Return of the Mini-Reviews

This has been a slightly hard post to write, just because I've been struggling to find the right words to describe my thoughts about a few of these. So instead of finding the right words, I've just written some other ones. Enjoy.

Fame - Not as bad as I thought it was going to be, as I had worried that it was only going to be bearable. It was above bearable, certainly watchable, and was actually nearing enjoyable. The songs were a bit rubbish, the best ones being songs from the original film with a little rapping thrown in. The story of the film was, urm, slightly non-existent, and I was disappointed to see that it was all very friendly and suitable for kids. Whilst I have not seen the original, I hear that it had themes which were slightly more mature, and I think that’s what was missing from this. Additionally, I wouldn't actually class this as a musical, as it wasn't set in a "musical-world" where people burst into spontaneous songs. A lot of praise is deserved for the dancing, though, which was pretty impressive.

Strike - Okay, this one was slightly off the bottom of my scale, below bearable. As much as I appreciate Eisenstein's contributions to editing, I wanted to hang myself like one of those cats. This film did nothing for me. Looking back at a previous review, it appears that Eisenstein also failed to enthral me with Battleship Pokémon. I know that these films are very old and were made with a particular audience in mind, but I just wish they were a little more accessible to a modern audience. The only redeeming feature of Strike was the completely-unintentional hilarity that we found in the scenes with the firemen soaking the people, and the young child being thrown from the balcony. This came just as I was giving up on life, because of the crazy narrative, and cheered me up a little.

UP - Awesome, brilliant, heart-warming, and most importantly, enjoyable... Marry me, Pixar! And even though I don't think anyone would have bet against me liking this, I'm still going to rave about it for a bit. It's up there with Wall-E and Finding Nemo, for me. I thought the opening ten-minutes were perfect, and I really loved the story. I had slight problems with the "baddie" - which felt more Classic-Disney than Pixar - and I wasn't in love with the music, but I loved the characters, the visuals, and almost everything else. Particularly Dug. If you haven’t already (in fact, even in you have), go and see it!

The Conversation - This was at least bearable, and for the most part I could follow what was going on, but near the end I just lost the plot – literally! Was someone actually murdered? Was he there? Did he witness it? Or did he only see the aftermath? Or was it all in his head? Plus, why was someone tapping him? I just couldn't follow... The one thing I did like, however, was the clever play with the phrase "He'd kill us if he got the chance." Nothing terribly amazing, but a simple misinterpretation changing the entire meaning was clever. I look forward to finding out more about the sound-design of The Conversation, and its importance to field.

Kinky Boots - On the advice of Richard, I decided to watch this film. It has similar ideas and themes to an idea that I am working on, and it felt necessary to see it. I found myself a little worried at the very beginning, as there was a flashback not too dissimilar from one I was planning on writing, but after that it was all very different. I really enjoyed the film, but it didn’t feel hugely original. I think it was slightly formulaic, and it was very similar in tone to Billy Elliot, with a lot of the same themes. I really enjoyed Chiwetel Ejiofor’s performance, however, which was both touching and hilarious. Thankfully, I am now far less worried about comparisons. So long as I stay true to the central idea of my script, then I think comparisons will be limited to the fact that both are about shoes. But shoes were never really central in the story of Kinky Boots; it was about a drag queen being accepted in a conservative village. In my idea, the shoes are central - a whole other character in fact – and it’s about the shoes fitting into that world, not the person in them. Hopefully, having now seen Kinky Boots, I can try to purposefully avoid any more similarities. But I think comparisons will still be unavoidable.