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RATATOUILLE
Many breaths were being held for animation fans. This being the
first feature created by Pixar Studios since its acquisition by Disney.
In the past, the company had distributed its films via Disney but kept
complete ownership of its stories and characters. Truth be told, Disney
studios have been affected more by Pixar than vice versa. But this isn't
a review of company politics, but of Disney/Pixar's Ratatouille.
The film features Remi, a Parisian rat who dreams of being a
great chef. He manages to team up with an inept cook to allow him to
"work the kitchen" and create great meals. The film is cleverly written,
Brad Bird at the helm puts out another wonderfully engaging story ( as
he always does, see The Incredibles and The Iron Giant ). With laughs for
little kids AND big kids.
TRANSFORMERS
When I was 10 years old, my mother bribed me into taking piano
lessons. How you ask? By regularly buying me Transformers. All critiques
on parenting aside, I grew up with these guys. Optimus Prime was the
good guy, Megatron the bad and everyone in between. So I had big
expectations for this movie. Rather I had big expectations for it to be
terrible. A Live action transformer? Come on!
I will not rave about this movie. It was good.
Better than I thought it would be. One has to remember what it is and
what its based on because it has its share of silly moments. It's also
high action and the robot effects and transformations are quite
realistic and well made. That being said, I found that they took away
the dignity of the very honorable Optimus Prime on more than one
occasion. But overall, it lived up to the spirit of the original
characters. If you ARE a massive Transformers fan, don't go in here
feeling too nitpicky though. Although you'll see some fun tributes to
the originals ( like the Porsche dealership showing Jazz's original
design and the attempted sale of a yellow Volkswagen Beetle to Sam ),
you will also notice character names that have been swapped around and
other characters that "transform" into totally different things.
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
July has truly been Pottermania. There is no doubt these movies
are getting darker. But so did the books. Not much more can be said
about this film that I haven't said about the others. They are well
directed, well interpreted to a screenplay. There are a lot of missing
elements, BUT it was necessary so as not to make a 4 hour movie and to
keep with proper pacing. I just had one major problem which annoyed me
and I didn't see why it was changed was the spell Bellatrix uses towards
the end on Sirius ( without saying any more than that ). Other than
that, You like Potter? You'll like this.
-Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, because you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
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