Movie: Frankenweenie

Frankenweenie: An excellent movie for kids of all ages.

Sparky, the reanimated star of Frankenweenie.

Frankenweenie tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a science obsessed school kid with no real friends other than his loveable dog, Sparky.  Victor and Sparky are residents of New Holland, a town which for some reason seems to get more than its fair share of lightning strikes and while the kids at school speculate as to the reasons behind all the lightning strikes, Victor instead follows a different train of thought.

During a science lesson from Mr Rzykruski, Victor learns that even after death, the muscles of a dead frog will still respond to electricity.  Given the title of the movie it’s safe to say that I won’t be giving too much away when I reveal that by this stage Victor’s dog Sparky has befallen the fate of many unfortunate animals in Disney movies, and when you throw in the already mentioned frequent lightning storms, you can probably guess how things develop.  I won’t say any more other than that the words of Mr Rzykruski prove to be very prophetic when he states that ‘science can be used for good or bad.’  Or in some cases, both…

Movie: Clear History

A treat for fans of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Clear History starring Larry David

Any Larry David fans who haven't yet seen Clear History will be pleased to know that it follows the tried and tested format followed by Curb Your Enthusiasm, and the result is a brilliantly funny movie.  Although not a carbon copy, Larry's character Nathan/Rolly still has some similarities with the Larry David character from Curb, most notably that they both seem cursed with the same bad luck.

Another similarity is that Clear History was also produced in an improvisational style, rather than by following a script.  According to Larry David, in some cases this helped create extra unintended laughs, as for example the character of Frank (Nathan's friend and co-conspirator in his quest for revenge, played by Danny McBride) was originally meant to be more of a straight role, but because of Danny McBride's improvisational skills he ended up with more jokes in the finished version than intended.

One thing which is different though, is that Nathan has a sinister side to his character and this provides a key element of the plot.  The story sees Nathan Flomm fall out with his friend and business partner just before the launch of a new electronic car (known as the 'Howard') which goes on to be the success story of the decade.  As a result Nathan loses out on what would have potentially made him a billion dollars, and becomes a figure of media ridicule.

Animated Short: Spacebound

"Everyone but the most hard-hearted of viewers will enjoy Spacebound."

Spacebound is a touching animated short movie which tells the story of an astronaut and his cute space dog who are stranded in space with their oxygen supplies running dangerously low.  The movie reveals how the dude and his dog spend their last few minutes and in a way Spacebound is basically an animated version of the saying, "Stop and smell the flowers."

You can watch it below...

The Worthy Of A Bigger Audience 2012 Awards (Part 2)

My favourite movie, website, travel destination, radio show and graphic novel featured on Worthy Of A Bigger Audience during 2012.

Last week for a bit of self-indulgent fun I listed my favourite album, book, iPod app, party and TV show featured on Worthy Of A Bigger Audience during 2012.  This week I round things off by covering the movie, website, travel, radio and graphic novel categories.

Submarine: A charming coming of age story.

Movies:

Super
Changeling
Catfish
Cube
Frozen
Submarine

The movie category was quite a difficult category to decide because although all of the above movies are great movies which I would recommend checking out, with the exception of Changeling they’re not really mainstream movies with a broad universal appeal to a wide audience.  They’re movies which I would guess will have an enthusiastic and appreciative group of fans, rather than massive box office movies which spent weeks at the top of the charts.  Ultimately though, I decided to go for Submarine as of all the movies it’s probably the one which may appeal to the widest audience and it was such a nice movie.

Winner: Submarine

Movie: Submarine

Submarine: A charming coming of age story.

Submarine tells the story of fifteen year old Oliver Tate (played by Craig Roberts) growing up in the eighties who has to cope with the stress of sorting out his parents’ relationship problems and at the same time juggle the responsibilities of his own relationship with his girlfriend Jordana.

Technically speaking, Submarine is split into three parts, Part 1: Jordana Bevan, Part 2: Graham Purvis (Oliver’s new neighbour and his mother’s first love) and Part 3: Showdown, but all the parts are interconnected and they all form part of the same overall story.

Submarine has been expertly cast and features excellent acting performances, with superb performances in particular from Craig Roberts as lead character Oliver and Yasmin Paige as his love interest Jordana.  Noah Taylor as the dull and depressed Lloyd (Oliver’s dad) is also brilliant and he plays the unintentionally amusing aspects of Lloyd’s personality exceptionally well indeed.  To be fair though, the entire cast put in perfect performances and were helped by a very well-written script.

Movie: Frozen

Ideal material for a suspense movie...

