Studio Ghibli's latest: The Tale of Princess Kaguya.

Check out my youtube review HERE!!!

Studio Ghibli is one of the most creative, ambitious and consistent movie studios today filled with wonderful and artful storytellers. The studio was founded by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and Takahata directed the film I'm reviewing today. The Tale of Princess Kaguya is the latest from Studio Ghibli and based on the ffolk-taleThe Tale of the Bamboo Cutter which is considered Japan's oldest narrative and done in the visual style of Japanese water colours.

The film follows Princess Kaguya who is sent to earth from the moon to be found by a bamboo cutter in the countryside. Like bamboo she grows at a rapid pace and after her earthly father finds gold he decides to raise her as a noble. Princess Kaguya destined to be royalty but born of nature struggles with the demands of society as she tries to stay true to herself. Radiantly beautiful she is presented with many suitors but not wanting forced love she gives them impossible tasks that they are to complete.

The Tale of Princess Kaguya is a beautiful film that feels no need to go by modern film structure nor modern animation. The film is told in a combination of vignettes and slightly conventional plot with gorgeous hand drawn animation that is wonderfully engrossing and unfortunately rather alien these days. If anything can and should be said about this film is that it is a piece of visual art. The colour and strokes of the images create gorgeous moving images and Takahata having played around with his visual style before in his previous films Only Yesterday and My Neighbors the Yamadas continues to do so here. The music is also artful and I love the Japanese instrumentation.

The story itself is beautiful but also doesn't reach its full potential; it has many fantastic ideas but unfortunately not all of them are brought to fruition. This is Ghibli's longest film and there are a few moments that could have been trimmed but overall it isn't much of an issue as you enjoy your time in the world of this film as it contains many great moments of honesty, haunting drama, social commentary and enjoyable humour. Unfortunately all of this in undone by the films finale.

The way the film ends has to be one of the most frustrating movie endings I have ever seen. Everything up to that point was a near masterpiece, a thing of beauty and soul but then it is all thrown away by an ending that goes against everything this film was about. It's a betrayal that feels so false that it stirred up uneasy laughter by people in the cinema. It was a slap in the face that I can't forgive and don't think I'll ever get past even though it's staying true to the tale it is based on. The film is still good but what was once beautiful is now tarnished in a way that cannot be undone.

Like I said the film is a visual piece of art with lovely music. The voice cast (I watched the Japanese version not the English dubbed) was wonderful and their characters endearing. The story is ambitious, old fashioned, beautiful and rich with ideas, commentary and relevant themes. This film is 95% beautiful...and the ending just ruins it. I will never get past what a betrayal the ending is and though it is true to the folk-tale it didn't have to be; The Tale of Princess Kaguya is a film not a folk-tale and it has the right to stand on it's own. With that said it is a beautiful film with an unfortunate ending but still beautiful nonetheless.

4 out of 5 stars. It would have been 4 1/2 if not for the ending.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

So it's not a Dredd sequel?: The Judge

Check out my youtube review HERE!!!

The Judge is the first film from production company Team Downey which was founded by Robert Downey Jr. and his wife Susan Downey (It feels wrong not putting Jr. at the end). This film is directed by David Dobkin who takes his first stab at drama after a career full of comedy films. The film features a cast which includes Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jeremy Strong, Billy Bob Thornton, Dax Shepard and David Krumholtz.

The film is about a father (Duvall) and a son (Downey Jr.) who must overcome their estranged relationship as the son represents his father in court regarding the death of a criminal the father put in jail twenty years ago and possibly killed upon his release. What follows is a movie full ofs all the courtroom drama and estranged family clichés we've seen before, a lot of unnecessary characters and sub-plots but still an overall decent movie.

Like I said there is too much going on in this movie; this wouldn't be a problem if we actually cared about what was going on but a lot of it is just manipulative smaltz which I really have not time for. It doesn't help that all this makes the movie  two hours and twenty minutes long when it really should have been an hour and forty minutes. There is so much that could have been cut out of this movie especially on a scripting level but it's here to stay so I'll move on.

The cast is pretty solid though they're not really given much to do. Vera Farmiga is as lovely as always but doesn't get enough screen time, while Dax Shepard does a good job but his character is completely pointless and has no need to even be in the film. The film is well made with good cinematography, though I'm not really a fan of the lighting. The music is nice and overall the film is just that, nice.

