Movie Review: Zootopia

Zootopia a.k.a Zootropolis
Walt Disney Pictures, USA, 2016.

In a distant future evolution has allowed herbivores and carnivores to live peacefully together although prejudices still exists. Bunny named Judy (Ginnifer Goodwin) has a dream. She wants do leave country-life behind to become a big city cop. However small animals are discriminated against in the police force. Chief Bogo (Idris Elba) thinks that small animals can't be real cops so Judy finds herself writing parking tickets.

Judy

Chief Bogo

But there is a mystery to solve. Several animals have gone missing, and Judy decides to solve the case even without official support. Only Assistant Mayor Bellwether's (Jenny Slate) support helps Judy to continue the investigations. Judy teams up with a small-time con-artist fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) who knows the streets. Like Judy, Nick has a misunderstood but he has chosen to be a rascal. The unlikely duo finds a common cause as behind the missings there is a sinister conspiracy that threatens the balance of the whole city.

Piggy has a crime to report

Nick, Bellwether and Judy

Judy's and Nick's adventures are fun to watch, it is a buddy cop comedy with trendy neo-noir and caper film tones. The moral of the story is that the first appearences may be deceiving, and the person behind may be totally different from the expectations. The world is detailed with funny visual jokes, and some references to pop culture and the city is divided to different habitats, with suburbs for actic animals or small rodents. The duo meets also some shady characters from the criminal underworld so there are funny "Godfather" and "Breaking Bad" references.

As a funny joke, there is a scoundrel selling bootleg Disney movies. I would watch Pig Hero 6.

Rating: Very good

Voice actors: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Jenny Slate, Nate Torrence, Bonnie Hunt, Don Lake, Tommy Chong, J.K. Simmons, Octavia Spencer, Alan Tudyk, Shakira, Raymond S. Persi, Della Saba, Maurice LaMarche, Phil Johnston, Fuschia!, John DiMaggio, Katie Lowes, Gita Reddy, Jesse Corti, Tommy 'Tiny' Lister, Josh Dallas, Leah Latham, Rich Moore, Kath Soucie, Peter Mansbridge, Byron Howard, Jared Bush, Mark Rhino Smith, Josie Trinidad, John Lavelle, Kristen Bell, Evelyn Wilson Bresee, Hewitt Bush, Jill Cordes, Madeleine Curry, Terri Douglas, Melissa Goodwin Shepherd, Zach King, Dave Kohut, Jeremy Milton, Pace Paulsen, Fabienne Rawley, Brad Simonsen, Claire K. Smith, Jackson Stein, David A. Thibodeau, John Wheeler, Hannah G. Williams, Vassos Alexander, Ricardo Boechat, David Campbell, Koura Kazumasa, Nicholas Guest

Directors: Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Jared Bush

Movie Review: R.L. Stine's Monsterville: The Cabinet of Souls

R.L. Stine's Monsterville: The Cabinet of Souls
Universal 1440 Entertainment, EveryWhere Studios, USA, Canada, 2015.

"Mostly Ghostly: Have You Met My Ghoulfriend?" left a bit disappointing feeling, so let's see if another R.L. Stine filmatization is better.

Four high school teens visit Annual Harvest and Halloween Festival. Kellen (Braeden Lemasters) has crush on Beth (Dove Cameron) but he is too shy. Luke (Casey Dubois) tries to make impression on Nicole (Tiffany Espensen) but with similarly thin results. Then the Halloween festival gets more thrilling than usually.

Luke and Kellen

Beth and Nicole

Dr. Hysteria (Andrew Kavadas) and Lilith (Katherine McNamara) appear with their Hall of Horror spectacle. Also smug cool guy Hunter (Ryan McCartan) arrives and charms Beth. Goth girl Lilith starts to vamp Kellen. Dr. Hysteria's ghost house actually hosts real zombies and vampires. Dr. Hysteria can make everyone's dreams come true - in exchange for their souls. Beth notices that his friends begin to become impolite and turn into monsters.

Dr. Hysteria

Lilith

Hunter

This is in every way better than ""Mostly Ghostly", and offers some genuine creepiness. It is aimed at older kids, but with a story that is not far off from some real horror films, so adults could enjoy it too. Great Halloween-entertainment for the whole family entertainment. Funny horror references for the genre fans: chainsaw creep swings his instrument, zombies point at Beth like "Body Snatchers", one zombie looks like Danny Trejo and there is Dr. Caligari inspired cabinet. The production values are good TV-level and the actors are likable. Katherine McNamara's goth meanie steals the scenes she's in, and the young actress already has appeared in an impressive resume of films and TV-shows. Rising star she is. And the other teen actors have also appeared in high-profile productions.

