Trailer Time: Stoker, Life of Pi, Identity Thief, and Pitch Perfect

This upcoming 2013 English film debut by director Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) and produced by Ridley Scott and the late Tony Scott has an interesting story. The script written by Wentworth Miller (Prison Break) was on the 2010 Black List of best unproduced screenplays.  Young India's (Mia Wasikowska) father passes away and her mysterious Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode) moves in with her and mother Evelyn (Nicole Kidman).  Sound familiar?  Comparisons to Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (one of my favorite Hitchcock films) aside, this looks highly interesting and I can't wait see it.  Going on top of my list of must-see films for next year.

The latest international trailer of Life of Pi promises to be a visual treat.  Based on the best-selling book by Yann Martel and directed by Ang Lee, the new trailer shows us more of Pi (Suraj Sharma) and Richard Parker the tiger and their ardous journey on the high seas.  We also see glimpses of Pi's life in Pondicherry at his family zoo.  The trailer opens with the adult Pi (Irrfan Khan), with a curly mop,  telling Rafe Spall about his incredible story.  Parts of the trailer come very close to how I imagined it when I was reading the story.  Eagerly awaiting this in November.

Also coming in 2013, Identity Theft features two big comedic talents in Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy.  Bateman is Sandy Bigelow Patterson whose identity is stole by McCarthy and decides to go to Florida to get it back and teach her lesson.  Little does he know who he's dealing with.  The trailer is bit low on laughs but high on gags.  Directed by Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses), the film is due to release this coming February 2013.

So Anna Kendrick can also sing, good to know.  Produced by Elizabeth Banks, Pitch Perfect brings the a cappella college scene to life that features a Glee type competition scenario (but without the annoying Mr. Schue).  The hilarious Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp and Brittany Snow are also part of the cast.  I should resist this film but I always have this absurd urge to watch anything featuring actors singing.  Jason Moore who directed the very funny Avenue Q on Broadway makes his directorial debut with this film that opens this October.  

Movie Review: Damsels in Distress

If you're a fan of unconventional comedies and stellar dialogues, you'll really enjoy Damsels in Distress. This film was not at all what I expected and I'm extremely glad I picked this film to watch.

Seven Oaks University is a place that could only exist in a novel or a film like this one. We meet Violet Wister (Greta Gerwig), the leader of a group of girls whose intentions are pure and well-meaning but come across as self-serving and arrogant to others like Lily (Analeigh Tipton), the new transfer student and now new addition to the group.

But this isn't Mean Girls although it has shades of Cher and Dione helping out Tai in Clueless when Violet, Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke) and Heather (Carrie MacLemore) spot Lily to help her out. Lily is more than capable of handling herself when they involve her in their schemes. The do-gooders have many youth outreach programs on hand, they work at the Suicide Prevention Center where they hand out doughnuts and coffee to those feeling low, promote tap dancing as therapy and aim to change the poor souls at the Roman fraternity houses. That's right, Seven Oaks doesn't have the Greek system, it has a Roman system. And when everything goes absolutely crazy on one of their holidays, Violet and Rose lament that 'This is what happens when we don't teach Latin in school.'

Violet and Rose have know each other since they were little girls and are the most interesting characters of the film in that they totally manage to re-invent themselves and still manage stay true to who they are. Rose speaks with a pronounced English accent and her delivery of a particular line had me in fits each time.  She thinks most men have "playboy or oper-a-tor move" that they use on women.  I want to include that phrase, exactly how she says it, into my everyday conversation. You might want to as well.

There is no real major story or arc in the film, just the experiences of these odd yet adorable college students. Violet has become one of my favorite characters from the films I've seen this year. Her aim in life is start a dance crazy called the Sambola, she can spot a liar anywhere and she seeks to eliminate body odors by mailing out fragrant soaps because they hint at hope and possibility.

While the rest of supporting characters are just as eccentric. There's Frank (Ryan Metcalf), the frat boy who Violet once admired, really really likes his bean ball and keeps a backup for those dark days when you just might need it. And Thor (Billy Magnussen), friend of Frank's and another frat boy, who can't tell colors apart and rainbows really confuse him. Wait until you find out the reason for this. I was in splits.

Lily, who seems to be the "normal" one in the group, juggles the attentions of two guys, graduate student Xavier, pronounced 'Zavier' (Hugo Becker) and Charlie (Adam Brody). But she can't read them well either. These damsels who need rescuing are often the ones rushing to the aid of others.  They're just navigating through a phase of their lives that everyone faces at one point.  Theirs just happens to delightful funny.

