by hutchwp

Film review – The Muppet Christmas Carol (Brian Henson, 1992)

This article was originally published in December 2014.

Every year my Christmas is not completely underway until I see my favourite Christmas film. That film is The Muppet Christmas Carol. I don’t watch it at the same point every year. Sometimes it comes the weekend before the big day, occasionally it gets an airing on the day itself. I think the ideal time is in the afternoon of Christmas Eve. By that point I’ll have finished work for a week or so, the log fire will be going, I’ll be wearing a big jumper and I’ll just need a way to delay wrapping the last of the presents for around 90 minutes. What better way to relax than revisiting a childhood favourite and rejuvenating the magic of Christmas.

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Don’t get me wrong, there are some absolutely amazing Christmas films out there. I would put good money on my brother and me sticking on Die Hard in the evening of Christmas Eve, and I usually make sure A Christmas Story is involved somewhere along the line (a film that is criminally unpopular in the UK but is apparently very popular in USA). But above all this, there’s something undeniably festive about The Muppets’ retelling of the classic Dickens story A Christmas Carol that really hits home.

I am a huge fan of The Muppets and I was thrilled when they got the 2011 film so right, with Brett McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords peppering a top quality script with some of his best ever songs. Songs like “Man or Muppet” and “Life’s A Happy Song” match songs like “One More Sleep ‘Til Christmas” or “Marley and Marley” pound-for-pound, but it’s hard to compete with something I’ve been watching every year since I was about 12 [1].

For those who are still unfamiliar with this film (I assume you are all under the age of one and therefore haven’t had a Christmas yet), it is a fairly accurate retelling of the story, only with almost every character replaced by a familiar Muppet: Tiny Tim is played by Robin the Frog, Fezziwig becomes Fozzywig. You get the idea. Michael Caine puts in a fabulous turn as Scrooge, really revelling in being as humbuggy as is imaginable.

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It is pretty silly in parts, and it is a musical, and it is with puppets. I’m positive that Charles Dickens would have hated this rehashing of his classic tale. But his would-be loss is our gain. It uses some great source material and turns it into something equally great but completely different. It doesn’t lose any of the messages, and that’s probably the most important thing.

The Muppet Christmas Carol is showing at some selected cinemas across the UK this Christmas, including (for those in the East Midlands) Broadway in Nottingham and QUAD in Derby. It will also be showing at least once in my front room, and the soundtrack will be on repeat throughout Christmas morning. Maybe.

[1] I was, however, equally disappointed when they got the 2014 Most Wanted picture so terribly wrong, but you can’t win every time I guess.

by hutchwp

Film review – Moana (John Musker and Ron Clements, 2016)

Walt Disney Animation Studios have released their 56th animated film, the musical Moana. I’m going to whisper this quietly, but it might actually be better than Frozen.

The story follows 16-year-old girl Moana (Auli’i Cravalho) as she defies her passage to become the leader of the tribe on the fictional island Motunui. Her father Chief Tui (Temuera Morrison), leader of her island tribe, and her mother Sina (Nicole Scherzinger), are fearful of the water and want her to remain on the island, but her outgoing grandma Tala (Rachel House) encourages her to leave and hunt down the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) to solve a mysterious curse that she believes has led to a poor harvest.

Moana and Maui

The basics of the story are, on the face of it, quite by-the-numbers. There’s a teenage protagonist, which makes it relatable for the younger viewers. She goes on a quest that has a practical purpose but also helps her develop as a person. She teams up with an unlikely buddy to help her in her journey. We’ve seen it many times before but the familiarity doesn’t hamper its success.

Where the story excels is threefold. Firstly, it has a brilliantly sharp and humorous script, which the actors are clearly having a lot of fun with. Secondly, the animation of both the characters and the surroundings is absolutely stunning. Finally, the music, which was written by Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mark Mancina and Opetaia Foa’i, is outrageously good, and goes much further than simply one great flagship song (in this case “How Far I’ll Go”, sung by the lead and effectively Moana’s answer to “Let It Go”).

