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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 28 May 2024

This isn’t the first crack at a Garfield movie.  A live action version feature was released in 2004 by 20^th Century Fox with Bill Murray voicing the famed cat and Breckin Meyer playing his devoted owner, Jon.  The film was garbage and the sequel, released two years later, wasn’t much better.  It may be the world’s most syndicated comic strip but it was too difficult a step in taking Jim Davis’s simple drawings and translating them into a 90-minute movie.

Columbia and Sony Pictures are now giving in a run with an animated adaptation.  Chris Pratt seems to be a popular choice when looking for a distinctive voice (The Lego Movie, Onward, The Super Maro Bros. Movie) and here again, he’s called upon to bring Garfield to life.  The opening few scenes paint a familiar picture.  Garfield loves lasagna, midnight snacking, lounging at home… and he hates Mondays.  Living alongside Jon (Hoult) and Odie (the voiceless dog), Garfield sees himself as master of the house with full control over Jon’s time, emotions… and credit card.

There’s not much to the character and hence, the three-person writing team have created a formulaic tale to create action and adventure in the same vein as Puss in Boots.  Firstly, we learn Garfield has a father, Vic (Jackson), who re-enters his life in unusual circumstances.  Second, we’re introduced to a villainous Persian cat, Jinx (Waddingham) who blackmails Garfield and his dad into stealing milk from the nearby Lactose Farm.

Maybe Garfield isn’t meant for the big screen because, once again, I didn’t think much of this.  It’s a slight story with one-dimensional characters.  They talk a lot but never have anything particularly interesting or funny to say.  The material is no limited that they need to include unnecessarily long montages such as a sequence where Garfield and Vic go through a day-long training regime in preparation for their upcoming crime.  I’m surprised they didn’t use more of Jon who, despite being a key player in the comic strip, is largely ignored in this instalment.

In terms of comedic elements, there’s very little for adults and, based on the reactions at the preview screening I attended, I’m not convinced there’s enough for children either.  This might have passed for fun, family entertainment a few decades ago but in a world where the bar for animated films has been raised much higher, it doesn’t stand out from the pack.  Save the money and wait for it to reach a streaming platform.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 16 May 2024

I didn’t expect to be saying this after first watching the rudimentary, family-friendly trailer… but IF is a befuddling filmgoing experience.  I’m not sure what to make of it.  Front and centre throughout is Bea (Fleming), a softly spoken young girl with good manners and impeccable handwriting.  The opening scenes provide limited insight into Bea’s current state – her mother passed away of cancer many years ago, her happy-go-lucky dad (Krasinski) about to undergo surgery for a heart condition, and she’s currently living in a beautiful New York City apartment with her welcoming grandmother (Shaw).

It’s upstairs in the apartment building that she befriends Cal (Reynolds), a man running a small business which tries to find new homes for imaginary friends, known by the acronym IF for short.  Each one of the IFs had a child at some point in their lives but as the kids’ aged, the IFs were soon dispensed and forgotten.  Sounds a little like Toy Story, right?  It is not immediately explained but Bea has the power to see the IFs (no one else can) and, with nothing better to do, she teams up with Cal and becomes part of his operations.

There’s a lot of elements I enjoyed.  From the detail in the apartment building (so much clutter) to a fantasy sequence at an IF living centre, the production values are terrific.  The music score of Oscar winning composer Michael Giacchino (Up) finds the right blend of light and heavy.  17-year-old Cailey Fleming (The Walking Dead) is very good as Bea and I love the simplicity and delicacy she brings to the characters.  There’s also fun to be had in identifying the array of Hollywood A-listers who provide quick cameos in voicing the imaginary friends.

But what does it all add up to though?  Folks talk about imagination, artistry, and storytelling but is there supposed to be a deeper theme here which passed me by?  The IFs seemed to be having a decent time on their own so why did they so desperately want to connect with kids again?  There are no villains, there’s very little in the way of tension, and the important relationship between father and daughter is not given enough attention.  There are moments where it feels like an episode of Sesame Street with its lengthy comedic skits about weird looking creatures getting into mischief.  With a staggeringly high budget of $110 million USD (not sure how), I’m not clear on the film’s target audience.

Writer-director John Krasinski (A Quiet Place) is a talented filmmaker but IF feels like a mishmash of ideas which looked good on paper… but don’t come together on screen.  Tred carefully with this one.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 22 May 2024

Some films quickly fade from memory but that wasn’t the case with George Miller’s iconic 2015 sequel, Mad Max: Fury Road.  Featuring wild, stylish chase sequences, it was a 2-hour, non-stop action ride that had the courage to never slow down.  Why use dialogue when a picture can paint a thousand words, right?  The film’s boldness and imagination saw it rewarded with 6 Academy Awards (losing best picture to Spotlight) and a global box-office haul exceeding $380 million USD. (a modest hit, not a smash hit).

Serving as a prequel to Fury Road, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga spans two decades and begins in a more traditional approach.  We spend time getting to know key characters and the action is milder.  It’s centered on a pre-teen Furiosa (Browne) who is kidnapped by a nasty horde and taken to the desolate home of its power-hungry leader, Dementus (Hemsworth).  Set in a post-apocalyptic version of Australia where survival revolves around commodities in limited supply - food, water, energy, and weapons - Dementus believes Furiosa is of value as both an information source and a bargaining chip.

Those looking for explosive combat must wait until the second and third acts when Miller, working with co-writer Nico Lathouris, ramps things up.  The plot is straight-forward and semi-irrelevant (similar to past outings) – a now grown Furiosa (Taylor-Joy) seeks bloody revenge against Dementus and his crew.  With the stage set, it’s now time for elaborately choreographed battles involving weird-looking, fast-moving vehicles.  I’m not sure where 79-year-old George Miller gets his wacky ideas (and character names) but he stands out from the pack within the action genre.