After a long time have I enjoyed a film and its dialogues so much that I want to quote them.  Here are just few of the gems:

Debbie: You think I'm going to kill myself and make you look bad?
Violet: I'm worried that you'll kill yourself and make yourself look bad.

Violet: I don't really like the word 'depressed'. I prefer to say I'm in a tailspin.

Violet: If they can't even destroy themselves, how are they going to teach America's youth?

Violet: College students are well known for their interesting conversation.  After all, they can talk about their courses.

Violet: Do you know what's the major problem in contemporary social life?
Lily: What?
Violet: The tendency, very widespread, to always seek someone "cooler" than yourself - always a stretch, often a big stretch. Why not instead find someone who's frankly inferior?

Written and Directed by Walt Stillman; Cinematography by Doug Emmett; Edited by Andrew Hafitz; Music by Mark Suozzo

Rating: 

Recommended Links: Life of Pi, Argo, a new J.K. Rowling book and the "other" Hollywood

(Photo: New York Times)

Some required reading this weekend:

• Great article in The New York Times on Ang Lee talking about the difficulties of making Life of Pi.
• Also from The New York Times, my old stomping grounds, Fort Lee (FYI, I graduated from Fort Lee High School) will celebrate Universal Studios' 100th anniversary.  Not many people are aware of this but Fort Lee once aimed to be the East Coast Hollywood as Universal Studios first started their offices there in 1912.
• Many of you are aware of that Argo is based on a true life story.  Here's the Wired magazine article that the film is based on, How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran. 
• This week, a new JK Rowling novel will release which have nothing to do with a young boy named Harry Potter.  The Guardian has an exclusive interview with her about the new book, The Casual Vacancy.
• While we are at it, another profile of Jo from The New Yorker.  Settle in for a long read!

New Hitchcock Poster

I have to say I love this poster of Hitchcock so much so that it's getting own post.  The blood-spattered tie as knife, very clever indeed!  I can almost hear Hitchcock in his solemn voice greeting the audience with a 'Good Evening'.

This biopic of Alfred Hitchcock during the making of Psycho is directed by Sacha Gervasi features  Academy Award winners Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock and Helen Mirren as his wife Alma Reville.  Scarlett Johansson is actress Janet Leigh, James D'Arcy is Anthony Perkins and Jessica Biel is Vera Miles.  The film will release this November in USA.  

Movie Review: Supermen of Malegaon

Supermen of Malegaon is a wonderful, charming documentary on the men from the small town of Malegaon in India who decide to make an Indian parody of Superman.  Everything about this sounds like there's no way a film like this would ever get made but there's a lot to be said about the can-do attitude of one man's vision.

Malegaon is located in the state of Maharashtra, roughly 296 km from the filmmaking capital of India, Mumbai.  The population is 75% Muslim and most of the men work in power looms. Oh, and they are all movie mad. With a passion. They love to watch movies, any movies.  They don't care how good or bad.  They'd rather be watching a film to escape from the daily grind of their hard lives.

They're also obsessed with movie stars.  The men line up to get a haircut just like Shah Rukh Khan and kids can buy a kite featuring the star-crossed lovers of Titanic, Kate and Leo.  But one man had a different idea than just simply watching a film.  Nasir Sheikh decided to make his own film after watching movie after movie he was screening for others in his video parlor.

So he went on to create Malegaon ke Sholay - a takeoff of Sholay which is arguably the best film in Hindi cinema and another film as well which were successful.  But Shaikh still wasn't satisfied.  He wanted to be challenged and show the community in Malegaon something different.

He sets off to make Malegaon Ka Superman which is highly ambitious by Malegaon standards, it involves a super villain, many stunts and using green screen.  Yet he soldiers on, he approaches the local tailors to get both his Superman costume and his chroma cloth sewn.  Both tailors have no clue of what they are making.  Shaikh has to specify everything.

The first look at Shafique, our Superman, is startling.  This pencil-thin man is going to be Superman? Shaikh reminds us again that this is a comedy (hence the drawstring on his red boxers).  This Superman will have asthma because of all the pollution and plenty of times needs saving himself as is evidenced many, many times in the film.  You can't help but laugh and sometimes feel sorry for the plight of this Superman.  He doesn't have it easy as his Hollywood counterpart.

