Ghostbusters Afterlife Review

4.5 Stars

It's been 32 years since the Ghostbusters saved the city of New York from Vigo the Carpathian.   After their second successful standoff against a supernatural threat to humanity, the Ghostbusters began to quickly lose business.  It's not that nobody wanted them.  Nobody needed them.  Ghost sightings dwindled until there was just no business left.  Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) went back into academics.  Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) became a successful business man.  Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) went back to running his Occult Bookstore.  Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) severed all ties to his team and his family.  Somewhere along they way, he had a daughter Callie (Carrie Coon).  Egon predicted another humanity-threatening supernatural apocalypse.  He took all their equipment and went to the source of the future destruction: Summerville, Oklahoma.  The Ghostbusters never talked to him again.  His daughter never knew him.  The residents of Summerville thought he was just a crazy dirt farmer.  And that's where Ghostbusters Afterlife begins.  

Egon Spengler is seen racing away from Shandor's mine in his pickup truck.  A full ghost trap on the seat next to him.  A none-too-pleased spook chasing him.  Spengler leads the ghost to his farm.  A trap to catch the spirit.  A trap that fails and costs Egon his life.  To his estranged daughter Callie and grandchildren Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), he had a heart attack and left them nothing more than his worthless farm and a mountain of debt.  Not exactly what Callie needed having just been evicted from her current apartment, unable to keep up with the bills.

Coming to grips that this run down shack is now their home, Callie and her kids attempt to make the best of their situation.  Callie begins sorting through her dad's "junk", Trevor gets a job at the local burger shack, and Phoebe enrolls in summer school where she meets Mr. Grooberson (Paul Rudd).  Immediately, they find equipment left behind by Egon, they begin seeing inexplicable phenomenon, and there are seismic rumblings that don't make sense.  Mr. Grooberson recognizes the equipment and shows the children video footage of who the Ghostbusters were.  It is soon revealed, they are the direct descendants of Egon Spengler, the Ghostbuster. 

Ghostbusters Afterlife is being hailed as the sequel fans have always wanted.  And for good reason.  After the success of Ghostbusters 2 in 1989, several writing efforts went into making a 3rd installment, but some of the cast (namely Bill Murray) were more than just a little hesitant.  In 2016, instead of a sequel, a reboot was made and failed to deliver the same magic.  The original team got to work and created Ghostbusters Afterlife.

Ghostbusters Afterlife is truly a family reunion project.  It was directed by Jason Reitman (son of the original director Ivan Reitman); it was written by Gil Kenan, Jason Reitman and Dan Aykroyd; it was produced by Ivan Reitman and Dan Aykroyd; and the list of appearances from the original films include Sigourney Weaver, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, the Ghost-mobile Ecto1, and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.  What more could you want?  

The biggest question I had going in to the film was the kids.  They're young, but they're seasoned veterans and this style of film should be right in their wheelhouse.  Finn Wolfhard is best known for his roles in Stranger Things and the modern Stephen King's It.  Mckenna Grace has an even longer resume with roles in The Handmaid's Tale, Designated Survivor, Ready Player One, and Amityville: The Awakening.  Neither are strangers to the big screen and both have experience in the spooky and the supernatural.  They were perfectly believable as the two Ghostbuster descendants fully capable of picking up the proton packs on their backs to carry on the legacy.

The story is the same plot line as the original.  Gozer the Gozerian wants to take over the world and needs the help of The Gatekeeper and The Keymaster to do so.  In the original, it was Dana Barrett (Weaver) and Louis Tully (Rick Moranis).  In Afterlife, it's Callie and Mr. Grooberson.  The special effects were perfect.  Reitman and his effects team took the original creatures and weapons from the original but just made them so much cleaner and realistic.  

