My Neighbor Totoro: The Spirit Next Door

My Neighbour Totoro is a Japanese animated fantasy film directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The plot focuses on a family that moves to a new house, which is also home to a number of spirits. The two young girls of the family Satsuki (Noriko Hidaka), and Mei (Chika Sakamoto), make friends with the spirits and their colourful leader Totoro. The film deals with the interactions between the family and the spirits.

This film is childhood innocence incarnate, the girls and their relationship with Totoro is so wholesome and pure it reminds me of all the fun I had with my imaginary friends when I was child. Totoro himself is both huge and terrifying, but also cute and cuddly. He is one of the most interesting animated characters I have seen in a long time and that is mainly because we don’t know a lot about him.

Despite all this sweetness and light, there is a hidden darkness behind it all. The mother of the girls is in hospital for unspecified reason and there is a constant threat that she is going to die; which is heart-breaking for the girl’s sake. There is also a scene in the film where it looks like the little girl might be lost or hurt and it genuinely puts you on edge. I think this added aspect gives older people something to enjoy, which makes it a good film for parents and kids to watch together.

There is one scene in the film that bothered me, I don’t know why it was there and it made me uncomfortable. This is of course the bathroom scene, where the dad and two girls are naked in a draw out scene, you don’t see anything, but it is incredibly unnecessary. The scene adds nothing to the film as a whole and it makes you question why it was left in the final cut.

Finally, I loved the colour and animation style of this film and I thought that much like the other Studio Ghibli film I have seen recently Princess Mononoke, every scene could be a painting. The art style is different enough to give to a distinct personality, but there is also a familiarity to it.

Overall, I liked this film it reminded me of my childhood, my only issue with it was that one-bathroom scene that I thought was totally unnecessary. Totoro is incredibly cute.

Pros.

The art style.

The child-like wonder, but also the more adult moments.

Totoro himself.

Cons.

That scene.

The cat bus thing was scary and haunting.

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

Hellboy: Hell On Earth

Hellboy (2019) is a superhero film directed by Neil Marshall, based on the Dark Horse comic character of the same name. This film entirely ignores the Del Toro films that came before it and instead acts as a reboot of the series, moving away from family friendly territory and into Deadpool esque R-rated waters. The plot sees Hellboy, (David Harbour), try and stop a centuries old witch Vivienne Nimue (Mila Jovovich) from unleashing Hell on Earth.

I know this film was a bomb and a lot of people didn’t like it and the Del Toro films are better in a lot of ways, but I actually enjoyed this film; controversial I know. Before I get into why I liked it, I just want to say yeah I know this film has a lot of problems, the CGI ghost people that come out of Alice’s (Sasha Lane), throat are terrible and look like a child made them on After Effects and yes the plot line that Hellboy knew Alice as a child, but now she is kind of like his love interest for some reason, is creepy. That aside this is why I liked the film.

I like how this film sets up a larger world, you feel like there is more at play here than meets the eye, I like how it brings fantasy to a 21^st century version of London. I am also a massive Hellboy comics fan as well as the B.P.R.D so to see characters and elements of that world that the Del Toro films didn’t cover on screen was a blast for me.

I liked the fact that we got new characters rather than seeing the same team from the previous films, made up of Liz, Hellboy and Abe Saipan. Daniel Day Kim’s Ben Daimio is so cool, and the scene when he turns into a Werejugar is easily my favourite scene of the whole film, Alice is also a cool character, even if her powers look terrible.

Moreover, though it might sound heretical to say I like David Harbour as Hellboy. I think the film overdoes it with the jokes and the quips, trying far too hard to be like Deadpool, just like a certain superhero film that came out in 2020, despite this I like his take on the character and I would have liked to see more of him. Harbour plays the character with a lot of charm and warmth, he isn’t as brooding as Pearlman was with the character, but I think it is a good thing that this film tried to take the character in a new direction.

Finally, the practical effects on Baba Yaga were great, this was another highlight of the film for me. I am not going to get into the Pig monster thing: because I think the whole character was needless and the film could have done without that sub-plot.

Overall, this film is nothing like the Del Toro films, but I think that’s the point. If you can appreciate it for the dumb, schlocky fun that it is then there is a lot to like about this film. If not, you can take comfort in the fact their most certainly won’t be a sequel.

Pros.

Fresh take.

