So today we got our first clip of Emma Watson singing in the new Beauty and the Beast remake. I have put both new and old together side-by-side on this video, so it is easy to compare the two.
What do you think of the new version? It sounds younger with more of a pop feel to it. I am a Broadway girl so I prefer the original more mature sound but I don’t hate the new style. It could work for a younger, more realistic, timid Belle.
So far with this Beauty and the Beast remake I’ve been pretty meh on everything I’ve seen. The only thing I’ve really hated is the household objects especially Mrs Potts.
I’m very nervous about this film but hopefully it will be great like Cinderella or solid like Jungle Book. Fingers crossed.
What do you think of the singing clip and other things you’ve seen from it?
I hope you all were entertained by my Blind Spot series in 2016 here on the blog. I certainly enjoyed watching the 12 films and checking them off of my film bucket list! If you are unfamiliar with the series it’s where we watch and review a classic or well-loved film each month that we haven’t seen (nobody can see everything after all!).
In 2016 I saw- Blade Runner, Tron, Dark Knight Rises, Tales from Earthsea, Yentl, 400 Blows, The Jerk, Talk to Her, Porco Rosso, Unbreakable, Looper and The Ref. You can find links to reviews of all these films here.
My favorite of 2016 was either Porco Rosso or The 400 Blows. My least favorite was definitely Yentl; although it does have some so bad it’s good appeal. It was a great unintentional comedy!
January- Moonrise Kingdom- Somehow I skipped this Wes Anderson film and it seems like a good fit for the month of my first trip to Sundance!
March- 8 1/2- My first Federico Fellini film and I look forward to it!
July-The Boxer- This year I discovered Jim Sheridan’s amazing film In America and so I want to give his boxing film with Daniel Day Lewis a shot.
September- Manhattan- I actually like Woody Allen’s more serious films like Blue Jasmine best but I like Annie Hall so hopefully will enjoy Manhattan.
October- Donnie Darko- Richard Kelly’s demonic take on Harvey intrigues me. I know it is out there but I look forward to seeing it.
November-Giovanni’s Island- this World War 2 anime reminds me of Grave of the Fireflies. It looks beautiful and inspiring.
December-We’re No Angels- a lesser known Christmas movie about 2 burglars who end up helping a family get the Christmas spirit sounds like a lot of fun.
I feel like this is a good mixture of styles, themes, eras and should make for a great series in 2017. Let me know what you think of my list and selections! I look forward to 2017!
Incompetently made. Doesn’t feel finished. Hated the Joker. The first act of the movie is Amanda Waller sitting at a table looking at binder. Enchantress was horrible. The script was full of inconsistencies and problems. The fact it made so much money is proof people will see anything with a superhero label on it these days except Fantastic 4.
One of the most cynical movies I saw all year. I hate these dystopian teen movies and this is one of the worst. It is violent and boring with a twist that is so obvious. None of the characters have any personality or heart to them especially the males. It’s awful. My only hope with it is that with it and Allegiant doing poorly we won’t be getting any more of them.
White washing issues proved to be the least of this movie’s problems. There is some ‘so bad it’s good’ enjoyment to be had here but holy cow this is awful. Everything is over the top and ridiculous and unintentionally humorous. The characters are inconsistent. Entire storylines do not matter and are forgotten by the script and the acting is hilariously bad.
Sequels to bad movies are typically a bad idea and that is certainly the case with this movie. It can’t decide what it wants to be. It is part sequel, part prequel, part Frozen rip-off and all bad. The acting is awful from normally reliable actors like Jessica Chastain and Emily Blunt. The production does look pretty good but the story makes no sense and you just feel embarrassed for all involved while watching.
It’s a shame Garry Marshall had to leave us with this dud. He could be a great storyteller but this has nothing insightful to say about mothering or motherhood. All of the mothers depicted are caricatures who oddly do almost no mothering in the film. It wasn’t funny. The performances are awful and 2 parent characters are shockingly offensive and not in a funny way.
I LOVE the original Greek Wedding film. It’s honestly one of my favorite comedies and so I was so disappointed by this sequel. It’s one of those sequels that decides to take anything that worked in the original and make it ten times bigger; thereby, ruining what worked so well. The acting was bad. The writing was bad and it really ticked me off.
There is some bizarre ‘how did this happen?’ value in Nine Lives but that’s about it. It’s one of the laziest movies of the year. They can’t even get the meowing right in your cat movie. The thing is the Kevin Spacey character isn’t a bad dad. He works a lot but he is actively trying to bond with his daughter and holds a meeting to decide on her birthday present. The script takes some bizarre turns and it’s incompetently made in every respect.
This movie bored me more than any movie I can think of in a long time. I sat there hoping it would end. Every scene is characters explaining things to us and I just didn’t care. All the performances are flat and boring. Even Burton’s usual magical touches are nowhere to be found except for a scene with skeletons. He’s really lost all of his edge as a filmmaker. It makes me kind of sad.
