I've been watching far too many movies lately to be able to write full-length reviews for all of them, so here instead is a veritable six-pack of mini-reviews that cover a deliberately diverse array of films viewed by me lately.
Incidentally, I'd originally planned to include here a mini-review of Barry Manilow's musical film Copacabana The Movie, so that I could then entitle this collection 'From Manilow To Manticore, And More!' but I later decided to give the latter movie a full review of its own (click here to access it) – a sad loss indeed to rhyming alliteration!
THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF YOUR LIFE
On 3 April 2021, courtesy of the wonderful Talking Pictures TV channel devoted predominantly to vintage British movies, I watched the 1950 film The Happiest Days Of Your Life.
Directed by Frank Launder, it stars such stalwarts of staunchly British comedy movies from that time period as Alistair Sim, Margaret Rutherford, Joyce Grenfell, and Richard Wattis. A playful post-wartime farce, its storyline revolves around a governmental oversight whereby a girls' school helmed by their redoubtable headmistress Miss Muriel Whitchurch (played by Rutherford) is mistakenly billeted with a boys' school helmed by an equally no-nonsense headmaster, Wetherby Pond (Sim), followed swiftly by the comedic chaos and personality clashes that inevitably ensue between staff (and pupils) from the two schools.
It's all very charming, mannered, old-school (pardon the pun), and so very British, epitomized by Joyce Grenfell's golly-gosh portrayal of the gauche Miss "call me Sausage" Gossage. The Happiest Days Of Your Life is set in a genteel land long since vanished, and barely recognisable now even to me, who loved this movie so much when I first saw it many years ago but gazed at it today as if I were watching another world entirely, which if truth be told I was.
An appraisal of this delightful film featuring a number of clips from it can be viewed here on YouTube.
MARY AND THE WITCH'S FLOWER
On 8 March 2020, I watched a thoroughly delightful Japanese animated movie on Film4 (a movie-specific TV channel here in the UK).
Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, the film in question was Mary and the Witch's Flower, the first Studio Ponoc animated movie and originally released in 2017. This was the English-dubbed version, featuring the voices of Kate Winset and Jim Broadbent among others, and judging from the excellent production values, its creator, Studio Ponoc, could offer the legendary Studio Ghibli a run for its money in the future.
The storyline is quite involved, but basically features a red-haired girl, Mary, who discovers a clump of magical blue flowers named fly-by-night in a wood near her great-aunt's home, as a result of which she becomes the focus of highly unpleasant attention from a witch's university, Endor College, hidden high amid the clouds, and from whom these flowers were stolen long ago by a young red-haired witch who bore a striking resemblance to Mary... The movie is a bit slow to start with, but once Endor College appears in the story, it's full steam ahead all the way.
Click here to view a very colourful official trailer for this animated movie on YouTube.
THE SECRET OF ROAN INISH
On 27 December 2020, I watched the long-owned but never previously watched official VHS video of a very unusual, magical, yet little-known movie entitled The Secret of Roan Inish.
Directed by John Sayles and released in 1994, it is concerned with a fishing family who moved years ago to the Irish mainland following evacuation from their original home on a tiny, now-abandoned offshore isle called Roan Inish – Island of the Seals – named after the number of seals seen on and around its shores. During their move, however, the youngest member, a baby named Jamie, floated away on the sea in his coracle-like cot and was lost.
The movie's story follows his slightly older sister Fiona's visits to the isle, what she finds there, and, interwoven throughout, the traditional local fishing lore and in particular the legends of the selkies or seal people, supernatural shapeshifting seal entities who assume human form when they remove their seal skins, and from whom her family is supposedly descended several generations ago on her father's side. No famous stars feature in it, but, like I say, this is a magical and even mystical film, well worth watching.
An official trailer for The Secret of Roan Inish can be viewed here on YouTube.
ONWARD
Viewed on 6 June 2020, just over 3 months following its official release, Onward is a newish Disney/Pixar animated movie directed by Dan Scanlon.
It is set in a fantasy world full of mythical entities such as centaurs, elves, mermaids, pet dragons, fauns, flying unicorns, etc, but one in which they have largely forsaken magic for the rather more mundane, science-driven lifestyle that we humans are all too familiar with. However, two teenage elf brothers, the older and exceedingly extrovert Barley Lightfoot (voiced exuberantly by Chris Pratt) and the younger introverted Ian Lightfoot (Tom Holland), defy their town's modern-day traditions and set forth upon a perilous magical quest. Their goal is to discover a phoenix stone, whose power will enable their deceased father to return for just one day to see how his sons are and talk with them.
Although I cannot fault this movie in terms of its stunning animation, and the humour displayed in particular by various supporting characters, most notably a tattooed female manticore named Corey (Octavia Spencer), Onward proved too much of an emotional trial by fire to be truly enjoyable for me, as their profound desire to be united with their late father resonated only too intensely with my own regarding my late mother. In short, I was glad to have seen Onward, but I was also glad when it was over.
An official Onward trailer can be viewed here on YouTube.
NOT OF THIS EARTH (1995 version)
On 11 December 2020, I watched the second, 1995, remake of the original, 1957 Roger Corman sci-fi movie Not Of This Earth.
Directed by Terence H. Winkless, it stars Michael York as the laser-eyed alien in human form scouring Earth for as much of our species' blood as he can procure in order to send it back to his planet in the hope of saving his own species from extinction. All very compassionate, except that he shows precious little of this fundamental commodity for his human victims, whom he first blinds, then exsanguinates, then incinerates. What a charmer! Basically, he's a space vampire with fiery accessories.
Corman served as executive producer in this remake, and also in the previous, 1988, remake. This newest one has the edge in terms of SFX, as well as some injected humour and more monsters.
Click here to view (at least at the time of my writing this mini-review) the entire movie for free on YouTube.
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA
Having heard so many good reports about it from so many friends, on 3 February 2019 I bought a double-disc Hotel Transylvania DVD, containing the original movie and its first sequel in this ongoing computer-animated comedy film franchise. After watching the original later that same day, I can see why it attracts such praise – it is an absolute delight!
Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky and released by Sony Pictures in 2012, Hotel Transylvania, as its name suggests, centres upon a spooky hotel established by monsters and run specifically for holidaying monsters to stay there, safe from persecution from humans, but then one day a human youth inadvertently finds his way inside, resulting in absolute mayhem. Hilariously funny, this zany movie is crammed with so many visual jokes and puns that I defy anyone to spot them all on a single viewing, plus a rollercoaster-paced story, NO MUMBLING!! from the voice cast (hurrah!!), and, above all else, absolutely first-rate, top-notch animation throughout.
Many congratulations indeed to Sony Animation, which often gets unfairly overshadowed by the likes of Disney/Pixar and Dreamworks. The animation of Dracula (voiced delightfully by Adam Sandler) in particular is absolutely sublime, the fluid grace of his movements with an abundance of exquisite curls, curves, and curlicues resembling the very best of Art Nouveau in animated splendour. Loved it! Now for Hotel Transylvania 2.
Click here to watch an excellent official trailer for Hotel Transylvania on YouTube.
And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!
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