Okay, here are the final three reflix reviews of the DVD releases this week. Most of them are movies I wouldn’t watch again, but I thought I’d give you my take anyways. Also, I couldn’t find a decent sized poster for Not Easily Broken. Here is the review!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Tale of Despereaux

Recap – A mouse and a rat try to save a princess and a servant girl from their unhappy lives.

Review – 5/10

Reflix – I had such high hopes for this film, yet they were ultimately dashed within the first few minutes of this film. This is a completely unremarkable film that was meant to fill the Christmas animation void, to no avail. The animation itself is quite poor, especially the design of the humans and many of the sets, although there are one or two scenes, such as the wide shots of the landscape and the sequences with the knight and dragon which are quite good. Unfortunately, the film fails in just about every other aspect as well. The voice acting is poor, not because the actors themselves are that bad, its just that when you hear the voices, you know exactly who the actors, which throws you off, especially since the characters look nothing like their real-life selves. For example, when you first hear Roscuro’s voice, you know it is Dustin Hoffman, however Roscuro himself looks nothing like Hoffman, which makes it difficult to swallow. Check out my Weekend ReWatch piece on Babe to see my opinion on this type of voice acting. Ditto for Matthew Broderick, Emma Watson, and Sigourney Weaver, among others. The story itself is pretty weak as well – I think it tries too hard to be something that it’s not (a fun story with a moral tale – it needs more work). Overall, there isn’t much worth watching once, let alone twice, so I think you can pass on this one and just watch The Incredibles over! Reflixability – Coaster.

 

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Recap – An alien conglomerate attempts to destroy humanity unless they can prove they are worthy of life.

Review – 6/10

Recap – I expected more from this film. A lot more. I will state it up front right away – the only thing worth rewatching in this film is the computer graphics, and even then, only the last 20 minutes of the film, when the bug swarm begins. The early sphere-based graphics and the alien defender are actually pretty poor – I expected a lot more in this day and age. Keanu is fine in this film, but nothing special. In fact, it is a pretty perfect role for him – he plays one emotion through the whole film. I enjoyed Jennifer Connelly, she was pretty decent actually, but her son in the film, Jaden Smith, was a bit too whiny for me – I could have done without him, although he picks it up a bit in the latter parts of the movie. Again, this film was reaching for more that it could handle. It was trying to be a moral tale about how we are destroying the earth and unless we change, we’ll destroy ourselves. However, I don’t think it really convinced me at all and seemed more like the sci-fi sequel to An Inconvenient Truth than anything else. I don’t know if I would ever watch this again and I probably wouldn’t have watched it if I knew how bad the film was, so I would probably skip this one too. Maybe the sci-fi fans will want to see the opening 20 minutes and the last 20 minutes, so for that, its probably worth renting once. Reflixability – Frisbee.

 

Not Easily Broken

Recap – A car crash leads to fracture in an already strained marriage, forcing husband and wife to reconsider their lives together.

Review – 5/10

Reflix – This film is probably not the sort of film most would be drawn to, but I would suggest it for anyone who wants to see a decently acted film about a fractured marriage. I think where this film fails is that it relies a lot on sterotypes (although they may be quite valid stereotypes) to put the couple in difficult situations. There are a couple of good performances, especially the trio of friends – Morris Chestnut, Eddie Cibrian, and Kevin Hart. Morris Chestnut is a very capable actor and I can’t wait for him to get a few meatier roles where he can show his stuff. I think he aptly portrayed Dave Johnson and all his emotions as he deals with his wife’s depression, his unruly mother-in-law and his duties as a mentor. Eddie Cibrian is one of my favourite up and coming actors. It is funny to say that because he is quite established in television (with hundreds of episodes of ,“Third Watch”, and “Invasion” ),but I really hope he makes a big break into film – I think he has the charisma and acting ability to pull off some great roles, especially in the romantic comedy realm, where I think he would be a great fit. Kevin Hart is the comedy relief in the film and he performs the task admirably. He is quite funny in his scenes and he really lightens the sombre mood. However, sometimes I feel like the film lacks consistency. Just when you see the story begin to develop, you have moments of comic relief or a new obstacle arises when it would have been better for one arc to finish before the next takes over. If this film had been a little less complicated and a bit tighter in script, it might have been much more popular. Also, I feel at times Taraji P. Henson overacted her part a little bit, or perhaps was too emotive, in comparison to the rest of the cast. I think if she had been able to moderate her acting a bit more, she might have received more praise for this film. Overall, I would probably recommend this as a one-watch, but nothing more than that, its not really something that I can see reflixing again and again. Reflixability – Frisbee.