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 Monkey’s” damn dirty ape, the family story “The Unbreakable Boy” and the Canadian drama “Morningside.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I join the CTV NewsChannel to talk about “The Monkey’s” damn dirty ape, the family story “The Unbreakable Boy” and the Canadian drama “Morningside.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: Based on the New York Times bestselling book of the same name, “The Unbreakable Boy,” a new family drama now playing on theatres, is the true story of how Austin LeRette, a boy born with autism and Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or brittle bone disease, transforms his parent’s world. “I wish I could enjoy anything as much as my son enjoys everything.”
CAST: Zachary Levi, Meghann Fahy, Jacob Laval, Drew Powell, Patricia Heaton. Directed by Jon Gunn.
REVIEW: At one point in “An Unbreakable Boy” Austin’s younger brother Logan (Gavin Warren) accuses a schoolmate of being “a cliché,” but he could be talking about any of the movie’s characters.
Given Austin’s various conditions the story is somewhat unique, but the situations surrounding the character are not. It feels like a series of platitudes cobbled together to garner maximum emotional impact as it winds its way to a feel good, happy ending.
Father Scott (Zachary Levi) is an alcoholic, drinking away his career while opening up a schism within the family. Mother Teresa (Meghann Fahy) is frustrated, prone to tears and lashing out. Both characters exist as a reaction to the boy’s diseases, and how they shape the family’s dynamic, rather than being about the boy himself.
It is the much more common story about a man and his moral failings as a husband and a father—“This is not what I thought it would be like,” Scott says. “I feel like I’m failing every day. And the harder I try the worse I do. I can’t seem to figure him out.”—than it is the story of Austin triumphs.
It’s also an example of how tough it is to convincingly play drunk on camera. It’s not about lurching about and slurred speech, it’s about doing your best to not appear drunk. Scott’s alcoholism, like so many other things in the film, is heightened for cinematic effect, which blunts the power of it.
“An Unbreakable Boy” presents as a look at a child with unique needs but is more about the effect Austin has on the family than Austin itself. What could have been an interesting study of Austin’s world is, instead, a typical family drama content with skimming the surface.
“Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget,” a new stop motion animated film from Aardman Animations and playing in theatres this week before moving to Netflix next week, comes with great eggs-pectations. The original film, 2000s “Chicken Run,” is a beloved classic of British humour, heartwarming and heavy on the charm.
But can a sequel, twenty-three years in the making, be all it’s cracked up to be or will it lay an egg?
The new film picks up years after revolutionary chicken Ginger (Thandiwe Newton) and American circus rooster Rocky (Zachary Levi) escape the prisoner-of-war style Tweedy’s Industrial Farm. The happy couple now celebrate their freedom, living on an island bird sanctuary, far from the dangers of humanity, with friends Babs (Jane Horrocks), elderly rooster Fowler (David Bradley), Bunty (Imelda Staunton) their rat BFFs Nick and Fetcher (Romesh Ranganathan and Daniel Mays) and daughter Molly (Bella Ramsey).
“Life doesn’t get better than this,” Ginger says. “We’ve put the past behind us. We have Molly to think about now.”
It’s a wonderful life, but Molly, who has her mother’s rebellious spirit, feels fenced in. “You can’t make me stay here,” she tells Ginger.
Molly flies the coop, eager to check out Fun-Land Farms, a new operation on the mainland. With her feather-brained friend Frizzle (Josie Sedgwick-Davies) they soon discover the new farm is a processing plant for, you guessed it, chicken nuggets.
“Behold the dawn of the nugget,” says evil plant owner Mrs. Tweedy (Miranda Richardson).
It’s up to Ginger, Rocky and Company to come to the rescue. “Last time we broke out of a chicken farm,” says Ginger. “This time we’re breaking in.”
Like so many sequels, the story has bloated from the simplicity story of the 2000 film. But despite the food-for-thought subtext involving fast food and heavier plotting, “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” is still nimble and action packed.
The original “Chicken Run” was a riff on World War II great escape style films. “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” pays homage to the first movie, but leans into the James Bond and “Mission Impossible” franchises as inspirations for the wild poultry action.
Most of all, there is something welcoming about the Aardman stop motion animation. The house style is bold and beautiful, vivid and uncluttered, but it is the eccentric characters that really appeal. With their large eyes and exaggerated mouths and eyebrows, the Plasticine characters brim with personality and unmistakably come from the same creators that gave us the cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his mute and long-suffering canine side-kick Gromit. Shot one frame-at-a-time, the animation feels handcrafted and organic, and has a warmth most CGI kids flicks don’t have.
“Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” is pretty cluckin’ good. It’s an entertaining, family-friendly mix of charm and craft.
In 2019’s “Shazam!,” teenager Billy Batson’s (Asher Angel) life took a metaphysical turn when an ancient wizard Djimon Hounsou), protector of the realms from the Seven Deadly Sins and keeper of the Rock of Eternity, plucked him from obscurity to transform into superhero Shazam, the adult champion of the world.
