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Shaun The Sheep The Movie (Blu-ray) – This time it’s worth following the flock and watching it

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It’s amazing to think that Shaun The Sheep started off as a minor character in one of the Wallace & Gromit shorts, as since then he’s become a bit of a children’s entertainment powerhouse, with a TV series, loads of merchandise, a spin-off (in the form of Timmy Time), and now a movie.

In the film Shaun decides that once more he must try to outwit the farmer so that and the flock can take the day off. However a series of accidents results in the sheep ending up in the big city. They dress up as humans and set out to look for the farmer, who has been knocked over the head and has amnesia. During to his shearing skills, the farmer becomes a celebrated hairstylist, but can Shaun and co. get to him and help him recover his memories, before the evil animal control man can get them?

While there are a lot of animated children’s TV shows with little or no dialogue, it’s a tougher thing to pull off at feature length, but Shaun The Sheep The Movie does it in spades. It has massive amounts of wit and charm, along with a surfeit of whimsical inventiveness that offers plenty of very funny moments and the sort charm that’ll keep a smile on your face throughout the running time.

Aardman Animation’s feature length movies have never been lacking in imagination, but sometimes they’ve been so busy being imaginative that’s its slightly gotten in the way of telling the story (not that they’ve ever made a bad film, but often it’s been easier to admire them than to think they’re brilliant movies in their own right). That’s not a problem here though, as everything pulls together to create a film that whizzes along with great pace, wit and charm, and where its flights of fancy add to the overall smile-inducing eccentricity of the stop-motion movie.

While Aardman has many fans, this is the first of their movies which I’m happy to recommend without any provisos or caveats. It’s genuinely fun for all the family, with enough jokes that only adults will understand to ensure that grown-ups will enjoy the visual wit as much as the youngsters.

Overall Verdict: Shaun The Sheep The Movie is a riot. If only real sheep were this much fun.

Reviewer: Tim Isaac

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Stretch (Blu-ray) – Patrick Wilson goes on one hell of a ride

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Stretch is a bit of a crazy film. Indeed it’s so crazy that despite a cast full of well-known actors the studio behind it didn’t know quite what to do with it and cancelled its US cinema release just a couple of months before it was due to hit cinemas, before trying to sell it to another distributor. However, that’s a shame as while it is nuts and sometimes incredibly messy, it’s also oddly entertaining, even if you can see the studio’s point that it’s a tough film to properly market.

Patrick Wilson plays an LA limo driver whose life hasn’t turned out as he wanted – he planned to be an actor but never made it, he’s lost the love of his life and now he’s got a massive gambling debt and no time to pay it off. In the hope of getting a massive tip he takes a job driving an extremely eccentric passenger (Chris Pine), but soon finds him caught up in a situation involving foreign gangsters, the FBI, a suitcase full of cash, an asshole version of Ray Liotta (playing himself) and a psychotic tow truck driver.

A lot of the film is utterly insane and initially its way to impressed with itself, suffering from being so desperate to be quirky and unexpected that it comes across as a little tedious rather than fun. However, director Joe Carnahan made an extremely smart move when he cast Patrick Wilson, who has charm in whatever he stars in, and does a great job here of running the gamut from ordinary schmuck thrown in at the deep end to being a master of his own destiny trying to play the FBI (even if he doesn’t know that’s who they are).

Chris Pine meanwhile seems to be having great fun as Roger Karos, even if he doesn’t quite possess the full-on zaniness the role requires, although a crazy beard helps (and if he didn’t have any help filling out the jockstrap we first see him in, well, bravo to him). Ed Helms meanwhile pops up as the ghost of a limo driver who keeps talking to Wilson, although to be honest it’s the sort of role that probably seemed witty, quirky and unique on the page, but is a little pointless and a tad lazy of the screen. That said, both do give added value as the movie goes on.

In fact it’s only once it’s really gets going that the entertainment value properly kicks in and it becomes the thriller farce it desperately wants to be (for the first 20 minutes it’s tries way too hard to be that, with the result that many will roll their eyes before giving it a chance). As it’s convoluted series of coincidences, silliness, action and total craziness starts to play out its likely to put a smile of your face, and you’ll overlook the fact that its tendency towards being slightly self-satisfied results in a lot of messiness around the edges.

