The Lorax

Here is a perfectly charming adaption of Dr. Seuss's environmental cautionary tale The Lorax. Renders the 2012 version obsolete.

8/10

The Nut Job

I like animated films. I do. But they still need to try a little harder than this.

The story is nothing new - group of animals have to work together but don't realize that their 'leader' (in this case a raccoon) is a total scumbag. They believe everything is for the good of all and listen to everything raccoon says with wide eyed wonder. Then there is the anti-raccoon, a squirrel, who is a bit of a loner and has previously crossed raccoon.

They have to find provision for the winter and it takes a multitude of shitty moves before the group wises up to raccoon's insincerity and the squirrel's bigheartedness. The story plays out with all the usual puns and nothing overly exciting happening that hasn't happened many, many times in some variation before.

There are some cute moments (mostly involving a dog) and an evil little girl scout (who is pretty awesome, to be honest) and a rat that somehow follows the title character squirrel everywhere despite the squirrel being a total asshole to the rat (which is all a front, really, because he actually likes the rat a lot but doesn't want to show so as to not taint his rough-guy front). The rat, by the way, was played by the same rat that was already in Ratatouille (a little worse for wear nowadays).

Meh.

4/10

Would You Rather

This is stupid.

Some rich idiot offers desperate people a way to get their hands on money by playing - and winning - a game. The main character is poor Iris, who needs the money to pay for her sick brother's treatments. The game is held in some remote house and the group is more or less diverse. They proceed to play "would you rather", only the choices are between electrocuting yourself or the person next to you, stabbing one person in the thigh with an ice pick or hitting another with a mean looking stick, having your head under water for 2 minutes or choose an unknown punishment in an envelope.

This sounds like quite interesting horror fair. Alas, it is not. The story plays out surprisingly boring. During the first twenty minutes or so there is nonstop music (which I am not a fan of...the concept, not the particular type of music).

The weirdest moment (I thought) comes when Iris briefly escapes out of the dining room into the vast house. She is followed by former MI5 agent Bevans, who instinctively opens the door she moments ago went through (the obvious door, the only unlocked door) and when it opens onto a flight of stairs he simply closes it again and moves elsewhere. Bevans is a surprisingly wooden and two-dimensional character.

Also, the son of the head honcho, who gets stabbed in the leg by Iris when he catches her in time before she crawls out the window, is never seen or heard from again, although obviously alive. He has been told off by his father before the game because apparently he tends to 'touch' the players inappropriately. This is never further explored beyond him trying to take advantage of the escapee.

In the end, Iris wins the game and goes home with a bag full of money only to find that her brother killed himself with pills.

2/10

Michael Glawogger, 1959-2014

Austrian Director Michael Glawogger Dies During African Shoot

Black Mirror: Be Right Back

When Ash dies in an accident, his grieving girlfriend Martha is informed about a possibility to re-create his online presence in a way that it/he could communicate with her again. Ash was basically online 24/7 and has left sufficient traces on various sites and his personality, his humor, his voice can be pieced together quite easily.

So Martha and Ash's online presence start writing to each other first and talk for hours on the phone. It is more or less like a long distance relationship. Eventually, new Ash suggests to go a step further and Martha acquires a robot? likeness of her diseased boyfriend.

This creeps me out to no end.

And it creeps out Martha, as well. Turns out, she is pregnant with his child, though. In the end, a jump years into the future is made when the girl, turning 10 (I think) is allowed to visit Ash in the attic, where he is apparently kept. Also, he doesn't age.

Probably not the best of the series but quite possibly the creepiest.

6/10

Funny People

George Simmons was prepared to die, but then a funny thing happened.

So reads the tagline to Funny People. Only things is, the film is actually at its funniest and most enjoyable while George Simmons still thinks he is going to die. Then comes the long boring bit of him visiting his ex and her kids and then her husband shows up unexpectedly. Yes, it gets really awkward, which could work well in a comedy but here just gives Eric Bana opportunity to pull strange faces (as if his starter kit face weren't strange enough).

Up until that part the film was really great, aside from the drift into potty humor (courtesy of Seth Rogan's character). What came as a surprise to me that I did not absolutely hate Adam Sandler in this. See, when he is not the one actually responsible for a story and only acts in a film, said film can be enjoyable.

Now, if only we could keep him from orchestrating his dreadful brand of humor....

Anyway, overall just okay thanks to the slow second half.

6/10

The Grand Budapest Hotel

I wholeheartedly embrace Wes Anderson's weirdness in films. If you don't appreciate the garishness of the colors and the awkwardness of dialogue you will not like this film.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is only the backdrop to a story of false accusations of murder, jail break and a strong bond between concierges of world-renowned hotels across Europe. When an elderly woman (played impeccably by the wonderful and wonderfully weird Tilda Swinton) dies and leaves the priced painting Boy with Apple (which depicts, yes, a boy holding an apple) to M. Gustave, concierge to the Grand Budapest, her family frames him for her murder. With help from a whole array of weird characters, Gustave escapes from prison and is proven innocent.

It is colorful. It is ridiculous. It is awesome.

And everyone is in it. Everyone. Ralph Fiennes, the aforementioned Tilda Swinton, Adrian Brody (sporting a fantastic hairdo), F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Jude Law, Harvey Keitel, Jeff Goldblum, Saoirse Ronan, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, Tom Wilkinson, Owen Wilson, Karl Markovics. Also, several cameos.

Then, of course, there is the utterly unknown Tony Revolori, as Gustave's constant companion and protege, who more than holds his own around the onslaught of brilliant actors.

The story may be contrived, complicated and told in fitful, hurried, overloaded dialogue, but this is everything we have come to expect (and love) from Wes Anderson, who has always stuck to his guns. Finally, people seem to get it on a much, much bigger scale.

8/10