In the new film, “Shazam!: Fury of the Gods,” set two years after the events of the first movie, Billy still grapples with his superhero alter ego (Zachary Levi). “I’m an idiot,” he says. “I don’t deserve these powers, if I’m being honest. Like, what am I even contributing? There’s already a superhero with a red suit with a lightening bolt on it. Aquaman is literally huge, and he’s so manly. And Batman, he’s so cool. I feel like a fraud.”
This new adventure sees Batson, and his foster siblings, who also transform into superheroes by saying the magic word “Shazam!,” pitted against their most ferocious foe yet, the Daughters of Atlas.
“We are at war,” says Hespera (Helen Mirren). “We will annihilate everything. The champions of this realm can do nothing to stop us.”
The Daughters of Atlas want to strip the Shazam gang of their powers but as they do that the fate of the world hangs in the balance. “You are very menacing,” Shazam says to Hespera. “I just want you to know that.”
At its heart “Shazam!: Fury of the Gods” is a coming-of-age story. Billy begins the movie insecure, a victim of imposter syndrome. Unfortunately, as his confidence grows, so does the movie’s tendency to clutter up the screen with busy CGI, heaping helpings of mythology and not-so-subtle product placement. (They even manage to find a way to work in the Skittles “taste the rainbow” slogan.)
The best elements of the first film are present. The focus on family—finding your logical, if not biological family—the humour and Levy’s manchild performance as the title character, provide the film’s heart but the effort to make the sequel bigger-and-better overshadow the more organic, pleasing parts of the story.
It is a blast to see Helen Mirren channel her inner Shakespearean villain as Hespera, and some of the Ray Harryhausen-inspired creatures have a cool, “Famous Monsters of Filmland” retro appeal but, in general, when it comes to “Shazam!: Fury of the Gods,” bigger is not better.
Superhero films come in all shapes and sizes. In the recent renaissance of the do-gooder movie we’ve seen comedies, political thrillers, period pieces and all-out action films. Iron Man quips, Batman broods and Doctor Strange is simply surreal. “Shazam!,” the new Warner Bros. adaptation of a DC comic, adds new textures to the genre’s palette, sincere zaniness.
At just fourteen-years-old Billy (Asher Angel) has already been through the wringer. Passed from foster home to foster home he finally lands with Rosa and Victor Vasquez (Marta Milans and Cooper Andrews), a loving couple who open their house and heart to Billy, motor mouth Freddy (Dylan Grazer), cutie Darla (Faithe Herman), timid Pedro (Jovan Armand) and brainiac Eugene (Ian Chen). “They seem nice,” jokes Freddy, “but trust me it’s real Game of Thrones around here.”
Billy’s life takes a metaphysical twist when ancient wizard Shazam (Djimon Hounsou), protector of the realms from the Seven Deadly Sins and keeper of the Rock of Eternity, plucks him from obscurity to be the champion of the world. “Say my name so my powers may flow through you,” he instructs Billy. The wizard needs an heir to do battle against a malevolent army lead by Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong), a vengeful baddie once rejected by the ancient wizard because his heart was not pure enough, who threaten to “spread poison on everything they touch.”
It’s a big job that comes without much of a roadmap. Billy knows that when he says the word “Shazam!” he morphs into a grown man (Zachary Levi) complete with a red suit and extraordinary powers. “I applaud your choices today,” says a stranger on the subway. “Those shoes. That belt. And that cape. It shouldn’t work but it does.”
Trouble is, he doesn’t know how to harness his newfound abilities. “Superpowers? Dude, I don’t even know how to pee in this thing!” That’s where Freddy, a fan of the real-life superheroes who help keep his home city of Philadelphia safe, comes in handy. Together they navigate Billy’s life as a superhero in exactly the way most teenager boys would—in a series of ever escalating stunts à la “Jackass.”
Will that be enough to prepare the youngster do battle with Sivana and his band of Deadly Sins come-to-life bound-and-determined on destroying the planet?
“Shazam!” is a big-time superhero movie that feels more like an indie flick. The names of digital artists and special effects crews outnumber the cast by about 10,000 to 1 but the film still feels surprisingly intimate given the genre. Themes of the importance of community, of finding your logical, if not biological, family, help make this feel personal, more down to earth than some of the other recent high-flying caped do-gooder movies. Like many other superhero movies it’s a bit too in love with its CGI in the climatic action scenes but director David F. Sandberg remembers to include some humour and some heart into the carnage.
The appealing cast—including memorable turns from Angel and Herman as the sweeter-than-sweet Darla—is headed by Levy. As the grown-up superhero with the attitude of a teenager he retains the glee and awe of a young boy discovering his powers. It’s a classic comic book situation come to life and Levy pulls it off with charm.
“Shazam!” forgoes the dark tone of some of the other DC movies, opting for a kid-friendly feel. It’s more akin to the Christopher Reeves Superman movies than “Man of Steel,” filled with fun, humour and moral focus.