Overall Verdict: Its undoubtedly a movie that is totally nuts, but Stretch is also pretty amusing and ends up being more fun that it probably ought to be, helped by a charming central performance Patrick Wilson.

Reviewer: Tim Isaac

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Man Up – An honest and hilarious film!

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I’m not generally a fan of rom coms and tend to find them soppy, predictable and unrealistic. So I decided to take a chance and step out of my comfort zone to review this film, although the fact it stars Simon Pegg helped my decision.

I was cautious as I saw the trailer and had a horrible feeling that it showed all of the funny bits. Any regular readers of my reviews would know that I have an ongoing issue with the marketing not holding back with what they spoil, in order to get a big audience for the opening weekend. I had an optimistic feeling that I wouldn’t be able to predict all the twists and turns and I was pleasantly surprised by this film.

To summarise, Man Up is the story of a mid-30’s woman who gets mistaken by someone else’s blind date and ends up meeting her perfect man.

Nancy (Lake Bell) is a 34-year-old singleton with a less than optimistic outlook on life. We all know someone like this: moans about not having a partner or a satisfying life yet doesn’t push themselves to improve it. However she is trying and has a journal with self-imposed rules in order to improve her wellbeing.

While travelling on a train to her parents’ 40th wedding anniversary, random passenger Jessica (Ophelia Lovibond) overhears her struggles and offers Nancy the self-help book ‘6 Billion People and You’. Jessica informs Nancy that because of this book she is now going on a blind date at Waterloo station where her and her suitor will recognise each other by holding up the book.

Nancy wakes up at the station to find that the Good Samaritan has left the book, and in a frantic attempt to find her and return it she is met by Jack (Simon Pegg) holding his book. Dazed and smitten, she then assumes Jessica’s identity (kind of) and goes on her date.

Britain has a history of producing some excellent rom coms such as Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Notting Hill (1999) and Love actually (2003) (all written by Richard Curtis), and I’m glad to say that Man Up is up in the ranks.

This film has believable and honest central characters and the joke ratio is very high. This isn’t a gross out film and while some of the adult conversations may offend some, everyone in the screening was cackling along. I could definitely relate to the conversations between the two leads and I found this openness refreshing as they seemed like normal and real people.

They both have issues which they are trying to overcome, and self-help books, motivational quotes on LinkedIn and new aged spirituality are all the rage these days. One common piece of advice is to ‘let go’ of the past and your baggage in order to escape your comfort zone and set yourself free, which this film conveys.

Neither Nancy nor Jack are very good at doing this as the film shows us which leads to some hilarious scenes, one involving Jack’s ex-wife, another when Nancy meets one of her old classmates Sean (Rory Kinnear) who threatens to expose her assumed identity. I won’t go into details but he steals almost every scene he is in.

But when the truth is finally revealed the real game begins and compliments turn into hilarious insults.

Simon Pegg is perfectly cast as Jack and pulls off being confused, dashing, quirky, loveable, vulnerable and overall British. Just like he is in most films, which isn’t a bad thing.

One big surprise for me is discovering that Lake Bell is American! Her accent is perfect and much better than Renee Zellweger’s in Bridget Jones Diary (2001). She also has all the mannerisms of a strong, upfront and quirky British woman. She perfectly encapsulates arrogance, vulnerability and the character’s personality. Someone give her an award and a pint!

Together Bell and Pegg’s chemistry works incredibly well on screen throughout their ups and downs.

This film was directed by Ben Palmer who has helmed several episodes of The Inbetweeners (2008-2010), which similarly followed flawed characters trying to find love and make sense of the world. As in the show, he brings lots of laughs and a few uncomfortable moments, and the pace never sags.

Man Up encourages spontaneity and hope in taking chances as in most cases you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Nancy successfully moved out of her comfort zone and took a chance. Will it pay off? Go watch this film, and bring a friend while you’re at it.

Overall Verdict: This is one of the best British comedies that I have seen in a while and would make a great date movie. Honest characters, performances and situations make this one of the funniest and most refreshing rom-coms in years!

