TT: Norm of the North

(I'm going to experiment with branching out a bit. "TT" stands for "Trailer Tuesday". Each Tuesday I'm going to post a look at an upcoming trailer instead of a movie review.)

There is a new kids movie coming. Did you like Happy Feet? Madagascar? Most importantly, did you really like their cash grab sequels? Then you should see Norm of the North!

MM: Mockingjay, Part 2

(I'm going to experiment with branching out a bit. "MM" stands for "Movie Monday". Each Monday I'm going to post my standard movie review. Stay tuned for what comes on the other days.)

And so the Hunger Games trilogy/quadrilogy (depending on how you count it) comes to a close. I must admit that I was nervous about this movie. But it came off extremely well. The writing and directing were much more solid in Part 2, pulling everything together into a more coherent whole. And, of course, you can't look past the acting. Everyone continued to be fantastic, but Josh Hutcherson showed that he is really maturing past his "child actor" roots, and Julianne Moore was the perfect politician (the scene with her proposal to the Victors near the end gave me chills).

The Winter's Tale

Monday night we went to a Fathom event: Branagh Theater presents The Winter's Tale. Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, and a host of similarly accomplished actors put on one of Shakespeare's less well known plays. (Heck, I don't even recall Reduced Shakespeare Company mentioning it.) They filmed it and simulcast it around the globe.

As expected, it was wonderful. This is not one of Billy's better plays (more on that below). It had a number of oddities. But the acting talents, staging, costumes, et al. more than made up for it. Even through the technical glitches and bad satellite reception. Branagh reined in his occasionally over the top emoting. Dench was pitch perfect as the bitter old courtier. Everyone was just spot on.

Victor Frankenstein

Are you a fan of the book, or of the movies? If you're a fan of the book, you should know that the writers chose to go with the movie version of Frankenstein. This is pretty immediately obvious, as Daniel Radcliffe plays Igor, who doesn't even appear in the book.

And yet, you should watch this anyway. I'm not sure that old Mary Shelley would be proud of this adaptation, but it certainly explores many of the themes she was getting at. It's Gothic horror as it should be. We explore questions of identity, redemption, purpose, and playing God. And we do it through the eyes of two tortured young men, and against a lovely industrial backdrop of nineteenth-century London.

Peanuts

(This is an old one, that apparently never got published from drafts. Enjoy.)

The Peanuts are an ancient and hallowed property that has been mined deeply, and is dear to many of our hearts. Hearing that there is a new feature film really leans on that nostalgia button, but also triggers a lot of trepidation. How can you possibly make it fresh without betraying what makes it great?

Well, I don't know that I have the answer, but the guys at Blue Sky certainly do. I won't proclaim this movie as a wonderful film in its own right. But the way in which the production team navigated the truly dangerous waters of honoring the legacy while taking it in a new direction was genius.

The Good Dinosaur

Well, it's Pixar, so I feel contractually obligated to love it. Except that, honestly, I didn't. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad movie by any stretch. But it failed to live up to the bar set by previous Pixar films. The plot is predictable, the beats coming exactly where and how you expect. The characters are well done, but surprisingly thin. The setting seems to go to a lot of effort to support a wonderful concept (dinosaur protagonist, human pet) that is then only half-heartedly explored.

And yet, I would totally watch it again. Because, familiar and well-worn as it is, it is exploiting formulas that work. Also, this is clearly a movie where the focus landed on the technical achievements. The animation was detailed, realistic (in some instances photo-realistic), and indescribably beautiful.

Spectre

Bond is back. In the capstone to Daniel Craig's run, we see him confront his most classic enemy, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the head of the shadowy Spectre. And, in a detail that I missed in the trailers, the political machinations of Max Denbigh, aka "C", better know to us Sherlock fans as James Moriarty. (I may have squeed a bit when he first came on screen, but you can't prove it.)

Short version: This is an excellent finish to the Craig Bond. It takes the style and plots built up over the last few movies and ties them up into a nice bow. While I still prefer Skyfall, Spectre is a solid film that I would be happy to watch several times (unlike, say, Quantum of Solace). The fact that Bond actually had a strong supporting cast helps tremendously.