I gave Ghostbusters Afterlife a 4.5 Star Prediction.  Remember, my rating scale doesn't necessarily mean this will be an Oscar-worthy film.  It really has to do with how honestly the preview portrays the movie and how much I enjoyed it and want to watch it again.  And this movie delivers everything fans would want and modern movies will want to see.  It is smart, new, fresh, funny, entertaining, with just the right amount of spooky.  I am sticking with my original prediction and giving Ghostbusters Afterlife a 4.5 Star Rating.  There was just enough nostalgia for fans of the original to get their sentimental fix while still making it a movie that stands on its own for today's audience.  

I only had a few small critiques of the film.  It took me a while to warm up to Trevor.  For about half of the movie, I didn't really see the point of his character.  Half-way through, it seemed the only point he really served was that he was old enough to drive.  But then he quickly turned into a formidable Ghostbuster and I bought into him for the remainder of the film.

I have mixed feelings on Egon Spengler's appearance.  It was similar to the feeling of seeing a digital Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia at the end of Star Wars Rogue One.  It was good, very well intentioned, but just felt a little off and not quite right.  But it was still sweet and certainly done to pay huge homage to the late Harold Ramis. 

Another fun touch I think they could have worked in in a subtle way was a descendant of the antagonistic Environmental Protection Agency inspector Walter Peck (William Atherton).  His character was just so juicy and easy to hate in the first movie.  He set in motion the events that lead to the final climax and he got what he deserved in the end with a shower of exploding Marshmallow Man.  I feel like they really could have found a place for a Peck presence in this film.

And I was missing a "Bill Murray" character.  Understandably, there is no one like Bill Murray, but it was a missing element from the film.  Phoebe was a clear descendant of Egon with her mind, mannerisms and humor.  Her friend Pod Cast seemed to fit the Ray character, and they share a special bond at the end of the film.  Trevor's love interest Lucky (Celeste O'Connor) fit the Winston position as the late-comer but equal contributor to their overall success.  Grooberson and Callie seemed the modern Dana and Louis.  And then there's Trevor.  If he was supposed to be the Pete Venkman of the bunch, it was a complete failure.  It looks more like Reitman agreed that there was no replicating Bill Murray, so they didn't even try.  Not a huge deal, but a noticeably missing piece of the original movie.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Ghostbusters Afterlife for both it's nostalgia and it's originality.  There were audible cheers and laughs from the audience with the throwbacks to the original film and for the new cast and story.  It's one I'll want to watch over and over again.  So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

Dumbo Review

4.5 Stars

Disney continues its recent movie trend of live-action remakes of their animated classics with 2019's Dumbo.  This is Disney's 11th live-action remake following hits like Beauty and the Beast, Alice in Wonderland, Jungle Book, and Christopher Robin, though Christopher Robin was actually a live-action continuance rather than a remake.  And they won't be slowing down any time soon with previews already out for Aladdin, The Lion King and Little Mermaid.  And each one of these live-action movies gets more and more realistic and close to a perfectly imperceptible blend of CGI and actual actors and animals.

After a long string of weird, wonderful, fantastic and bizarrely beautifully haunting movies, Director Tim Burton has been somewhat quiet in the last several years.  He directed Big Eyes in 2014 and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children in 2016 and produced Alice Through the Looking Glass in 2016, but this is the one Burton fans and Disney fans alike have been anticipating for years now since it was first announced he would be taking on the project.  

To add to the cornucopia of delicious movie ingredients, Burton has reunited with stars Michael Keaton and Danny DeVito for the first time since he directed them both in Batman Returns in 1992.  

In the live-action Dumbo, Timothy Q. Mouse has a couple of quick cameos, but is not the encouraging, mentoring friend and manager as was his role in the original cartoon. Instead, it is a pair of children who discover Dumbo's talent and hone his skills.  