Indeed, it is unfortunate that the film has been unleashed in the same year as La La Land, which is destined to sweep up at most of the award ceremonies, at least in the Best Song categories. Miranda may have to have another attempt in a less competitive year.

There are a couple of nice smaller roles that are grasped by those involved. Alan Tudyk may be more famed for his turn as K-2SO in Rogue One this year, but he’s equally hilarious as Hei Hei the Rooster here, constantly stealing scenes with sound effects that match the ridiculousness of the island’s most endearingly stupid bird. Elsewhere, Jermaine Clement shows up as Tamatoa, a giant kleptomaniacal crab who has a penchant for all things shiny.

But the plaudits must go to Auli’i Cravalho, who comes in as a complete unknown and has delivered a lead performance that equals the best Disney has ever achieved. At just sixteen but with a voice as good as anything I’ve ever heard on stage, she has a very bright future indeed.

Moana is a must see this holiday season and should be top of your list if you need to entertain any younger relatives over the coming weeks.

Check out the reviews of other Disney animated features and shorts here:

Zootropolis
Kronk’s New Groove
The Emperor’s New Groove
Destino
Melody Time
Big Hero 6
Frozen

by hutchwp

The worst Xbox 360 achievements I earned

I’ve recently taken the decisive step to ditch my old Xbox 360 and purchase an Xbox One S, bringing me back into the light from a four year period of darkness on what the wider public refer to as “serious gaming”. [1]

Playing on an Xbox console is synonymous with the strangest of progress markers: the Achievement. I unlocked my first achievement for over a year on Monday night, “Cast Member”, essentially for starting to play a fun platformer called BattleBlock Theater. I had this sudden dread fall over me, which reminded me of a time when I had fallen out of love for video games and had instead got addicted to increasing my GamerScore, which for those of you who don’t have an Xbox console is their way of keeping track of your progress in a videogame in a way that displays your progress to everyone on your friends list. It’s a hollow existence, especially when you don’t know anyone on your friends list and you’re doing it anyway.

So to remind myself to not get involved in this silliness again, I thought it would be cathartic to list out the worst “achievements” I earned in my first run during the Xbox 360 era. Before I start I will answer the two questions that will spring to mind for you as you read: I was largely single and my job wasn’t very taxing.

1000 GS for “completing” Avatar: The Last Airbender

This is probably the most shameful on the list, and it’s one I can’t even believe I did. In the time where the internet existed but Netflix hadn’t taken off, there was a thing called Lovefilm in the UK that allowed people to rent DVDs, Blu-rays and games via post… Sorry, what? Oh… it still exists.

Anyway, I’d heard that there was a glitch in the training section of this children’s game that allowed you to unlock all the achievements in around five minutes. I rented it, I exploited the glitch, then put the game back in the post.

For what? I’ve no idea. I’ve spent the intervening time (almost a decade) hiding it from anyone I speak to.

80 GS for Treasure Hunter in Final Fantasy XIII

This started off as an innocuous attempt to complete my first Final Fantasy game since the seventh installment on the PlayStation. What ended up happening was a 60 hour end game that book-ended the conclusion of the game with misery and a huge detriment to my mental and physical health.

The game finishes after about 40 hours and there are a few standard completionist-type achievements for maximising all of your stats and getting five star ratings all Cie’th Stone missions, but this one took the biscuit.

Whilst collecting all the weapons and items might seem like a normal request, what was required was an unexpected and very slow slap in the face. The precise requirements were a heck of a lot of gill, some very precise catalyst items and (most importantly) six trapezohedrems. It was unrewarding and unforgiving and all I got was 80 measly GamerScore points. It’s almost worthy of a t-shirt, but for the fact that nobody would want to wear it and nobody else would understand it.

1650 GS for being a frustrated completionist by Family Game Night

Due to a rights issue, Yahtzee wasn’t available on Family Game Night in the UK (it isn’t owned by Hasbro outside the United States). So whilst I sat there playing Connect 4 for hours and hours with nothing to show for my efforts, I also wasn’t even able to 100% the achievements.

So what have we learned? I’m an idiot.