Frozen: Not for the faint-hearted.

Frozen tells the story of three friends, Parker O’Neil (played by Emma Bell), Joe Lynch (played by Shawn Ashmore) and Dan Walker (played by Kevin Zegers), who get stranded up a ski lift and forgotten about after a ski centre closes for the weekend.  The only choices available to them are therefore to either stay put and wait until they freeze to death or pursue some more extreme courses of action in an attempt to survive.  It’s a simple idea, but also a frightening scenario and one which therefore provides ideal material for a suspense movie.

Given that this is a movie with a story which can be summarised in one sentence, you might think there’s not a lot of potential for plot development but in actual fact once the predicament begins, Frozen features almost constant action and numerous plot twists along the way.  Although you could argue that artistic licence has been used with one or two of the twists that the characters face, their reaction to these twists always come across as plausible and an accurate portrayal of how you might react in such a situation. 

Movie: Cube

Cube is a movie full of originality, suspense and twists.

Cube, an original sci-fi mystery.

The premise behind Cube is an original one - a group of strangers wake up inside a series of interconnected cubes, some of which are booby trapped, and they must work together to find a way out.  Each of the group has their own unique skills which are useful to their escape attempt, with the group initially comprising a doctor, a policeman, an escaped prisoner, a school girl, and a mysterious no-hoper.  As well as all coming from different professions or backgrounds, there are also a few varied attitudes and outlooks on life found within the group.

After a fairly gruesome start Cube quickly has you asking a lot of questions and within only a few minutes you’re already well and truly sucked into this movie.  It can be quite grisly at times, but that only adds to the suspense as you nervously wonder on the fate of the characters.  For the majority of the movie you’re on edge and unable to relax, and like all good suspense movies it is the anticipation of a potential shocking event which has you gripped, rather than such events frequently occurring.

Movie: Catfish

Keeps you on your toes as the story unravels.

 

Catfish, a clever idea and an absorbing story.

Catfish tells the story of photographer Nev Schulman and his relationship with eight year old Abby, a talented artist who sends him paintings of his published photos in the mail.  Things then progress as before long Nev has started up an online relationship with Abby’s attractive older sister, Megan, and the ‘documentary’ then switches its attention to how that develops.

Right from the start Catfish has you asking questions and just as you start to formulate a hypothesis as to how all the pieces and clues fit together, the movie then reveals a new twist which has you changing your theory once again.  It really sucks you in and gets inside your head, and even the day after watching it my thoughts kept returning to this movie.

I won’t go into the plot in any greater depth other than to say Catfish provides a powerful lesson regarding the emotional risks of trusting someone you meet on the internet and especially of forming an ‘electronic’ relationship with them.

Movies: Changeling

Disturbing But Powerful

Changeling is set in 1920s L.A. and deals with the story of Christine Collins and her son Walter who goes missing only for the police search to return the wrong boy.  When Christine points out this blatantly obvious mistake to the police, rather than admit their mistake they go to extreme lengths to avoid the embarrassment of their mistake going public.

The story is told with an unusual choice of focus because although it deals with Christine Collins’ son going missing, rather than concentrate on those directly responsible for his disappearance, it instead focuses on the actions of the police and how they see the whole thing as a PR opportunity, rather than a missing child and a distraught mother.  The fact that Changeling is based on a true story only makes the way the police deal with Walter Collins’ disappearance, firstly with initial indifference, and then subsequently in an increasingly corrupt and ruthless manner, all the more shocking and disturbing.

Movie: Super

Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page as
The Crimson Bolt and Boltie.

"Shut Up, Crime!"

Super tells the story of Frank Darbo who on discovering his wife has left him for a local drug baron, decides to put on his hero costume and adopt the persona of The Crimson Bolt as he takes to the streets to fight crime, at times in an extremely violent manner.

I suspect the extremeness of the violence is probably meant to be a parody of comic book violence but whatever the motivation behind it, it’s still approaching gruesome at times and therefore the humour is for the most part quite dark.  It would be fair to say that Frank’s methods of dealing with crime are closer to those of The Punisher rather than the likes of Spiderman or a similarly more family friendly super hero.

I’m a massive fan of The Office and so it was Rainn Wilson’s presence that first brought Super to my attention.  However, in some ways the character of Frank Darbo is the very opposite of Dwight Schrute, although there are some similarities.  For example Frank is a similarly dorky character, but unlike Dwight he is well aware of this fact and suffers from major self-confidence issues.  Frank’s behaviour is extremely unhinged at times, and some of his more severe actions even make Dwight look the model of sensibility and normality.