Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children review

MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN:

A SATISFYING RETURN TO THE WEIRD WORLD OF TIM BURTON!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

20^TH CENTURY FOX

(From left to right) Jake, Miss Peregrine, Millard, and Olive in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

            Talk about a match made in heaven, when I first heard about Ransom Rigg’s best-selling novel, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, the concept sounded exactly like something straight out of a Tim Burton film. Wouldn’t you know it, it was, director, Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Frankenweenie) continues his legacy of bizarre but very entertaining movies with a film adaptation of Rigg’s book.

            The 80s and 90s were Tim Burton’s strongest eras of filmmaking, from quirky comedies like Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure and Beetlejuice, to superhero movies like Batman, as well as dark fantasies like Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas. The 2000s were a decent time for Burton, while Big Fish, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street were positively received, Planet of the Apes was debatably his first dud.

            The 2010s were very hit or miss, Frankenweenie and Big Eyes were good films but Alice in Wonderland, Dark Shadows, and Alice Through the Looking Glass were not well reviewed upon release. I was curious to see how Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children would turn out, especially after both the hits and misses in his filmography.

            For a Tim Burton movie from the 2010s, the film’s not half bad, is it destined to be a Tim Burton classic? No, but there are things about it that’s pretty unique. How do I describe this movie? Imagine if Tim Burton directed the Harry Potter and X-Men movies, that’s pretty much the film.

            I mean that mostly by its premise, we’ve heard this story, a home or school that houses children with special gifts, yep, wizards, mutants, been there done that. But the film shines in imagination, the children’s powers are very creative and many of them are different from the powers of the students from Hogwarts or the mutants at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. I’ve never seen an X-Men movie with a character who has a shark mouth on the back of his/her head…yet.

            The film follows a young boy named Jake Portman (Asa Butterfield-The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Hugo, Ender’s Game) who always lived a normal life as an everyday teenager. As he was a child, Jake’s grandfather, Abraham (Terence Stamp-Superman I and II, Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Big Eyes) would always tell him stories about a woman named Miss Peregrine who lived in a mansion in 1942, where she housed children with unique abilities or Peculiarities to keep them safe from monsters out to get them.

            After his grandfather is murdered by a monster called a Hollow, he sends Jake on a journey to an island in Wales to discover the truth behind his stories. It turns out his childhood stories are perhaps more real than Jake thought as he meets a girl named Emma Bloom (Ella Purnell-Kick-Ass 2, Maleficent, The Legend of Tarzan), who turns out to be peculiar with the power of air, and the two of them go into a time travel loop and end up in 1942.

            Emma takes Jake to the Home for Peculiar Children where he meets Miss Peregrine (Eva Green-Casino Royale, Dark Shadows, 300: Rise of an Empire) herself, who has the power to transform into a bird. She introduces Jake to the other Peculiar Children, such as a girl named Olive (Lauren McCrostie) who possesses pyrokinetic abilities, an invisible boy named Millard (Cameron King), an inhumanly strong child named Bronwyn (Pixie Davies), a pre-teen who can control plants named Fiona (Georgia Pemberton), a boy who can resurrect the dead named Enoch (Finlay MacMillan), another boy who can spit bees from his mouth named Hugh (Milo Parker-Robot Overlords, Mr. Holmes, The Durrells), a girl with an extra mouth in the back of her head named Claire (Raffiella Chapman), a boy with prophetic dreams named Horace (Hayden Keeler-Stone), and the Masked Twins (Joseph and Thomas Odwell).

            Miss Peregrine informs Jake that a loop is a repeat of the day and she and the children must turn back the day before a bomb inevitably drops on the house and destroys them all. She also tells them about the Hollows and how they were human-like creatures known as the Wights, led by Mr. Barron (Samuel L. Jackson-Jurassic Park, Pulp Fiction, Marvel Cinematic Universe), that were affected after an experiment went horribly wrong and they turned into these blind monsters with tentacles that prey on the eyes of the peculiar to regain their sight once again.

            It’s up to Jake to help Miss Peregrine and the Peculiar Children battle the Wights and save their home before it’s too late.

            The film also stars Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids, The Sapphires, Thor: The Dark World) as Jakes’ Father, Franklin Portman, Judi Dench (James Bond franchise, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Philomena) as Miss Esmeralda Avocet, Kim Dickens (Hollow Man, Thank You For Smoking, Gone Girl) as Jake’s mother, Rupert Everett (Shakespeare in Love, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Shrek 2 and 3) as an ornithologist, Allison Janney (10 Things I Hate About You, American Beauty, Finding Nemo) as Jake’s psychiatrist, Dr. Golan.