120 GS for 100 matches won in Pro Evolution Soccer 6

This is where the online community of website True Achievements comes into play. I managed to hook up with someone else with the same chronic completionist issues as myself and spent several long nights connecting and then immediately quitting online Pro Evolution Soccer 6 matches, taking it in turns to get default wins. The game was so awful we couldn’t even bring ourselves to keep playing it; even on the last game we decided we’d play an actual game and the lag was so bad we got kicked out. This all happened five years after its initial release and took about ten hours of our lives that we will never ever get back.

Please help me.

50 GS for Duo-Hedgeidecimal on FIFA 09

I’m still split on this one. I’m not sure if it was a complete embarrassment or a triumph of the wills.

This achievement required 20 players to play in the same match session at the same time, making a 10 v 10 game. It was a logistical nightmare that was co-ordinated by a group over on xboxachievements.com. That we got it over the line was something of a fantastic gaming moment.

But why? Why did we do it? I’ve got no idea. The match was actually played, but it was dreadful. No fun to be had here.

765 GS for some random achievements in Football Manager 2006

The sad thing about this was that I played this game for months and months in an honest manner when I first owned an Xbox 360. At the time I only had Football Manager 2006 and Top Spin 2 so I had to make do. Then, six years later, I booted it up and within a couple of weeks had boosted my GS for the game from 15 to 765, by exploiting glitches and collaborating online.

Nobody on my friends list owns this game and nobody I know in real life would be impressed by the so called achievements.

1000 GS for 100% completion of Truth or Lies

This took me just under four hours to complete on 20th January 2011. It’s probably the worst game I’ve ever played, involving a quiz where you ask your friends to be honest about the answers to questions. I sat there, alone, answering questions in particular tones of voices that exploited a glitch with the interface between the microphone and the software.

Just imagine that.

A hollow existence indeed.

[1] By this I mean I’ve been playing on my Wii U for four years, so even though I’ve enjoyed gaming moments like the stupidly challenging Champions Road on Super Mario 3D World, or the very much adult-themed Bayonetta 2, or the complex fighting mechanics of Super Smash Bros. U, all of these are on a Nintendo console so can’t be really serious games, right?

 

by hutchwp

Film review – Life, Animated (Roger Ross Williams, 2016)

‘Life, Animated’ explores the life of Owen Suskind, an American man who, at the age of just three, became unable to speak and interact with those around him. This was a complete mystery for his parents who were desperate to rescue their son from the depths of silence. As he grew older his parents realised that he could communicate through his love of Disney animated films such as The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and The Lion King. Finally they were able to understand his reasoning through the films he began to quote verbatim.

This is a balanced cross-examination. To watch Owen when he’s on his own is a fascinating study for those interested in the condition of autism. He has learnt most of the lines from his beloved films, including facial expressions and accents. Yes, he is nothing short of animated when he’s lost in his world.

There is some beautifully animated moments as we are guided through his inner thoughts in the form of his younger self and his band of Disney sidekicks, including Iago, Baloo, Abu, Rabbit, Sebastian the Crab and Rafiki. These short animated sequences were supplied by company Mac Guff (Despicable Me, The Lorax) and are equally evocative and breathtaking.

But the standout moment of the film is when his father, Pulitzer Prize-winner Ron Suskind, recalls a moment when he first reconnected with Owen via an Iago hand puppet. It’s a must-see moment.

The film may take a look at only one man’s struggles with autism, but the focus shifts from him to those around him: his parents, his brother, his girlfriend, the professionals helping him through his condition. In this way, we see how his autism affects those around him. The result is arguably one of the most important films about autism ever made.

Life, Animated is available to download on iTunes and is also at select theatres throughout Britain.

Note: Roger Ross Williams’s last documentary film was the short subject piece ‘Blackface’ for CNN, which explored the unbelievable holiday tradition still at large in the Netherlands called Sinterklaas. It may be rooted in tradition (as the Dutch argue), but it is also rooted in racism and white supremacy and has no place in a modern and progressive society. 

