Evening movie review

During an ordinary game of “Hide and Seek”, Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter walk into a Wardrobe (a type of clothes closet) in World War II England and are transported on an incredible journey to an enchanted land where Centaurs, Fauns and Gryphons come to life.

The four children soon learn of their destiny to free this enchanted land from it’s state of never ending winter and the clutches of an evil witch with the help of a lion named Aslan in a spectacular battle between good and evil.

During World War II, the imagination of C.S (Clive Staples) Lewis, known to his friends as Jack, began creating and writing what would become a series of 7 books known as The Chronicles of Narnia.

Each of these books are filled with fantastic, lovable characters and wonderful adventures, all set in a special land known as Narnia.

The 7 Chronicles of Narnia books include:

• The Magician’s Nephew




• The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe




• The Horse and His Boy




• Prince Caspian




• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader




• The Silver Chair




• The Last Battle

The last of these 7 books was published in 1956.

In 2005, the Disney Studios released their excellent screen version of “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.”

Budgeted at around $150 million dollars, this movie is nothing less than a spectacular vision.

True to Disney form,

their production is lavish, with a beautiful musical score and wonderful images brought to the screen as only Disney can using state-of-the-art technology to transport the audiences into a dazzling visual feast.

In 2006, “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” won an Academy Award for “Best Achievement in Make Up” and was nominated by the Academy for “Best Visual Effects.”

And audiences loved it!

While some scenes may be too intense for the very young, this is an absolutely excellent family movie.

The story isn’t just good, it’s literature

And a great story with wonderful characters always makes for the very movie experience.

If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of seeing this excellent movie, it’s really a must see.

And if you did have the good fortune of seeing this movie in the theatre, you’ll be very happy to learn that The Disney Movie Club offers “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” as part of their magnificent family movie and video library.

A wonderful story for young and old alike.

The Chronicles of Narnia is a movie that is equally entertaining for both young and adult audiences.

And one thing is for sure, if you’ve ever played a game of “Hide and Seek,” you’ll be amazed at what happens when one little girl decides to hide in what appears to be an ordinary wardrobe.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is movie experience you won’t soon forget.

Have Fun

BOTTOM LINE: A unique take on the age-old vampire story that could have been quite thrilling and dramatic if it were not for the incessant music video style sequences and an unwillingness by the filmmakers to expand the tone of the film beyond its core teenage audience.

THE GOOD: Twilight deserves kudos for creating a unique take on the vampire story, which has been so well covered throughout both cinematic and literary history. It can thank its source material in the novel by Stephenie Meyer who manages to create a world and logic that works extremely well and allows for this highly improbable union between a teenage girl and a vampire who looks 17 but is in fact much much older. The chemistry between the leads Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, who play Bella and Edward, makes the whole thing work; they infuse their characters with a likeability and vulnerability that is endearing, especially in the case of Edward who has to fight every urge in his body to perform his natural instinct of sucking the blood out of Bella. However unlikely it is to appear in a teenage romance, the theme of choosing to overcome your instincts and natural persona to become something more is at the heart of this film, with Edward and his family choosing not to feast on the blood of humans, making them benign vampires. “We’re like vegetarians”, Edward says at one point. Another unexpected plus is the use of humour. There are quite a number of moments that will have you smiling, with one stand out being Bella’s father loading his shot gun when Bella arrives home with Edward. Overall, this is a film that is unique and worth checking out for that reason.

THE BAD: The main issue with this film is its style; given the core audience for this film is teenage in nature the filmmakers have decided to make, in effect, a two hour music video. Additionally, the darkness associated with any vampire story is toned down significantly in order to hit that same audience. As a result, the film has no dramatic or thrilling moments, relying solely on the chemistry between Bella and Edward to carry it through. The climatic fight scenes between the good and bad vampires are shoddily done, lacking any real thrills. You know the good guys will win so its just an exercise of going through the motions. You get the hint of a big backstory of how the vampires came to settle in the area and their stand off with the wolves, but this is never really brought to the forefront (I guess that’s what the sequel will be for!). With such great potential in the story, Twilight could have been something special, but unfortunately, only teenage girls will be able to get any value out of the final product.

BOTTOM LINE: Decent, but unremarkable remake of the 1950’s sci-fi classic which pitches a quite wooden and uninterested Keanu Reeves as the alien Klaatu coming to save the Earth from its inhabitants.

THE GOOD: By and large this film makes the smart move of keeping the story from the original Robert Wise film intact, with the one change being a more environmental focus as opposed to the nuclear holocaust theme of the original (as befitting the times within which we live). As a result, the story itself is very strong. Keanu Reeves plays Klaatu, an alien who takes human form and has the mission of saving the Earth. The humans initially take this to mean he has come to save humanity, but as Helen Benson (Jennifer Connolly) and her adopted son discover, he literally means saving the Earth from humans whom the aliens have judged to be killing the planet through our toxic ways. However, as Klaatu spends more time among humans, he discovers that we deserve a chance to rise above their own shortcomings and stops the impending destruction of humanity. As with the original film, there is a lot of social discussion about what humans are doing to the Earth and whether or not they deserve to keep the planet. There are also many themes around the good versus bad nature of humanity, which is best objectified by the character of Klaatu as he spends more and more time with the humans. A great example is a scene where Klaatu is listening to classical music and is entranced by it, remarking that it is beautiful. The film also manages to have its fair share of spectacular sequences before Klaatu puts a stop to the destruction. The film has a strong basis in story and theme and does a very good job of combining them with some grand images without becoming a CG overload of audio-visual stimuli.

THE BAD: The film is ultimately not that special. It hits all the right marks, has a good story and some great environmental themes, however it does not make any attempt to be anything more interesting than a late night TV movie. Keanu Reeves looks good as Klaatu but he looks bored out of his brains in the part, simply moving from one scene to another in monotonous fashion. There is nothing inspired in his performance. Jennifer Connolly fares a little better but not much. There are no dramatic highs or lows, but simply plot points. The appearances of the alien spheres could have been a creepy/wondrous moment, but instead, we’re treated to cross-cutting of the usual army scenes with tanks and fighter jets opening fire with news bulletins on how global markets are reacting to the alien presence (the latter is especially odd - you would think an alien arrival would stop market trading completely). By the time the end credits roll, you get the feeling you have not been taken on any sort of journey, but rather an exercise in uninspired technique, which is a shame given the strong story and themes at the heart of this film.