The Little Mermaid: The Opening Salvo Of The Summer Movie Season

Summary

The Little Mermaid gets the live action remake treatment.

So I went into this with pretty low expectations and thinking it wasn’t really going to be my sort of thing but I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. I will preface this review by saying that I haven’t seen the animated original so I wasn’t attached to one version of this story.

I want to say right off the bat that Halle Bailey is a great Ariel and really helps the character to feel likeable and rounded in a live action format. On top of that she also has a very believable and strong romantic chemistry with the male lead, played by Jonah Hauer-King, which helps the film to really work as a date movie. Bailey of course also has a great singing voice and pulls off all the songs truly very well, or as well as can be done with the woeful new songs.

However, the strong cast doesn’t extend across the board Awkwafina is terribly miscast as Scuttle and has a groan inducing rap sequence that also doubles as one of the terrible new songs I mentioned earlier. It is such as a shame the film felt the need to introduce a few new songs as the old ones are still great and are what the audience want, but hey they have to have new songs to try and enter them into awards races later in the year. Awkwafina’s miscasting is somewhat offset by Daveed Diggs as Sebastian who is damn near perfect casting and who makes that Crab the stand out character of the whole film, bring on the Sebastian Disney + show I say.

A final point I want to flag up is that the effects and pacing of this film are both noticeably off and that on a technical level these things hold back the film. The underwater effects look bad and unfinished and I know Disney has bad relations with effect houses but they clearly needed to fix this if they want to improve their CGI, because at times the CGI hear was shocking, especially compared to what The Way of The Water was doing at the end of last year. Moreover, the extra story for Eric and a few other characters is nice but it really doesn’t need the film to be an extra half an hour longer than the original, at the length it is being shown at this film has a second act that drags by at a glacial pace.

Overall, a better live action remake than most of Disney’s others

3.5/5

Bailey

The classic songs

The romance

Digg’s Sebastian

Cons.

The effects and pacing

Awkwafina

The new songs

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The Princess Bride: Your Princess Is In Another Castle

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A story within a story about a young farmhand, played by Cary Elwes, who must go on a quest to save the love of his life, played by Robin Wright, after she is kidnapped.

For the most part I enjoyed this film. Yes, the damsel in distress plot line is played out, but I suppose when the film came out maybe it felt more fresh. That aside I found this to be an entertaining ride.

The comedy was the thing that caught me off guard, I had been expecting more of a straightforward adventure/fantasy film and as such wasn’t really expecting many jokes, but this film does have a lot of them and most of them work well. It certainly made me smile more often than not.

Additionally, I liked the meta aspects of the narrative wherein the story knows it is a story and as such is a bit more playful and knowing both within its narrative as well as its presentation towards the audience.

I think as well that Elwes and Wright have great chemistry and them together as a couple in this feel incredibly natural and rightly paired.

Overall, a lot of fun.

4/5

Pros.

The great chemistry

The jokes

The metaness

It is a lot of fun

Cons.

Some aspects of the film feel quite dated now

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The Super Mario Bros. Movie: Bring On The Luigi’s Mansion Spin-Off

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Two Italian-American plumbers, voiced by Chris Pratt and Charlie Day, fall through a magical sewer pipe and end up in the Mushroom Kingdom. Adventure awaits.

So the initial bad reviews of this film seemed to want it to be something it was never going to be, it was always going to be silly and with a fairly predictable story that reflected a lot of game elements and that is exactly what this film is.

Yes there are some jarring elements like Chris Pratt’s accent, which drifts in and out over the course of the film, and the random song mid-way through, but on the whole there is nothing bad here. In many ways it is a very serviceable and accessible entry into the world of Mario and has a number of memorable moments and characters.

Funnily enough Mario himself was probably the least interesting character here, as he was a fairly standard main character out to prove himself, prove his father wrong and get the girl. However, said girl Princess Peach to be exact, voiced by Anya-Taylor Joy, Donkey Kong, voiced by Seth Rogen and Luigi, voiced by Charlie Day, are all terrific. I like that the film expands each one as a character and tries to dig deeper into them rather than just presenting them in fairly obvious archetypal roles. A confusing move the film makes is having Mario and Donkey Kong be friends, which then negates Donkey Kong as a Mario antagonist later down the road, as he was in the games, though a heel turn is always possible.

I would definitely say that if you are a fan of the games you will get more out of this film, as though it is not incredibly reference heavy there are a number of nods and background character appearances that fans of the game can enjoy and which sometimes hint at future things to come in the inevitable sequel.

Overall, fun, but not perfect.

3/5

Pros.

Day, Taylor-Joy and Rogen

Expanding on the supporting characters in interesting ways

The references and nods to the games

Cons.

