Children’s film

Film Review – Air (2023)

films, reviews

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

There’s something to be said about the power of certain actors. One of the only reasons that I wanted to watch this film was because of Viola Davis. She’s such a powerhouse of an actor and could make anything seem great. I guess I also love Jason Bateman but he’s hardly as consistent with his film choices. And Ben Affleck? He’s been doing good things lately but I wasn’t sure that he would be able to make this concept work in the same way he made Argo work. After all, there’s something tricky about an underdog story about one of the biggest brands in the world. How can you make audiences sympathetic towards a billion-dollar company like Nike? It feels like the kind of story that someone like Adam McKay could have done fun things with but Nke would never have risked that.

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Film Review – Peter Pan and Wendy (2022)

films, reviews

Rating: 3 out of 5.

One of the stops on my recent holiday was Moat Brae house in Dumfries. Between 1873 and 1878, author J M Barrie lived in the city and was a frequent visitor to the house. He even suggested that the gardens helped inspire him to create Neverland. In 2019, the house was turned into a museum and it’s absolutely amazing. It left me with a desire to read Barrie’s book again. It also gave me the perfect excuse to watch the latest Disney live-action remake.

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Film Review – Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)

films, reviews

Rating: 2 out of 5.

How are we not over the Minions by now? As good as I thought Despicable Me was, I always found them annoying. I didn’t need there to be two spin-off movies based around these irritating yellow sidekicks. But here we are. We can’t seem to get away from them. I can only hope that other people have started to feel the same way and we won’t have to put up with much more of them. Considering this burning hatred, you might be asking why I decided to watch this film for today’s review. The answer is a familiar one: time. I ran out of time to watch something and this was less than 90 minutes long. I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of it but it certainly worked within my time constraints. Also, every time I turn on the TV, Sky are telling me that it’s available to watch. It felt like something was telling me to watch it.

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Film Review – Strange World (2022)

films, reviews

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Do you remember how Disney finally released an animated film with an openly gay character? You might not because there was basically no marketing campaign for it. Did Strange World purposefully get buried? Did they do it so they could prove that nobody wants “wokeness” in their family films? Probably. The film was quickly labelled a box office bomb and had one of the lowest Disney openings in recent years. I didn’t really know anything about the film when I came to watch it this week because I barely knew it existed. I honestly don’t remember seeing anything about this film and I don’t understand why. I mean, it boasts a cast including the voices of Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid and Lucy Lui. You’d think they’d want to make more noise about it. So, were they really hiding it because of the LGBTQ+ representation or is the film just not that good?

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Film Review – The Addams Family 2 (2022)

films, reviews

Rating: 2 out of 5.

I’ve lost my way when it comes to films since the pandemic. I just lost the enthusiasm for them during lockdown and never got it back. This is why I’ve not been putting the best effort into getting my reviews out. Part of the problem is that I’m reading more, which is a great change of pace. Another is that I just can’t be bothered. Films are so long these days and I can’t think about sitting down for over 2 hours to watch one. Seven half hour episodes of a TV show on the other hand…

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Film Review – Lightyear (2022)

films, reviews

Rating: 2 out of 5.

I intended to post this review earlier this week but it’s been far too hot to do anything. So, I waited until it was a bit cooler. It means that I’m able to actually write something but it also means that it’s been a while since I watched this film. Hopefully, I can remember it enough to get through this. I was pretty excited to watch this. It sounded like the kind of thing for me. Chris Evans, Pixar, upset right-wing mums… it had everything I love. The only thing I wasn’t sure about was how it would all fit together.

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Film Review – Clifford the Big Red Dog (2021)

films, reviews

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

It’s safe to say that this weekend got away from me. Despite not being in the Lakes all weekend, I’ve managed to get behind where I wanted to be. So, yet again, I had to find a film to watch in time for this review. Which is just one of the reasons why I picked this film. It was a manageable length for me to fit in after work yesterday without having to stay up late writing it up. One of the reasons. There was a small part of me that was curious about it.

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Film Review – Turning Red (2022)

film, reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5.

It isn’t surprising to find out that a certain group of people have turned against Pixar’s latest film release. Those idiots on the internet who don’t like people who look, act and speak differently to them. I’ve seen snippets from reviews say that it is only relevant to a small audience or that it’s unrealistic. Yeah, and I guess Wall-E, Up, and Cars were all super relatable and true to life. The word woke has been tossed around a lot as you would expect. Then there are those who think children shouldn’t be made aware that periods are a thing. I don’t know why I expected anything else but it’s getting boring now. It’s an animated movie for fuck’s sake. There are worse things going on in the world to worry about that.

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Tuesday Review – Encanto (2021)

films, reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I’ve been on the internet recently, so I’ve heard the absolute banging tunes from this film. It got to the point where I’d heard them so much that I just had to watch it. It’s another of those recent Disney films that I’ve just heard nothing bad about. Although, I was slightly concerned that the actual film couldn’t live up to the songs. I mean, the ones I’d heard were so good out of context that I wasn’t sure placing them into a story would work for me. The only thing that I could do was give it a go.

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Tuesday Review – Home Sweet Home Alone (2021)

books, reviews

Rating: 1.5 out of 5.

I know that a lot of people out there will say that the original Home Alone film is a timeless classic and that it could never be topped. These people will say that the most recent film in the Home Alone franchise is ruining their childhood and that its very existence is an absolute travesty. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the first Home Alone film but I wasn’t outraged that Disney was attempting to cash in on the premise again. Especially as it was going to star Archie Yates who was an absolute delight in Jojo Rabbit. He seemed like the perfect choice to take over the Macaulay Culkin role. I also think there was a lot of potential to update the story for 2021.

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