David Harbour.

New team with a tease of the old.

The practical effect on Baba Yaga.

Cons.

Terrible visual effects/icky subplots.

4/5

Reviewed by Luke

Onward: A Tale Of Two Brothers

Onward is a computer animated urban fantasy film directed by Dan Scanlon. The plot sees two elf brothers Ian (Tom Holland), and Barley (Chris Pratt), go on a mythical quest to find a rare gem that can bring their dead father back to Earth for one day. The themes of this film are family and being proud of who you are as a person/ being more confident.

On the surface this seems like just another fantasy animated film, the themes and motivations feel samey, but the emotional impact of the film as a whole is what elevates it over mediocrity. I don’t have any siblings, but even I was feeling something when at the end of the film Ian went without his chance to meet his father so Barley could say a proper goodbye to him instead; I can only imagine how impactful this scene would be if you actually had siblings to draw parallels with.

I think Ian and Barley as characters are perfectly fine, they’re serviceable enough, they won’t join Pixar’s pantheon of beloved animated characters, that’s for sure. Pratt seems to be doing his best Jack Black circa 2005 impression, which is okay, and he is probably the character I like the most. I like the energy and good nature the character has; he is the only character I was invested in.

Ian on the other hand I found annoying, I don’t know if it was the writing or Tom Holland’s performance, but I never warmed to his character, even by the end of the film I still felt very little for him. To me, the character seemed overly whiny, he complained and bitched and moaned at every turn, I get that his character is supposed to be sad, but he sucked the fun out of every scene he was in. What’s more Ian treats his brother like dirt for a good 3 quarters of the film, he doesn’t care about his brother getting to see their dad, no he never considers that, just what he wants and his time with their dad, moreover he openly calls his brother a screw up, even though all his brother has done up until that point is try and help him. So yeah in a film about brotherhood and brotherly love, to have your main character treat his well-intentioned brother, as a moron he would rather not have to deal with is a weird character decision.

Overall, this is not a great film, nor is it a terrible one, it is just fine. There are some neat Shrek esque ideas of display here, but they are never really tapped into, the emotional impact is good, but Ian and the side characters aren’t, it is a textbook example of a mid-tier Pixar film.

Pros.

The emotional impact/ wholesomeness

Chris Pratt’s Jack Black impression.

Neat fantasy elements.

Cons.

Ian is whiny and annoying.

I was never really blown away by any of it.

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

Princess Mononoke: The War For The Forest

Princess Mononoke is an animated fantasy film directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The plot follows Prince Ashitaka (Yoji Matsuda), a young man who becomes cursed after a demon touches him while he is protecting his village: this curse will corrupt and eventually kill Ashitaka if it is not lifted. As such he ventures out into the wilds to find a cure. Along the way he ends up caught in the middle of a battle between the forces of the forest lead by a giant wolf called Moro (Akihiro Miwa), and a giant boar called Okkoto-nushi (Hisaya Morishige) and the humans of Iron Town lead by Lady Eboshi (Yuko Tanaka) who are backed by the might of the Emperor.

This was my first time watching a Studio Ghibli film, shocking I know right, and I just have to say it was fantastic, it was unlike anything I have ever seen before. Each frame of the hand drawn animation looked like a beautiful painting, there were many scenes where I was amazed by the level of detail that had gone in to creating this world. The world itself felt so real, it felt like the kind of thing that could have existed one day years ago.

The relationship between Ashitaka and San (Yuriko Ishida), is beautiful and very wholesome. We see each learn to trust each other more over time and eventually realise the feelings they have for one another. Also, their union represents the coming together of humans and nature, which I think is an interesting contrast, especially in these current times, however sadly it shows that ultimately humans will destroy nature for their own ends, the film suggests an inevitability to it.

The final thing I want to talk about is the Forest Spirit. It is the head of this spirit and its believed mythical abilities that caused the war in the first place, it is the life of the Forest Spirit that the forces of the forest are fighting for. However, the creature itself is the stuff of nightmares, it is deer like in a lot of ways, but it has a human face and the first time I saw it, I’m not going to lie, it scared me a bit; I thought it was going to turn out to be a demon, but no. The spirits haunting eyes will say with you long after you turn the film off; just staring contently into your soul.

Overall, a wonderful experience rich with culture and meaning, I will definitely be checking out more Studio Ghibli films in the future as I thought this was superb.