I don’t think Furiosa achieves the same “edge of your seat” impact as its predecessor.  The opening is a touch slow, a few plot points miss the mark (what was with Quaden Bayles’ character?), and while the lengthy pursuits hold your attention, there’s a familiarity with Fury Road which makes them less original.  Still, I generally enjoyed what Miller has served up and it’s hard not to be impressed by the crew’s talents – from the costume designers and make-up artists through the cinematographer and stuntpeople (doing a better job of showcasing the craft than they did in The Fall Guy).

The cast also excels.  A friend expressed doubt about Chris Hemsworth’s (Thor) ability to play a convincing “bad guy” but, helped by a remarkable different physical appearance, he’s up to the challenge.  I like the splash of humour he brings to the character.  Anya Taylor-Joy (The Queen’s Gambit) barely says a word, but her facial expressions and brutish intensity make her a great hero to cheer for.  Australian actress Alyla Browne (Sting) also has a strong screen presence as the young Furiosa.

Shot in Australia this time around (the last movie was filmed in Namibia), Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is another worthwhile instalment in George Miller’s distinctive franchise.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 13 May 2024

Alexandre Dumas’ 1844 novel has been translated for cinema many times, but this is the first French adaptation since the not-so-well-reviewed Revenge of the Musketeers hit theatres in 1994.  Just a teenager at the time, Martin Bourboulon can remember being taken on set by his father, Frederic, who served as the film’s producer.  There’s a sense of serendipity at play here as Martin, who followed his dad into the industry, is now directing his own big screen interpretation of The Three Musketeers.

“Big” is the right word to use.  The budget was €72 million (huge for a French flick), the shoot took 150 days, and there are two movies in all (both roughly 120 minutes each).  French audiences had to wait nine months between instalments but here in Australia, the gap is much narrower.  Hot off its showing at the French Film Festival, The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan gets its turn in cinemas this week with The Three Musketeers: Milady arriving next month on June 6.

Previous adaptations have emphasised the novel’s comedic elements (such as the 1993 American version starring Chris O’Donnell) but here, the two-man writing team have gone with a heavier, Game of Thrones-type vibe.  It’s still set in the 17^th Century, but they’ve taken the opportunity to look at Dumas’ work through a more current day, progressive lens.  As examples, one of the Musketeers is bisexual, and they’re considerably more respectful of women. 

For those unfamiliar with the material, it’s centred on the young D'Artagnan (Civil) who, driven by a desire to serve and protect the king, befriends three influential musketeers and falls under their tutelage.  He’s immediately caught up in a conspiracy involving murder and manipulation, and so the expanded quartet go on a mission to find out who’s responsible.  One person in their sights is the maleficent Milady de Winter (Green) who is as cunning as she is seductive.

The story isn’t the easiest to follow (lots of characters and subplots) and while parts of the translation are confusing (the politics), there’s still a lot to like.  In the same vein as The Lord of the Rings, there’s something appealing about a swashbuckling epic with a booming film score set across a variety of cool locations with swords, horses, and spirited battles.  The production values are great!  Led by star François Civil (Love at Second Sight), the cast are a worthy fit for their respective characters and give us clear heroes to cheer for, and villains to root against.

You get a sense the juicier stuff is being saved for the second film but The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan still stands on its own two feet.  Fun, interesting, and engaging.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 20 May 2024

In 2011, schoolteacher Sergio Juárez Correa walked into his 6^th grade class in Matamoros, Mexico and decided to do things differently.  He was tired of the one-size-fits-all, government-mandated curriculum which had produced nothing but poor results in the preceding years.  Inspired by the work of Indian computer scientist Sugata Mitra, he wanted to open his classroom to a different way of engagement, a different way of learning.  The results were incredible.

Correa’s story was discovered by writer Joshua Davis who penned an article for Wired magazine in 2013.  The film rights were picked up soon after by producers Benjamin Odell and Eugenio Derbez and now here we are with the finished product.  In addition to his role as producer, Derbez steps into the shoes of the leading character – giving the film a splash of star power as he’ll be known to audiences via his performances in the Oscar-winning CODA and the Apple TV+ series Acapulco.

Writer-director Christopher Zalla hasn’t Americanised the narrative – it’s still set in Mexico with characters speaking Spanish.  That said, the screenplay still follows the well-worn, predicable path you’d expect for such a movie.  Sergio gets a lot of early resistance from the headmaster, teachers, and students but over time, he wins them over with his excitable personality.

The film’s first half has a strong comedic flavour.  We learn Sergio is employed because no one else wants the job (he’s got a pulse, so he’s hired), the encyclopedias in the library date back to 1974, and there’s aren’t any computers in the lab because they were stolen two months ago.  Rather than seeing this as a barrier, Sergio involves the kids in an array of physical, hands-on experiments to educate them about the things they want to know more about.  These scenes are cheesy and simplistic… but will put a smile on many faces.

The second half is more dramatic as the focus shifts to the children, and we learn about their complicated lives at home.  This is the film’s strongest attribute.  It helps us care about the characters and understand that despite Sergio’s best efforts, they face other barriers which may be too hard to overcome.  The power of these scenes is a testament to the performances and Zalla’s approach – none of these kids had acting experience and so by keeping things loose and unscripted (there’s a lot of improvisation), it does feel authentic.

Winner of the Festival Favourite Audience Award at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, Radical is easy to like and enjoy.