Pratt and his inconsistent accent

It is badly paced.

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Mummies: The Fight Back Against The British Museum

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A trio of mummies travel from their land of the dead into the human world.

It was nice to see an animated film that was a, not from Disney and b, didn’t feel incredibly American. It was nice that this film had more of a British feel to it, certainly it added a certain sense of charm that no doubt boosted my likelihood of enjoying the film.

I think Joe Thomas did a really good job of anchoring the film and was easily the best voice actor of the bunch, outside of Sean Bean as one could never surpass him. For the most part the voice cast was used well, it was strange that the female lead had a different voice for talking and singing and wider still that they used a white voice actor for the talking voice and an African American R and B artist for the singing voice, it feels problematic.

The songs for the most part aren’t good and feel like they were just added into boost the runtime of the film, which is very short even with them, the only one that was good, in my subjective opinion, was the final rendition of Walk Like An Egyptian.

Overall, a fine Easter holiday distraction for kids, with enough British charm to keep everyone interested.

3/5

Pros.

Thomas and Bean

It is funny

It certainly has British charm

Cons.

It is a noticeable different when the film swaps between the female leads talking voice and singing voice

The story feels very familiar

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Puss In Boots The Last Witch: Don’t Fear The Reaper Fight Him

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Puss In Boots, voiced by Antonio Banderas, is back after a long wait and is facing the end of his life, is retirement on the cards or one last tale of glory?

I was very pleasantly surprised by this film, the first Puss In Boots was very much meh and on the duller side of meh at that and lived firmly in the shadow of Shrek. However, this film has so much going for it, whether it is the genuinely quite stunning at times animation, or the character of the Wolf/Death, voiced by Wagner Moura, who is downright menacing and is also a fantastic on-screen presence.

I thought the story did justify the need to come back and revisit these characters and that the tale on the whole was surprisingly mature and sombre, it was a reflection on life, love and making the most out of the time you have left. The ending was basically just a massive tag for Shrek 5 Now With Teenager Ogres, and though I should be angrier about how blatantly this is done I think I am fine with it.

The main area where for me this film let itself down is with the supporting cast, they bring back Selma Hayek as Kitty Softpaws, Puss’s partner in crime and love interest, but they give her little new to do and that is without getting into Florence Pugh’s Goldie and the massively wasted opportunity that was. In my mind a lot of the backstory and dynamic between Goldie and her Bear family was most likely left on the cutting room floor and that is a shame, no one would begrudge this film being a few minutes longer.

Overall, a surprisingly needed sequel that does some really interesting things with its animation.

4/5

Pros.

Death

The surprisingly adult tone

Puss’s arc and journey throughout the film

The ending

Cons.

The side characters are wasted

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Daddy Day Care: The Adventures Of A Stay At Home Dad

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Eddie Murphy becomes a stay at home dad and then decides to turn his home into a day care centre.

This film was by no means awful, as some of Murphy’s later films are, but it was simply incredibly familiar and frankly lame. The plot of the film was so formulaic and played out that you knew exactly what was going to happen and when, and all of this was obvious from the jump, there were no surprises.

The humour was obviously for a younger audience a lot of slapstick and some gross out jokes these didn’t really land for me, but they did have a few more adult jokes that landed and made me laugh. On the whole I would say far more misses than hits.

However, what really does end up saving this film in my view is Eddie Murphy himself. Murphy brings a lot of charm and heart to the role and this helps to elevate the film beyond mediocre and into better territory. The end realisation that he was actually doing it to be closer to his own son all along and that it was better than the cushy advertising job he had before would had felt generic and dull with another actor but Murphy really sells it.

Overall, Murphy really does put in a lot to get this one over the line.

3/5

Pros.

Murphy

The heart

It is watchable

Cons.

More misses than hits with the jokes

It is incredibly predictable

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The Amazing Maurice: The Pied Piper Was A Cat

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A cat called Maurice, voiced by Hugh Laurie, and his human companion, voiced by Himesh Patel, travel town to town working a racket wherein they pretend to rid each town of their rats when in fact they have brought them.

I thought this was quite a charming animated film, what’s more the setting in the wider world of Terry Pratchett opens it up for all manor of possibilities if there ever was to be a sequel. I found the film to be fairly easy to watch with some likeable characters, but that is not to say everything about it was great.

The film certainly has some lulls wherein it slips into being boring and this is made worse by the pacing of the film. Furthermore, this issue is compounded by the fact that Patel’s Keith is never given much in the way of personality and is fairly bland so any section focusing on him on his own away from Maurice drags on. This is somewhat alleviated by Emilia Clarke’s Mallica who serves as both the narrator of the tale as well as the female lead and is in every respect the stand out character of the film. Clarke makes the character have so much life and charisma that it is hard not to be excited when the film is focusing on her.