A follow up to the 2010 big hit was a miss at the box office for a reason. The story is beyond stupid with the catalyst for both films turning out to be a lie over tarts! #Tartgate. Johnny Depp is annoying in it and everyone else looks bored. There’s weird touches that come off as grotesque like vegetable people being eaten instead of magical. It is a joyless enterprise which is sad for Alice!
Speaking of morally repugnant, I have another candidate in Batman: the Killing Joke. This movie takes the graphic novel and turns it into a disgusting portrait of female victimization. Barbara Gordon has no autonomy as a character. She is a tool for the screenwriters to move around whenever they need her to be raped, beaten, and demeaned. The gay character is embarrassing. The supposed relationship between Batman and Batgirl is right out of a soap opera and the interesting questions of the novel are barely addressed. The animation is also very mediocre.
The most befuddling movie going experience of the year. I had no idea what was happening most of the time. I didn’t understand the world or the rules of the world. The characters all looked the same and the conflict between the two groups was confusing. It was boring and the acting was really bad especially from the human characters. I want to give it credit for its scope but I really cant because the story made no sense.
I wish Adam Sandler could have a do-over on his career. This isn’t even a movie. It’s Sandler and his friends going on vacation and filming hateful stuff. The story is awful and mean-spirited. There isn’t one laugh. It’s misogynistic, hateful, homophobic, disgusting and the story is so flimsy it seems hard to believe anyone agreed to air it. It may go down as one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen.
So there seems to never been enough time to write full posts on films I have seen (or maybe I just see too many movies). Anyway, I thought I would update you guys on a whole bunch of 2016 releases I have seen over the last month or so.
A tough one for me to review and rank because most of my issues with it have to do with my own personal standards more than the movie quality. It was too violent and gratuitous for my taste. I found that ostracized me a bit from the characters. All the acting is terrific though especially Michael Shannon as the sheriff. It is very artistic and beautiful but I think other movies this year have explored similar themes and been a bit less heavy-handed but it is still a good film if you can stomach it.
I waited until home rental to see this because the Bourne movies usually make me motion sick with all the shaky cam. Turns out I wasn’t missing much. Hollywood seems to think Edward Snowden and Wikileaks make for good action movies. News flash- those guys are sitting at computers and it’s not exciting.
Jason Bourne is a serviceable action movie but not nearly as innovative and exciting as the predecessors. A bunch of the characters sit at computer screens the entire movie. It reminded me a lot of last year’s Spectre. Some decent action set pieces and actors all trying but with a bland story.
You will be hearing about this movie come my best of the year list. I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it. If you like slice of life movies, which I do, this is perfection. Isabelle Huppert is amazing playing a woman who’s life falls apart in every way. Her husband leaves her, her publisher cuts ties and her children move away, and yet it becomes this empowering experience. I am a Christian but this movie had a speech about agnosticism that made me tear up. It was honest for the character and beautiful.
Another strong documentary for 2016. This tells the story of a young girl in Mongolia who becomes one of the first female Eagle huntress. I loved the family and the relationship between father and daughter. The cinematography is beautiful. I have to admit reading up after made it sink a little bit but I still think it’s a terrific film. One you should watch with your daughters!
Stunning is the best way to describe this animated film from Studio Ghibli and European studio. It Feels like Isao Takahata and Tomm Moore had a baby (and if you know me, you know that is high praise!). Just beautiful and peaceful and wonderful. No dialogue but it didn’t need it. It is kind of a fairytale about fate and family. And the ocean…I fell in love.
It’s like that weird guy in high school who is trying so hard to be cool. You want to say ‘dude, calm down’. It’s trying too hard to be smart and different that it ends up being boring and a little annoying.
Just because something hasn’t been done doesn’t mean that it should. I didn’t bond with either of the characters and it seemed to revert to bodily humor talk as a substitute for diving into the characters. Like seriously there are so many conversations about farts, masturbation, erections, poop and more. I guess others find this more insightful than I do? Radcliffe deserves credit for his performance but it’s not for me.
Overall Grade- C- just because of Radcliffe and the gumption of it but I really didn’t like it.
I must admit I went into this with low expectations. I’d heard about how it was boring, cheesy and even offensive. Now I’ve seen the film I have to say I liked it! I think particularly the feminist criticisms have been blown out of proportion and I’m usually pretty sensitive to those concerns. Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence have terrific chemistry in what is a sci-fi romance. He makes a bad choice but I don’t think the screenplay gets him off the hook. Michael Sheen is fun as a android bar tender and the film looks gorgeous. The production design is breathtaking. I also loved the music and to my surprise I wasn’t bored. Give it a shot and decide for yourself.
Believe it or not this video game adaptation was on my most anticipated because of the cast and director. I’d heard how horrible it was but I had time so I saw it and I walked away having an ok time. I liked the sci-fi premise with the templers and assassins through time and the goofy ‘apple’ that takes away free will. To me that was just over the top enough to be fun. The action was pretty good. The special effects were pretty good and the cast was stellar including Michael Fassbender (who I adore), Marion Cotillard (who is a little flat tbh), Brendan Gleeson, Jeremy Irons and the amazing Charlotte Rampling. It’s not a great movie but I think there is entertainment to be had in it. It’s certainly a billion times better than Warcraft.