Tag Archives: Daisy Ridley
I'm not a Peter Rabbit purist and I don't much care that the movie deviates conclusively from Beatrix Potter's beloved children's series. I do care, however, that this movie was 90% montage, more the sort of Youtube video my 6 year old nephew might put together than an actual movie made by an actual studio. The soundtrack must be in the neighbourhood of an astounding 37 discs, although who would buy them is a bit of a mystery. Most songs featured are older than the audience will be, lots even born in the previous century. And I realize that Galaxy of the Guardians banks on exactly this formula, and we can sit here and debate just how much the 80s deserve to be revered, but I'm nearly 110% certain that no one will be on the "pro" side of the same debate in honour of Len's Steal My Sunshine, which cannot be forgotten soon enough and certainly didn't need a Peter Rabbit remix.
Peter Rabbit and his friends are delightfully rendered in CGI, very sweet and cute looking, with just enough clothing to anthropomorphize but never enough to be very confident something rude's not going on. But don't let their looks deceive you: these bunnies are homicidal. They're ruthless and entitled and they're pretty shitty neighbours, to be honest. I mean, they have a whole forest they could forage for food, but instead they repeatedly pillage a garden lovingly tended by an old man mourning the death of his beloved wife. And they don't just want to steal his cucumbers, they want him dead (although where would the garden be without a gardener, huh, bunnies, did you even stop to think of that?). No, the bunnies, who are obviously thoughtless millennials in this incarnation, only think of themselves, and their stealing is somehow justified.
And not to shock you, but they actually do succeed in killing old man McGregor – only to find that his nephew, who inherits the place, is much worse. So they set about murdering him too. Sure, they mistakenly bring a tomato to a dynamite fight once, but the rest of the time they aim to kill. Sean was pretty shocked when they knowingly choke the guy with food he's known to be deathly allergic to. Too far, he thought, and yet this was only one small battle in a very long war savagely fought. These are no innocent rabbits. Of course, sweet Bea next door is appalled that anyone should deny her fluffy-tailed friends all the produce they can eat and waste, but not so appalled, I noticed, that she would bother to plant a garden herself. But of course, the rabbits aren't stealing out of hunger, they're doing it out of spite, and though it's played incessantly for laughs, I just don't know why we need these kinds of stakes in a kids' movie.
To me, the children's books were warm and gentle and sweet and the movie seems to strive to be the complete opposite: rude and obnoxious and totally devoid of charm.
This entry was posted in Movie Reviews and tagged Daisy Ridley, Domhnall Gleeson, family movies, Half-assed, James Corden, Margot Robbie, movies based on books, Rose Byrne, Sam Neill on May 19, 2018 by Jay.
On Second Thought – Star Wars: The Last Jedi
I am not a Star Wars fan. I knew about it peripherally, the way it's infused into pop culture and stuff, but I'd never seen the movies and never cared to. But Sean has always carried a special spot in his heart for Star Wars, or for the original trilogy anyway. He was just born when the first one came out but as a little boy he was enamoured with the series, with the very concept of space cowboys, and swords made out of laser beams, and cool flying cars. And while I think he respected my stance on keeping Star Wars out of my life for the most part, he kinda sorta took advantage of me when I had massive back surgery two years ago. High on back pills, he screened all 6 movies for me, and I was ambivalent at best. I'm totally okay with these movies existing in the world and I'm happy for anyone who takes joy from them, but they aren't for me and never will be. But I still experienced vicarious excitement for Sean when The Force Awakens was announced. It felt like we waited forever to get our hands on that one, and it felt a little out of this world to sit in a theatre and watch that famous crawl go up the screen. Ultimately, though, Sean was disappointed by TFA. He felt it was a little too similar to a previous Star Wars film and couldn't quite work up the same enthusiasm for this retread. But don't think that didn't mean our butts weren't in the seats opening night for Rogue One. And again for The Last Jedi, of course, and this time, Sean was a little more enthusiastic.
