Greetings, faithful reader I begged to remember my blog! I trust you are well, so am I. Since my last review I've hunted and successfully landed a new job, and landed myself in a new city. I did manage to catch a few movies along the way (try six) and I'm here to fill you in on them, should you manage to snatch them up before it's too late! Also I beg your forgiveness as it has been some time since I have seen some of these and notes were mislaid.
That said, please expect this page to be updated by 12:00:07 AM on Tuesdays.
That said, let us move on to our reviews.
Ratatouille.
Overall, a decent movie. I'm always interested with what Pixar serves up, and with the exception of Finding Nemo (hate me all you want, but it really was just a movie about fish, which, sad to say, will never fascinate me, no matter how much you say "he will be my squishy"), I have always been fascinated. I have become somewhat distressed by the recent hype with Pixar, DreamWorks, and other similar animation studios hyping how "lifelike" their animation can be. And, when your film deals with rats (rats running a restaurant, no less), lifelike may not be what you want to really want to go for. And damn, were those rats lifelike. The few scenes where they move about en masse made me squirm, especially because these were moments involving lots and lots of food. In spite of all of this "lifelike" hype and reviews I read condemning the plot, there was one thing that could not keep me away from this film:
Peter O'Toole.
Peter O'Toole is like salt to meat, a killer bass line to a rock song, terza rima to an epic poem; he brings out the best in everything. And even though he only lent his voice to this, it made it that richer. In the words of my high school Spanish teacher, "he made it suena." I took great relish anytime his character, Anton Ego, graced the screen, and squealed with delight at his coffin-shaped room and his exceedingly grim appearing typewriter.
As for the story, it being Pixar, Pixar being Disney, it had its morals of being yourself, being all you can be, grrl power (I was really happy to see that's normal for Disney now, but that's a rant for another day), honoring your past while striving towards your future, and all such things. However, I feel like the film was suffering from what I've come to refer to as Corpse Bride Syndrome (or CBS): It was so caught up in its technology (stop motion, ratty looking rats) and its message (love the one you love, not the one you're with; and the aforementioned themes) that plot seemed a little thin, especially compared with Brad Bird's last work with Pixar; The Incredibles: by comparison I found the characters more believable (fuller, perhaps) and while still pretty heavy on the lesson to be learned, I had more fun getting there than I did here.
But, all that said, I found the film (much like the dishes served) eminently satisfying and great with a light sauvingnon blanc.
GRADE: B
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment