Netflix And Chill: Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023)

Making a sequel to Chicken Run seemed like a bad idea. While it may not quite hit the heights of the wonderful Wallace & Gromit movie, the first film remains quite a beloved animated feature. What could be gained in revisiting that world, especially when someone felt that both lead voices needed recast? Thankfully, Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget proves a worthy successor to the original film. It's not quite as good, but it's another fantastic adventure that's crammed full of fowl humour.

Some time has passed since the events of the first film. The characters are living happily in their own little free-range paradise. Ginger (now voiced by Thandiwe Newton) and Rocky (now voiced by Zachary Levi) have had a child, Molly (Bella Ramsey). Both parents are, understandably, a bit over-protective, but Molly ends up wandering out of the accepted safety zone, befriending another chicken (Frizzle, voiced by Josie Sedgwick-Davies) and being too curious for her own good. Molly and Frizzle end up in Fun-Land Farms, a place depicted as a delightful playground for chickens. But Fun-Land Farms has a dark and disturbing secret, and Ginger and Rocky have to assemble a team to break in and rescue their daughter, and a whole new group of chickens.

Directed by Sam Fell, who has previous credits that include the equally-excellent, but very different, ParaNorman and Flushed Away, and written by Karey Kirkpartrick, John O'Farrell, and Rachel Tunnard (as well as numerous other contributors, ensuring a great big sachet of flavouring spices sprinkled all over the film), this is an impressively fresh and funny adventure that manages to craft another worthwhile escapade for some recognisable characters. It may not seem as cine-literate as the first film, but it continues to throw around a lot of fun gags and great ideas, and impressively avoids changing the personalities of the main characters to fit into this new scenario.

All of the new voices work well enough in their feather-covered roles (even if I agree with the many others who questioned exactly why Sawalha wasn't asked to voice Ginger once more), and Ramsey is a perfect fit for the young and impulsive Molly. David Bradley feels like a great replacement for the late Benjamin Whitrow, voicing Fowler, and it's great to have Lynn Ferguson, Jane Horrocks, and Imelda Staunton back for their respective characters. Sedgwick-Davies also does well, and both Romesh Ranganathan and Daniel Mays effortlessly take over the voices of two helpful rats, Nick and Fletcher. Elsewhere, but just as important for this kind of thing, the vocal talents of Peter Serafinowicz, Nick Mohammed, and Miranda Richardson (another returning cast member) are put to great use as the looming threats to our plucky cluckers.

I'm generally an easy mark for any Aardman Animation projects, and I went into this with a sense of optimism after enjoying the trailer for it. Despite the gap of time in between the two films, this is an excellent sequel to a modern classic. The fact that it isn't quite as good isn't surprising, considering the greatness of the first film. The fact that it's as good as it is, well, that's the surprise. And I hope others enjoy it as much as I did. We now have two features that can be paired together for an eggs-ellent double-bill. You knew that pun was going to appear here at least once.

8/10

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Netflix And Chill: Pride (2014)

This is the kind of thing that we get every so often in British cinema. A little gem of a film that works as well as it does because of the way in which various characters manage to maintain a sense of humour in the face of overwhelming derision/hatred from others. Having finally reminded myself to give Pride a watch, my timing could not have been any better. Remember that saying about those not remembering history being doomed to repeat it? I hope more people watch Pride this year. Not only is it a wonderful and satisfying viewing experience, it's a reminder of why those being held down and pilloried by authorities should help to support one another, hence the importance of unions, and also serves as an important reminder of the attitude people used to have towards gay people, a rush to demonise someone unknown because they weren't familiar with the concept in their own life. There's a LOT that is shown in Pride that still goes on today, the only differences are the main targets.

Anyway, let's get to the crux of the tale. It's the mid-1980s. The miner's strike is taking a huge toll on small mining villages all over the country. The LGBTQ+ community are busy trying to be treated like the normal human beings they are, something about to be made even harder by the rise of AIDs (which was seen by many as a "gay disease", and I suspect many still think that way). Seeing how the UK government have directed their resources and threats towards the miners, when it had previously been so busy crusading against the imaginary gay agenda, one young man (Mark Ashton, played by Ben Schnetzer) has the idea of supporting the miners and raising some money for them. Others don't immediately see the point of his campaigning, especially as the many small towns that would have mining at the heart of them would tend to be most unwelcoming, and outright hostile, to gay people. Mark keeps at it though, eventually getting more and more people on his side, and the charity group he heads up soon start to make a positive impact on a struggling Welsh town. Dai Donovan (Paddy Considine), a main spokesman for the miners in that town, is very happy to meet and thank them, and invites them to be thanked by the rest of the townspeople. The rest of the townspeople, however, aren't as eager to admit that they are receiving a lifeline from the gay community.