The film is fortunately available in full on YouTube as below.

by hutchwp

Film review – Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Gareth Edwards, 2016)

This is a REVIEW and therefore will contain some elements of spoilers. You can get to the picture of the stormtroopers before you start getting angry with me.

When Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was first devised we were living in a cinematic landscape where the Star Wars series, arguably the most successful film franchise of all time, hadn’t had a genuinely well-received film for three decades. Fans were understandably very skeptical of the new buyout of Lucasfilm from Disney and, whilst the main saga films had a lot of attention on them, the so-called spin-off films were deemed much less important. With the pressure off, director Gareth Edwards seemed to have a free pop at the big time.

Then The Force Awakens happened. This is a film that became the third most successful film at the box office of all time, received a hefty number of awards and nominations and was universally critically acclaimed. I liked it too. Essentially, J.J. Abrams had achieved the impossible: a film liked by both critics and fans, that tied into the original saga, introduced a host of new likable characters, was a box-office smash and set up the trilogy (or more) perfectly.

Suddenly, Gareth Edward’s mini-sidequest was a top priority for Disney. Its release date change from a mid-summer release to the same window as The Force Awakens had been released in the previous year, presumably to capitalise on the merchandise sales in the run-up to Christmas. The focus was on it to fill the void between Episodes VII and VIII, and with it came a shift from a gritty war film to a bonafide entry into the series, with all the required family-friendly edges.

This was when the fans started to really worry. Reshoot were ordered and the final edit was given to Bourne Legacy director Tony Gilroy. The vision of Gareth Edwards was going off track, in a way reminiscent of Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man issues, which by all accounts was a totally missed opportunity to add something unique to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

We were all hoping that these issues wouldn’t spoil what would have been a bold and fresh statement for the franchise, and as the opening moments played out our concerns would duly be answered.

Don’t worry, we’ll save the edit

The story (here be spoilers)

Rogue One is set in a time immediately prior to the events in the very first film, 1977’s Star Wars (later renamed with the additional ‘A New Hope’ tag). We follow the uniting of an unconventional band of rebels as they seek to discover the plans for the design of a new superweapon being completed by the Empire. The figurehead of the team is Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), the daughter of Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), a man responsible for designing the weapon but working with his heart for the resistance rather than for the man overseeing the project Orson Krennic (Ben Mendohlson). He has secretly put a fatal flaw in the design that he hopes Rebels can expose to destroy the superweapon and prevent the total destruction of entire planets.

The rest of the clan is made up of Rebel Alliance officer Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), blind warrior Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen), the gun-wielding Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen), defected Empire cargoship driver Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed) and modified droid K-2SO (Alan Tudyk).

It is such a brilliant concept that it makes you wonder why this wasn’t considered as juicy-enough plot for the underwhelming prequel trilogy.

Felicity Jones is Jyn Erso

So is it any good?

Previously, Star Wars fans have only had four absolutely amazing films and three totally underwhelming and dreadful films. We could be forgiven for expecting Rogue One to sit in one of these two camps. The truth is that it lands somewhere in the middle of the two, though perhaps closer to the good instalments.

There are some absolutely triumphant moments. The final act of the film, which is essentially a brutal last-gasp battle to get the plans, is a riot. For almost an hour, this film is everything we hoped it would be: an unforgiving journey as our group of rebel heroes seeks to bring down the Empire, willing to sacrifice their lives for the greater good.

To get there, however, we don’t have a really easy time of it. The very opening sequence may bring a bit of excitement, but the subsequent 20-30 minutes are really ploddy, with Michael Giacchino’s score trying desperately to inject some life into the on-screen dialogue but unintentionally mismatching the tone of the scenes.

K-2SO, the obligatory droid, will undoubtedly be a marmite character. He has some of the best lines but occasionally doesn’t really feel like a droid. The comeback is that Cassian has reprogrammed him, but he still needs to feel like a droid to be a convincing part of this universe.

The biggest sins come in the form of a terrible CGI treatment for two characters nobody expected to see: Princess Leia and Grand Moff Tarkin. Say what you want about these two renderings, but I was absolutely not convinced. For it to work, the technology and its handling need to be 100% absolutely perfect or the illusion is lost. This is simply not the case. It’s sad, because it is arguably the best ever 3D rendering of a human character in a serious film. It is possibly an argument for a specialised version in about twenty years’ time.

