Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Crisp Criticism - "Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie", "The Emoji Movie", "Victoria and Abdul", "Kingsman: The Golden Circle", "The LEGO Ninjago Movie"

by 
Julien Faddoul













Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie **

Two mischievous kids hypnotize their mean elementary school principal and turn him into their comic book creation, the kind-hearted and elastic-banded Captain Underpants.
A fascinating, and mostly successful attempt by DreamWorks to reverse-engineer their initiative due to the corporate restructure by remitting a bauble, with stylised animation done on a fraction of the usual budget. The story is sweet, the jokes are droll, the pace is quick and the animation is typical high-calibre DreamWorks.

d – David Soren
w – Nicholas Stoller   (Based on the Comic Book by Dav Pilkey)
pd – Nate Wragg
m – Theodore Shapiro
ed – Matthew Landon

p – Mireille Soria, Mark Swift

Cast: Kevin Hart, Ed Helms, Nick Kroll, Thomas Middleditch, Kristen Schaal, Jordan Peele













The Emoji Movie

A multi-expressional emoji sets out on a journey to become a normal emoji. Get it?
The very epitome of the inveterate bastardising of the animation artform. Not at any point is it clear that this was meant to enlighten or entertain people of any age from any culture in any era. Even as a form of corporate shilling, the intention seems puzzling.

d – Anthony Leondis
w – Anthony Leondis, Eric Siegel, Mike White
pd – Carlos Zaragoza
m – Patrick Doyle
ed – William J. Caparella

p – Michelle Raimo

Cast: TJ Miller, James Corden, Anna Faris, Maya Rudolph, Steven Wright, Jennifer Coolidge, Jake T. Austin, Christina Aguilera, Sofía Vergara, Patrick Stewart, Rob Riggle, Sean Hayes, Tati Gabrielle, Jude Koyaute, Rachael Ray













Victoria and Abdul *

Queen Victoria strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk.
Stilted period stroll with nice moments – virtually all of them from Dench – but little to engage the mind.

d – Stephen Frears
w – Lee Hall   (Based on the Book by Shrabani Basu)
ph – Danny Cohen
pd – Alan MacDonald
m – Thomas Newman
ed – Melanie Oliver
cos – Consolata Boyle

p – Tim Beaven, Eric Fellner, Beeban Kidron, Tracey Seaward

Cast: Judi Dench, Ali Fazal, Michael Gambon, Eddie Izzard, Olivia Williams, Simon Callow, Tim Pigott-Smith, Adeel Akhtar, Julian Wadham, Fenella Woolgar, Paul Higgins













Kingsman: The Golden Circle

When an attack on the Kingsman headquarters takes place and a new villain rises, Eggsy and Merlin are forced to work together with the American agency known as the Statesman to save the world.
Not as annoyingly imbecilic as the first one, but extremely enervating (at 141 minutes!) with essentially the same beats being repeated and filled to the brim with vacuous subplots. Much of the action is also maladroit.

d – Matthew Vaughn
w – Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn   (Based on the Comic Book by Mark Millar, Dave Gibbons)
ph – George Richmond
pd – Darren Gilford
m – Henry Jackman, Matthew Margeson
ed – Eddie Hamilton
cos – Arianne Phillips

p – Adam Bohling, David Reid, Matthew Vaughn

Cast: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Halle Berry, Channing Tatum, Jeff Bridges, Pedro Pascal, Elton John, Hanna Alström, Poppy Delevingne













The LEGO Ninjago Movie *

Shunned by everyone for being the son of an evil warlord, a teenager seeks to defeat him with the help of his fellow ninjas.
Some nice animation doesn’t compensate for what has become an exhausted and exhausting series of films centred on essentially a single joke about the superficial nature of the Lego product.

d – Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher, Bob Logan
w – Hilary Winston, Bob Logan, Paul Fisher, William Wheeler, Tom Wheeler, Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman, Jared Stern, John Whittington
pd – Kim Taylor
m – Mark Mothersbaugh
ed – David Burrows, Garret Elkins, Ryan Folsey, Julie Rogers, John Venzon

p – Maryann Garger, Dan Lin, Roy Lee, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

Cast: Dave Franco, Justin Theroux, Fred Armisen, Abbi Jacobson, Olivia Munn, Kumail Nanjiani, Michael Peña, Zach Woods, Jackie Chan, Randall Park, Retta, Charlyne Yi




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