone else is thinking of dating as mathematical equations and business deals. This was such a nice romantic comedy that told its story in a very grown-up realistic way. The big takeaway I took from this film: I am glad I am 6′ 3”.

I know up above I spoke highly of Dreamwork’s live action remake, but every coin has another side. This was so inferior in many ways. With this being Disney’s 24th live action remake by what I can see, you would think they would have things figured out by now. As the remake of the 2002 film that is beloved by so many, this was always going to make money. The effects don’t look terrible either. Stitch look good most of the time, and the aliens of the Federation look good too. The cast is also pretty good here. The issue I have here is the story, and what they decided to do with it. This isn’t supposed to be a “big” movie, as most of it is set in Hawaii. The pacing and music they use though just made this feel like it was a Disney+ movie, and not a theatrical one. I also am perplexed why they decided to change the third act. Granted, we do get to the same final destination, but how we get there kind of ruins a character that they didn’t need to. There were reports that Disney might be second-guessing this live action plan after Snow White failed, but this is is making a lot of money like it always was going to, so I’m afraid the plan is resumed. We are getting live action Moana next June, and while that too will print money, here is hoping that the film will present a true reason for it to exist that Lilo & Stitch (and the majority of this remakes) failed to show.

Two big releases happen this week, and I’m not sure either will be able to take out HtTYD. I’m ready to be wrong (like I usually am in this section), but I think 28 Years Later won’t have the huge audience it will need, and Elio just looks awful, so word of mouth will need to be fantastic to have it beat Toothless.

  1. How to Train Your Dragon
  2. 28 Years Later
  3. Elio
  4. Ballerina
  5. Lilo & Stitch

After a couple crazy weeks, the schedule starts to really ease up. Only two theater visits for me this week as of now since I am most likely skipping the Screen Unseen tomorrow. I’m fairly sure it is Bride Hard, and I can live without seeing that. I have the lowest of expectations for Elio, but 28 Years Later should be good. I hope. Finally, on Wednesday, I will post my current A24 rankings.

Comments

Leave a comment