Props for "Goodnight Moon" appearing on the soundtrack.

Rating: Good

Starring: Dove Cameron, Braeden Lemasters, Katherine McNamara, Casey Dubois, Tiffany Espensen, Ryan McCartan, Andrew Kavadas, David Lewis, Keith MacKechnie, Laine MacNeil, Karin Konoval, Fiona Vroom, Jacob Desormeaux, Carey Feehan, Kelly-Ruth Mercier, Sean Tyson, Connor Stanhope, Matt Phillips, Bernadette Beck, Briana Buckmaster, Jameson Trenholm, Sean Quan, Cameron Fraser, Sarah Corrigan, Corey Woods, Carley Ishii, Kerri Jesson, Janet Walmsley
Director: Peter DeLuise

Movie Review: Nice Guys

The Nice Guys
Misty Mountains, Bloom, Lipsync Productions, Nice Guys, Silver Pictures, Waypoint Entertainment, USA, 2016. 

Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) is a bruiser for hire and Holland March (Ryan Gosling) is a jaded private detective in the 1970s Los Angeles. Adult film star Misty Mountains (Murielle Telio) crashes her car and dies. Girl named Amelia (Margaret Qualley) knows something about Misty's death. Holland is hired by Misty's aunt do find Amelia. Jackson is fooled by Amelia to motivate Holland to leave her alone. But it does not get easy for Jackson either as some crooks also search for Amelia and beat him up. They even kill his gold fish. Unacceptable! So Jackson realizes that Amelia is in danger and hires Holland to find her. 

Jackson

Holland and Holly

Amelia

Unsolved murders seem to pop around every corner. The investigations of the duo get dangerous and soon a feared hitman John Boy (Matt Bomer) steps in. Also politician Judith Kuttner (Kim Basinger) and her assistant Tally (Yaya DaCosta) have an offer to the Nice Guys.

Judith Kuttner

Tally

"Lethal Weapon" and "The Last Boy Scout" writer Shane Black wrote and directed a neo-noir comedy set in the 1970s. The popular culture then had innocent entertainment as "The Waltons" and porn flicks like "Deep Throat" and some humour is found from the conflict of the two worlds. Crowe/Gosling duo works well. Jackson is the heavy, taking care of fighting. Holland is the brains, well brains and brains. Holland thinks he is a smart detective, but he is constantly misquoting, accident-prone and rather stumbles upon clues than finds them. He is quite different from the cool characters Gosling usually plays. Holland's daughter Holly (Angourie Rice) brings the moral spine to the misadventures of the cynical men in corrupt world. Still the ending feels pointless, and there is a feeling of origin story.  It would not be a wonder if some sequel for the duo was made some day.

Rating: Good

Starring: Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Angourie Rice, Matt Bomer, Margaret Qualley, Yaya DaCosta, Keith David, Beau Knapp, Lois Smith, Murielle Telio, Gil Gerard, Daisy Tahan, Kim Basinger, Jack Kilmer, Lance Valentine Butler, Ty Simpkins, Cayla Brady, Tammi Arender, Rebecca Dalton Rusk, Terence Rosemore, John L. Morris, Michelle Rivera, Nathaniel 'Nate' Scott, Amy Goddard, Frank Mottek, Joanne Spracklen, Greg Lindsay, Maddie Compton, J. Todd Anderson, Meredith Berg, Lauren Marini, Ward Roberts, Ryan Powers, Lauren Bair, Zarah Kulczycki, Hana Yuka Sano, Marvin Ross, Rachele Brooke Smith, Adriana Karras, Milo Wesley, Marilyn Chen, Matthew Warzel, Jordan Hairston, Angela Everhart, Joshua Hoover, Yvonne Zima, Lexi Johnson, Chloe Hurst, Gary Weeks, Charles Green, Gary Wolf, Hannibal Buress, Steve Wilder, Garrett Carpenter, Hank Quillen, Michael Beasley, Dominic Bagarozzi, Karrueche Tran, Carson Meyer

Director: Shane Black

Movie Review: Monster High: Scaris: City of Frights

Scaris: City of Frights
Mattel Entertainment, Nerd Corps Entertainment, USA, 2013.

Clawdeen and her ghoul friends arrange a fashion mob that is a success despite Toralei's  pranks. Famous fashion designer Madame Moanatella Ghostier sees a Frighttube video of Clawdeen's show and becomes interested. Madame Ghostier invites Clawdeen to Scaris to be her possible apprentice. 