But nice doesn't always get you places. The film just never really feels true to me, everything is done to manipulate you, whether it's the music, the back story or the dialogue. The film is nothing new, we've seen it before and it's not done well enough to compel me to watch it again. This is not at all a bad film but it's kind of bland and rather forgettable. I'm not at all bothered that I watched it but I don't think I'll be likely to watch it ever again.

3 out of 5 stars.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Dracula: Untold...Shouldn't have been told.

Check out my youtube review HERE!!!

Dracula is a classic character from a classic property; of course that means it's time for Hollywood to ruin said character. Now the vampire genre hasn't been in the place for the past few years as there was this little thing called Twilight that made the genre lose the respect it once had. Dracula: Untold is not only an attempt to bring back the horror and action roots of vampire movies but is also the first in the series of remakes bringing back Universal's classic monsters. Unfortunately that's all it is, an attempt and not a successful attempt either.

Dracula:Untold is the feature début of Gary Shore and stars Luke Evans, Sarah Gadon and Dominic Cooper. This iteration of the iconic character goes to it's historical root of the character being based on Vlad the Impaler. Of course other than the name and impaling the rest of the film is in a fantasy world. Dracula: Untold takes this classic character and mythology and creates a film meant for the Lord of the Rings and Superhero generation but unfortunately it is not nearly as exciting or engaging.

The script of this film is an utter failure and I would advise any would be writers to look to this film for what not to do. Though it tells the beginning middle and end of a story it makes no attempt to make this story compelling, these characters more than two dimensional or even a reason for this film to be made. Add to that laughable dialogue and a large number of your usual clichés and you've got yourself a waste of time. This film is by the numbers if the numbers equal zero because that is the amount of possible reasons for this film to be made.

The actors sleepwalk through their roles but it's hard to blame them when they're given material this weak. Sarah Gadon is at least as gorgeous as ever though that isn't enough of a reason to watch this movie. The action is rather bland and incomprehensible, partly the fault of the M(PG13+) rating and the rest of the blame on poor staging, editing and lame CGI. The art direction is also quite campy and the music too forced. This film is truly the product of a studio with no real heart in the production and if you'd excuse the pun it is an example of a truly soulless movie.

With that said I didn't out right hate this movie like I did transformers. This film at least had the decency not to be self indulgent and at a swift ninety minutes it was over and I was free to forget all about it (once this review is published of course). This film is bad and with no redeeming features; to make things worse this was shot on film and what a waste of film it is. This is what happens when a studio is entirely in control of a movies; it becomes a soulless enterprise that is just a waste of my time.

1 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Channing Tatum's Scared of Dolls: Annabelle

I did something special for my youtube review so check it out HERE!!!

When The Conjuring came out last year it was very much a revelation for the horror genra; though not original it was still a breath of fresh air, artfully made, surprisingly up lifting, actually portrayed Christianity very well and was honestly just a great movie which something the genre continues to lack. So when I heard that the same team (though not director) would be making a spin-off via Annabelle I was indeed intrigued; it also helped that the trailer was pretty good too. This time around though it is directed by the Director of Photography of The Conjuring John R. Leonetti and stars Annabelle (not kidding) Wallis, Ward Horton, Alfre Woodard, Tony Amendola, Kerry O'Malley and Eric Ladin.

Unlike the The Conjuring the plot of Annabelle is not based on one of the Warren's case files, it's more of a fictional prequel to the case file which was briefly featured at the start of The Conjuring. The film follows a young couple who are soon to be parents. They recently moved next door to a nice older couple who they attend church with, unfortunately the older couple's daughter ran away with a cult and returned to kill her parents and attempt to bring forth a demon who possesses a doll in the possession (see what I did there) of the young couple.

What follows is a film that has its moments but is ultimately rather redundant and also rather silly. Being a Director of Photography on previous projects, John R. Leonetti knows how to construct a stunning composition and believe me there are many in this film; the digital cinematography isn't jarring for the period piece. But a movie doesn't just have to look good it also has to tell a compelling story as well; unfortunately it doesn't.