In this low-budget production where even the lead actor has to double as a grip, the villain is also the special effects guy and editor, impressively, everyone is keen to give it their all.  They all discuss the making of the film as if it is one of the most important things in their lives and it is.  Even an extra knows being in the film will change his life.

Often while watching the latest Hollywood blockbuster, we get caught up in the grand spectacle of it all and forget the simple charms of moviemaking.  This film will remind you of the first time you picked a camera with your friends and tried to make your first video or film.  The inexperienced crew can be clumsy (the DV camera tumbles down in the river) and many a times funny (our Superman jumps in to save some kids but he can't swim) but eventually it is endearing.

I was reminded of another such film which was also a labor of love.  Yet this film is also bittersweet.  Shafique, the lead, didn't get a chance to enjoy his stardom after all that he suffered in the making of the film.  He passed away due to cancer and the documentary is dedicated to him.

Director Faiza Ahmed Khan has put forward a documentary that has real heart, how often do you get to see that? If you can get your hands on this film, I highly recommend you do so, you'll end up with a smile on your face and thoroughly impressed with the tale of movie mad town that you've never heard of before but now won't forget.

Directed by Faiza Ahmed Khan; Cinematography by Parasher Baruah and Gargey Trivedi; Edited by Shweta Venkat; Music by Hitesh Sonik and Sneha Khanwalkar

Rating: 

Movie Review: Snow White and the Huntsman

A couple of months ago, I reviewed the other Snow White film, Mirror Mirror which after viewing this film seems like child’s play even though it was directed by Tarsem Singh Dhandwar whose previous film was the very bloody Immortals.  While Mirror Mirror looked beautiful with its outlandish costumes by the late Eiko Ishioka, Snow White and the Huntsman has much going for it with its spectacular effects and the much dark tone of the film than sanitized Disney version that remains foremost in people’s minds.

Even though it's all over the place, I definitely enjoyed this take on classic fairy tale that featured the other two important characters in the tale, the Queen who wants Snow White dead and the Huntsman who spares her life.  Since the story from the viewpoint of Snow White has been done to death, it's refreshing to see the focus on the other characters.  I loved Charlize Theron as the evil Queen Ravenna and in the war of the evil Queens, she wins all rounds against Mirror Mirror's Julia Roberts.

No turning subservient servants into cockroaches for this Queen as Ravenna sucks out the beauty from young girls and eats the hearts of birds.  Oh, she also like bathing in milk.  Charlize Theron thoroughly commits to the role and I wished there was more of her backstory as to why she became the person who has to rely on spells to maintain her youthful looks.

But we mustn't forget that Snow White (Kristen Stewart) too is in the film.  Locked away in a tower for several years, she manages to escape her imminent death and runs into the forbidden woods where the Huntsman is sent to capture her for the Queen.  The forest which causes one to have fearful hallucinations is where they manage to escape the Queen's brother Finn (Sam Spruell) and his men.  Snow White and her reluctant bodyguard journey towards the only men who are still loyal to the slain King Magnus, including her childhood friend William (Sam Claflin).

After meeting up with the eighth dwarfs (yes, like ABC’s Once Upon a Time), the Huntsman, William and Snow White hide out in a part of the forest dominated by fairies.  I loved these sequences.  They were so wonderfully imaginative.  The fairies look like little imps and become part of the forest, part of the creatures that inhabit it.  And then mysteriously Snow White meets this white stag who blesses her and declares her as the savior of the people against the Queen.  It was all very Miyazaki-ish. Which was  completely different from the angsty first part of the film.

But also like Once Upon a Time, the eighth dwarf Gus (an unrecognizable Brendan Gleeson) is killed and the dwarfs vow to be on Snow’s side forever. The decision to use normal-sized actors instead of actual dwarves initially met with criticism but I feel it completely works here when the actors playing the dwarves are Bob Hoskins (in his last film role now), Ian McShane, Ray Winstone, Nick Frost, Eddie Marsan and Toby Jones who give the film some more respectability.

So in the second half Snow White is not a damsel in distress can gathers up the remaining subjects from her father’s time and lead them into battle in mail chain.  And prevails in the end in the fight against Ravenna.  Which was to be expected.  But the transformation from former prisoner to leader of a kingdom was very fast and even though I saw the extended edition and I didn't feel there was much connection between Snow White and the Huntsman which is my gripe with the film.

