THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

Comedy, adventure

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS

Tom Wilkinson: a well known author

Jude Law: the author as a younger man

F. Murray Abraham: Mr. Moustafa, the hotel owner

Ralph Fiennes: Monsieur Gustave, the hotel concierge

Tony Revolori: Zero, the hotel lobby boy

Saoirse Ronan: pastry chef Agatha

Tilda Swinton: the very wealthy Madame D

Adrien Brody: her son Dmitri

Edward Norton: Inspector Henckels

Willem Dafoe:  Dmitri’s pal J. G. Jopling

Harvey Keitel: prisoner Ludwig

Bill Murray: Monsieur Ivan

Owen Wilson: Monsieur Chuck

REVIEW

Once more Ralph’s Rule of Redundancy applies:

“Any film where one person takes on more than two key positions has a major shortcoming: the absence of independent critical judgement that results in something less than it might have been.” In this case Wes Anderson is Writer, Director and Producer and the film suffers from it.

Depending upon what you find funny, this story of a concierge and a lobby boy could be hilarious (as was the case with two ladies in the audience who laughed at almost everything) to one provoking the odd smile. For me, it was the latter.

But it is not a easy story to follow as there are all kinds of twists and turns. The effort to keep things sorted out was just too much for me.

CLASSIFICATION

 for language, some sexual content and violence.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY

• Modern CPR methods for non-medical personnel came out in the 1960’s, some 30 years after these events took place.
• When viewed from the front, the strap of Zero’s bag is diagonally across his chest but seen from the side it hangs down vertically.

P.S.

The painting substituted for the Boy with Apple is in really poor taste and has no business in a comedy of this sort. Having to rely on a crotch-grabbing image to get a laugh is a sign of desperation.

THE LUNCHBOX

Some dialogue in Hindi with English subtitles 

F.Y.I.

In India for over 100 years hot lunches prepared at home or at a local restaurant are delivered to the employee’s workplace by a dabbawala, a person who also returns the empty lunchbox (called a dabba) at the end of the day. There are roughly 5,0000 dabbawala just in Mumbai who deliver an estimated 200,000 lunchboxes a month. They pride themselves on their punctuality and near-perfect record of delivery: a Harvard University study concluded that only one in a million lunchboxes goes to the wrong person.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS

Nimrat Kaur: housewife Ila

Nakul Vaid: her husband Rajiv

Ifran Khan: Saajan, a claims clerk near retirement

Nawazuddin Siddiqui: Shaikh, his imminent replacement

REVIEW

This charming film about two people who meet by chance and establish a relationship is not your usual romantic comedy movie. For starters, the actors are not that well know and both leads give gentle, believable, unhurried  performances. And there is no wham-bam-thank-you-mam moments. So un-Hollywood. So refreshing.

CLASSIFICATION

PG for thematic material and smoking.

ENEMY

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS

Jake Gyllenhaal: Adam Bell, history professor

Mélanie Laurent: his girlfiiend Mary

Jake Gyllenhaal: Anthony Clair, bit-part actor

Sarah Gadon: his pregnant wife Helen

REVIEW

This is a strange movie: after a totally incomprehensible beginning with spiders and sexy ladies, a depressing glum fellow with a very active sex life (if you know what I mean) sees his double in a rented DVD,  tracks him down and confronts him. And then out of the blue, gets accused of doing things with his double’s wife.

But it’s the ending that is completely baffling. Come to think of it,  so is the rest of the movie.

I should have walked out which would have resulted in a more accurate rating but I hung in hoping I could make sense out of it. What a waste of time.

CLASSIFICATION

 for some strong sexual content, graphic nudity and language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY

• This is one of my classic nitpicks: when the person on the end of the line (Mary) hangs up, the telephone caller (Adam) hears a dial tone. In reality the dial tone is only heard after picking up the phone before dialling. That’s why it’s called a dial tone.
• Several times Adam wakes up suddenly and each time the bedside clock show it to be 3:19 so either he set the alarm for this ungodly hour or these separate instances were shot within minutes of each other. Your call.

MUPPETS MOST WANTED

Musical comedy adventure

PRINCIPAL CAST or VOICE MEMBERS

Steve Whitmire: Kermit the Frog and Rizzo the Rat

Eric Jacobson: Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal and Sam the Eagle

Dave Goelz: the Great Gonzo and others

Matt Vogel: Constantine and others

Ricky Gervais: Constantine’s sidekick Dominic Badguy

Ty Burrell: Jean Pierre Napoleaon, a French Interpol inspector

Tina Fey: Nadya, a Russian GULAG officer

REVIEW

Pretty good. That in a nutshell is how I feel about this latest sequel. The gags and one-liners are few and only provoke a smile rather than merriment and at almost two hours, it is too long. The children around me were fidgeting (when was the last time that happened during a Muppets movie) and not once was there a real outbreak of laughter.

All the while there are cameo performances by artists such as Tony Bennett, Sean Diddy Combs, Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, Salma Hayek, Ray Liotta, Stanley Tucci and others who add little if anything to the endeavour.

CLASSIFICATION

for some mild action.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY

The Interpol Inspector’s tie clip moves from one scene to another.

THE WIND RISES

 Animated historical drama

PRINCIPAL VOICE MEMBERS

Zach Callison: young Jirô Horikoshi

Stanley Tucci: Italian airplane designer Giovanni Caproni

Joseph Gordon-Levitt: the older Jirô

Emily Blunt: young artist Naoko Satomi

John Krasinski: Jirô’s colleague and best friend Honjô

REVIEW

The film is based on the life of the young man who became the chief engineer at Mitsubishi  and designed many of the Japanese fighter planes used in World War II. It covers the period from the 1920’s to the 1940’s and leaves unsaid the impact his finest creation (the A6M, better known as the Japanese Navy’s Zero) had on the world.

This is animation for adults as children would have no interest in the story line as there are no cuddly animals or catchy musical numbers. And it’s drawn in the old fashioned way, not something generated by a computer.

Sufficient time is given to develop most characters although we are never provided any insight as to why Jirô’s sister is so grumpy. However it does run on a bit too long at two hours and six minutes. Some editing could have been done without great loss.

CLASSIFICATION

 for some disturbing images and smoking.