How has Riz Ahmed not been more successful?

The two standout characters were Bodhi and Chirrut. Riz Ahmed has been underrated for years, despite providing excellent turns in the likes of Four Lions, Ill Manors and Nightcrawler. As a man seeking to use his position in the Empire for the greater good, he steals some of the best moments in the early parts of the film and allows everyone to catch up with him throughout the rest of the picture.

Donnie Yen appears a little later in the plot but makes up for it with some brilliant self-choreographed martial arts sequences. I could watch him do that all day.

Summary

With all said and done, Disney have probably made the right business move in lightening the mood and commercialising their property. It feels like two films that two factions are wrestling over. In many years to come, the reality of the situation will come to light and we’ll probably get a director’s cut.

As it stands, we have a very good film that knocks the socks off any of the prequel films and gives the fans the backstory they’ve strived for since 1983.

It isn’t the best Star Wars film ever made, as some people are eager to claim, but it certainly isn’t a poor entry either.

Go and see it, enjoy it, buy an action figure or two, and keep your appetite in check ahead of Episode VIII.

by hutchwp

First reaction – Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Gareth Edwards, 2016)

I’ve just exited the cinema following a midnight screening of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. I don’t want to give too much away because I’m sure most people will want to discover how good it is for themselves. 

I will say this though: it’s very good, but not brilliant. There are some great moments but these are undercut by a handful of letdowns.

Full review to follow.

by hutchwp

Film review – Elstree 1976 (Jon Spira, 2015)

Elstree 1976, the latest documentary from Jon Spira, explores the lives of ten people who were involved in the original Star Wars films as extras, supporting characters or inside costumes and thus were unseen. Catching up with them 38 years later, the film gives an insight into their respective positions in the wider Star Wars fandom universe, their take on one of the most bizarrely dedicated communities and their memories of their time on set.

The featured cast includes a mixture of actors and actresses who range from household names to people only die-hard fans will know. The ten are as follows:

Paul Blake (Greedo)
Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett)
Garrick Hagon (Biggs Darklighter)
Anthony Forrest
David Prowse (Darth Vader)
Angus MacInnes (Gold Leader Rebel Pilot)
Pam Rose (Leesub Sirln)
Derek Lyons (Massassi Temple Guard)
Laurie Goode (the Stormtrooper who banged his head)
John Chapman (Red 12 Drifter Rebel Pilot)

For a film where it seems there is a huge difference in the interest in each of the stars, the narrative benefits by giving equal billing to each of them. But then that is the point of the film – it shows the human side of everyone involved and cross-examines the fact that the only reason they are anything more than actors is that they have been part of a great film and the fans have an unfaltering level of affection for everyone involved.

Justice for Greedo

They didn’t realise at the time but their involvement with the film would come to define their lives. It’s something that they have forever been associated with and can’t get away from, whether they like it or not.

The film opens with a humorous montage of each of their action figures, as they talk about how they feel about how they turned out (or didn’t!). There’s also a little controversy with what different interviewees believe is the right level of relevance to permit them to attend the conventions and be classed as an actor in Star Wars.

There are some moments of real emotion, just as there are moments of hilarity. Of course, they offer their own perspective on the film and provide some morsels of tales about the production, but Spira has instead made the decision to give the stories of their subsequent lives the space to breathe. This film gives them the chance to prove that they aren’t just the Stormtrooper who hit his head or the guy whose voice wasn’t quite right for Darth Vader. What makes this film work isn’t the immense details of how the most famous of sci-fi films was made. Instead it concentrates on the human side of each of the ten people we learn about.

It has been a long road to get here for the Kickstarter backers – almost two years in fact – and Jon Spira has been absolutely transparent in what must have lost him many nights of sleep through stress (the whole distribution farce is well documented on the Kickstarter campaign page). For everyone who is now able to watch it, it was well worth the wait.

Elstree 1976 is available now on Blu-ray and DVD, as well as on streaming services.