Reviewer: George Elcombe

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Fortitude – Season 1 (DVD) – Mystery on the ice-pack

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I enjoyed Fortitude but there is a slight sense with the 12-part series that a bunch of people sat in a room and came up with a list of TV shows they liked, and then tried to put together something that included a little bit of all of them. As a result there are echoes of Broadchurch, Lost, Twin Peaks, The X-Files, The Killing and various other things.

Indeed it gets to the point where it’s difficult not to feel the series ends up as something rather different from how it begins, to the point that those who were hoping for the initial murder-mystery might feel a little cheated when it goes a little sci-fi (even if it is very much at the softer, more realistic end of sci-fi). However, those who are open and stick with it are likely to find it rewarding.

Fortitude is an isolated community on an island in the Arctic Circle. It’s a place which is normally peaceful but is rocked by two violent deaths in a very short pace of time, the second of which is a particularly gruesome murder where a professor from the local Research Institute has been savagely butchered. DCI Morton (Stanley Tucci) is sent from London to investigate, much to the chagrin of the local Sheriff, Dan Anderssen (Richard Dormer), despite the fact he never had to deal with something this serious before.

As they look into the murder, all manner of secrets are unveiled and tensions in the town rise. To add to the mystery, one of the children in the snowy town has come down with a mysterious illness, somebody thinks that they may have found the frozen body of a mammoth and there are rumours about a treasure hidden under the ice. Little of this is welcome news to the Governor, Hildur Odegard (Sophie Grabol), who is trying to revitalise the dying community by building a hotel inside the nearby glacier.

As you can tell there’s a lot going on in Fortitude, so it may be surprising that one of the biggest complaints when it was on Sky TV was some people feeling like it moved at a glacial pace (pun intended). However that was likely to be those viewers who, but to the slightly contradictory marketing, thought they were getting an action-packed murder mystery rather than the more Broadchurch-style ‘community rocked’ drama it starts out as. On DVD it’s not so much of a problem, as being able to binge-watch the series helps a lot and makes it feel a lot faster-paced than when you had to wait a week between episodes.

Binge watching also helps to even out the slightly odd tonal shifts that happen every so often, where the series decides to twist and turn its way through every genre it can think of, before settling into the slightly sci-fi thriller it felt like it ought to have been from the beginning, but half forgot about partway through (not that it ever gets bad, but it does like to flit about a bit).

It’s helped in its tonal shifts by a great cast and some interesting characters who manage to ensure there’s a constant through-line no what genre it’s being at that moment, or indeed during those moments when the plot edges towards being a little bit too over the top for its own good. Of course the location is also a major plus point, with the show making the most of the dramatic Icelandic locales (which stood in for the Fortitude’s Norwegian island) and showing quite how isolated and precarious the community is.

There are moments where it risks the audience suffering from mystery fatigue while it tries to be as cryptic as possible. Plus its massive gambit of telling us who killed the professor partway through and then pretending that wasn’t the major mystery after all, will piss a few people off. However, overall it’s extremely entertaining.

Overall Verdict: The ice-bound drama may try to cram in far too many genre shifts and will annoy some by turning out not to be quite what they thought they were getting. However, a proper binge-watch smooths that out and brings out quite how entertaining it is.

Special Features:
About the Show – Cast and producers provide a brief overview of the show.
Filming In Iceland – A behind the scenes look at the filming in Iceland.
On the Glacier – Cast and producers discuss the beauty and challenges of filming on a glacier.
From Script to Screen – Creator Simon Donald and the actors discuss the writing on the series.
Rogue Secrets – Actors Johnny Harris and Michael Gambon discuss some of the secrets behind their characters.
The Set Tour – Production Designer Gemma Jackson gives the viewers a tour of the sets.
Let It Snow – Producers and cast discuss the lack of snow and the challenges that created for the production.
Beware the Bear – Producers explain the filming of the animatronic Polar Bears.
Reflection of Reality – Creator Simon Donald discusses the science behind the series.
Killer Revealed – Creator Simon Donald discusses the revelation of the killer.
Recipe For Blood – Make-up and Hair Designer Catherine Scoble explains the recipe needed to create realistic looking blood.
Graphic Content – A piece on the designs within the show with graphic designer Barry Gingell.

Reviewer: Tim Isaac

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Testament Of Youth (Blu-ray) – Alicia Vikander deals with grief in the First World War

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It’s almost surprising the world of film didn’t make a few more movies to tie into the centenary of the start of the First World War. However Testament Of Youth is an apt tale to make a new version of at this time, as rather than being a gung-ho war story, it is more about grief and the wiping out of swathes of young lives.

Based on Vera Brittain’s memoir, the movie follows Vera (Alicia Vikander) as a free thinking young woman determined that her path in life will not just to be a wife and mother. She heads off to Oxford (after a little resistance from her father) and almost surprises herself when she falls for a handsome young man called Roland (Kit Harington). However their seemingly idyllic youth, along with that of her brother Edward (Taron Egerton) and their friends, is disrupted by the War.

The young men head off to foreign fields, initially leaving Vera behind. However she decides it shouldn’t just be the men doing their part and she enlists herself as a nurse, and soon discovers that the horrors of war are a very long way from her privileged youth. It also becomes increasingly clear to that not only is she is in real danger herself, but there’s a good chance the men she knew before the war – including Roland and her brother – may never make it back at all.

Brittain’s book is an incredibly powerful evocation of grief and war as something that is not just about carnage of a grand scale, but millions of individual moments of horror and anguish, both for those on the battlefields and those elsewhere. James Kent’s film does manage to capture that, even if it’s sometimes a little clumsy in getting there.

The opening section in particular is a little too much, to the point where its fastidious cleanliness, precision and determination to present pre-War life as being almost perfect, begins to get close to feeling like a parody of 1980s Merchant-Ivory movies. However when the film actually head off to war it starts to work a lot better, helped tremendously by Alicia Vikander, who holds the whole thing together with an expertly pitched performance. Indeed, if it weren’t for her the whole thing might have seemed rather over-earnest and even a tad hackneyed. Almost by force of will Vikander and the rest of the cast hold things together in the face of too many shots that are determined to look artful – complete with diffuse lighting and studied camerawork – rather than tell the story.

Testament Of Youth does pull itself through though, even in the face of a 130-minute runtime that sometimes feels like it’s stretched to breaking point. Ultimately the sheer power of the story ensures it’s sometimes pretty moving and worth watching. In fact it’s sometimes such an incredible story that if it weren’t based on the truth it would sometimes seem a little far-fetched.

There has in the past been talk of Vera’s brother Edward and whether he was gay. Many believe that he probably was, but this is largely based on supposition and the vaguest of hints in Vera’s writing that she was aware her brother may not be the same as most other boys (although it seems clear that if Edward was gay, he never told anyone close to him, although he may have fallen for another soldier of a lower rank during the wat). The film decides to tread a fine line with this, occasionally hinting that Edward may be more interested in men than women, while not actually saying it. Although that could seem like whitewashing, in the context of the story and what we unambiguously know about Edward and how he acted around those who knew him, it was probably the right tack to take.

Overall Verdict: Although overall Testament Of Youth should be judged a success, it’s a little too enamoured with the idea of itself as a classic British period drama to actually become one. However Alicia Vikander is superb and should have a great future in film.

Special Features:
Behind The Scenes Featurette

Reviewer: Tim Isaac

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Tomorrowland: A World Beyond – George Clooney heads for another world

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I love sci-fi and to say I was looking forward to this film is an understatement. I am a huge fan of Brad Bird’s previous work, The Incredibles (2004), and his first live action film, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), is one of the best entries in the franchise.

His films have a trademark sense of kinetic fun and action, mixed with well-formed characters and witty dialogue, which is the perfect mix for any summer blockbuster.

Tomorrowland tells the story of Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) a highly optimistic girl with smarts who has dreamt of travelling to the stars. She is arrested whilst trying to sabotage the dismantling of Cape Canaveral’s Launchpad, and upon release she discovers a mysterious pin which by touch transports her to the scientific and artistic wonder that is Tomorrowland (think Epcot designed by Apple and Syd Mead, complete with a hoverrail (hover meaning hover, rail meaning rail)).

