I have to sing. It's not just in me... it is me (Coco 2018)

171.

Coco

  

 

 

 

8/10

 

Finally, it is time for the next stage of the Disney Universe. We have been into the toy's realm, seen where the monster live, even been inside our own heads, but now it's time to see Disney's take on the afterlife. More specifically, we are about to witness the afterlife that the Mexicans believe in. This is a whole new level for Disney, due to the fact that they kind of always want to keep it light hearted, where they best can, but to be surrounded by the dead, this is going to be interesting. It's from their Pixar studios, so we know that the animation will be second to none but the cast is far from known to me, so let's hope that they can hold their own. Will this movie be one that has the ability to take the topic and raise it from the dead?

The movie plot revolves around a young boy and his love for music, but finding out that his family have a ban on music for some reason. The movie actually begins with paper banners, through the streets, telling us a little history story, of a family and a new born, who's father left him and his mother to pursue a career in music, declaring it his one dream. Was this the background to this boy's story and the reason that the family had banned music from their house. The child in this paper story was named Coco, the Great grandson, is Miguel, the child that we shall follow around. Coco now lives with Miguel and his family and is pretty much bound to a wheelchair, with very little dialogue. Miguel dreams of being a singer one day, just like his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz, who he regularly watches on TV in secret, learning all of his songs. This guy was a massive talent in Coco's era and the reason so many people wanted to get into the business. One day, close to the day of the dead, Miguel goes to the family shrine and accidentally damages the photo of Coco's mother and removes it from the frame, unfolding it and discovering that her father was holding de la Cruz's famous guitar. The face had been ripped off, but this guy's shoulders are around the same width of this famous musician and actor.

Coming to the conclusion that Ernesto is his Great-great grandfather, Miguel is wanting to enter the talent show in town. This is even though his Grand-mother has smashed his guitar on the ground. As he runs through the streets, we are treated to one of the oldest Easter Eggs in Disney Pixar. That is the Pizza Planet truck drives passed quickly. This time I even spotted it. Miguel heads to Ernesto's tomb and steals his guitar to use in the show. With one stroke, he becomes invisible to the living, apart from the street dog he is friendly with and soon is spotted by his dead relatives, who are visiting for the holiday. These skeletal folk aren't too surprised to see their young relative and after taking him back to the land of the dead, which is a sight to behold, they head to a kind of immigration department, where one of the relatives cannot enter the land of the living and this is because of Miguel, who had smashed her photo. We find out, which was confusing me at the start, as to why Miguel had been transported to the land of the dead. He is now cursed for stealing from the dead and now must find blessing, to return to the land of the living by sunrise, otherwise he will be forever cursed and stranded. The only condition is, that when his Great-great Grandmother offers him the blessing, he must abolish any intent for following a career in the musical arts, which he doesn't take well and runs, beginning the search of Ernesto. On his way out of the main offices, we are shown a skeleton named Hector. This guy has already tried to get into the land of the living, by disguising himself as a female, due to his family not putting his picture up and he seems infamous, for doing this for years. Out of all the skeletons, which seems weird to type, this guy is dressed pretty damn scruffy and is by no means well off. Once he bumps into Miguel, he claims that he knows Ernesto. Of course he does, bastard con-artist. He said that he will help Miguel to reach Ernesto, but in exchange, Miguel must put his photo back in the land of the living, so that he can visit during the festival. This is down to the fact that his daughter is the only one left alive and if she forgets him, he will disappear completely. Hector, the little swine, attempts to return Miguel back to his family, by means of the ones who want to stop the music, but once again, the young lad legs it. Being chased but the Great-great grandmother, Miguel explains his plan on getting by back Ernesto's help, which, even by skeleton standards, leaves a look of confusion and shock on this woman's face. He ends up finding his way into Ernesto's mansion and playing his own music for him, being granted an audience with the man, he explains about his history and how they are related. This guy seems a right pretentious arsehole though, who doesn't credit anyone else and actually reminds me of seeing footballer in today's society.  The man, or skeleton, embraces this connection, before Hector confronts them both and we find out that Ernesto actually killed this man. He poisoned him after Hector wanted to return home to his daughter, which means that he would have taken all of the songs away from Ernesto, the songs he became famous for. As he see the history of the murder, we also see the history of where Hector's songs came from. He is singing them to his daughter, Coco and states how little he wants to leave to achieve Ernesto's dreams. Ernesto takes Hector's photo from Miguel, in order to hide any evidence that this murder took place and both Miguel and Hector are eventually thrown into a pit, where they are left to die.

They come to the realisation that they are related, but also that Coco is on her way out and Hector will soon be forgotten. Dante the dog turns up and helps the two escape with the family of skeletons. There is a quick confrontation between Hector and his wife, Imelda, as Miguel tried to defuse the situation with the true story of him wanting to return home, being the reason that he died. Even after a little acceptance, the bridges are still a little burnt. The newly grouped team, must now break into Ernesto's famous sunrise party, in order to get Hector's photo back, before returning Miguel to the land of the living. Their other objective though, is to finally reveal this popular singer's crimes to his adoring audience. This is accomplished, as behind the stage, Ernesto, throws Miguel off the high rise building, supposedly to his death, which is filmed on camera and showed to his audience. Imedla's spirit animal catches him and flies him back to the summit, before chasing down Ernesto, who climbs to the top of his set and is crushed by a giant bell, which is the same way he died originally. With the toss over the side, Miguel had lost the photo of Hector, which the skeleton is massively gutted by. The sun is about to rise, as Imelda blesses Miguel, with no conditions attached and he returns to the living, running straight to Coco, but not before stealing the guitar once more. That moment is a little confusing as surely he's stolen it once so it is gone? He gets home and recites a song from Hector, which used to be sung to Coco when she was a little girl. The song sparks her memories of her father and even revitalizes her, making her sing along, before going into a draw and retrieving the ripped out photo of Hector. Coco's daughter then hugs Miguel, showing her acceptance of music back into the family.

One year later, Miguel has truly taken on board his heritage and walked up to his family shrine, which now show a photo of Coco, as she has passed away. Hector is there too, back in the photo with Imelda, as Miguel shows everyone to his new baby sister. Letters saved by Coco have proven who was behind all of the music and a result of this is that the shrine to Ernesto is now completely ignored and the pubic now celebrate Hector. The closing scene shows the family in their home grounds during the day of the dead festival and we can see Imelda and Hector, rejoicing with their family, along with the other family skeletons and living, as Miguel sings and plays for both living and dead.

For someone watching this movie, outside of the Mexican culture, it was important to find out how it was represented in that, to go alongside my own opinion. This film was amazingly colourful and touching. I followed the storyline as well as I could and still didn't see the hints as to who Coco's father was all along. The picture threw us off with the massive shoulder's which the skeleton still wore and a pathetic skeleton who only seemed a crock. When it come to the end, I can see how it would be a little emotional for people, with the realisation of Coco passing away and becoming one of the afterlife. This movie is based on her by name and although she isn't shown too much within the movie, she plays the most vital role by the end, in saving her father. This isn't a movie that needs a sequel and that can only be a good thing. It was good in it's own right, with tackling something that Disney have never tried before and doing it with ease. I wasn't as touched by the music and storyline as I have been from the more recent additions to Disney and Disney Pixar but within the right society, this is easily a massive, emotional hit.

 

Holy Beefaroni! You're ginormous! (Ferdinand 2017)

170.

Ferdinand

 

 

 

 

 

7.5/10

 

 

 

AND IT'S JOHN CENA, DOO DOO DODOOO. The trailer for this kid's animation, seemed to be around forever. Finally, the time came to visit the cinema and watch as John Cena is voicing a massive bull, stripped away from his home and made to train to be a fighting bull. I've had some mixed responses from the animation that I've seen in the past year so I wonder what this one has in store for me. The trailer show's this loveable bull as clumsy, cowardly but still built like a brick shithouse. It's time to see whether this is built to last or just a load of bullshit.
The movie opens in Spain, on a bull ranch as three young calves are play fighting amongst each other, as they wait to see which of the older bulls is picked to fight the matador in the arena. In the background, we see another young calve, tending to a flower, making sure that it isn't trampled. Here's betting that's Ferdinand. He constantly gets picked on by the other bulls, but mainly Valiente, who is the leader of the other three and also, whose father is the main challenger for Ferdinand's. They all watch, as the other bulls fight for victory, with Ferdinand's coming out on top. The say goodbye to Ferdinand's dad, as he is driven away, just as Valiente's father dismisses his own son. This leads the young bull to stomp on Ferdinand's flower, in a fit of rage. The flower was red after all. As the days drag on and Ferdinand waits for his father's return. The older viewers will know what is happening and the truck, which once took the massive bull away, has come back empty. The youngster knows that something has happened and is heartbroken. He runs from the paddock, trying to escape the ranch and find his father. He ends up getting on a train and being picked up by a florist, after he had fallen down a muddy slope. He is taken back to his home and immediately forms a bond with the daughter, Nina. Much to the annoyance of their pet dog, Paco. He loves the fact that this place has flowers and sleeps inside, with Nina. We have a small montage of him enjoying, until he is fully grown and now being voiced by John Cena. He's grown bigger than his father was, but is still a gentle bull. He even calls the dog his brother, who hats it, but can't help but wag his tail, every time Ferdinand calls him brother. Hold up, if the bull can't talk to humans, how do they know his name is Ferdinand?? 
The florist, Juan, with his daughter, are preparing to leave for the flower festival but this time they cannot take Ferdinand, simply because he is too big. After they leave, he decides that he is going anyway and we know that this isn't going to end well. He scares everyone with his clumsy nice, hides in a china shop, (surprise, surprise), before eventually being caught by the authorities. All this because he was stung in the arse by a wasp. In a turn out for the books, he is taken to the ranch that he escaped all those years ago. Meeting a goat on arrival, which confesses that she trains the bulls, he is quickly pitted up against his old enemies. They too have grown, obviously and it isn't long until they notice that Ferdinand is back. There are also two other bulls, one, a scot who cannot see past the hair in his eyes and another, which has apparently been made in a lab and pretty much acts like a robot. Guapo and Bones, who have been there from the start, are surprised by how much Ferdinand has grown, whereas Valiente is still a knob. Ferdinand is brought to his stable, which gives him instant flashbacks and he also meets three, robbing hedgehogs, who he scares at first, but they quickly warm up to him once they find out his nature. He also meets three German horses. They seem like show horses, snooty bastards and make fun of the bulls. Ferdinand's training begins, with hilarious consequences, which only makes the others doubt his credentials.
The next day, the most famous bullfighter turns up to pick a bull. They gang are sent into the ring together to fight, with Guapo getting too nervous, Ferdinand holding everyone up with his refusal to fight, Bones being too small and Angus not being able to see. The bullfighter is disgusted by the selection and Guapo, thinking that he is being chosen and but into the back of the van, is actually being taken to the nearby slaughter house. Valiente tells Ferdinand that if they aren't fighters, then they are meat. Ferdinand slowly gets the respect from the others, by helping them out in their own way and beating the horses to a dance off, but still Valiente dislikes him. It's pretty obvious that he will help him in some way in the future, but not right now. He eventually picks fight with Ferdinand, results in Ferdinand giving in and defending himself, snapping one of Valiente's horns and impressing the bullfighter at the same time. The bully is taken straight to the slaughter house for his troubles. Ferdinand has decided that the time has come to escape and after convincing Lupe the goat to help him, they gather up the hedgehogs and make a plan. Somehow sneaking through the ranch, the make it into the main house, where he sees a picture of his father, with his horns mounted above it. In fact, the whole wall is covered with horns, giving the realisation that no matter what, the bulls are destined to die. He doesn't want this for the other bulls and turns back to free the others. He ends up heading to the slaughter house and trying to free the two trapped bulls. They end up activating the machines and just when all seems gloomy, Valiente comes to the aid and is officially rooting for the good side. Called it. They end up, somehow, stealing the famers truck and heading into town. The bullfighter threatens to ruin the ranch if they own doesn't get the bull back, so off they go, chasing them down. The cause carnage, through the traffic and train yard, until they make it to a train and as everyone gets on, Ferdinand stays behind to make sure that the rest escape. He is caught and taken to the arena.
The news of this bullfighter's last fight, has made its way around Spain and Juan and Paco see it on TV before heading to get Nina in order to go and save their bull. As a huge crowd gathers, Lupe who has stayed behind with Ferdinand, tries to convince the bull to fight for his life. He is forced into the ring by swords and spikes and doesn't attempt to give a good fight, even after hitting the fighter into the wall. Enraged, the guy tries to attack the bull from every angle, cutting the bull's shoulder, before he gets picked up by Ferdinand's horns, maybe giving into the fight. He lowers the fighter after seeing a rose that has been thrown onto the ring floor, bringing the bull back to his peaceful moments back at the farm. He remembers his friend Nina, before sitting down, looking ready to accept his fate, as the matador steadies his sword. The audience let loose and want the bull to remain alive, just as Nina and her father make it to ringside. The matador leaves, with his pride, just as Nina rushes to her closest friend to embrace him and the other bulls, who decided not to escape, make it into the ring to see their friend. They are all brought to the farm, where Nina falls in love with Lupe, making her feel loved for the first time. Ferdinand takes his friends to sit by his favourite tree and flower field, to watch the sunset and enjoy the sunset with freedom.
For another animation, this was quite enjoyable. There were moments that can make you laugh, along with some sadness and relief, that would have been received by the audience, depending on their age. For example, the younger viewers wouldn't have been aware at what would have happened to the father in the beginning, or understood the controversy surrounding the bull fighting within Spain. John Cena may not be a favourite of mine within the wrestling community but when it comes to a human being and his charitable involvement in society, this guy is top of the pile. The story is quite predictable, as with the territory of a child's movie, but it was a very good storyline all the same, with very little flaws. The animation and voice work are really good and Cena managed to give his character as much heart as he shows in real life. It is always good to see a happy ending, especially with today's society and this movie giving a welcome escape, but it would be interesting, just once, to see what would happen if the ending took a bad turn. It's not there with my enjoyment of seeing 'Storks' but worth the watch all the same.
 