While director Matthew Warchus may not have an extensive filmography, he tends to aim for quality over quantity, and while this is the first screenplay by writer Stephen Beresford to be made into a film, Pride couldn't feel much more comfortable and assured. A large part of that is down to the casting, which I will get to shortly, but Beresford knows how to make the most of the laugh out loud lines that he intersperses throughout the film, Warchus moves viewers swiftly through the timeline of events without giving anyone whiplash, and the whole thing manages to maintain a constant bittersweet tone throughout, especially if you have any idea of how things ended for the main characters. This is a "feel good" film, but that's an impressive achievement when you consider just how many things aren't necessarily going to lead to a happy ending.

Is it all factually accurate? I doubt it. I'd imagine that the heart of the story is true, and some liberties have been taken to give us a better mix of characters and some dialogue that emphasises what everyone was striving for, be it tolerance from others or an ongoing attempt to smash through the iron fist of Margaret Thatcher. Yes, it helps that this often aligns with my own political leanings, and it's a very political film that offsets that with a focus on the humans at the heart of the machine being turns by cogs of government and the law, but it's hard to think of anyone watching this and absolutely hating it. 

Schnetzer is fantastic as the lightning rod for everything that unfolds, helped by the fact that he is surrounded by so many familiar faces. The Welsh accents are all fairly well executed, and you cannot go wrong with a cast that includes Considine, Imelda Staunton, and Bill Nighy, all of whom are doing absolutely fantastic work, and all of whom have fun with their new allies. Menna Trussler and Jessica Gunning are also wonderful, being inspired to do a bit more with their time as they see how the LGSM (Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners) live their lives, while Lisa Palfrey gets her teeth into the role of Maureen Barry, a character used as a personification of the intolerance and ingratitude that the LGSM come up against. George MacKay is Joe Cooper, a young man getting to grips with his own sexuality, and the film is helped by often placing viewers in a position to see his nervousness giving way to a sense of purpose and happiness, Dominic West steals a few moments, playing the flamboyant and carefree Jonathan, and there's also excellent work from Andrew Scott, Joe Gilgun, and Faye Marsay, the latter two portraying other core members of the LGSM.

What else can I say? There's a very good soundtrack, featuring a number of songs you'd expect to accompany this story, a hefty emotional weight to everything, and a real feeling of, well, pride in watching what can be accomplished by people connecting and working together instead of letting their lives be defined by what makes them different from one another. And there are few things funnier than Imelda Staunton's sharp retort to someone trying to be a smartass while she drives a bus donated to the community by the LGSM, but I won't spoil it by quoting it here. Enjoy it for yourself, and do it as soon as you can.

 8/10

Here is a link to Switchboard (the LGBT+ helpline).
And here is a link to the website for the Durham Miner's Association.

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Bonus Review: Maleficent (2014)

Maleficent, for those who may have forgotten, is the main villain in Disney's Sleeping Beauty, a film that remains an undeniable high point amongst so many animated classics from the House Of Mouse. This film is all about her, and allows people to see a different side to the famous baddie. Apparently, the story that we all thought we knew didn't play out quite as we were told. Maleficent changes that, giving viewers the other side of events. It is to Sleeping Beauty as Wicked is to The Wizard Of Oz, to make the obvious analogy.

I don't want to give too much away, as there are a number of pleasant surprises here in the way that the plot unfolds, so all I will say in my summation of the storyline is that Maleficent is introduced as a happy, winged fairy (played by Isobelle Molloy) and then experiences something that turns her into the scary adult that cursed a princess named Aurora. The scary adult version of Maleficent is played by Angelina Jolie, and the Aurora who is due to suffer on her sixteenth birthday is played by Elle Fanning.

