More of wot I have watched…

Happy Feet

Dancing and singing penguins, what more could you want? Light and fluffy (or perhaps feathery) and obviously aimed at kids, this film still has some real laugh-out-loud moments for the ‘grown-up’s too. The visual imagery is very good with nice textures, smooth animations and believable animal characterisations - that are not too cartoon-like. Robin Williams provides the wacky voices for two characters with his usual reliable results. There is an obvious but not overplayed environmental message that underlines the story which doesn’t detract too much from the simpler boy-penguin-meets-girl-penguin, outcast for being different penguin, and perseverance in spite of sea lions messages.

Set in a time where food is scarce and tensions high our hero, Mumbles, is a penguin that can’t sing and has a compulsion to dance, much to the horror of most of his fellow penguins. He is banished to the wilderness where he finds acceptance and friendship with a group of different penguins who teach him to believe in himself. Driven to succeed against all odds Mumbles sets off to find out what is happening to all the fish and save the day – accompanied by a series of song and dance routines.


The History Boys

This is a very entertaining film, now a stage show, that explores the hot-housing of students for academic success, literary-historical jokes, and exploration of relationships between students and between teachers and students (though I felt the story seemed to be a little unbalanced by too many bi-sexual and homosexual references in preference to other relationship issues). The ensemble cast and strong young actors really made the film come to life.

Set several decades ago a class of bright but unruly history students are close to being the first to all make it into the Oxbridge universities. The headmaster is determined to see his school finally succeed and so he employs a young and confident teacher to coach the boys in the finer points of university entrance. Conflict arises with the existing teacher whose emphasis is more towards giving the boys a ‘real’ education.

Best line – How do I define history? Well it's just one f**king thing after another, isn't it?


Little Miss Sunshine

I love qwerky movies with that ‘Indie’ feel, and this fits the bill for me, plus it has a yellow VW van in it too. Nice and strong acting from the whole cast brings a real feeling of cohesion to an ever more unravelling series of events that finally comes together with an unexpected and moving sequence on a stage.

A dysfunctional family make a road-trip in their clapped out van when the youngest member has the opportunity to take part in the finals of the Little Miss Sunshine competition. They all have to come to terms with their inner failings and the disappointment of failure when they are forced to rely on each other to make it through difficult times.


Tideland

This is a Terry Gilliam film! So you have been warned. A fantastical story from the perspective of a young girl left in an unusual situation and left to draw on her own inner strength to cope. Like many of his films Tideland runs a line that many people find either genius or grotesque (sometimes both), and always controversial, which is one of his stated aims – to make the audience think. The young lead actress is remarkable and totally convincing in the role and is someone to keep an eye out for in the future. Tideland is an amazing film.


Pierrepoint

How could a film about a hangman be entertaining? Take a handful of supreme dramatic character actors, like Timothy Spall and Juliet Stevenson, a tight script oozing repressed tension and you have a recipe for a gripping movie. The movie is a biopic of the most well known executioner in the UK, Albert Pierrepoint.


Jasper Carrott

Carrott is a goofy and entertaining comic, at his best when he stays away from the profane and sticks with his great observational humour.