Hugh Laurie as the titular Maurice is fantastic but then again you always knew he would be.

Overall, a fun animated film though one that could have worked better if the pacing was tighter.

3.5/5

Pros.

Clarke

Laurie

It is a lot of fun

The world of Pratchett

Cons.

The pace

It drags at times

Uncle Buck: What Is John Hughes’ Problem?

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

After the parents of a trio of children go out of town in is down to their somewhat alternative Uncle, played by John Candy, to look after them for a few weeks.

I thought this film was a delight, it had a lot of the good wholesome family fun of Home Alone with the added charm of a John Candy at the top of his game. Truly this film reminds you of just how much of a talent Candy was, he was gone far too soon.

The comedy of the film isn’t a hit a minute but far more jokes land than don’t. Moreover, the characters are written in such a way that they are all very easy to root for, I would say that John Candy’s Uncle Buck is the star of the show though he is challenged for top spot by a scene stealing Macaulay Culkin.

My one complaint, and for those of you who have read my reviews for a long time you will know what it is going to be, yes that’s right its is John Hughes obsession with sexual assault. There were many other ways they could have shown that the teen daughter’s, played by Jean Louisa Kelly, boyfriend, played by Jay Underwood, was bad, they didn’t need to have a scene where a girl is repeatedly saying no to his sexual advances. It is both uncomfortable and clashes horribly with the family friendly tone of the rest of the film, what Hughes’ problem was God only knows. This felt like a completely needless addition.

3.5/5

Overall, fun but stained by unnecessary darkness.

Pros.

Candy

The jokes

The wholesome family vibe for the most part

Culkin

Cons.

The deeply unnecessary sexual assault plotline

It has tonal issues

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Matilda The Musical: Netflix Doesn’t Seem To Understand How To Adapt Books

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A reimaging of the classic Roald Dahl story.

Yes, this is yet another case wherein the original is vastly better than the remake, and I don’t even mean book to film, no what I mean is that the original Matilda film with Danny DeVito was vastly, and I do mean vastly better than this film.

My main issue with this film is that it loses a lot of the cheeky sense of fun from both the original film and the book, this film fundamentally isn’t fun but is instead depressing. Within the DeVito version we never really got a sense that Matilda’s parents were outrightly abusive towards her, yet we get that here. In addition Miss Trunchbull in the original film is a sinister villain at times but also has a core of cartoonish silliness to her that makes her actions seem less outrightly sociopathic and cruel, again this is missing here.

Another thing I disliked about this version of Matilda is the songs. There is no getting around the fact that the songs in this film are not strong, worse yet the film goes out of its way to repeat the same songs or lines from them over and over again to the point wherein you question whether the film is trying to force you to like them.

I will give this film praise for a stellar performance from Lashana Lynch who does make a great Miss Honey, but her performance isn’t enough to save this film.

2.5/5

Pros.

Lynch

It is watchable

It has one or two funny moments, but it is by far not enough

Cons.

Pacing issues

It is depressing and no fun

The songs make everything worse

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Arthur Christmas: Getting The Same Present You Have Had For Christmas Over And Over Again

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Arthur Claus, voiced by James McAvoy, the bumbling but well-meaning son of Santa Claus, played by Jim Broadbent, embarks on his own personal Christmas mission when he realises that a Child has had their gift left behind.

I have heard a lot of people sing the praises of this film, but personally after watching it for the first time this Christmas season I just don’t see what is so good about it.

To be blunt with you there was nothing here that hasn’t been done better before in other animated movies, from lessons about self-reliance to not judging a book by its cover to family relations all of these themes that the film tries to explore have been done better elsewhere. Adding to this the plot mostly feels cliched and entirely predictable, you know from the off how it is going to go and how it will end and whilst for some watching this that narrative safety might be an endearing feature of the film, for me I felt it was boring.

To further build out the list of problems facing this film, the characters have no charm to them at all, and this is in part because of the writing but also because of the incredibly timid voice work done across the board. Both Sony Animation and Aardman have put out better characters that are far more charming than these dozens of times in the past, so who knows why they think this would fly here.

Overall, a watchable film and one that is good to use to mindlessly distract kids in the run up to or even on Christmas day but not one that has any merit beyond that.

2/5

Pros.

It is watchable

It would entertain little kids and would make a good distraction for them if any parent is looking to have some time to themselves during the Holidays

Cons.

It is boring

It is uninspired

The voice cast are only in it for the pay checks

I’ve seen all of its ideas and situations before

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