Chris Hemsworth has had solid hits in the past few months with Thor, Cabin in the Woods and The Avengers and I guess I was expecting more for him here.  Kristen Stewart definitely looks the part of Snow White but she is saddled with impossibly lame dialogue.  I wanted to see the fire that was promised in the posters and trailer when they showed Stewart all decked out in battle gear.  And once again, she's placed into an awkward triangle with William and the Huntsman but thank God, they didn't make it the focus of the film.

If you hated the cutesy Mirror Mirror, you'll prefer Snow White and the Huntsman which has great sequences of promise but will leave you wanting more.  Good thing then that a sequel will likely tie up those loose ends.  A truly imaginative fairy tale!

Directed by Rupert Sanders; Written by Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock and Hossein Amini; Cinematography by Greig Fraser; Edited by Conrad Buff IV and Neil Smith; Music by James Newton Howard

Rating: 

New Lincoln Trailer and Photographs

There's a lovely line in the trailer where Daniel Day-Lewis playing Abraham Lincoln asks, "Do we choose to be born or are we fitted to the times we're born into?" He gets a reply back, "I don't know about myself.  You maybe." Lincoln is Steven Spielberg's long-delayed biopic on the famed American president Abraham Lincoln.  After seeing Lincoln slay vampires in the earlier part of the year, it just feels normal and right to see Day-Lewis' transformation into the 16th President of the United States to erase the memories.  You'd hardly know it's him underneath all that makeup.  Definitely getting an Oscar nomination there.  

The trailer is typical Spielberg with sweeping music by John Williams and glimpses of an amazing cast.  Sally Field plays Lincoln's wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, Joseph Gordon-Levitt his eldest son Robert while  Tommy Lee Jones is the abolitionist leader, Thaddeus Stevens.  Other actor like David Strathairn, Lee Pace, Jackie Earle Haley, Gloria Reuben and David Oyelowo also make appearances in the trailer.  The film is partly based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's biography of Lincoln that dealt with the last 4 months of his life.  This one's bound to give you goosebumps.  Lincoln releases in the US on November 16, 2012.

More stills from the film after the jump.

Silver Linings Playbook wins People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival

(Poster: Fandango)

We were all expecting Argo to build on the buzz from Telluride and win the popular choice award at this year's Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).  Instead, it's David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence that wins the BlackBerry People's Choice Award and put itself in the mix for an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.

Here are the rest of the winners at TIFF:

BlackBerry People's Choice Award: Silver Linings Playbook

BlackBerry People's Choice Documentary Award: Artifact

BlackBerry People's Choice Midnight Madness Award: Seven Psychopaths

It's only September, folks, but it's safe to say the Oscar race has begun!

Movie Review: The Five-Year Engagement

The Five-Year Engagement can't decide what type of a film it wants to be, a comedy or a drama. On the heels of The Hangover and last year's wildly successful Bridesmaids, this looked and felt like another comedic wedding film.  Just take a look at the poster above.

But the film is no laugh fest and the dull conflicts between the leads made for little drama which is a shame because the actors all have great chemistry with each other. In the end, I could barely muster few smiles for them. Director Nicholas Stoller's previous collaboration with Jason Segel was the delightfully charming The Muppets which contained just the right amount of nostalgia, affection and respect. This movie, however, is a big ole mess.

The premise is that a newly engaged couple Violet (Emily Blunt) and Tom (Jason Segel), that too only after a year together, are faced with career opportunites, family expectations and their own insecurities as they try to make it to the altar. Hence the title The Five-Year Engagement.  There are these moments in the film that meant to be funny that just comes off as incredibly awkward.  Violet's grandparents from both sides keep dying and since they've been waiting and hoping for her to get married, it's supposed to be funny.  Not really; that joke got played out in the trailer.

The supporting characters are notable from their roles on television like Mindy Kaling (The Office), Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation) and Alison Brie (Mad Men, Community).  They are far more interesting and stable than our leads.  Rhys Ifans, who plays Violet's boss, has a very funny moment when he ninja attacks Jason Segel who is chasing him down a cold, freezing Michigan street. 

The movie tries to explore the difficult situations couples face in this day and age: distance, job security and happiness and of course, the c-word, commitment, all of which could have been explored well, comedically or dramatically.  But the film never seems to find the middle ground here.