Rochelle is from Scaris so she can be Clawdeen's guide. Can the other friends other come too? 

Pretty please?

Sure they can.

Also Toralei smuggles herself into the plane being a nuisance for the rest of the trip. The boys stay home longing for the girls. After all Scaris is the most romantic city in the world, so who knows what kind of hunky monsters the girls may meet there. Rochelle Goyle misses her über-romantic boyfriend Garrott who suddenly stopped writing letters to her.

Rochelle

Rochelle's grandma

Toralei is always a meanie

Clawdeen is not the only candidate. There are also Hexican skeleton girl Skelita and Chinese dragon girl Jinafire from Fanghai. Madame Ghostier is a harsh teacher who demands that Clawdeen must give up her unique style if she wants to work for her. But Madame Ghostier has skeletons in the closet. And more skeletons are trying to get sleep in the catacombs under Scaris.

Skelita and Jinafire

Madame Ghostier

Given the fashion context, Clawdeen looks a lot like Tyra Banks

Meanwhile the other girls go shopping and sightseeing famous tourist attractions such as Ogre Dame Cathedral and the Bouvre Museum. Ghoulia tries a career as street musician. Some surprise visitors pop for a visit and finally it is time for the great fashion show.

Ogre Dame Cathedral

Yet I'm playing my accordion

It feels that for this entry the budget was higher, the animation looks more polished. The city of Scaris looks lively with monsterified versions of famous landmarks. The story expands the monster universe and introduces new locations. The franchise seems to ditch the idea of mainly normie populated world, going to full fantasy territory, as the monster towns with familiarly punny names are so abundant all over the world.

From now on the Monster High movies aim to have more epic plots. As the Monster High antagonists have usually been Toralei, members of Van Hellscream- family or some minor comical villains, Madame Ghostier feels more serious than the usual villains. Some of the inspiration seems to come from "Project Runway" fashion contest show. The story has a theme of keeping it real and staying true to your own ideas.

Fun upbeat rock with roll or greatest hits of Himalayan Yak Band?

Fast and furrious

As a bonus adventure there is a short "From Fear to Eternity."
It is time to return home. But Cleo and Draculaura are still shopping and they are going to need more than one suitcase. Due to overbooked flights the Monster Highers have to take separate flights. Clawdeen's living design book gets on the wrong flight that is going to Fangladesh. After some jungle adventures the monsters travel all around the world visiting even Abbey's homeland at Himalayas. The split team revisits also Skull Shores and remeets the Tikis.

It is a fitting comedic bookend for the slightly more serious main story.

Tikis again

Poor Eyeball-guy (whose real  name is Eyera) gets eye inflammation.

Rating: Good

Voice actors: Erin Fitzgerald, Kate Higgins, Ogie Banks, Salli Saffioti, Evan Smith, Debi Derryberry, Audu Paden, Garrett Sander, Laura Bailey, Cam Clarke, Cindy Robinson, America Young, Stephanie Sheh, Julie Maddalena, Jonathan Lipow, Dustin Mckenzie
Directors: Dustin Mckenzie, Andrew Duncan, Audu Paden

Movie Review: Clue

Clue a.k.a Cluedo a.k.a Clue: The Movie
Paramount Pictures, Guber-Peters Company, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, Debra Hill Productions, USA, 1985.

Based on popular board game.

A group of people are invited incognito to dark mansion. Butler Wadsworth (Tim Curry) and busty maid Yvette (Colleen Camp) welcome the six visitors. The host of the evening is Mr. Boddy's (Lee Ving). The doors are locked and no one can get out. All the invitees have dirty secrets and Mr. Boddy is blackmailing them. Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd) is a sex maniac,  Mrs. White (Madeline Kahn) killed her husband and so on. Everyone is given a weapon. Then lights go out and Mr. Boddy is murdered until he dies from it. All have their motives but who did it?

Wadsworth

Mr. Boddy

Colonel Mustard, Mrs. Peacock, Miss Scarlet, Mr. Green, Professor Plum, Mrs. White and Mr. Green

The visitors try to solve the murder and avoid being the next victim as bodies start to pile up. Seemingly random people visiting the house are not safe either. "I suggest we stack the bodies in the cellar, lock it, leave quietly one at a time and pretend none of this ever happened."

Mr. Green and Yvette

Was it Miss Scarlet or Professor Plum?

Or maybe Mrs. Peacock?