Warning: spoilers ahead. If you haven't seen the movie yet, steer away. Maybe check out Sean's spoiler-free review instead, or my own of the original trilogy.
I was not. Enthusiastic, I mean. I don't mean to be a wet blanket on his boyhood nostalgia, and it wasn't as if the film was without merits. I didn't think it was bad, I just didn't care all that much. And at two and a half hours, it was long and felt it, and I couldn't help but sneer at the scenes that I thought of as bloated – that extended Finn/Rose casino adventure that never went anywhere in particular.
But later, thinking about this one scene between Luke and Rey, I reconsidered. "I failed him" he says of his nephew Kylo Ren's defection to the Dark Side. No, she says, "He failed you." And that's when the movie really opened up to me and I started thinking of the film in terms of theme – that theme being failure. Triumphs are easy. Heroes are tested when things don't go their way. Rose and Finn are not going to accomplish their mission but they never stop trying, they never stop believing, and that doggedness inspires hope in others. That mission was never as crucial as they believed. Vice Admiral Holdo had another plan in mind the whole time, and she orders the evacuation of her ship. But this plan fails too. The escape pods are picked off one by one and Holdo ends up sacrificing herself to save them. When she reveals to Leia that she'll stay behind in what will amount to a suicide mission Leia says "I can't take any more loss" to which Holdo responds "Yes you can." Never mind that it feels like Laura Dern is speaking for us, the audience, who have so recently lost Carrie Fisher. It's also a tiny admission by a formidable General that her job is hard, and weighing on her heavily.
Leia looks weary in this movie. The toll of each loss is written in the slope of her shoulders. But her unwavering belief in the cause encourages her to soldier on, as a Rebel and as a Leader – a figurehead who inspires others but also a teacher who is grooming the next generation. Poe seems to be a favourite of hers, though all agree he's a bit of a hot head who prefers the shoot-em-up approach. Poe's whole raison d'etre this film is to learn some hard lessons. He too must fail, and learn to put the Light first and foremost, ahead of even his own ego.
And perhaps it is Luke himself who needs most to learn how to continue on in the face of failure. Having failed his nephew Ben, who then serves under Snoke as the formidable Kylo Ren, Luke is so devastated and full of self-doubt he retreats. Not just physically, though he does completely disappear at a time when, arguably, the Rebellion needs him most. But he also retreats from the Force. He cuts himself off completely. And maybe it's his fear that he'll fail again that prevents him from giving Rey the help she needs.
In the film's last epic battle, between the two men who seem to have failed each other, we must contemplate what, if anything, is Kylo Ren's failure. Though The Last Jedi is a direct continuation from where we left off in The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren seems to have grown quite a bit. He's more self-assured and he's more powerful. But he's still prey to his own temper, which betrays him. He should have been able to pick up on Luke's misdirection if he hadn't been letting his rage dictate their interaction. The truth is, temperamental as he may be, Kylo Ren is a contender now. We've been underestimating him, and we're not the only ones. But does he have a fatal flaw? Certainly, Kylo Ren has failed the Light. He's failed his parents, and his heritage. But is he also failing himself? And if the answer is yes – does he have the means to soldier on?
Now we wait for Episode IX.
This entry was posted in Kick-ass!, Movie Reviews and tagged Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Laura Dern, Mark Hamill, Oscar Isaac, Rian Johnson, star wars on December 18, 2017 by Jay.
It is a good thing that Disney did not try to stick a Frozen short in front of Episode XIII, which weighs in at a hefty 2 hour and 33 minutes not including ads and previews. It doesn't help that much of that time is spent watching Poe Dameron try really, really hard to learn a fairly simple lesson. Poe got it on what by my count was the fourth try, during a battle that took me by surprise because I expected the movie to have ended before that fight even started!