The Five-Year Engagement tries to make all that up in a charming ending but it's a little too late by then.  When the credits rolled, I realized the couple still hadn't worked out all their issues.  They're going to have a bumpy road ahead.  I'm not keeping my fingers crossed for a sequel though.

Directed by Nicholas Stoller; Written by Nicholas Stoller and Jason Segel; Cinematography by Javier Aguirresarobe; Edited by William Kerr and Peck Prior; Music by Michael Andrews

Rating: 

Movie Review: Hysteria

The movie opens with the line: This is a true story. Really.  Hysteria is a period piece in Victorian England about Dr. Mortimer Granville who accidentally invents the vibrator.  Buoyed by a winning cast who play their parts well, the film takes an amusing  look on the misdiagnosed 'hysteria' which pertained to half the women in London.

Hugh Dancy is Mortimer Granville, a forward thinking doctor whose ideas are dismissed by the stuck-in-their-ways doctors who also happen to be his bosses.  He is kicked out of job after job until he lands at Dr. Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce) who is doctor to most of the wealthy women of London.  His diagnosis is often hysteria which he says is the result of an "overactive uterus" and usually difficult to deal with.  His cure was a "pelvic massage" for which the women filled his waiting rooms.  Young Mortimer is hired with the intention of eventually taking over from Dr. Dalrymple and even marrying his younger daughter Emily (Felicity Jones).

But as things never go to plan in a film, Mortimer discovers obstacles in his way.  One of them is Dalrymple's older daughter Charlotte (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who runs a shelter for the less than fortunate and their children.  She is seen as an outsider in society for her forward thinking way which are denounced by her father.  The other obstacle becomes, funnily enough, Mortimer's right hand as he is prone to cramps as the number of women grows and grows.

Frustrated he goes to his friend Edmund St. John-Smythe (Rupert Everett) whose parents have been his benefactors since he was a child.  Edmund is a bit of an eccentric inventor who owns a telephone and chats with the Queen.  Instead of saying hello on the telephone, he opens with "Ahoy!" just as they would in those times, but I obviously associate it with Mr. Burns on The Simpsons.  But even back then they had network problems as Edmund yells, "Can you hear me now?" 

Edmund's newest invention is the whirring feather duster which Mortimer discovers can be used to alleviate his aching hand.  But there might be another use for it after all.  They revamp the machine to use in Dr. Dalrymple's office and from there it is a success and ushers in the "portable home-use massager".  The other sub-plot involves Charlotte trying to raise money for her shelter unfortunately lacks luster.  It was more amusing to watch Edmund and Mortimer "test" out the new machine.

It is astonishing to learn that women diagnosed with hysteria at that time were subject to institutionalization and surgical hysterectomy for no fault for their own.  This unfair diagnosis only ended in 1952 when the American Pyschiatric Association discontinued it.  Shocking, indeed! Hysteria is a fun watch but the comedy  wavers towards the end and everything gets all too predictable. Instead, I'd recommend another Rupert Everett film with sparkling dialogue and cast in The Ideal Husband.  I wanted to re-watch it after viewing this one. 

Directed by Tanya Wexler; Written by Jonah Lisa Dyer, Stephan Dyer and Howard Densler; Cinematography by Sean Bobbitt; Edited by Jon Gregory; Music by Gast Waltzing and Christian Henson.

Rating:

Movie Review: To Rome with Love

Ah, Rome! After seeing To Rome with Love, I wished I could transport myself into those sunny cobbled streets for a stroll down these characters' neighborhoods.  Rome looks so very inviting in this new European tale by Woody Allen.  You too might find yourself wishing you could move there too.

First of all, the comparisons to last year's exquisite Midnight in Paris and winner of last year's Academy award winner for Best Original Screenplay will persist.  But this is another film set in a equally magical city yet the stories that come out of it are a different tone.  Writer-director Woody Allen brings us four stories of Roman citizens and the people who come visit it and try to understand it and themselves.

Most of the stories are a comical vein especially the storyline involving Italian actor, Roberto Benigni, whom we haven't seen in a long, long time after Life is Beautiful.  We are introduced Hayley (Allison Pill) who falls in love with Michelangelo (Flavio Parenti) while searching for the Trevi fountain and when they get engaged, calls over her parents Phyllis (Judy Davis) and Jerry (Woody Allen).  Another story features John (Alec Baldwin), an established architect who hasn't returned since he was a young man and runs into Jack (Jesse Eisenberg) who is faced in a similar situation as John was many years ago.

