Paddington (5/10): I'm not jumping on the Paddington bandwagon.

"Long ago, people in England sent their children by train with labels around their necks, so they could be taken care of by complete strangers in the country side where it was safe.”

This quote is taken from a scene in which Aunt Lucy (voiced by Imelda Staunton), a CGI animated Bear living in a Peruvian rainforest, prepares her nephew Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw), a charming but mischievous marmalade-loving bear, to travel to London after a terrible earthquake has destroyed their home. Apparently the real life images of the children leaving the train station during the war along with a teddy bear in a store at Paddington Station is what inspired Michael Bond nearly sixty years ago to create this beloved children character which has now been brought to the big screen by director Paul King (Bunny and the Bull). To be honest, I wasn’t familiar with the character and this was the first time I was introduced to his world which sort of feels like it comes from the same universe as Stuart Little where you simply have to accept the fact that it is apparently normal for a talking bear to walk around the city and be adopted by a loving family. I’m not going to jump on the Paddington bandwagon here because despite the sweet and charming story I did find it rather tedious, boring, and extremely predictable. With a 98% of critics on Rottentomatoes liking this film, I’m definitely in the minority here, but I simply didn’t find it appealing. 

Once Paddington arrives in London he is temporary welcomed by the Brown family until he finds the explorer who had befriended his uncles forty years ago in Peru. Henry (Hugh Bonneville) and Mary (Sally Hawkins) Brown are the parents of Judy (Madeleine Harris) and Jonathan (Samuel Joslin), but other than Mary no one seems too pleased about the intrusion of Paddington in their house. Eventually they all warm up to him despite his mischievous behavior, but not everyone is as welcoming as they are. There is a museum taxidermist, Millicent (Nicole Kidman), who hears rumors that this Peruvian bear is living with the Brown family and she wants him for her personal collection. Peter Capaldi plays the role of Mr. Curry, the Brown’s next door neighbor who is willing to help Millicent take the bear away from his neighborhood, while Jim Broadbent is Mr. Gruber, an antique shop owner who tries to help Paddington locate the mysterious explorer.  

It is evident that the film has an underlying message about the poor way in which immigrants are treated. Paddington is a beloved and charming character that will easily win the hearts of children. The story follows pretty much the same basic formula as most classic children films did. Visually the movie is very stylish and there are several set designs that reminded me of Wes Anderson’s work. Especially those scenes where he uses rostrum camera insert shots to animate several objects. I’ll give King credit for those visually beautiful scenes, but I simply didn’t feel engaged with the characters as most people did. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that I had never heard of Paddington before, but as a film on its own it definitely didn’t stand out for me.

My Review: Layer Cake (7/10)

¨Always remember that one day all this drug monkey business will all be legal. I´m not a gangster. I’m a businessman whose commodity happens to be cocaine.¨

Layer Cake is the film that made Hollywood turn its eyes on Daniel Craig to become the next James Bond. Despite playing an anti-villain in this film, he displayed several qualities that we actually see in some of his recent roles as Bond. If it weren’t for Layer Cake, I can´t imagine Craig being considered for the role. But Layer Cake wasn’t just a breakout role for Daniel Craig; this was also Matthew Vaughn´s directorial debut. Vaughn who had previously produced some of Guy Ritchie´s work including Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch was heavily influenced by his directing style and Layer Cake is living proof of that. After the success Vaughn had with this film he went on directing different projects like Stardust, Kick-Ass, and X-Men First Class, which in my opinion were superior to Layer Cake. In Layer Cake I felt, Vaughn took a lot of things from the British criminal genre that Ritchie made famous, but in his next movies he was able to break free and try new things. That doesn’t mean I didn’t have a good time with this crime thriller, but I felt like it didn’t stand out from the rest of the films in this genre besides Craig´s superb performance. The film requires its audience to play close attention to the story because several things are happening at once and at times I felt the pace of the film was a bit rushed. There were way too many things going on to fit everything in a 100 minute movie. The screenplay was based on J.J. Connolly´s successful novel.

The story centers on a cocaine dealer who considers himself a businessman and not a gangster. He´s working as sort of a middle man between the underground wholesalers and street dealers. He´s not named, but the credit roles call him XXXX (Daniel Craig). XXXX is a very intelligent and cautious businessman who knows what he´s doing, but happens to work for very dangerous people who sometimes get him into trouble. He´s planning on retiring from the business, but before he can do so his boss, Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham) asks him to locate Charlotte Ryder (Nathalie Lunghi), who happens to be the daughter of another powerful underground mob leader named Eddie Temple (Michael Gambon). XXXX works alongside with Gene (Colm Meaney) and Morty (George Harris) who watches his back, but he also has two other employees who work for him: Clarkie (Tom Hardy) and Terry (Tamer Hassan). Everything gets complicated for XXXX when a group of junkies steal two million pounds worth of ecstasy pills from a wholesaler named Dragan (Dragan Micanovic) and he´s forced to find and give back the drugs. The person who stole the drugs is Duke (Jamie Foreman), and he´s not willing to give them back. While Duke´s hiding out, XXXX encounters his nephew and ends up falling for his girlfriend, Tammy (Sienna Miller), making matters even worse. XXXX will soon find out that the British mob is like a cake which consists of several different layers.

The film has so many characters and different thing going on at the same time that it’s very difficult to follow everything. Layer Cake is a bit too complicated and messy, but it is still a great crime thriller in which Daniel Craig gives a very solid performance. The rest of the characters don’t get too much screen time. Sienna Miller is much underused here and her character doesn’t bring much to the film. I love Tom Hardy as well but he has almost nothing to work with here and goes unnoticed as well. Michael Gambon and Colm Meaney give the best supporting performance in my opinion, but the rest of the cast is totally forgettable. We´ve seen many crime thrillers and this one doesn’t stand out from the rest. It is above average but nothing groundbreaking in my opinion. I love Vaughn´s films, but this is probably my least favorite film of his.

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My Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2 (10/10)

¨Harry Potter, the boy who lived…come to die. Avada Kedavra!¨

After ten years and eight films, the Harry Potter franchise has finally come to its magical conclusion and what a great one it was. As the British might say: It was bloody brilliant! This film is by far the best one of the entire franchise because it brings closure to a series that has been a part of us for a decade. I really never expected to like the Harry Potter series as much as I did and I became more and more hooked to the franchise as each new movie came out. It was like if every new film kept on improving from its predecessor. Not only did the series grow darker, the visuals just kept on looking more amazing as the movies were being released. Ever since David Yates was called to direct these movies beginning with The Order of the Phoenix he just kept on outdoing himself and winning new converts. J.K. Rowling can be proud of the producers for adapting her novels so magically, and of Steve Kloves (who should receive some recognition) for writing such a magnificent screenplay. I don’t see how anyone could dislike this movie; it`s truly a masterpiece. By the eighth film I know most of the people that are going to watch this movie are true Harry Potter fans, since I don’t see how if they didn`t like his previous movies they would have any reason to want to see this last one anyways. If you enjoyed the other Potter films then you will definitely love this one; if you hated them then there is no reason why you would want to see the eighth one in the first place. This is not only my favorite film of the franchise, it`s also my favorite film of the year so far.

The movie picks up right where the last one ended with the abrupt finale of when Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) collects Dumbledore`s (Michael Gambon) wand from the grave. It just happens to be the most powerful wand in the world and it ends up in the hands of the most dangerous dark wizard who wants nothing more than to see Harry Potter dead. On the meantime Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson) are searching for the remaining three horcruxes in order to destroy them before Voldemort finds Harry. As long as the horcruxes are safe, Voldemort will remain immortal. The quest will end up leading the boys back to some familiar territories that we have grown to love. Potter knows that sooner or later he will have to face Voldemort; but there is much more at stake here as the forces for good and evil begin taking center stage for a final confrontation that has been waiting to happen for quite some time now. The build up for the grand finale happened almost entirely in the first part of The Deathly Hollows; now in the second part the action and intensity felt almost nonstop. Most of the characters from the previous films are all back and ready for battle. On Voldemort`s side you have the evil Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter), the Malfoy`s, and several death eaters, while fighting along Harry`s side are the Weasley`s, Luna (Evanna Lynch), Neville (Matthew Lewis), and the rest of the crew from Hogwarts. I cannot leave out one of the central characters of the film, Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), who if we`ve never read the novel before don`t quite really know who he is really fighting for until the very end.

 

The final film of the franchise will leave almost every Harry Potter fan completely satisfied because it brings closure to a decade long affair. We`ve grown to love and care for most of these characters that have shared so much screen time with us. There are so many memorable characters in this franchise and they all get plenty of action in this five hour long finale (if we add both parts of The Deathly Hollows). The young actors have all matured over the years and we`ve grown to expect great performances from the entire cast. The visuals and special effects were also mesmerizing as usual. What I loved even more from this second part is that we came back to Hogwarts, and I really hadn’t noticed what a key character that place had become until Harry Potter puts his feet back in the school and is greeted by his friends. Of course it has grown much darker now that Dumbledore is gone, but so has the franchise over time. The battle scenes were also very effective and powerful, but what really stood out for me in the entire movie was the five minute montage when Harry sees Snape`s memories in the Pensieve and so many questions are answered as to what was going on between him and Dumbledore, and as to why he seemed to protect Potter at times and despise him at others. His love story is even more powerful than Ron and Hermione`s (that was way long overdue) or Harry and Ginny`s. Those five minutes really changed my perception of the entire film and made me see things in a whole other light. I really loved Rickman`s performance as Snape and think he stood out over the rest, although Fiennes was excellent as the fearful Voldemort and Helena Bonham Carter as the hateful Bellatrix. They did a pretty decent job of making me forget about my favorite character of the franchise: Sirius Black. I absolutely loved this film, and it was a wonderful conclusion to a magical franchise!

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