MICMACS

 

Publicity poster for Micmacs (© Jean-Pierre Jeunet/Epithéte Films/Tapioca Films/France 3 Cinéma/Warner Bros/Sony Pictures Classics – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 16 July 2021, after having previously viewed The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (click here to read my Shuker In MovieLand review of it), I watched on DVD another very unusual but equally delightful English-subtitled French fantasy film. This one was entitled Micmacs (or Micmacs à Tire-Larigot, to give it its full French title).

Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (who also directed The City of Lost Children reviewed by me here), and released by Warner Bros and Sony Pictures Classics in 2009, Micmacs concerns itself with a group of outcasts and social misfits who had bonded together against the world, living as a family inside a somewhat steampunk-designed den deep within a huge Parisian rubbish tip, and gifted with all manner of highly unexpected abilities and/or medical idiosyncrasies. They include a mathematical genius, an immensely-skilled automaton creator, an incredibly supple contortionist, and a record-breaking human cannonball.

Their newest member is a shy man in his early 30s named Bazil (played by Dany Boon), who has recently been rendered homeless after a live bullet became lodged in his forehead just millimetres from his brain and could blow up at any moment. Moreover, Bazil had lost his military father to an exploding landmine when only a young child.

Consequently, after he decides to seek revenge upon the two shady arms-dealers/weapon-manufacturers and their respective companies that he holds responsible for these twin life-changing disasters in his life, his new family all readily agree to help him. There then follows a truly surreal series of intricately-exacted sabotages and subterfuges conducted by Bazil and company to wreak havoc upon their adversaries, culminating in his desired destruction of the dealers' entire lives and businesses.

What makes Micmacs such a quirky movie is that it plays out very much like a screwball live-action version of Wallace and Gromit, with kooky larger-than-life characters possessing bizarre skills beyond anything that one would expect to see in real life, yet without extending into the realms of either the supernatural or super-heroes.

Incidentally: if you're wondering what this movie's unusual title actually means, Micmacs approximates in English to 'Shenanigans', with Micmacs à Tire-Larigot loosely translating as 'Non-Stop Shenanigans' or 'Shenanigans To Your Heart's Content'. Both are certainly very apt descriptions of the film's madcap pace and slapstick antics. So now you know!

Moreover, according to its director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, his cinematic influences when making Micmacs included Toy Story, the Mission Impossible movies, and Disney's classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. An eclectic ensemble indeed – as eclectic as Micmacs itself, in fact.

A comedy/heist film quite unlike anything that I've seen before, with Boon playing the unequivocally oddball central character Bazil with delightful daffiness (as indeed do all of the other actors and actresses in their respective, equally off-centre roles), Micmacs definitely comes highly recommended for movie aficionados of the weird but also the wonderful.

If you'd like to see for yourself, be sure to click here to view an official Micmacs trailer on YouTube.

To view a complete chronological 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, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADÈLE BLANC-SEC

 

Publicity poster for The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (© Luc Besson/EuropaCorp – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Given the choice of viewing a foreign-language movie that has been dubbed into English or has been supplied with English subtitles, I would always choose the former option, as I hate having to take my eyes off the movie almost continuously in order to read the subtitles. Not so long ago, however, I watched a couple of French movies of the latter type that were so riveting I scarcely even noticed myself glancing down at the subtitles. The films in question were The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (reviewed by me below) and Micmacs (reviewed by me here).

As I was soon to find out, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec is nothing if not aptly entitled, including as it does the unlikely likes of a giant revitalized pterodactyl and an entire court of revived Egyptian mummies!

Directed by celebrated French director/producer/screenwriter Luc Besson, who also wrote its screenplay, and released by EuropaCorp in 2010, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec combines the plots of two separate comics produced by comic-book graphic artist Jacques Tardi, respectively entitled Adèle and the Beast (1976) and Mummies on Parade (1978), both featuring Tardi's fearless heroine Adèle Blanc-Ser as their lead character, and incorporates them within a basic plot devised by Besson. This means that the movie, mostly set in the early second decade of 20^th-Century Paris, contains two initially quite separate storylines that subsequently converge to amusing but also sometimes confusing effect.

One of these sees the movie's eponymous adventuress (played with spirited, glamorous éclat by Louise Bourgoin), who is a well known journalist and travel writer, seeking amid Egypt in best intrepid Indiana Jonesian fashion the mummy of Patmosis, apparently the personal medical doctor to the great pharaoh Rameses II. Despite some hairy encounters with her deadly, goblinesque rival Prof. Dieuleveult (Mathieu Amairic) during this search, Adèle ultimately succeeds in uncovering Patmosis's mummy and returning safely with it to Paris, where she hopes that the brilliant but eccentric and decidedly etiolated scientist Prof. Espérandieu (Jacky Nercessian) can revive it.

