Gnomeo & Juliet (2011)

Genre

Animation | Comedy | Romance

Director

Kelly Asbury

Country

UK | USA

Voice Cast

James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Michael Caine, Maggie Smith, Jason Statham, Ashley Jensen, Matt Lucas, Stephen Merchant, Patrick Stewart, Ozzy Osbourne, Jim Cummings, Hulk Hogan, Julie Walters, Richard Wilson, Kelly Asbury, Dolly Parton

Storyline

While the neighboring gardens are at war, gnomes Gnomeo (James McAvoy) and Juliet (Emily Blunt) fall in love.

Opinion

Transforming one of Shakespeare's most famous plays into an animated film can be a great way to propose the English writer to kids. However, it can also do the opposite job if the film isn't good, and I'm afraid that's what may happen with "Gnomeo & Juliet", this dull and hardly funny film.

I know someone has complained about it, but honestly I don't think there is a problem with recreating the play with garden gnomes. It isn't the brightest of the ideas, but it sure isn't the reason why the film doesn't work.

First of all, it almost seems like the writers didn't know where to focus. At first the story is going in a certain direction, trying to say that love is stronger than everything, and that it doesn't matter who you are or what family you belong to. A little clichéd but it's kind of close to Shakespeare. However, it slowly turns into a banal revenge story. I wasn't expecting the drama, the film is supposed to target kids after all, but neither I was expecting this.

Also, the film - or should I say garden? - is inhabited by unlikable and uninteresting characters that have no depth whatsoever. Of course I'm not talking about the Flamingo. He is the only interesting (side) character and for some weird reason he has more depth than both Gnomeo and Juliet, and it's easier to feel emotionally attached to him.

Another problem is Elton John's contributions. I love his music and personality, but I believe he doesn't have a place in the film. His songs are beautiful, but they just don't fit the film, and his contribution makes the film look like a commercial for his album.

The animation is nice but nothing special really. But when it comes to match the voices, the characters are weird. And just about the voice cast, with James McAvoy and Emily Blunt leading, and many others big names such as Michael Cane and Patrick Stewart supporting, none of the actors, despite their talent, are able to bring any depth to the material.

Macbeth (2015)

Genre

Drama | War

Director

Justin Kurzel

Country

UK | France | USA

Cast

Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Paddy Considine, Sean Harris, Jack Reynor, Elizabeth Debicki, David Thewlis, David Hayman, Maurice Roëves, Ross Anderson, James Harkness, Seylan Baxter, Lochlann Harris, Hilton McRae, Scott Dymond, Rebecca Benson, Gerard Miller, Roy Sampson

Storyline

Macbeth (Michael Fassbender), the Thane of Glamis, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.

Opinion

Of all the tragedies William Shakespeare has written Macbeth is not my favourite. By far. And I would have avoided this adaptation if it wasn't for Michael Fassbender. And I would have probably made the right decision.

In fact, Justin Kurzel's "Macbeth" is a watchable interpretation elevated by a spectacular Michael Fassbender and a magnetic Marion Cotillard.

One of the characteristics of Shakespeare's tragedies is their actuality, and Kurzel took advantage of it to tell the story of the valiant Macbeth who falls victim to an unbridled thirst for power. The themes of greed and success to be achieved at any cost are relevant today more than ever, as well as is the matter of soldiers hunted by war.

The decision to stick to the play is one of the film's strengths, as it's its fidelity to the Shakespearean drama, especially from the point of view of language, that allows the film to portray the drama so well. But at the same time it is a weakness because the purely Shakespearean dialogue is quite difficult to follow - especially for non-native English speakers -, and it shows complete lack of originality.

From the aesthetic point of view, the slow motion in the battle sequences, the desaturation of colours, and the slowness of movements recalls Zack Snyder's "300", and while they highlight the bloody path of Macbeth, they don't leave much room for feelings.

However, the cast makes it worth it. Michael Fassbender portrays the deterioration of Macbeth beautifully, communicating the evolution of his character with his intense expressivity. Marion Cotillard is sublime as Lady Macbeth and she is not overshadowed by Fassbender.

New in October, Pt. 2: Something for Everyone

Now that we've gotten all those Woody Allen titles out of the way, what about the rest of this month's arrivals? They're actually a pretty extensive�and diverse�group and include a number of welcome returnees, some of which snuck back onto Instant in the final days of September. Among those are 1994's tear-jerking basketball doc, Hoop Dreams; arguably the best of the Merchant-Ivory productions, A Room with a View (1986); and the less well-remembered (except by avid '80s cable watchers), The Wild Geese (1978), a satisfyingly virile action yarn from director Andrew McLaglen, starring the Stallone, Statham, and Schwarzenegger of their day: Richard Burton, Richard Harris, and Roger Moore.

Harris, Burton, Moore

As fun as it violent and cool-headed, The Wild Geese is filled with real men doing manly things, and doing them the way God intended�without computer effects. See all those figures parachuting down into enemy territory? Those really are guys in parachutes, jumping out of real airplanes. And the explosions? Actual on-camera fireballs. I mean, yeesh, kids today with their fancy computer-generated men and airplanes and clouds and water that's never quite convincing. We're talkin' old school here, okay? Back when stars could actually be expendable. None of this mamby-pamby digital blood, or worse, fake animals (hire a deer wrangler already!) or talking dogs, or...

Sorry, um, where was I?

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April Expiration Watch: Looking for Preston (2014)

As we begin this final weekend of April, it's time to once again take stock of the noteworthy titles leaving Netflix streaming. It's not the most painful list of deletions to come this blog's way, but some of them will sting, especially the handful of 1970s films that arrived only three months ago. Those titles, singled out here back in February, are Harold and Maude, North Dallas Forty, and Marathon Man, all of which contain the welcome grit and unpredictability that were hallmarks of 1970s cinema (and which seem so hard to come by amid today's endless sequels and remakes).

Other Me Decade flicks ascending to Netflix Heaven (or is it only Limbo?) are Paul Mazursky's touching and funny Harry and Tonto, which won Oscars for Mazursky's screenplay and Art Carney's lead performance; the original, made-for-TV, Brian's Song�the first movie to introduce my younger brother and me to cry-bonding when we were kids; and tough-guy director Don Siegel's Two Mules for Sister Sara, a western starring Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine.

Stanwyck, Fonda

Masters of Comedy

All of the above will be disappearing in the final seconds of April 30, as will a couple of bona fide classics from even further back: Preston Sturges' screwball gem, The Lady Eve (1941), and Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959). The Wilder film�which has streamed only since January�should be familiar to even casual classic-movie (or Marilyn Monroe) fans, but the lesser-known Sturges flick remains an essential entry among screwball comedies of the 1930s and '40s. In fact, the genre was all but played out by 1940, until the man who cut his teeth as a screenwriter in the previous decade convinced a wary studio to let him direct, giving him the chance to take his unique mix of verbal wit and physical comedy to dizzying heights.

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