Let me start with the positives here, because I liked a lot of aspects of Maleficent. The first, and main, ace up its sleeve is Angelina Jolie in the lead role. There may be scenes in which her cheekbones are far too distracting (no, really, I'm serious, I thought they were going to rip through her skin at some points), but her performance is almost perfect throughout. She puts on a decent British accent, looks superb in the costume and make-up, and manages to move from scary to funny to sad as the scenes demand. I know, I know, that's a basic requirement for many actors, although you wouldn't always know it, but she really dances through all of the mood changes with ease. The rest of the cast also do good work, although Sharlto Copley is left to go overboard as the distraught king/father who becomes obsessed with destroying Maleficent before any harm comes to his daughter. Fanning is very likable, and Sam Riley is an absolute standout as Diaval, a crow transformed into a man. Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton, and Juno Temple are fine as fairies (although they are given far too many comedy moments that aren't really all that funny), and Brenton Thwaites is perfectly acceptable as the bland Prince Charming type, Prince Phillip, to be exact.

The production values, and the design of the world shown onscreen, are also excellent. There are often an over-abundance of FX shots in each sequence, but they're pretty gorgeous. This is eye candy, and it's eye candy that many will find most satisfying when things move from the sweetness and light of the opening scenes to the darker visual style of the next hour.

Unfortunately, that's about all I have in the way of compliments.

Director Robert Stromberg, enjoying his first time in the big chair, fumbles things from the very beginning. I have little doubt that many decisions were dictated to him, and I should have expected a final product like this from Disney (damn my eyes for letting the trailer deceive me), but the bright, colourful moments don't feel as if they belong in this movie. When things darken, however, they don't go dark enough. This isn't a twist on familiar material. This is an entire rewrite to make everything sweeter, which makes the movie lazy and clumsy when it should have been interesting and much more impressive.

Thankfully for Stromberg, he can quickly point a finger at screenwriter Linda Woolverton, because this is one stinker of a script. Oh, there are some great lines here and there, mostly made great thanks to the delivery by Jolie, but it's 95% awful, made worse by the fact that it's clearly meant to be clever and fun throughout. The voiceover narration, by Janet McTeer, is especially bad, often relating information that could have been shown onscreen. In fact, it's occasionally describing exactly what IS being shown onscreen. At the start of the movie I thought it was irritating, but acceptable, as a shorthand way to throw viewers into the world. But I soon wanted McTeer to just shut up, which she doesn't (okay, she does, but the narration keeps cropping up at various points throughout the movie).

This is a film made enjoyable by the sheer force of Jolie's adopted personality in the main role, and even she can't always do enough to improve the lines that she's given. That would take real magic, and there's none of that here.

5/10

Enjoy Maleficent's original appearance when this is released in the UK in a few days - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sleeping-Beauty-Blu-ray-Ken-Anderson/dp/B00JGTSWBK/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1401307120&sr=1-2&keywords=sleeping+beauty

I WILL keep reminding people that every copy of my book sold gets a few pounds in my pocket, and gets you a good read (if I say so myself). So please feel free to remember me whenever you're visiting Amazon.

The UK version can be bought here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1395945647&sr=1-3&keywords=movie+guide

And American folks can buy it here - http://www.amazon.com/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395945752&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=TJs+ramshackle+mov

As much as I love the rest of the world, I can't keep up with all of the different links in different territories, but trust me when I say that it should be there on your local Amazon.

Arthur Christmas (2011)

Knock back your egg nog, put on your Santa hat and buckle up for a sleigh ride that will see the blog devoted entirely to Christmas movies for the month of December. They may be obvious choices, they may only have one or two scenes allowing them to qualify but every film reviewed this month will have a connection to this tinsel-strewn holiday season. And anyone wondering why I've missed out a number of obvious choices . . . . . I probably covered them previously over at Flickfeast or even reviewed them on IMDb. Happy holidays.

When I heard about Arthur Christmas I was pretty darn pleased, I'll tell you that. I love Christmas movies. I love Aardman Animation. I love British stalwarts of cinema Jim Broadbent and Bill Nighy. This movie combined all of those things, with an added sprinkling of James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Imelda Staunton and Ashley Jensen, all people that I like a lot.

Christmas just wouldn't be possible without the National Elf Service, of course.

James McAvoy provides the voice of the titular Arthur, a sweet young lad who is as enthusiastic and happy about Christmas Day as he is prone to accidents. His father, Santa (Jim Broadbent), spends a very busy time getting all of the gifts delivered with the help of his many elves and Arthur's big brother, Steve (Hugh Laurie). It's a busy time for all, of course, but Steve has put a number of procedures in place to make things easier and to ensure that all goes smoothly. That's why it's quite a surprise to find that one child has been missed out, one present still needs to be delivered. Steve sees it as a minor blip in an otherwise perfectly executed Christmas and convinces Santa that they can deliver it a little bit later and still be proud of their work. Arthur, on the other hand, doesn't think that any child should miss out and worries that the poor little lass will think that Santa doesn't like her enough to deliver her gift. He thinks that the delivery should be made and he's encouraged by his grandfather (and the previous holder of the good Santa name, played by Bill Nighy). They may not have the gadgetry and precision planning that Steve has but they have a sleigh, some reindeer and an eager elf (Ashley Jensen) along for the ride.