So this was not the ideal movie to have dragged Jay to, with it being an unusually long entry in a nerdy franchise she has less than no interest in. At least trying to spot the rumoured William & Harry cameo kept her busy for a while. I hope.
For those of us invested in this behemoth franchise, this is a solid Star Wars film that changes things up a bit more than did The Force Awakens, though this one sometimes feels like it's spinning in place. Still, being the Star Wars fanboy I am, I was more than willing to forgive a few extra scenes and a few too many contrivances because what this movie gets right, it REALLY gets right.
At the top of the "gets right" list are the Last Jedi. And since Jedi is plural, that makes for multiple entries on the list.
First, Luke is actually in this movie for more than one scene and it's the Luke we know from all three original films, for worse and then for better, and then for so much better. Bear with Luke as in the course of this movie he manages to transition (again) from whiny back-planet farmboy to ass-kicking robed avenger. It's truly fantastic.
Second, Daisy Ridley's Rey is really, really great for the second movie in a row. She is the heart of this third trilogy and for my money she's the best Jedi we've ever had (because unlike Luke, Anakin and Ben Kenobi, Rey never had a whiny phase).
Third, we get a Jedi ghost appearance that was an unexpected bit of closure I didn't even know I needed, as it's one last advice-giving opportunity from master to student. It will make you wish that Han Solo was a Jedi so he had a chance to pop up in ghost form during Episode IX to rehash the good old days.
Speaking of the good old days, it is bittersweet to see Carrie Fisher get a prominent role here. Great as it is to have Leia be the true leader of the resistance, her importance means Fisher's death will leave a massive hole in Episode IX that can't (/shouldn't) be filled (CG stand-ins creep me out and should creep you out too). RIP Carrie.
It occurs to me that a two hour version of this movie might have been my favourite Star Wars of all, if they had cut out much of the Poe and Finn stuff (which are the scenes that inspired my earlier reference to spinning in place). As it stands, this is still a good film that did not disappoint, and it might edge out Return of the Jedi for third place on my list, which is pretty damn respectable.
This entry was posted in Kick-ass!, Movie Reviews and tagged Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley, fanboy movie reviews, nostalgia, Oscar Isaac, popular culture, RIP, sci-fi, star wars on December 15, 2017 by Sean.
Hercule Poirot is a world-renowned detective, known almost as much for his venerable mustaches as for his excellent deductive skills. On the way home from solving yet another case successfully, his train gets stuck in the middle of nowhere thanks to an avalanche, and that's not the worst thing that's happened aboard the Orient Express. Overnight, there has been a murder most foul. One of the dozen or so passengers is dead, and another must be his murderer. With Hercule Poirot unluckily aboard, can his or her identity remain secret? It seems unlikely.
Kenneth Branagh directs himself as Agatha Christie's famed Poirot, and he's equally right in both roles. He leads an all-star cast including Daisy Ridley, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad, Judi Dench, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe and more. The only thing you can complain about with such an ensemble is that we spend precious little time with any one of them – Dench is particularly underused.
Branagh shoots on 65mm film and the result is luxurious and beautiful; I could barely take my eyes off the scenery, and indeed, the script gave me little reason to. I'm still not sure what genre of movie Murder on the Orient Express was trying to be. There might be a mystery at its core, but the audience feels no particular sense of urgency in solving it. There's almost zero tension, which seems like a failure when a murderer is trapped among a gaggle of vulnerable potential victims, each with a neck ripe for slicing. And though I commend Branagh's attempt at making Poirot sag a little under the pressure of his special skill set, the character seems largely untouched by the story unraveling before him. Leached of the emotional heft probably its due, the story never delivers any punch. There's no real suspense. So while every shot is perfectly composed and the film is a stylistic triumph, it just doesn't do justice to Christie's plot.
This entry was posted in Movie Reviews and tagged Daisy Ridley, Half-assed, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad, judi dench, Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Pfeiffer, movies based on books, mystery, Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe on November 17, 2017 by Jay.