Jack is torn between his good and trusting girlfriend Sally (Greta Gerwig) who allows her good friend Monica (Ellen Page) to come live them knowing that men just can't resist her.  Girl, don't you know better? This was one of the most frustrating storylines of the film for me.  All the characters know what's wrong for them but they still persist on anyway. Typical of some Woody Allen films.  The problem also was that I couldn't picture Page essaying the role of vixen.

In another story, Benigni is Leopoldo Pisanello, an ordinary and boring everyday Italian who wakes up one day to discover he is a celebrity.  The problem with your 15 minutes of fame is that you're always left wanting more.   And finally, young Italian couple Antonio (Alessandro Tiberi) and Milly (Alessandra Mastronardi) who are on their honeymoon to Rome spend it apart in the most outlandish story of the movie.  Antonio is mistaken by Anna (Penelope Cruz), a prostitute, as her next client and Milly finds herself face to face before her favorite actor Luka Salta and shenanigans ensue when identities are mixed up.

The most hilarious story is one featuring Woody Allen himself. It turns out that Jerry is a retired opera director and when he catches his soon-to-in-law, Michelangelo's father Giancarlo (Fabio Armiliato) in the shower, he is convinced he has found the next opera star.  The joke's on him as Giancarlo can only sing in the shower.  This bit is stretched too long but I thought it was hysterical.  Armiliato actually is a renowned Italian tenor and casting him here was perfect.

The ensemble cast doesn't intersect in any way for which I was thankful. But they each got a chance to shine in their own way.  Judy Davis and Greta Gerwig don't get too much screen time and Davis gets to say the best lines of the film that made me laugh out loud when Jerry claims to have a high IQ: You're thinking of Euros, in dollars it's much less.  And while I was aware that Penelope Cruz had acted in an Italian movie before I was fascinated by her speaking Italian so well.  I might have to go and see her films in Italian now.

The real star of To Rome with Love is the city which is wonderfully photographed with this warm light that makes you feel that you need to be there.  A great big commercial for the Rome tourism board.  I wish to book my tickets immediately.

Written and Directed by Woody Allen, Cinematography by Darius Khondji, Edited by Alisa Lepselter.

Rating: 

Movie Review: Finding Nemo 3D

I don’t know what it is about Finding Nemo but it just hits the spot every time I see it.  Maybe it’s the cool soothing blues of the ocean that transport you to another world where an ordinary yet brave father is on a quest to find his lost son.  Maybe it’s the way that these fishes remind us of our own personal relationships, insecurities and fears.  Maybe it's the way I identify with Nemo and being raised by a single parent too. People never expected an animation film to have such depth.  This film was a gamechanger for Pixar in many ways.

I missed out on seeing it the first time around in 2003 and caught the film on DVD and since then it’s been one of my all-time favorites.  I simply could not miss the 3D re-release back in theaters.  Watching this movie is like revisiting old friends.  We all know the characters Marlin the clownfish, Dory the Pacific Regal Blue Tang, Bruce the shark, Crush the sea turtle and of course, little Nemo, the rebellious young son of Marlin.  Even though I’ve seen the film many many many times, I was still enthralled by the story and the adventure under the sea. 

The jokes are just as funny the second time around and it was pleasure listening to people laugh in the theater at all the right places.  Ellen DeGeneres is just as hilariously sweet as Dory and I still love her take on “speaking whale”.  The quirky gang at the dentist’s fish tank, the vegetarian sharks, Nigel the pelican, they are all part of movie culture now. “Fish are friends, not food.” “P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney.” “Sharkbait! Hoo ha ha!” “Oh, dude. You’re ridin’ it, dude! Check it out!”  These are all lines we know by heart now. 

 

As for the 3D and the real reason for the re-release in theaters, it was exciting in a couple of scenes but added nothing new to the film.  In fact, it made the film's main attraction, that beautiful blue underwater world looked darker than it actually was.  Kids will enjoy it but not realize on what they're missing out on.  Watch it again on DVD to see the real color pallette of the film.

Despite the color problems, this was an enjoyable trip to the theaters to revisit an old favorite and I'm glad that whole new generation is getting to experience it if they haven't already caught it on DVD.

Directed by Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich (co-director); Written by Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson and David Reynolds, Music by Thomas Newman

Voice Talents of: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould, Willen Dafoe, Brad Garrett, Allison Janney, Barry Humphries, and Andrew Stanton.

 

Rating: