A Christmas Carol in Disney 3D

I know this is a beloved book and is particularly famous in the US but I have to admit that I didn’t know the story before watching the movie. It is a great story though, and it must be nice growing up listening to it around Christmas time.

The animation in the movie is outstanding. I don’t watch a lot of animated films but they have come a long way from when they started making these. The facial expressions, movements and especially the hair are so real that it makes me wonder why they would even make it an animation, it almost looks like a life action film. It will be interesting to see where this will lead. I don’t believe life action films will ever be obsolete (since I am studying to become an actress, I should hope not!) but animation is coming closer and closer to the look of life action that they might have to keep it to stories that can’t be done with life action.

Jim Carrey (voice of: Scrooge/Ghost of Christmas Past/Scrooge as a Young Boy/Scrooge as a Teenage Boy/Scrooge as a Young Man/Scrooge as a Middle-Aged Man/Ghost of Christmas Present/Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come) is really the right guy for the job. He is so versatile that I didn’t even notice that it was him doing all those voices until I read the credits. Colin Firth on the other hand I recognized immediately. Also because they really make the characters look like the actors.

This is turning out to be a very positive review, so I have to pause for a minute and remember that I didn’t think the movie was that fantastic. It is a beautiful story beautifully told but it really did have its lengths. Scrooge is flying through the air an awful lot and in the beginning there is too much time “wasted” on showing that he is a bitter old man. This was the second film I have watched in 3D (as a whole film) so I was still dazzled by that but without the 3D I think I might have found it slightly boring. Even though for children it must be scary. There were a couple of very young children in the cinema (why would you bring kids that can’t even speak yet to the cinema?) and they kept screaming a lot. It is a perfect film to buy for your children and show them every year around Christmas in case you are too busy to read the book to them (which I hope you are not).

The Men Who Stare at Goats

A nice contrast to A Christmas Carol, this political comedy is really only for grown-ups. I had read a few bad reviews on other blogs which made me wonder whether I should even watch this film but I actually thought it was hilarious! It is one of these films that seems like the film makers make it simply to amuse themselves. It doesn’t take itself seriously at all and I was happy to laugh along.

Ewan McGregor (Bob) is a journalist at a small paper somewhere in the US. When his wife leaves him for their editor, he decides to prove his worth by going into war. On the way he meets Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) who is part of a special army unit that tries to win wars with psychic powers. Lyn is on his way to find the leader (Jeff Bridges) of this New Age Army somewhere in the desert.

George Clooney and Jeff Bridges are particularly funny in this. The U.S. army is such a serious institution and it is interesting to see it in a different light. Surely The Men Who Stare at Goats will not be one of the films which will be remembered in a few years but it was entertaining to watch and would be fun to see with a few friends and some wine on a DVD night.

I really hate flying. The only thing that keeps me going through a long flight are the films. So for me the worst thing that could happen is a really bad film (although I would still watch it to keep me occupied).

Yes Man

Jim Carrey in another comedy. In Yes Man he plays someone who says “no” to absolutely everything. He has been at the same job in a bank for the past five years and his wife left him a few years ago and now has a new boyfriend which really upsets Jim’s character. One day he runs into an old colleague of his who convinces him to come to a seminar to become a “yes man” in order to start living his life. To his own surprise the seminar actually does change him and from now on he has to say “yes” to every offer that comes his way.

The beginning of the film is completely flat. I mean, we get the fact that he says no to everything, you don’t have to show it over and over again. Once he becomes a “yes man” things get a bit funnier. But the jokes are not very good, quite bland. The only really fun thing about this film is Zooey Deschanel. I am amazed at her ability to light up the screen in any movie. She is a really unusual actress. I think she should be in a lot more films! Other than her I don’t see a reason for watching Yes Man.

Bride Wars

Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway play Liv and Emma, two best friends whose life dream it is to get married at the Plaza in Manhattan. Now that the time has finally come, there is one problem: Their wedding planner has booked the friends’ weddings on the same date. This means that one of them has to change the venue, but neither of them is prepared to give up their dream.

Bride Wars is a sort of amusing film but I just can’t understand this dream of the grand wedding at the Plaza. What is the big deal? I don’t even think the Plaza is particularly beautiful. How can two people be so utterly obsessed with getting married there? How can you even make a film about two people who are obsessed with getting married? The film is good enough to be entertained on an airplane, where there is really nothing else to do than watch it, but not more than that.

Both of the movies were fairly bad but entertaining on a level that is good for flying-mood. I wouldn’t recommend watching them under normal circumstances though.

What a genius! Michel Gondry is one of my absolute favourite directors. His creativity overwhelms me. There is just something to the way he approaches filmmaking as an art form. He believes in tricks on set, not made by computers. Filmmaking really is his life and it shows in everything he does.

All right, so Human Nature wasn’t the best start into his film career. The film tries to be too funny and quirky, but unfortunately fails. What with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s success with Being John Malcovich and Gondry’s sheer talent it should have worked out. But apparently they needed some time to get a feel for each others’ work. Three years later, in 2004, the Kaufman-Gondry duo brought out the marvellous Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. This film just works. From beginning to end it’s perfect.

I am going to disregard Gondry’s 2005 Dave Chappelle’s Block Party since I have not seen it. (But ordered it on the Netflix of Europe LoveFilm as I am writing this, so look out for my review of it).

In 2006 Michel wrote his first feature screenplay La Science des rêves (The Science of Sleep) with Gael García Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg as the leading characters. This is a wonderful film; Gondry put a lot of his own character, thoughts and feelings into it. The 2008 Be Kind Rewind was a step back again. Similar to Human Nature, it is just trying too hard to be funny.

I am going to review all these films sooner or later, but what I really want to talk about today is a wonderful DVD  that every film fanatic should watch: The Work of Director Michel Gondry. This is a collection of Gondry’s short films, art experiments, music videos and commercials. It is absolutely fantastic.

Before Michel Gondry became a feature director, he did a lot of music videos for artists like Björk, The Foo Fighters, Massive Attack and The Rolling Stones. My personal favourites are the videos he did for The White Stripes. There is one which is an animation made of Lego stones. This must have been an incredible amount of work but it looks amazing. In a Kylie Minogue video she walks in a circle along a street and each time she has completed a circle another Kylie steps out of a door. They walk together until there are about four of her. Gondry uses quite simple ideas that need a lot of rehearsal time and have to be carefully planned. The ideas are so simple that they work amazingly well and nobody else seems to have thought of them before. His commercials use a similar technique to his music videos. Quirky ideas that make watching them a lot of fun.

What I really love about these DVDs are Gondry’s short films. This is one of my favourites:

It is such a random assembly of stories. Some are animated, some filmed, some have a narrative, some are just thoughts made into a film. A great one is called Pecan Pie where Jim Carrey is driving a bed along the motor way in his pyjamas.

Another great feature on the The Work of Director Michel Gondry is a rather long documentary about Michel by Michel. It gives a real insight into his mentality, how he thinks and how he does things. And how he comes up with all his creative, surreal ideas. It is really worth watching if you like Michel Gondry or are interested in art and filmmaking.

Michel Gondry receives the MovieCat Award for being one of the most unusual filmmakers with incredibly interesting ideas.

One of my all-time favourite films! I just love everything about it: Kate Winslet, Jim Carrey, their characters, the feeling it creates, the soundtrack, New York, the whole thing. Sometimes I get the urge to watch it, like putting on a CD, just to feel the mood of the film.

Clementine is tired of her relationship with Joel and decides, as a lark, to have him erased from her memory. Lacuna Inc. provides this possibility. When Joel finds out, he wants to have the procedure done as well.

His memories of their lives together is a roller coaster of happiness and despair. I fell in love with both of them from the first time I watched it.

(Photos: Ness/ Montauk and Grand Central Station 2006, both places were used in the film)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is being given the MovieCat Award for being one of my favorite films of all time.