The reason why Adèle wishes this to happen is that when much younger, she accidentally incapacitated her sister Agatha during a game of tennis. So she now hopes that Patmosis possesses superior medical knowledge from the ancient Egyptian civilization that he can employ to free Agatha from her ongoing comatose state and restore her to her former fully-active, cognisant self.

Unknown to Adèle, however, is that while she had been seeking Patmosis's mummy in Egypt, Espérandieu's arcane experiments in telepathy and telekinesis had somehow resulted in his successful hatching of a fossil pterodactyl egg in Paris's Gallery of Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy – in turn engendering all manner of chaos and carnage across the city after this predatory prehistoric beast had rapidly grown to full size and escaped. Accordingly, Espérandieu had been arrested and was now facing imminent execution. So if Patmosis is to be revived, Espérandieu needs to be rescued, while a motley assortment of oddballs and incompetents is adding even further to the melée of mayhem as they seek to slay the increasingly irate pterodactyl. Never a dull moment in Paris, that's for sure!

But to cut a lengthy and exceedingly involved story short (I've only touched upon a few of its multitudinous threads here!), Patmosis is finally revived, only for him to inform a horrified Adèle that he is not a medical doctor, but rather a doctor of nuclear physics – a physicist as opposed to a physician! (Seemingly, Ancient Egypt was indeed a lot more advanced in scientific matters than we'd expected!) However, he does possess the skills to revive the mummy of Rameses's real doctor, not to mention those of Rameses himself and his entire court, all of whom just so happen to be currently on display at the Louvre.

Patmosis duly achieves this, which leads to my favourite non-pterodactylian scene of the entire movie, in which the revived (CGI-animated) mummies decide to step outside of the Louvre and discover for themselves what a Paris evening in the 20^th Century AD is like. Their stately, elegantly-mannered demeanour, behaving with immense courtesy and charm like a parody of some genteel English tea party, is quite delightful and hilarious to behold, especially when various unsuspecting Parisians going about their innocent way encounter this resurrected retinue and flee in hysterical terror.

But you'll never guess what happens to the pterodactyl, whether Adèle's sister is indeed healed, and how the doomed RMS Titanic enters this tortuous tale! Which means that you'll have to watch The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec yourself to find out!

For a tantalizing trailer (with English subtitles) to give you a glimpse of the spectacle to expect from this ever-so-slightly manic but marvelous movie, however, be sure to click here and watch one on YouTube!

To view a complete chronological 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, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

PAUL

 

Publicity poster for Paul (© Greg J. Mottola/Relativity Media/Working Title Films/Big Talk Pictures/StudioCanal/Universal Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 13 July 2021, I watched the sci-fi/comedy movie Paul, which is undoubtedly one of the most hilarious films that I've seen in many a long while.

Directed by Greg J. Mottola, and released by Universal Pictures in 2011, Paul stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (who also wrote this movie together) as best friends Graeme and Clive, a pair of nerdy alien/UFO fans from England who attend a sci-fi/comic convention in the USA and then set off on a road trip across America (much of this being filmed in the New Mexico desert) to visit as many of the most famous alien/UFO-associated sites as possible (Area 51, Roswell, etc). However, they encounter more than they bargained for when they discover a crashed car with a Grey Alien named Paul (long story!) inside, stunned but unharmed.

Paul informs them that his spacecraft crashed on Earth several decades ago, and until recently he had been held at a secret government facility, sharing his advanced technological knowledge with our planet's scientists (and movie makers!). But when the scientists progressed to desiring the secrets of his advanced physical abilities too (such as healing, and rendering himself invisible when he holds his breath), and deciding that the best way of discovering them was to remove his brain and dissect it, Paul understandably decided that it was time to part company with them, and lost no time in escaping. Unfortunately, however, he now has some very determined MIBs on his metaphorical tail (one especially nasty example being played by Jason Bateman), who are intent on recapturing him – alive or otherwise.

Consequently, albeit against their better judgment, Graeme and Clive, aided and abetted by a kooky, initially alien-disbelieving, subsequently Christian Fundamentalist-lapsing young woman named Ruth Buggs (Kristen Wiig), decide to help Paul find his way to the special site where his mother ship can land and rescue him. But in so doing they experience all manner of hysterical mishaps and mayhem en route. Not least of these are the afore-mentioned posse of tenacious MIBs (led by 'The Big Guy', played by none other than Sigourney Weaver) and Ruth's rifle-toting, most definitely non-lapsed CF father, Moses Buggs (John Carroll Lynch).

Voiced hilariously by Seth Rogen, Paul the alien is a triumph of CGI motion-capture animation, Pegg & Frost are delightful as oddball but loyal pals who always have each other's back, Wiig's transformation from ultra-conservative to uber-liberal in outlook as she experiences life outside her hitherto-cloistered existence for the very first time provides long laughs and touching moments aplenty, and the entire movie is a joyous celebration of friendship, quirkiness, and nerd power – plus a sprinkling of twisted humour from the cutting, broken-glass department (one word – 'starling'…). Great fun (unless you're a starling!).