            Overall, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a solid addition to Tim Burton’s filmography, even though it’s based on existing material, the visuals, cinematography, and set design feel very Tim Burton, especially the suburban area, reminds me very much of Edward Scissorhands. The film offers good characters, action, drama, comedy, and even some scary moments from time to time, it’s a Tim Burton movie, what more do you need?

Deepwater Horizon review

DEEPWATER HORIZON:

A WELL EXECUTED DRAMATIZATION OF ONE OF AMERICA’S MOST FRIGHTENING MAN-MADE DISASTERS EVER!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT

Something big is going down on the Deepwater Horizon

            Director, Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, Hancock, Lone Survivor) reunites with white trash rapper turned talented actor, Mark Wahlberg (The Departed, Lone Survivor, Transformers: Age of Extinction) in their second feature film collaboration following the critically and commercially successful 2014 hit, Lone Survivor, based on the true story of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Technically this is a disaster film, which usually sounds like bad news written all over it, and besides the Dark Age of Movies is over.

            Unlike other disaster films like Twister, Knowing, and the majority of Roland Emmerich’s directing career, Deepwater Horizon is a disaster film based on an actual disaster and you actually CARE for the people involved in the disaster, no cardboard cutout stereotypes in sight. The special effects are dazzling while frightening at the same time but they don’t overshadow the film’s story and characters, and it represents those who have survived and the lives that were lost on the Deepwater Horizon, nope Peter Berg did not pull a Michael Bay this time.

            The film follows a group of oil diggers, Mike Williams (Wahlberg), Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell-Backdraft, Death Proof, Furious 7), Donald Vidrine (John Malkovich-Being John Malkovich, RED, Transformers: Dark of the Moon), Andrea Fleytas (Gina Rodriguez-Law & Order, The Bold and the Beautiful, Our Family Wedding), Caleb Holloway (Dylan O’Brien-Teen Wolf, The Internship, Maze Runner franchise), and Jason Anderson (Ethan Suplee-American History X, Dogma, The Wolf of Wall Street) on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico preparing to drill into the Gulf for oil. What follows is one of the biggest tragedies at sea, just moments after the Deepwater Horizon drills into the Gulf as a massive volume of mud floods the Deepwater Horizon, thus causing a gas leakage, and suddenly BOOM! The entire rig is about to meet its flaming demise.

            So it’s up to Mike and Jimmy to find any survivors on the Horizon and bring them off the rig to safety before everyone dies in one of the biggest oil disasters in America.

            Overall, Deepwater Horizon is a gripping and emotional biographical disaster film as well as a massive action thriller. This is basically what Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor movie should have been like, a visual spectacle plus intensity and an emotional journey, rather than a flashy light show, that makes two Peter Berg movies that I compare to Michael Bay, but this time it was for a positive reason.

            When the oil spill, mud floods, and explosions happen, I was both stunned and frightened at the same time (and the fact that I saw it in IMAX probably didn’t help, but I digress!). It feels huge as you’re watching the movie on IMAX, the shots at sea, action, explosions, and drama all look and sound massive in the format.

            I don’t normally get scared or disturbed when I’m watching a movie, but the realism and the way this disaster is depicted just had my mind blown, I was thrilled but also horrified if I was in the middle of all that, now that’s the sign of a good movie.

            It also helps that the characters are developed well and you care for them all throughout the disaster. Nobody is really there just to die, when someone dies or gets fatally injured you feel for them and want to see them pull through and escape the Horizon.

            September was a great month for biographical disaster films this year, I can’t recommend this and Sully enough, they’re both excellent dramatizations of actual events that just make you look and say “Wow”. Although I will say Tom Hanks in Sully is probably more engaging as a performance compared to Wahlberg in this, but you care enough for him to make it out alive, and it’s not at all a bad performance.

            This is one of those “True Story” movies that feels very new as you’re watching the tragedy, reminds me a lot of Captain Phillips the more I think about it, just replace the Somali pirates with oil, mud, gas, and explosions. It’s a gripping, informative, and entertaining experience that must be seen to believe.

Storks review

STORKS:

NOT WHAT I WOULD PICK AS A MOVIE TO FOLLOW THE LEGO MOVIE UP WITH, BUT IT OFFERS ENOUGH CREATIVITY, HUMOR, AND HEART TO MAKE FOR SOME FAMILY FUN!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

A stork delivering a little trouble in Storks

            Here it is, the second film in Warner Animation Group’s library following the massive success of 2014’s The Lego Movie, as well as the movie that breathed life back into Warner Bros. Animation feature film releases after several box-office bombs such as Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, The Iron Giant, and Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Thanks to The Lego Movie’s success, Warner Bros. stepped back into the animated movie competition to compete with Disney once again as well as Pixar, DreamWorks, and all the other animation studios that have been created recently.