Pros.

The balance between nature and industrialisation.

The believable world.

The fantasy elements.

San and Ashitaka.

Cons.

The Spirit of the Forest will haunt my dreams for years to come.

4/5

Reviewed by Luke

Aladdin: Disney If You’re Listening Please Stop!

Aladdin is a musical romantic adventure film directed by Guy Ritchie. The plot follows a young street urchin called Aladdin (Mena Massoud), who finds a magical lamp that when rubbed produces a Genie (Will Smith), that then offers him 3 wishes. We all know the classic story.

This is yet another one of Disney’s live action remakes that they seem hell bent on making, even though the animated films are still perfectly good and more importantly no one asked for these new films. Personally, I think of the Disney live action remake trend this is probably the best, Will Smith is entertaining and it is a good date movie, it is very romantic at times.

That said let me get into why this film shouldn’t exist. First things first the very existence of this film is an implied slight to the animation, I know in Western countries there is that underlying belief that animation and animated films are for kids, which simply isn’t true, but even still this film is vastly inferior to the animated original in almost every way.

The characters lack any kind of warmth, the characters in the animated film are funny and endearing, you care about them and want them to be happy; here they’re just eh, I have literally never thought about them again since I left the cinema. Massoud is fine, so are the rest of the cast, but therein lies the problem they’re just fine, they’re trying to be as good as the animated original’s voice cast were and they come up short.

What’s more there is a general cheapness to the film, it is clearly an aesthetic choice to make the film look gritty, but I didn’t like it, it made the film look too washed out and serves to reinforce the lack of fun in this film. What’s more there is a lot of things in this film that date it, that in 5 years’ time people will be like that was such a 2010’s film, which in a way makes it bound to that time period and that isn’t a good thing. The thing that dates it of course is the new song for the film, which is incredibly on the nose and proves that Hollywood doesn’t understand the meaning of the word subtly and instead has to ram political messages into every single film; political messages if done right can be effective, but all this served to make me do was cringe.

My final reason for why you shouldn’t waste your money seeing this is because very little is new. As was the common complaint of The Lion King, which was shot for shot the same, there is little new material in this film, there are a few extra Will Smith Genie scenes and a new song, but everything else is pretty much beat for beat the same. I wouldn’t mind paying to see these live action remakes if they actually did something new, but they don’t, it is just a tired rehash and one I can’t support.

Pros.

It is romantic.

If you wanted a less fun version of the original film, you will be in luck.

Cons.

The cheap, gritty look to it.

The new song was bad cringe.

It is just paying to watch the same thing again.

2/5

Reviewed by Luke

The Current State Of Star Trek: There Is Hope Out There

Star Trek is an iconic science fiction brand that has existed for decades, generation after generation have boldly gone where no man has gone before. Over the years we have had many different series and films based on this legendary franchise. What I want to talk about is where the franchise is in 2020 and does the future look bright?

I remember growing up, my dad used to love Star Trek and science fictions shows like it, but it was never for me I preferred things like The Lord Of The Rings, a different type of fantasy. However, as I got older, I started enjoying the series as well. I have seen all 3 of the Bad Robot era Star Trek films and personally I liked them all; even Into Darkness which was controversial to say the least. I have been eagerly awaiting a 4^th film, but it doesn’t look like we are going to get one; at least anytime soon. The Noah Hawley film has gone through a lot of behind the scenes problems, including losing both Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth, so it looks like it is burning in development hell. Then the Tarantino film seems like a throw away idea, if Tarantino sticks to his planned 10 films that would make this Star Trek film his last and I just can’t see that.

So, if we shift our focus to the TV side of things horizons look brighter. Star Trek Discovery was the first of the modern TV series, now Discovery has had its fair share of problems, including story issues and making episodes overly political and personally I found it very hard to watch, but there is hope there. A lot of the more classic elements work well in this series and I hear that the second season of the show works a lot better. However, it is the other Star Trek series that I think is deserving of praise that series is Picard. This show revisits Patrick Stewarts’ Jean Luc from earlier TV efforts, as of the time of writing this series has only had 3 episodes out, but so far, I am hooked, and I would love to see more content like this.

Overall, Star Trek as a brand needs a firm hand, it needs to decide on what it wants it future to look like, once it has done that then it can decide how to proceed. Personally, I think they will end up rebooting the films as the Pine timeline has too many issues with it at this point, while also keeping the TV side of things alive to fill in the blanks in the universe as well as satiate audiences’ hunger for more from this universe, or at least that is what I would recommend.

Luke

Yoga Hosers: The Great White North

Yoga Hosers is a horror comedy film directed by Kevin Smith. The film serves as the second instalment in Smith’s True North trilogy after Tusk. The story this time around sees the Colleens (Harley Quinn Smith and Lily-Rose Depp) return, to fight Nazi clones that take the form of Bratwurst people and once again save their hometown. If that premise sounds out there and weird to you, it should. Yoga Hosers is aware that it is an hour and half exercise in nonsense and silliness and is proud of it, it revels in it.

*Before I watched this film, I had heard people say nothing but, bad things about it and I have to say I disagree I quite liked the film. For me the Colleens are likable and funny protagonists, Harley Quinn Smith once again proves that she has a lot of upcoming actor potential. I think the film has strong horror and comedy elements, it leans more towards comedy most of the time though and is at times both scary and funny.

The humour for me worked about 75% of the time, which is less than what I would give Jay And Silent Bob Reboot, but that film was great. That said the humour in this film had me chuckling quite often and had me laughing out loud once or twice. Don’t get me wrong there are some jokes that drop like lead weights, but for the most part the comedy works.

The hidden Nazi’s element on the plot was genuinely scary at times, however this was deeply undercut by having them be bratwurst people, which for me was just a little bit too ridiculous and I didn’t find them scary. There was some quite good gore across the film that might make you happy if that is your kind of thing, personally I love a good bit of gore in a horror film.

A final point to note is that Johnny Depp is in this film as Guy LaPointe a detective who helps the girls out. Depp for me was easily the best character in this film and the one I liked the most, he was charming and likeable and very easy to warm to. I like when Depp plays over the top eccentric characters.

Overall, I think this film has been judged a bit too harshly, yes, the bratwurst people are ridiculous and yes, the jokes don’t always land, but on the whole this is still an above average horror comedy film and one that does have things to enjoy for the right audience.

Pros.

The Colleens.

Johnny Depp.

Wonderfully Silly.

Cons.

The Bratwurst people.

The humour for me is hit or miss.

3.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Justice League Dark: The Mystical Side Of DC

Justice League Dark is an animated science fantasy superhero film. The plot revolves around a team of DC Superheroes, the more mystical ones, who have to investigate a pattern of strange behavior that has turned fatal. The Justice League themselves can’t understand the problem, so it is down to Batman (Jason O’Mara), and his strange collection of allies to save the day.

*Justice League Dark is one of my favourite DC comics, I have read many runs of the team over the years, so when I heard about this project, I knew I had to check it out. I was disappointed, this was an incredibly average film, nothing more, nothing less.

I will admit it was nice to see the team of Constantine (Matt Ryan), Zatanna (Camilla Luddington), and Deadman (Nicholas Turturro), get together; furthermore, it was nice to see Matt Ryan return to play Constantine, he is fairly synonymous with the character to me. However, my issue was the overall story just felt flat. The best issues of the comic have strong horror elements, but I didn’t get that here, other than the shades and a few other things it was mainly without horror.

What’s more though I liked Constantine I felt that a lot of the other characters were short-changed so that he could have more screen time. An example of this would be Swamp Thing (Roger Cross), who has been a major part of the team before in the comics, here only gets a few lines. Worst of all after he gets defeated, he just goes away and we don’t see him again, which feels like a big unresolved plot thread.

As I said before, this film is everything I would expect from a Justice League Dark film, a group of the more mystical DC heroes fighting against a supernatural opponent, but that isn’t enough to sustain my interest across the film’s runtime, I wanted more. More depth to the characters, more scope to the narrative, I don’t know exactly what but, something that felt better than bog standard.

Overall, this film fell short my expectations, it didn’t wow me in anyway, in fact it annoyed me a lot of the time. I wish they had put more time and energy into the characters and the story overall, if they had this might have been something special.

Pros.

Matt Ryan.

It is nice to see all of the characters team up.

A solid foundation.

Cons.

Other than Constantine and Zatanna very weak characters.

How they handled Swamp Thing.