After a brief spell there she tracks down former boy genius Frank Walker (George Clooney) in order to travel back and they eventually embark on a mission to save our world.

There is an air of mystery surrounding this film which thankfully the marketing department are unwilling to disclose and it may be best to keep it this way if you wish to see this film.

There’s little surprise that there’s air of mystery as it is co-written by Damon Lindoff, who is famous for writing Lost (2004-2010) and butchering the screenplay to Prometheus (2012). He has a habit of building things up to being vital and then discarding things needlessly without conclusion, never really explaining anything and just leaving you with more questions than answers.

I should let this pettiness go but in a film like this a little more explanation would have gone a long way.

On a positive note the first 90 or so minutes are absolutely superb! From the custom Disney logo (see also Tron Legacy (2010)) we have a fun and ballistic thrill ride which is visually cool, has fun with editing and non-linear narrative, and is the type of magical and adventurous cinematic fun reminiscent of early Spielberg films.

We are introduced to the back stories of Frank, who is invited to Tomorrowland by the mysterious Athena (Raffey Cassidy) at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. We get a glimpse of a world that’s straight out of a computer game, where Earth’s best artistic and scientific minds have come together to create a utopia of discovery and progression.

Fast forward a few years later and we get Casey’s backstory of how she is unwillingly drawn into the mystery and adventure. Her main introduction to Tomorrowland is a great single shot reminiscent of many a ride at Disneyland.

Reluctant at first, they make a great team and together they even battle robots and travel to Paris in order to reach their goal.

It’s just a shame that for me the last act of the film couldn’t keep up with the pace and fun of what preceded it, and as such seemed a bit dull and anti-climactic.

There are many things that I loved in this film, such as the overall ecological message brilliantly conveyed in a speech made by Tomorrowland’s ruler Nix (Hugh Laurie). The best sci-fi for me has contemporary themes and deals with real world issues in a fantasy setting.

And this is a geeky film for all the right reasons. The trip to a comic book store is a visual treat as we see references to Brad Bird’s previous films The Incredibles (2004) and The Iron Giant (1999), not to mention a lot of Star Wars merchandise. No surprise as Disney paid a lot of money acquiring Lucasfilm and product placement will do anything but harm the box office for The Force Awakens (2015).

The cast suit this film perfectly. George Clooney once again plays George Clooney, yet a bit more pessimistic and sour, due to the fact he was exiled from Tomorrowland as a young man, and can see our world destroying itself through global warming, famine and war. However as George Clooney he brings his trademark charm and perfectly timed humour.

Britt Robertson is excellent as Casey; a young, optimistic, charismatic and strong female lead. She isn’t the damsel and it’s good to see more films where there is a balance between male and female central characters, although I did get a Jennifer Lawrence vibe from this rising star.

They are each other’s yin and yang with a common goal and lots of playful bickering between them.

The cinematography and design of the titular city are great and the bigger the screen you see this film on the better. Michael Giacchino’s score is reminiscent of the Disney sci-fi films of yesteryear and adds to the fun. All in all these elements help create a sense of adventure, wonder and magic in this film which personally we need in order to renew our interest in space travel. Combine this film with Interstellar (2014) and audiences should understand that we are not helping this planet as a species, a point this film literally screams in our faces.

But despite the negative environmental message there is an overall optimism conveyed through this film – “Can’t inventions just be fun?” Things can change and it’s not too late as long as we realise what’s wrong and make a difference.

This movie is hard to score as at some points this is a 5 star film, and the escape from Frank’s house is pure joy, danger and excitement. But it descends and changes pace, becoming a bit far-fetched, even for a sci-fi film. The ending didn’t live up to its potential and in true Lindeloff fashion, just raises endless questions and possible plot holes.

This is a film that ticks a lot off what you want in a film. It’s entertaining, great acting and characters, great special effects and exciting scenes, great humour, a good moral message and overall a huge sense of optimism. Kids will love it but it just lacks a fitting conclusion and doesn’t live up to its potential.

Overall Verdict: A mostly fun and exciting thrill ride let down by its third act. Great performances and it has the same magic and excitement of the Spielberg and Disney films of yesteryear. Not a bad film by far and a great summer popcorn flick.

Reviewer: George Elcombe

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