In this version, Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) was a big circus star until he went off to fight in the war.  He did not return the same man: his wife had passed, he lost his arm, and he was left to raise his two children with the help of his circus family.  Circus owner Max Medici (Danny DeVito) purchased an Asian elephant, Mrs. Jumbo, who was due any day with a baby that would bring a new spark to the dying, struggling circus.  When her baby is born, Medici is shocked and embarrassed by the enormous size of the baby's ears.  Since Holt can no longer perform horseback, the act that made him a circus star, he was charged with caring for the elephants.  Medici charges Holt with fixing the baby's giant ears while he gets to work demanding a refund for the faulty elephant.  Mrs. Jumbo is hauled away, but when Holt's children discover that Dumbo can fly, the are convinced that his aerial feats will draw enough crowds and make the circus enough money that they could buy Mrs. Jumbo back and reunite them.  When word of the flying elephant get out, entrepreneur V. A. Vandevere (Michael Keaton) and circus aerial acrobat Colette Marchant (Eva Green) show up to make the big-eared wonder a super star and give a permanent home to the flailing traveling circus.

The animation, as it appeared from the preview, was nearly flawless.  Burton and Elfman are nearly flawless, especially when they work together.  And having Keaton and DeVito back together was just perfectly fantastic.  There were many throwbacks to the original cartoon, but Burton definitely made this live action film his own.  As I mentioned, we got to see Timothy Q. Mouse a couple times.  I liked the choice in his use of the storks when it was time for the miracle of birth.  It was great to hear Elfman's original yet distinctly recognizable music.  Hearing his take on the classics like Casey Junior and Baby Mine (get your Kleenex ready) and Elephants on Parade.  In the cartoon, Dumbo accidentally drank some of the clown's booze and blew elephant bubbles from his trunk during that song.  The way Burton worked that into this movie was clever.  And, I won't give it away, though I missed the crows singing When I Seen an Elephant Fly, the way he payed homage to that one was as perfect as could be done without actually having the crows back in the movie singing it.

One of the biggest challenges animators still have with CGI is when actual actors interact intimately with their CGI counterpart: walking down stairs, dancing, flying, especially when Dumbo has such an awkward flapping style of flying.  The way Burton accommodated his animators by his choice of shots was genius and made for flying scenes that did not take you away from the movie at all.

I have been excited to see this movie for a long time now and I gave an enthusiastic 4.5 Star Prediction to Dumbo.  I am sticking with my 4.5 Star Rating and the only reason really that it wasn't a perfect 5 stars was because of Holt's daughter who played such a major role in the film but lacked any kind of emotional range throughout 95% of the movie.  I don't know if it was her acting choices or a director's guidance, but she had the same lack of emotion when Holt came home without an arm, when her dad was dismissive of her desires to leave the circus, when Dumbo began to fly, when Dumbo was separated from his mom, when their small circus was bought by V. A. Vandevere.  No facial expressions, no emotion in her voice or eyes.  It was just flat.  But, other than that, I thought it was well worth the money in the theatre, one I'll want to see again and again and will definitely add to my collection as soon as I can.  So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

Bohemian Rhapsody Review

4.5 Stars

Bohemian Rhapsody is the movie based on the songs and story of the British rock band Queen that was formed in 1970.  Members Brian May and Roger Taylor were both members of a group known as Smile, of which Freddie Mercury was a fan.  Mercury encouraged the group to experiment with more elaborate stage and recording techniques and eventually joined the group as their lead singer.  Mercury was also responsible for renaming the group Queen.

As their popularity grew, they gained the interest of a record label.  They were asked what makes Queen different than any other group.  Their response was that they are a group of misfits playing to the misfits who don't feel like they belong.  They released their first album in 1973 with songs like Keep Yourself Alive, Great King Rat and Doing All Right.  It was in 1975 for their album A Night at the Opera where arguably their most famous song was unleashed on the world.  In spite of their early success and critical acclaim, they wanted to branch out, experiment, give the world something they've never seen or heard before.  But the band struggled to convince Ray Foster (Mike Myers), an EMI record executive, that their new music would sell.   While Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek) explained Bohemian Rhapsody, Foster commented about the song "going on forever. Six bloody minutes."  Mercury quips back, "I pity your wife if you think six minutes is forever."  As the song is conceptualized, recorded and played in the film, a barrage of critiques fly across the screen.  The fans, however, embraced it and Rhapsody spent nine weeks at the top of the UK Charts.