You may not recognise Bill Nighy in the middle but, trust me, that's him.

As you would expect from an Aardman Animation film, this is a movie chock full of lovely visuals, great gags (they even recycle one of my favourite gags from the Wallace & Gromit adventures involving a toy train and some track being laid) and cute characters. The CGI sheen means that it doesn't quite feel as cute and loveable as some of their earlier output but that's just a minor quibble when everything is still crafted with so much care and attention to detail.

Barry Cook and Sarah Smith are the co-directors and Sarah Smith also co-wrote the screenplay with Peter Baynham which means that she gets to have the bonus points for steering everything so smoothly. The story is a very slim one, VERY slim, but it's enriched by the different character motivations and the amusing sideroads that are taken (sometimes literally).

It's also enriched by that great cast I mentioned up there in the opening paragraph. McAvoy is cheery and endearing as Arthur, Broadbent and Nighy are both very good as Santas a generation apart and Hugh Laurie is also enjoyable as someone who may seem bad but may also just be a bit misguided. Imelda Staunton is a fine vocal fit for Mrs. Santa and Ashley Jensen suits being an elf. Speaking of elves, other names such as Marc Wootton, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Robbie Coltrane, Joan Cusack, Jane Horrocks and Andy Serkis also lend their voices to a number of Santa's little helpers while Laura Linney provides the voice of the main computers used in the North Pole and on the delivery vehicles and Eva Longoria plays a government official who mistakes a flying sleigh for a potential threat.

You could say that it's just far too lightweight and sweet for its own good and you'd be perfectly entitled to your opinion but I expect sweetness from my Christmas movies and enjoy anything that doesn't overdo it all to the point of putting me into a diabetic coma. As for it being lightweight, it is. Yet it also manages to take the ever-so-slim premise and turn it into a feature that you will watch and enjoy without feeling as if it ever outstays its welcome.

To sum up then - another winner from Aardman Animation and definitely one to consider buying now and then leaving under the Christmas tree for the kids to unwrap on December 25th.

8/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Arthur-Christmas-Blu-ray-Copy-Region/dp/B005FLCD1I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353957042&sr=8-1

Shadow Man (2006)

First of all, a quick note to any more observant readers of my ongoing Seagal quest. Due to a bit of a chronological cock-up (to use the technical term) I ended up seeing this movie by mistake and WILL be playing catch up over the next few weeks with the films I should have already seen before viewing this one. With that out of the way, let's get on with the review.

You may be surprised to know that this Steven Seagal movie sees our main man as an ex-special ops intelligence superspy ninja type of guy. You may be even more surprised to learn that he has a young daughter who is whisked away and put in some danger, giving Seagal a personal reason to slap lots of people around. Everything is connected to some formula for a new biological weapon that Seagal is, unwittingly, in possession. Okay, so if you've seen other Seagal movies then none of this will surprise you.

At this stage in his career, you'll also already suspect that the movie contains the following: bad acting, low production values, a number of limp action sequences and plenty of nonsense that serves to show off Seagal as the cross between Buddha and MacGyver he clearly thinks he is.

The genuine surprise comes from the cast. Imelda Staunton tries on an American accent and hopefully never lets anyone else in on the fact that she starred in a Seagal movie. Eva Pope and Alex Ferns represent, respectively, Coronation Street and Eastenders. Surely, any number of decent TV projects would have been a better choice for these ex-soap stars but they decide, instead, to embarrass themselves for the sake of action movie glory (please read that sentence with as sarcastic a tone as possible).

Michael Keusch directs and shows why his name is still relatively unknown for someone who has worked on over 50 different projects. I'm sure that he managed to keep Seagal happy but he doesn't please anyone else, though undemanding fans who have damaged their minds already with the worst from their hero may find this at least tolerable.

The story is, unsurprisingly, from Seagal (co-written by Steve Collins and Joe Halpin) and that explains most of the failings. There's nobody else worth bothering about in a movie that doesn't even provide a hero worthy of rooting for. But, to damn the film with faint praise, it's still a notch or two above the worst that the Steven Seagal has appeared in.

4/10

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