I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with host Zuraidah Alman, to talk about the animated action adventure of “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” the photorealism of “Mufasa: The Lion King” and the thrills of #Carry-On.”
I join CTV Atlantic anchor Todd Battis to talk about the animated action adventure of “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” the photorealism of “Mufasa: The Lion King” and the thrills of #Carry-On.”
Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to do a high five! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the action adventure of “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” the photorealism of “Mufasa: The Lion King” and the thrills of #Carry-On.”
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with host BIll Carroll to talk the new movies coming to theatres including the animated action adventure of “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” the photorealism of “Mufasa: The Lion King” and the thrills of #Carry-On.”
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” for Booze & Reviews! This week we have a look at “Mufasa: The Lion King” and I’ll suggest the perfect cocktail to enjoy with the movie. The drinks great, and I ain’t lyin’.
SYNOPSIS: Set in the Pride Lands of Tanzania, the new musical drama “Mufasa: The Lion King” is both a prequel and sequel to the 2019 remake of the 1994 film “The Lion King.” It’s the origin story of two lions, Mufasa and Scar, one who would become king, the other a villain.
CAST: Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, John Kani, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Tiffany Boone, Mads Mikkelsen, Thandiwe Newton, Lennie James, Anika Noni Rose, and Blue Ivy Carter. Directed by Barry Jenkins.
REVIEW: “Mufasa: The Lion King” is filled with visual tricks courtesy of the photo-realistic computer animation. For instance, a lion’s face is reflected in a single drop of rain. The topography changes from sunburnt savannahs to lush landscapes with a CGI flourish. You might even think a lion can sing Broadway style show tunes.
Yes, there’s lots of tricks on display, but very little magic.
Sure, fans learn where Rafiki (John Kani) found his famous bakora staff and how Pride Rock came to be, but even with the easter eggs, the sweeping cinematography, beautiful scenery, some action (which may be too intense for younger members of the family) and songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, “Mufasa: The Lion King” feels inert. Instead of being enhanced by the endless possibilities of CGI, the film feels limited by it.
The rendering of the characters is impressive. They lions, and many of the other animals, look as though they just wandered in from a National Geographic nature doc. That’s great, but the photorealism doesn’t offer the range of expression of the original’s hand drawn work (which was enhanced by digital coloring). Those stylized characters had more opportunity for facial expressions and therefore had far more personality.
The new CGI work looks real… until the characters begin to speak.
Then the illusion shatters.
Ditto when they sing. Near the end Taka—the lion who will become Scar—sings “Brother Betrayed,” a song of heartbreak that would have benefitted from more emotion and less realism.
“Mufasa: The Lion King” is a technical achievement but feels bloodless. Familiar “Lion King” themes of family, loyalty, love and discovering purpose in life are present, but they feel lost amongst the pixels in this generic prequel.
Although “The Midnight Sky,” a new apocalyptic thriller from George Clooney and now streaming on Netflix, was written and filmed before the pandemic, timely themes of isolation and the importance of human connection resonate loudly throughout.
Set in the near future, Clooney, who directed, produced and resembles q post “Late Show” David Letterman here, stars as Augustine, an astronomer battling cancer and loneliness at the Barbeau Observatory, a remote Arctic research station. Some sort of global nuclear catastrophe has devastated life on earth, leaving him isolated and alone until Iris, a wide-eyed, silent girl (Caoilinn Springall) mysteriously turns up at the station.
While tending to his new charge, Augustine is duty bound to contact and warn the Aether, a NASA space station returning home after a two-year mission exploring a newly discovered moon of Jupiter.
Led by husband-and-wife Adewole and Sully (David Oyelowo and Felicity Jones), the crew (Kyle Chandler, Demian Bichir, Tiffany Boone), hurtle toward the barren planet, unaware that life as they knew it on earth has ceased.
“Are you receiving this?” Augustine, says, fruitlessly trying to communicate with the Aether. “Is anyone out there?” To reach them Augustine and Iris take on a dangerous mission, a trek through kilometres of deadly ice, snow and 80-kilometre-per-hour winds. “There is antenna that’s stronger than ours,” he says. “If we can get to that antenna, they’ll hear us.”
“The Midnight Sky” is a multi-hyphenate, a dystopian-sci-fi-outer-space-thriller. While that’s accurate, that’s also six too many words to correctly describe what Clooney has created. All those elements exist in the film but the unwieldy list leaves out the film’s humanity. Sure, there’s some wild blue yonder action with people floating through space capsules and a barren planet, but this is a story of regret and redemption, handled with subtlety and grace.
The story has two distinct halves. Clooney says “half of it is “Gravity” and the other half of it is “The Revenant,” and sometimes they feel too distinct; disconnected. Augustine’s journey to redemption as he nears death is heavy-hearted and austere. The crew’s situation is different. Although they are cut loose in space, they represent the future of humankind, in whatever form that may take. The two halves sit side-by-side but don’t always fit together like puzzle pieces.
The thing that binds the story threads is a search for salvation. Augustine and Iris and Sully, who is expecting a child, are among the last of human life, and face an uncertain future. Each is doing what they can to determine whether mankind has a chance or not. And while the film offers hope and a chance of recovery, both personally for the characters and for the world as a whole, it does so without pandering to easy plot points.
Based on the 2016 Lily Brooks-Dalton novel “Good Morning, Midnight” with a screenplay by Mark L. Smith (screenwriter of “The Revenant”), “The Midnight Sky” is deliberately paced, humanistic sci fi that values ideas over action. It has epic scenes—particularly the snow storm trek—but feels more like an intimate drama than high action film. Clooney uses silence to speak loudly about the film’s most timely and important theme, the need for connection. It’s the lesson of the film and, these days, in real life.