Malek got his start in film with the role of Pharaoh in the Night at the Museum Trilogy.  He is most currently known for his role in the USA TV series Mr. Robot.  After just seeing the film, I don't know that there is another possibility of someone playing the iconic role of Freddy Mercury.  

Bohemian Rhapsody covered their early days of Mercury going out to dive bars regularly to watch his favorite band Smile perform to Mercury's fortuitous timing in joining the band to their unique, cutting-edge, never heard before style of songs like We Will Rock You and Bohemian Rhapsody to the press's fascination with Mercury's personal relationship preferences off stage.  The film kept a good balance of tracking the band's progression and Mercury's personal life and how the two affected each other, both in positive and in negative ways.

If you've read any of my previous entries when dealing with a movie that is "based" on something historical, while not claiming to be an accurate documentary, I choose not to do any research ahead of time because I don't want to sit in the theatre and nit-pick every artistic choice the filmmakers made to produce the movie.  Instead, I just want to take it for what it is: entertainment based on fact.  And I find Queen to be one of the most entertaining musical groups in history.  One of my all-time favorite songs is Somebody to Love.  To my delight, the film opens with my favorite song.  

Like any fan of Queen, either of their entire story and repertoire or of just their few more well-known hits, I was excited to see Bohemian Rhapsody and just prayed they would do it justice.  But, as the preview promises, they far exceeded doing it justice and incredibly captured what no other band in history could even come close to duplicating.  I'm gave Bohemian Rhapsody a 4.5 Star Prediction and I'm going to stick with a 4.5 Star Rating.  It was entertaining, emotional, exciting, tragic and beautiful, just like their music.  Malek was genius in his portrayal of Mercury in a way that few are able to achieve.  Immediately, only a handful of actors come to mind who accomplished the feat: Tom Hanks' role of Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks and Daniel Day Lewis who brought President Abraham Lincoln to life in Lincoln.  These few talented actors were able to so convincingly embody their character that I did not see the actor on the screen, just the person they were playing.  

I only had a couple minor critiques of the film.  While Mercury is the most famous of the group, the film does a great job at showing how he alone is not Queen and he did not succeed on his own, nor could the band survive without him.  I would like to have seen a little more of the personal lives of bass player John "Deaky" Deacon (Joseph Mazzello), drummer Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) and lead guitarist Brian May (Gwilym Lee).  I didn't care for the quotes of criticisms of Bohemian Rhapsody flying around the screen while the song was being performed.  I felt they could have addressed that in a better way.  And there was a musical number that had some weird 70's cheesy graphics that momentarily took me out of the film.

Other than that, Bohemian Rhapsody was absolutely brilliant and director Bryan Singer hit another masterpiece out of the park.  Most of the shots were so well done it was impossible to tell what was new footage to replicate the historical events, what was created by CGI and what was used from the archives and cleaned up to use in this film.  I got goose bumps about half a dozen times and welled up a few.  While Singer did a great job of moving the story along and not having any lagging moments, there were a few scenes I felt they could have spent some more time exploring when it came to the other members of the band, the creation of songs, the American tour.  It was hard to believe the movie was 2 hours and 14 minutes long as I could have easily sat through another 45 minutes and been completely entertained and more than satisfied.  In retrospect, Singer did a wonderful job cramming as much as he did in that time frame without making it feel too crammed.  

At the end of the movie, we see the actual band perform as the credits begin to scroll and it really takes you a minute to realize, this is the real band and not the actors we just saw for the last two plus hours.  The casting, the performances, the mannerisms, the locations, the props, everything was so completely on point, do not be surprised if Bohemian Rhapsody gets more than just a few nominations in a couple months when the Oscars are announced.  This is one I'll probably see again in the theatres and will certainly own in my personal collection.  So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

A Quiet Place Review

4.5 Stars

 

For my 70th movie review, I am excited (although late) to provide my review for the critically acclaimed thriller A Quiet Place.  John Krasinski, best known for his role as Jim from the TV series The Office, helped to write the script that was first conceived in 2014.  Krasinski also directed A Quiet Place and stars as one of the few characters in this intense horror story that currently holds an unheard of Rotten Tomatoes "fresh" rating of 95%.

The year is 2020, and the film opens up 89 days after the invasion or event or whatever happened when the monsters came and wiped out much of the human race.  A Quiet Place opens with the sound of leaves rustling in the streets of what looks to be an empty town.  Inside a convenience store, we see the Abbott family scavenging for supplies and medicine for their oldest son Marcus (Noah Jupe), the middle of three children.  Mom Evelyn (Emily Blunt) finds the necessary medicine while their oldest child and only daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds) walks carefully and quietly around the store barefoot with her youngest brother Beau.  They all communicate through sign language and we also see by the hearing aid she wears that Regan is hearing impaired.  The youngest is intrigued by a space shuttle toy and tries to remove it from a shelf that is too tall.  He drops the shuttle, but Regan is able to stop it from hitting the ground making what could prove to be a sound that could cost them all their lives.  Father Lee (John Krasinski) comes in the store to guide them home.  He sees Beau carrying the shuttle and takes it from him and carefully removes the batteries and explains that the sound is too loud and that the monsters will hear it.  Out of compassion for her brother, Regan sneaks him the shuttle to his delight.  What none of them sees is that Beau also swipes the batteries for the shuttle.  I won't give away everything, but that leads to our first glimpse of the monsters who are driven by ultra-sensitive hearing.  The tagline for the movie is, "If they hear you, they hunt you".

 

The movie advances about a year forward and Evelyn is now pregnant as we witness their daily and nightly routines in silence.  We see them all walking barefoot to avoid making noises, communicating in sign language, hand washing clothes, playing board games with pieces of cotton to remain as silent as possible.  Everywhere around their property and all the way through the woods and into town, they regularly lay down trails of sand to walk on to dull the sounds of their feet walking.  There are paint marks on the floor to mark where it is safe to walk without making noise.  

Lee takes Marcus out into the woods to a river to check on their fish traps for food.  Marcus doesn't want to go, but Lee knows it's important for him to learn to be a protector and provider.  It's also there that a roaring waterfall provides a wonderful moment between the two.  Marcus is terrified of the creatures but Lee teaches him that if there is a louder noise to distract the monsters, they can make noise themselves.  They take turns screaming into the waterfall and talking.  On the way home, they encounter an old man standing alone in the woods.  Lee signals to the man not to make a sound, but he lets out a scream that prompts one of the aliens to attack as Lee and his son run away.  

And that's where the already intense movie escalates to a full on heart-stopping thrill ride that won't let you catch your breath for a moment. The final half hour of the movie grabs you when you're already on edge and sucks the air right out of you taking you from one frightening moment to another.  There is no break or down time to ever catch your breath.  I've said it before, it's hard to make a good, smart scary movie anymore.  So much is gimmicks and sound effects and not real content that makes for a good story.  Get Out is the most recent one that comes to mind and that was a rare gem.  A Quiet Place is just as original and entertaining.  I'm gave it a 4 Star Prediction, but I'm raising it to 4.5 Stars, nearly perfect and a movie I can't wait to see again and definitely own for my personal collection.  

 

I really only had two reservations.  First, because the film is based on near total silence, I hoped sharp, sudden tones or sound effects wouldn't be the sole method of frightening the audience.  And really, it was only done once and who cares about a raccoon?  In fact, the score perfectly set the tone while not falsely creating moments in the movie.  A wonderfully effective technique of sound that was used in the movie was that every time the camera focused solely on Regan, the few sounds you could hear would stop completely, giving the audience a glimpse into her personal world.  

 

Second, because it's aliens, the creatures' realism played an integral part for audiences to fully buy into the film.  They are revealed bits at a time throughout the film, building in anticipation and terror leading to a truly horrible villainous monster.  

 

Finally, it needs to be noted that A Quiet Place isn't just a horror film.  Just as importantly, this is a family film.  No, it's not exactly family friendly, but it's about love, loyalty, roles, trust, sacrifice.  And the role of the family is not just a side note, it's just as important to this film as the monsters are.  In fact, another wonderful aspect of the film is how terrifying it is without very much blood or very many gruesome scenes at all.  Those details, director Krasinski left up to the viewer. The depth of this movie with so little dialogue set the bar to a new standard for the horror genre of the future.  So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see. 

La La Land Review

4.5 Stars

 

As big and daunting as Los Angeles is, it's also a relatively small town, especially if you're trying to get into show business.  Mia (Emma Stone) is one of those many hopefuls.  She's working at a coffee shop on the Warner Brothers studio lot, giving the actors who are doing what she longs to do their caffeine fix.  Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is another hopeful, also currently scraping the bottom of the barrel.  To keep the roof over his head in his dumpy apartment and to pay what bills he can, which isn't many, he plays jazz at any club that will have him.  Mia and Sebastian first meet in the notorious LA traffic.  She is holding up traffic going over lines for an audition, he is stuck behind her.  He passes her with a glare, she responds with another unfriendly, but definitely Los Angelan gesture.  Their paths cross again later that evening after a party that Mia's roommates encourage her to attend after a bad audition.  She leaves on her own, walking home after her car was towed and hears Sebastian playing at a club she passes.  She walks in just in time to see him get fired for not sticking to the Christmas set list.  She tries to compliment him, but he brushes right by her.  Months  later at an 80s party, Mia gets some revenge as Sebastian is performing with an 80s tribute band.  They end up leaving together in search of their cars and start a wonderful song and dance duet a la Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. 

After a number of close calls and missed opportunities in La La Land both professionally and personally, Sebastian encourages Mia to write her own show.  She agrees, though terrified of failure, and writes a one-woman show she will also perform.  All Sebastian wants is to own his own jazz club, but he doesn't have the money, so he reluctantly takes a gig with a fellow musician.  The group is very successful, but it's not the type of jazz Sebastian wants to play and it's keeping him apart from Mia.  With glimpses of romance with each other and opportunities for success in the dog-eat-dog world of entertainment, the two must make some tough decisions about what they really want out of life.  Ultimately, they both decide what is most important to each of them and they live happily ever after . . .  though, not quite how you might assume.

La La Land was written and directed by Damien Chazelle who recently shot into the spotlight with his critically acclaimed writing and directing achievement with Whiplash.  While both deal with music, La La Land is completely different than his dark and torturous Whiplash.  If Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Judy Garland, or Fred Astaire were still making musicals today, La La Land would be their product.  They don't make movies like this anymore, but hopefully the will after this.  We've seen episodes of How I Met Your Mother, Psych, Scrubs, Family Guy and even South Park pay homage to the art of yesterdecade.  We've also seen musicals revitalized with Mama Mia!, Moulin Rouge, Rock of Ages, and Jersey Boys.  But a musical set today with the feel of the 50's is long overdue and it's been worth the wait as La La Land  combines traditional old school movie sets mixed with some of the modern movie special effects that they couldn't even imagine in Singin' in the Rain or Grease.

Gosling and Stone lit up the screen in the preview, coming across as the perfect kids you're rooting for, both in their pursuits of their passions and in their blooming romance.  They delivered as did La La Land.  If you like any of the movies I've named, just watching the preview probably made you smile with anticipation.  It just cleaned up at the Golden Globes with wins for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Musical or Comedy, Best Director, Best Original Score and Best Screenplay.  I gave La La Land a very hopeful 4 Star prediction but I'm boosting it up to 4.5 Stars.  It was nearly perfect.  Gosling and Stone are a perfect match in their wit, comedic timing, sincerity, romance, singing and dancing.  If this is the first of many more modern day musicals to come, then we are in for a real treat.  If this doesn't spark more of its kind, it would be a shame, but we were blessed with this rare gem and I'll be adding it to my collection for sure.  So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

The Jungle Book Review

4.5 Stars

In 1937, Walt Disney released the first ever full-length animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  He followed it up with Pinocchio and just kept going with classics like Dumbo, Bambi, Cinderella, Alice In Wonderland and Peter Pan.  He broke the mold again in 1964 when he combined animated characters with live action in Mary Poppins.  In 1967, Disney released their 19th animated feature film, The Jungle Book based on the novel by Rudyard Kipling. 

In 2010, Disney teamed up with director Tim Burton to bring their animated classic Alice in Wonderland to life with Johnny Depp as the classic Mad Hatter.  In 2014, Maleficent was released as the live action version of Sleeping Beauty starring Angelina Jolie.  In 2015, the live action version of Cinderella hit theatres.  This year, we were blessed with two releases in this new tradition: Pete's Dragon and The Jungle Book.  Next year, Beauty and the Beast will be released.  Looking at Disney's page of future releases, this is just the beginning.

The Jungle Book is the story of Mowgli, a boy raised by wolves in the jungle.  He is forced to leave his home when threatened by the Tiger Shere Kahn.  He embarks on a journey of self-discovery with the help of his protector the Panther Bagheera and his new friend the Bear Baloo.  

The preview looked breath-taking.  The animation, the action and the scenery looked all unbelievably believable, and the movie delivered in a big way.  Newcomer Neel Sethi plays Mowgli, but he's surrounded by an all-star cast.  He's in the capable hands of Director Jon Favreau and has Bill Murray (Baloo), Ben Kingsley (Bagheera), Idris Elba (Shere Kahn), Scarlett Johansson (Kaa), and Christopher Walken (King Louie) to keep him company.  Watching The Jungle Book, I started in awe wondering how much of the set and how many of the animals were real and how much of all of this incredible film was created digitally.  Eventually, I stopped asking and just enjoyed the journey thoroughly.  I watched the 30 minute Blu Ray extra documentary about the making of the film and was surprised to find that very little of the set was real, mostly performed on blue screens, and none of the animals were real.  All of it was flawlessly created by a computer and the geniuses at Disney.  

Coming up, the live action version of Beauty and the Beast will star Emma Watson.  Disney also plans to remake Pinocchio, Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid and Dumbo.  Dumbo is always one that tore at my heart and made my eyes well up.  This one is going to be directed by Tim Burton and I cannot wait to see what they can create.

I predicted 4.5 stars for this live action re-imagination of the Disney classic and it did not disappoint in the slightest.  The Jungle Book was nearly perfect and is destined to find a home in my personal collection. So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

Lincoln Review

4.5 Stars

Through the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln granted freedom to the slaves in our nation's history as the Civil War continued to divide and threaten to destroy our young country.  Lincoln faced fierce opposition to his declaration and so he set out to make his decision permanent by passing a thirteenth amendment to the Constitution.  Stephen Spielberg directs Daniel Day-Lewis as President Abraham Lincoln in the story of the trials he faced to get that Amendment passed, to bring an end to the Civil War, bring peace to the United States, and bring freedom to the slaves.

Spielberg has struck gold once again with Lincoln. Astounding from start to finish.  I don't know if it's comforting or disturbing to see that our House of Representatives is just as effective now as it was even in the 1860's; however, I wonder what happened to the way our meetings of the Representatives are run.  It looks like it used to be a lot more interesting and entertaining 150 years ago.  I also wonder what happened to our way of speaking and communicating.  It used to be so much more colorful and bold and effective:

Thaddeus Stevens: "How can I hold that all men are created equal when here before me stands stinking the moral carcass of the gentleman from Ohio? . . . You are more reptile than man George, so low and flat that the foot of man is incapable of crushing you."