 



Wouldn't you go to prison to stop this war? (The Post 2018)

169.

The Post

 

 

 

7/10

 

Another movie that is being nominated for a variety of awards, including picture of the year and best actress, with Meryl Streep in the main role. Steven Spielberg gives us a look into a true story of how the lies spouted by the American government's failings during the Vietnam war and deceptions, to keep the truth from the public. This follows the story behind one newspaper, The Washington Post and their battle with the government for the right to publish the findings. Could this be front page material or nothing more than a quick side story?

Our story begins on the front line, where a guy called Daniel Ellsberg, is in South Vietnam to observe the progress made in the battle, to report back to the Embassy. At night, the unit he is in, gets ambushed by unseen enemies and are nearly all wiped out. On his flight home, he speaks to the Secretary of Defence and the Chief of Staff, who he explains that nothing has changed, which could also mean that things are getting worse. Once landed, the Secretary is confronted by the press, who he instantly lies to and tells them that things are getting better on the front. Ellsberg is clearly shaken by this and during the night, he sneaks out of the Pentagon with files on the Vietnam War, meeting with his colleagues and making copies of everything. One reading over the files himself, he sees that four Presidents were involved in the cover-up regarding certain facts and allied to the press.

6 years later, we are into the time of our main bulk of the film. Meryl Streep is a publisher, who is set to take her company public. In her meeting, she freezes when asked questions, clearly showing that her character isn't exactly strong right now. At the same time, she also gets a call from the Chief of Staff, explaining that President Nixon doesn't want the paper to cover his daughter's wedding. She later meets with her managing editor, Ben Bradlee, who is played by Tom Hanks. She makes a suggestion about expanding their coverage to attract move of an audience, but is quickly shot down by Bradlee. After the meeting about going public, Kay Graham, Streep's character, is in her office and outside are two of the men from the meeting, discussing their concerns about the Post going public. They are bringing up negatives such as people may not be happy with a woman in charge and how she only inherited the company, after Graham's husband committed suicide. Later that evening, at Graham's home, she is visited by McNamara, who informs her that something bad may be printed about him in tomorrow's New York Times.

Once Bradlee has caught wind of the Times launching a major story, he sends an intern to their department, to find out what a journalist named, Sheehan, is about to write up. He comes back with a rough drawing on what the front page was going to look like, involving McNamara and they Post team aren't too pleased. The Times publishes a story about getting their hands on the Pentagon papers, which has news on the cover-ups that the White House has been involved in. While Graham sits down for a meal with the Times editor, his assistant comes over with news that Nixon wants to take them to court over the story. One of the journalists with the Post works endlessly to set up a meeting with Ellsberg, who finally meets him at a motel, with all of the printed papers laid out on the bed. Once he obtains them, he informs Bradlee and gathers his top workers to sit and arrange them all in the right order. In anticipation of all of the backlash, they hire lawyers, to find out their rights and what would happen. I don't know what went on with this at the time, but I'm going to guess that they published, mainly because it would be a waste of time to make this film and then they shit out.

Graham is clearly scared and sits with her daughter to discuss her feelings about running the story and managing the company by herself. She is mainly doing it to support her family and nothing more. Bradlee informs Graham that they will face legal action if they run the story and a huge debate erupts from the board members versus the journalists. Graham is left with the final decision and after a decent speech, she goes ahead with it all. The next day, it's published and the newspaper is on the streets. This starts a wave of all other publications running the same story, so that they cannot all be silenced. Graham is taken to the supreme court by the government, to which they win the case, as a judge rules in favour of the governed, not the governors.