            And how does Warner Bros. follow-up the surprise success of The Lego Movie? With Storks, which at first, judging by the trailers, seemed like a pretty standard concept, a stork delivery system for babies? Come on, this doesn’t look nearly as creative as the wild imagination of The Lego Movie, sorry Warners but I’ll wait for The Lego Batman Movie.

            Thankfully the movie surpassed my expectations, one thing Warner Bros. Animation was always great at was comedic animation, and this movie was no exception. I don’t know what it is but the way the characters are drawn and animated reminds me a lot of the animation you would see in classic Looney Tunes cartoons, except in 3D.

            Storks may be a little more restrained when it came to crazy animation compared to The Lego Movie but the animators take full advantage of including wacky and inventive animation whenever it’s needed. Add lots of creativity and heart, plus a strong moral for both kids and parents to relate to, and you got a fine family film, though I don’t think it stands as tall as The Lego Movie.

            Since we were children we all probably asked our parents where do babies come from, and a lot of the time we would hear about myths and stories about storks delivering babies to family homes. Well, after so many years of delivering infants, the storks decide to turn it into a business.

            The storks literally have a baby making machine where they take a letter written by parents requesting a baby and put it into the machine and the letter transforms into a human baby (Which I found absolutely brilliant when watching this film, FYI!). After countless stress and incidents, the storks decide to retire from baby delivering and move on to a postal service business called Cornerstore and deliver products to humans such as new phones or other goodies (Think of it as if Amazon.com was managed by a bunch of birds!).

            The CEO of Cornerstore, Hunter (voiced by Kelsey Grammer-Toy Story 2, X-Men franchise, Transformers: Age of Extinction) sees a bright future for the company as he begins to promote his top delivery stork, Junior (voiced by Andy Samberg-Saturday Night Live, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Hotel Transylvania) to the new boss of Cornerstore.

            Only one thing stands in Junior’s way of becoming the boss, the only human worker at Cornerstore and the last baby that failed to get delivered many years ago, Tulip (voiced by Katie Crown-Total Drama, Adventure Time, Clarence), if he fires her, he’ll get promoted. Meanwhile a young boy named Nate (voiced by newcomer, Anton Starkman), whose parents are complete workaholics are barely have enough time to spend with their son, desires a baby brother so he could have someone to play with.

            One night Nate writes a letter to the storks requesting a delivery of a baby brother who apparently must have ninja skills (K?) so he won’t be lonely anymore. The letter makes its way to Tulip, working in the mail room and accidentally puts it in the baby making machine and creates a new baby.

            So Junior and Tulip embark on a journey to bring the baby to Nate’s family, along the way they encounter a hungry wolf pack led by their Alpha (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key-Key & Peele, Hotel Transylvania 2, Keanu) and Beta (voiced by Jordan Peele-Key & Peele, Wanderlust, Keanu), a psychotic pigeon named Pigeon Toady (voiced by Stephen Kramer Glickman-Carpoolers, Big Time Rush, Workaholics), and an army of menacing penguins. Meanwhile Nate, his father, Henry (voiced by Ty Burrell-Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Muppets Most Wanted, Finding Dory), and his mother, Sarah (voiced by Jennifer Aniston-Friends, The Iron Giant, Bruce Almighty) prepare their home for the arrival of the new baby in one of the greatest family bonding experiences they have ever had.

            Overall, Storks is a very entertaining family movie, the animation is very colorful and leads to decent comedy. The creativity surpassed all my expectations, the way the stork delivery service is designed and animated, it actually reminded me a lot of the bee world from the movie, Bee Movie, just overflowing with imagination.

            The chemistry between Junior and Tulip is decent, Tulip as the hyper teenage girl who wants to find her real parents and accompanies Junior on the ride, while Junior is kind of a jerky character who just wants to be the boss, but he slowly realizes he has a good heart. You want to see them succeed in their adventure to bring the baby to its family.

            Then there’s the wolves, just gonna leave it at that.

            For a second movie from Warner Animation Group, it feels like a step backwards from the wildly imaginative, The Lego Movie, I personally wouldn’t have made this their second theatrical release. But with that’s said, the movie as a whole is decent, it’s colorful, funny, heartwarming, and it’s a movie I think both kids and parents can relate to.

            It’s a stork delivery system that’s definitely worth making an order to for family fun.