Thaddeus Stevens:  to Fernando Wood "Some of us breathe oxygen and we find the mephitic fumes of his oratory a lethal challenge to our pulmonary capabilities."

And not only was Lincoln a great orator, he loved to tell stories (seemed to have one for every occasion) and had an amazing sense of humor, which is quite impressive considering all he endured.  While talking to enlisted black soldiers from the north:

 

Private Harold Green: You got springy hair for a white man.
Abraham Lincoln: Yes, I do. My last barber hanged himself. And the one before that. Left me his scissors in his will.

Not once during this masterpiece did I see Daniel Day-Lewis.  He was Abraham Lincoln, flawlessly.  Sally Field made brave and strong choices as Mary Lincoln.  Most people only remember her to be increasingly insane from the death of their firstborn son to the trials and tribulations of being First Lady to the Civil War President of the United States.  Field was able to bring to light a caring, emotional and sharp Mary Lincoln.  Tommy Lee Jones was full of memorable quotes as Lincoln's Vice President Thaddeus Stevens.  Oh to have such smart, determined, effective and quick-witted Vice Presidents as was Stevens!  And James Spader as W. N. Bilbo, attorney, journalist, and cunningly crafty supporter of the Thirteenth Amendment was genius. 

The movie was not action-packed with bloody war scenes like Saving Private Ryan, but this movie was not so much about the Civil War as it was about Lincoln's crusade to pass the Thirteenth Amendment and free the slaves.  And this movie didn't need the action to keep the plot rolling.  It focused on a very specific topic and a very short period in the life of President Lincoln, but it was riveting as a story.  And with perfect performances by every cast member, Spielberg made it feel as though we were actually being given the gift of watching this historic period in our nation's history, rather than watching a movie about it 150 years later.  I give Lincoln 4.5 stars and cannot wait to see it again and own this film that is sure to be front contender at the Oscars.  So what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

Life of Pi Review

4.5 Stars

Based on the best selling novel by Yann Martel, Academy Award Winning Director Ang Lee brings the story Life of Pi to the big screen. Pi is the son of an Indian Zoo Keeper who's family has decided to take their trade to Canada and has hitched a ride on a Pacific tanker ship to do so.  Tragedy strikes when the ship goes down leaving the 16 year old Pi to fend for his life adrift in the ocean with his fellow survivors: a Bengal tiger, a hyena, an orangutan, and a zebra.

Ang Lee is best known for his works directing such films as Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.  Lee has enlisted unknown actor Suraj Sharma to play the principal role of Pi.  Quite the opportunity for a young actor's first role.  And he nailed the role, and Ang Lee nailed this film. Every shot of film in this movie could be clipped from the reel and blown up to a poster sized print and sold as art is was that beautiful, that breath-taking.  And that's exactly what the preview leads you to believe it will be.  However, unless you read the book, you wouldn't know from the preview that this isn't just a survivor story; but it's also a story of identity, discovery and doubt.  Young Pi is a smart and inquisitive boy, qualities that both get him into trouble, and ultimately save his life.  Some of the biggest questions he has are about religion.  Instead of rejecting anything, Pi seems to find the best of every religion to which he is introduced and ultimately becomes a devout Christian, Jew, Hindu, Muslim.  While his family is looking to start a new life in Canada, a tragic shipwreck and an unfortunately crew of co-survivors, Pi finds himself looking to not only survive with his castaway crew, but also survive from his castaway crew.  As if that wasn't enough to worry about every day, he was also looking for answers to his questions about God.

Along the lines of other best-selling spiritually reflective books like The Shack, Tuesdays with Maurie and The Alchemist, Life of Pi is a beautiful albeit familiar story, but it's told in such a beautiful way through the artful direction of Ang Lee.  This was a solid movie that completely accomplished what it set out to do and was quite accurately portrayed in its preview.  4.5 stars and I can't wait to see this again, and most likely add to my home collection.  So what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.