The script is where Annabelle really falls short (don't know if that counts as a doll pun) as it is tells us a story we've seen before and better and also manages to be rather bland and at times laughable rather than frightening. Like I said the film has its moment but it's hard to make a doll really scary, in fact most of the scares come from other forces related to the doll but not the doll itself. Though I do commend the fact that film took more inspiration from Rosemary's Baby than other possession movies unfortunately it all ends up falling flat as none of the characters are that compelling and drawn rather thing.

What we have with Annabelle is a forgettable horror movie that has gotten exposure because of the film that came before it, then again isn't that the point of franchise films. There are some solid scares (particularly one involving a sight from an elevator) but there are also lazy jump scares and also some laughable ones. The film is competently made and well shot but then again you'd have to be something truly terrible to not be but in the end it doesn't matter if you don't have a good story to tell. Annabelle isn't necessarily a terrible film but it is a bad one and not one I'll be remembering at all.

2 out of 5 stars.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Fincher's Bleakest Yet: Gone Girl

Check out my youtube review HERE!!!

David Fincher is one of the most revered filmmakers of our time and I'm not just saying that because he is one of my biggest influences. Tarantino actually sent out a email to many well known filmmakers and asked them who the ten most important filmmakers of our time were and only two names appeared on everyone's lists; those names were Richard Linklater and David Fincher.

Gone Girl is David Fincher's latest film, based on the Gillian Flynn novel of the same name (side note: the novelist also wrote the screenplay). Now the novel was quite a hit in 2012 and 2013 and it also being Fincher's next film made it quite anticipated for many film fans and myself. It follows Nick (Ben Affleck) who come home on his fifth wedding anniversary to find his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) missing. This missing persons case soon turns into a murder with Nick being the prime suspect. It also stars Carrie Coon, Kim Dickens, Tyler Perry and Neil Patrick Harris.

When I left the cinema after seeing Gone Girl I left feeling four things; rather mixed, very unsettled, confused and rather pleased. Though somewhat similar to the films Fincher has done before Gone Girl is kind of a different animal. For the first thirty or so minutes of the film it didn't feel like something Fincher had made; the dialogue felt different, the pacing felt different, the atmosphere felt different...it just all felt different. But then once it got to a certain story beat it was pure Fincher and I was sucked in...and then it changed. It continued to go back and forth between the Fincher that I knew and the Fincher that I didn't and that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it wasn't always a good thing either.

Like all of Fincher films Gone Girl is technically perfect. Jeff Cronenweth's cinematography is as stunning as ever; his collaborations with Fincher have to be some of the best use of digital photography. The score from Trent Reznor and Atticuss Ross really adds to the experience as well. The actors all do great work (including Tyler Perry) with Carrie Coon being the stand out for me as Nick's twin sister Margo. There was never any doubt that this wouldn't be the case, if you watch any of his work you'd find this to be true so we're left with the script to find the films faults.

Now I haven't read the novel though reliable sources (and wikipedia) have told me that the film stays very true to it. The script isn't necessarily bad but the story is far from perfect though I do love (and loath) where it goes. The script goes into the dark recesses of marriage and the way it can make two people come undone; it may start with love but sometimes it grows into loathing. This is truly David Fincher's bleakest film and it will leave you feeling frightened and exhausted and I really loved how it ended; true Fincher fashion.

But the road to get there was rather bumpy and contained some very illogical and rather frustrating plot points that really would never happen but do so that the audience don't know whether Nick killed Amy or didn't. If the writer wasn't worried about the ambiguity a ridiculous plot point wouldn't have happened but then again it would have ended up being a completely different story. The script also contains some very cheese and almost laughable moments which you can tell come from the pulpiness of the novel and is cause for some very jarring tonal shifts. But some times the laughs are okay, especially regarding the satirical look at the way the media and the attention seeker react to these situation.

Gone is far from Fincher's best film but it's still pretty damn great. Technically immaculate, thematically ambitious for a mainstream film (then again it is Fincher), slightly flawed but overall quite thrilling and haunting. Gone Girl definitely isn't a film for everyone's tastes and is bound to be rather polarising but it will be a major discussion point for the coming days and you will very much be out of the loop if you don't get to see it. Me personally, I find it to be pretty great but not close to Fincher's best but even lower tier Fincher is better than most.

4 out of 5 stars.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.