Ralph's Movie Reviews: June 2012

Saturday, June 23, 2012

BRAVE

Animated Adventure

PRINCIPAL VOICE MEMBERS

Kelly MacDonald: Princess Merida

Billy Connolly: Merida’s father King Fergus

Emma Thompson: Merida’s mother Queen Elinor

Kevin McKidd: Lord MacGuffin

Craig Ferguson: Lord Macintosh

Robbie Coltrane: Lord Dingwall

Julie Walters: the Witch

REVIEW

Told from the viewpoint of a rebellious teenager, in this case a tomboy named Merida, the story unfolds pretty well non-stop. There is lots of action and some chuckles along the way as well as a few scenes that would be too frightening for the very young, those under 6 I’d say.

The photo-realistic visuals are stunning, showcasing the landscape of Scotland like we’ve never seen before. Overall a pleasant enough outing, just not all that original.

CLASSIFICATION

for some scary action and rude humour.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

MADAGASCAR 3

Animated action/adventure

PRINCIPAL VOICE CAST

Ben Stiller: Alex, a lion

Chris Rock: his best friend Marty, a zebra

David Schwimmer: Melman, a giraffe

Jada Pinkett Smith: his love interest Gloria, a hippo

Tom McGrath: Skipper, a penguin

Frances McDormand: animal control officer Captain Chantel DuBois

Sacha Baron Cohen: King Julien XIII, a lemur

Cedric the Entertainer: his underlings Maurice

Andy Richter: and cute little Mort

Bryan Cranston: Vitaly, an intimidating Russian tiger

Martin Short: daredevil Stefano, an Italian sea lion

Jessica Chastain: Gia, a pretty Italian jaguar

REVIEW

Virtual non-stop action coupled with brief musical interludes makes for a pleasant outing as the “old” gang decide to return to their Central Park home in New York city. On the way they encounter unforeseen obstacles and meet new friends. The well-rendered images are ablaze with colour and the musical score is appropriate for the action.

For some reason that’s not apparent to me Alex says we in Canada are “drunk on maple syrup and cheap pharmaceuticals”. Really?

There are a couple of things for the amusement of the adults in the audience but nothing more than a few half-hearted innuendos. By the way, if you choose to see it in 3D as I did, be prepared to duck frequently as lots of things come hurtling at you.

CLASSIFICATION

my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.