Can there be a good movie based on a board game? "Clue" proves that it can be so. After a slowish start the murder mystery picks up the pace and turns into a hectic screwball dark comedy. It is kind of combination of Christie's "Ten Little Indians" and "Noises Off". Tim Curry's energetic butler is fantastic, and so is Lesley Ann Warren as cheeky Miss Scarlet. The story written by John Landis & Jonathan Lynn has quote-worthy dialogue and enjoyable twists. There are some jokes that do not work so well and sometimes it risks going a bit too macabre. The story is set in the 1950s referencing the events of the era so even J. Edgar Hoover has his part in solving the mystery. The gimmick of the movie in theaters were three randomly selected endings, which makes it impossible to deduce the culprit as there are several possibilities that all more or less make sense.

Rating:Very good

Starring: Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, Lesley Ann Warren, Colleen Camp, Lee Ving, Bill Henderson, Jane Wiedlin, Jeffrey Kramer, Kellye Nakahara, Will Nye, Rick Goldman, Don Camp, Howard Hesseman

Director: Jonathan Lynn

Movie Review: The Forest (2016)

The Forest (2016)

Sony Pictures Releasing, Stage 6 Films, AI Film, Lava Bear/ Phantom Four Films. USA, Japan, 2016.

Continuing with the reviews of reader-suggested films.

In Japan there is an infamous forest in Aokigahara where numerous people commit suicide every year. In ancient times old people were left to die in the forest in there was shortage of food. Japanese ghost tales tell that the place is haunted by ghosts and demons. Sara Price's (Natalie Dormer) teacher twin sister Jess (Natalie Dormer) vanishes so Sara travels to Japan to find her. The school says that Jess vanished in Aokigahara (actually the forest scenes were filmed in Serbia). The locals warn her about going to the forest as there are Yurei-ghosts who make people lose their minds. As a curious note Sara uses search engine named Tree.

Sara

Tree

Sara meets seemingly nice freelance reporter Aiden (Taylor Kinney) who promises to show her the forest with a local guide Michi (Yukiyoshi Ozawa). The forest has a psychological effect on the visitors and Sara's childhood's traumas make it only worse. Creepy schoolgirls appear. Is she seeing ghosts or hallucinations? Soon Sara is alone in the dark forest with Aidan, but can she trust him? 

Michi, Aiden and Sara

Boo!

Hoshiko (Rina Takasaki)

Some critics were offended by film using a white main character and being disrespectful for using subject of area where real suicides occur. As if this was the first time someone was using some tragic and creepy events from real life as a basis for a horror movie! There are also other movies made about the same forest "Forest of the Living Dead"  and "Grave Halloween" and The Sea of Trees" for example. Also Japanese have used the notoriety of the forest in their own stories, literature and rock music. For example manga "The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service" uses Aokigahara as a plot device. As Japanese pop-culture also loans from Western culture why shouldn't other countries also have their own interpretation about Japanese myths or places?

The Social Justice Warriors just decided that the film was bad and saw the film as just 'white washing' and 'disrespectful' but failed to see the surprisingly justified and tragic backstory: Sara and Jess had a childhood trauma that made the twins different personalities. Jess became more rebellious of the two. Sara was troubled that Jess had seen a tragedy and carried a form of survivor's guilt (although in the end there is a major twist and even the existence of Jess is uncertain) that made her care deeply about her sister strengthening the bond between twins. As Sara went into the forest the depressing atmosphere loaded with heavy baggage of the place's history opened old wounds that Sara was not even aware of resulting to her gradual mental deterioration. It is easy to see that visiting Aokigahara would have a disturbing effect on mentally anguished person. The plot smartly blurs the lines of reality and delusions. Sure the story could have been deeper and there are some flaws and some horror cliché decisions but for what was meant to be a relatively low budget debut horror it could have been worse or more exploitative. It will be interesting to see how Jason Zada's career will develop. 

It is a decent psychological/ghost horror with quite familiar J-horror elements. The forest is quite impressive and moody place. It is not a groundbreaking film but still a pretty good Halloween watch.

Rating: Good

Starring: Natalie, Eoin Macken, Stephanie Vogt, Osamu Tanpopo, Yasuo Tobishima, Ibuki Kaneda, Akiko Iwase, Kikuo Ichikawa, Noriko Sakura, Jozef Aoki, Yûho Yamashita, Taylor Kinney, Gen Seto, Terry Diab, Nadja Mazalica, Lidija Antonic, Takako Akashi, Yuriri Naka, Yukiyoshi Ozawa, Nemanja Naumoski, Tales Yamamoto, Meg Kubota, Mieko Wertheim, Rina Takasaki, Carni Djeric, Yoshio Hasegawa, Masashi Fujimoto, Tatsujiro Oto, James Owen, Shintaro Taketani 

Director: Jason Zada