2.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

The Good Place: In Memoriam

The Good Place is a fantasy comedy series created by Michael Schur, of The Office, Parks And Recreation And Brooklyn 99 fame. The series follows Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell), a woman who awakes in the Good Place/Heaven even though she doesn’t deserve to be there. The first series sees her try to blend in and not be discovered, taking ethics lessons from her assigned soulmate Chidi (William Harper Jackson), who eventually finds out that she does not belong in the Good Place as well. Then there is a masterful reveal at the end of the first season that they are in the Bad Place/ Hell and the events of the first season have been an elaborate form of torture. The following seasons see Eleanor and the others try and earn entry into Good Place, become better people and reform the afterlife system in general.

The reason why this series became such a successful phenomenon is because it is so well written, it has it’s finger on the pulse of pop culture and has characters that you can see grow on screen. The Good Place works because it is such a novel take on the sitcom genre, the show’s approach to morality and ethics make for some great laughs and also some scenes and decisions that really make you think.

What’s more just like Parks And Recreation before it The Good Place has an incredibly loveable main cast of characters. Along with Chidi and Elanor who I have already mentioned, we have Tahani (Jameela Jamil), Jason (Manny Jacinto), Janet (D’Arcy Carden) and Michael (Ted Danson), all of these characters are unique and interesting, they have distinct types of personality and comedy styles. For me either Michael or Eleanor are the funniest and consistently make me laugh across all the series.

Overall, The Good Place was a landmark for comedy and sitcoms in general, it was consistently funny across its run and had some of the best characters on TV. It will be a shame to see it go, but hopefully the ending will live up to the rest of the series and it will go out on a high note. As of the time of writing I have not yet seen the final episode, so these are just my thoughts on the series so far, but unless the ending is terrible this series will always be 4.5/5 for me. Some of the seasons are stronger than others but, overall it is a hell of a show!

*Edit, I loved the ending it was terrific.

Pros.

Strong characters.

Interesting ways of storytelling.

Characters that you can see grow.

Very Funny.

Cons.

A few weaker moments across the seasons.

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina Part 3: Abandon All Hope Of A Good Season

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 3 is a supernatural horror TV Series. The show revolves around a young witch called Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka), she is half witch and half human and is unlike her peers on both sides on the supernatural vial. The series sees her learn more about her powers and herself and go on various adventures with her friends. Part 3 sees Sabrina go to hell to get her boyfriend back, thereby becoming the new Queen of hell, as well as battling against a horde of pagans that worship the Old Gods and want to see the destruction of Sabrina’s coven.

Before I get into this review I just want to say I genuinely enjoyed the first 2 parts of this series, there were plenty of great horror moments to keep me interested, despite being linked to the Archie comics and therefore to Riverdale this show had avoided most of the terrible pit falls of that show. At least it did for a time.

Part 3 is by far the worst so far, The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina always had a distinct sense of identity, but it loses it this season. It basically becomes a more out there slightly scarier Riverdale which is the worst thing I could ever possibly say. The supernatural horror takes a back seat to relationship drama and teenage angst, I understand this is the main market for the show, but the other parts still had good horror elements mixed in to make these moments bearable. What’s more there is a musical interlude every 5 seconds, which feels very Riverdale, these songs feel like they have no natural place in the show instead feeling like plot padding and a chance to show off their licensed music.

Another thing that makes this part the worst for me is Sabrina herself. She has always been brash and impulsive following her heart rather than her head, but this season is ridiculous. She repeatedly does things that put everyone she cares about in danger just because it is what she wants to do. When she is trying to become The Queen Of Hell, she won’t take souls unless she thinks they deserve it, which is baffling as they sold their souls to the devil in the first place. What’s more her whole holier than thou attitude quickly becomes grating as she seems to think she knows better than everyone else on screen; proving her to be the embodiment of every self-entitled, self-important arsehole ever; what makes this almost comical is that she is near always wrong.

Don’t even get me started on her friends, they literally exist to further the plot and fill-out the near hour runtime of an episode. In a supernatural horror show, I don’t want to watch a 10-minute cheer leading sequence. This series is going down the toilet fast.

Pros.

A few good horror sequences.

Lilith continues to be great.

Cons.

Sabrina is hateable.

It feels pandering and Riverdale esque.

It’s vapid and self-involved.

1.5/5

Reviewed By Luke