The film ends with Bradlee talking to Graham in friendly conversation, as we are transported outside of the White House, where through the window, we see Nixon on the phone, banning anyone from The Post from ever going to the White House again. Later, we see a security guard at the Watergate Hotel, noticing that a break in is in progress....
A very historic event and interesting story that was behind it, was shown by so pretty average performances, in my opinion, from Streep and Hanks. I'm not sure it was their fault, but with the topic and people that they needed to portray, I doubt they had much to truly work with. The whole movie seems to follow the usual criteria but it never really reaches the 'WOW' factor for me. Being British, it is hard to keep trap on what happens in the US but this could be easily comparable to Trump's war on 'Fake News' right now and trying to cover-up any stories that are leaking about him. Although this is pretty much an enjoyable history lesson, don't expect to leave the cinema in shocked silence that had been created from other movies of this type.

Fuck. You ARE a God (The Shape of Water 2018)

168.

The Shape of Water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

6.5/10

 

 

This was the Odeon Screen Unseen and even with the clues, I had no idea what I was going in to watch. The trailers that I had seen, hadn't really given anything away for the movie but it was winning plaudits from all angles, along with nominations for some of the biggest movie awards around. Set in the 60's this movie seemed to be focused around an amphibious creature, that is being helped to escape from a facility. Guillermo del Toro, puts his name to a film labelled as romance, which I'm oddly curious to see where that comes from. Will this be a movie that will sink or swim?

This movie, if described using a water analogy, would be a decent front crawl at best, but was never going to win the swimming race for me. It had a good cast of, Michael Shannon, as the bad guy and with a face only a mother could love, it's safe to see why he fitted the bill. Sally Hawkins plays a janitor who falls in love with an amphibian 'man' and although she is mute, she teaches him sign language, to cross over the first boundary. It is explained in the movie, how she was found at a river bed, with some pretty bad scratches along each side of her neck and I'm instantly thinking, could those be gills? As the movie progresses and she gets the help from her neighbour about the escape and hiding of the creature, the plan goes pretty well, even though her work friend thinks something is up and investigates, only to help with the final cover-up. We always know which way this story is going to go and it's just the process of getting there. As it carries on, Sally Hawkins' character ends up hiding the 'man' in her bath tub, until the tide rises in the docks and the amphibian can be released.
Michael Shannon is now in the middle of playing a man possessed and obsessed with finding the escapee. Elisa, Hawkins' character, has decided a drop her dressing gown for her new love and this scaled man duly accepts her offer. Later, she even foods her bathroom so that they can be together under the water. It obviously will never be plain sailing, as at one point, this guy eats the cat and legs it when being told off. He seems to have this power, that can heal people, as he cuts a man with his claws and then does some glowing thing to speed up the recovery, so it isn't too hard to see why he was of such an interest to the government, with some calling him and worshipping him as a sort of god.
The movie finally draws to close, when the group think they are in the clear but after Shannon's character searches Elisa's place, to see the calendar describe her plan for release. As they are down the dock, Strickland, played by Shannon, ends up shooting the creature and Elisa in the back, just as they are saying their goodbyes. Walking away in victory, he doesn't expect the creature to heal itself and slice his throat. He then takes Elisa into the water, after bringing her back to life, which opens up her gills and I guess they are ready to start their life together under the sea.
The look, feel and musical score to this movie screaming the computer game, Bioshock. An old, gloomy feel with lots of water, depressing colours and shades of green. This along with the music that comes straight out of a phonograph horn, takes me back to my favourite console game but unfortunately, this was far from my favourite movie. It was a very predictable movie at times, apart from the shooting at the end, which reminded me of another del Toro film and the end of Pan's Labyrinth. I didn't expect this to be as much of a romantic movie as it was and for a random musical score in the middle, as a mute mimes a love song, it just seemed very strange at times. It easy to see how many people love this movie and how many awards it's been nominated for but it was a forgettable experience for me. Even the sub-plots pointed towards romance, with only one out of three relationships ending with togetherness. If I had to describe this movie, it would be Free Willy, if Jesse had slept with the whale. Just as that story, there was a plan, an escape, trying to persuade people to help out and a release. This just wasn't as memorable for me.