Incidentally, because Pegg & Frost planned Paul as a homage to the classic Steven Spielberg movies Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, it contains a number of subtle references to various of his movies (see how many you can spot) as well as a voice cameo from the great man himself (ditto).

If you'd like to experience a taster of the feel-good, zany experience that Paul provides in ample quantity throughout, be sure to click here to watch an official trailer on YouTube.

To view a complete chronological 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, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

47 RONIN (2013)

 

Publicity poster for 47 Ronin (© Carl Rinsch/H2F Entertainment/Mid Atlantic Films/Moving Picture Company/Stuber Productions/Relativity Media/Universal Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 27 April 2021, after having viewed a number of excerpts from it previously, I finally watched in its entirety the 2013 movie 47 Ronin (there have been at least six earlier versions).

Directed by Carl Rinsch, and released by Universal Pictures, 47 Ronin is a fictionalised, fantasised version of a real event featuring 47 ronin (masterless samurai) seeking revenge for the murder of their daimyo (feudal lord). It stars Keanu Reeves as Kai, a half-Japanese half-English outcast first seen here as a mysterious boy discovered in a Japanese forest several centuries ago after having secretly been raised there by the supernatural tengu spirits, who have taught him knowledge and skills not known to humans.

Kai is found and reared by Lord Asano Naganori (played by Min Tanaka), the Ako Domain's kindly daimyo, and he helps to avenge the daimyo's subsequent death via shogun-enforced ritual suicide (seppuku). This fatal ploy had been deftly engineered by Lord Kira of Nagato (Tadanobu Asano), a treacherous usurper of Asano's domain, who was assisted in his murderous machinations by a wily, evil kitsune (fox maiden) named Mizuki (Rinko Kikuchi).

Speaking of which: 47 Ronin certainly contains plenty of spectacular Oriental monsters and non-human entities. These include a rampaging kirin (see below), a golem, the tengu, and Mizuki – the afore-mentioned beguiling but wholly malign kitsune. She can transform herself into a white fox, a white spider, and even an enormous white dragon, as well as assuming the exact form of any human she chooses. However, she is always betrayed in her varied guises by her eyes, if close enough attention is paid to them, because they do not match – one eye is red, the other is blue.

My favourite monster was the ferocious, carnivorous kirin or Japanese unicorn, although this latter name is something of a misnomer. With its savage meat-eating proclivity, its scaly body, and its paired antlers, this Far-Eastern mythical beast looks and behaves nothing like the gentle horse-like single-horned unicorn of the West. The particularly sizeable, ornery kirin that Kai does battle with in 47 Ronin had been sent by Mizuki in an early attempt to kill Lord Asano, but is foiled from doing so when Kai single-handedly slays it.

Most of the movie follows Kai and the accompanying ronin, led by Asano's former principal counselor, Oishi (Hiroyuki Sanada), as they tenaciously persevere through all manner of hardships and confrontations in their determined quest for revenge, seeking to destroy Kira. They are also determined to rescue Mika (Ko Shibasaki), Lord Asano's daughter. Mika loves Kai, but she has been claimed and carried away by Kira, who intends to make her marry him instead, in order to ensure his status as Ako's ruler.

The culmination of their valiant endeavours sees Kai boldly return to the tengu who raised him, in order to elicit their assistance in conquering Kira and Mizuki by supplying Kai and the ronin with magical tengu-hewn blades for use in battling Kira's troops. But such assistance is offered neither readily nor unconditionally when the tricky, daunting tengu are involved, especially as no sword must ever be drawn while inside a tengu temple. Consequently, Kai and his companions face a grueling, mind-warping, weapons-bereft test of bravery and skill against their superhuman opponents if they are to succeed in procuring the latter's much-needed blades.

 

47 Ronin publicity poster featuring the late Rick Genest (aka Zombie Boy) as Foreman (© Carl Rinsch/H2F Entertainment/Mid Atlantic Films/Moving Picture Company/Stuber Productions/Relativity Media/Universal Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Incidentally: as seen, for example, in the poster opening this Shuker In MovieLand review and the one immediately above this paragraph, as well as in the opening seconds of the trailer linked to below, a lot of the early marketing and pre-release publicity for 47 Ronin prominently featured a very distinctive Canadian sideshow performer/fashion model/actor named Rick Genest (d. 2018, aged 32), who played Foreman, a character whom Kai encounters on a slave ship in this movie. Beyond 47 Ronin, Rick was famously known as Zombie Boy, because he had purposefully chosen via countless lengthy sessions to become intricately (and permanently) tattooed all over his entire body in a manner that grotesquely transformed his appearance into that of a rotting, living skeleton – a veritable zombie.

Due to various changes in vision concerning the route that this movie should take, however, Rick's Foreman character was almost entirely deleted. Sadly, only a few brief shots of him remain in the final cut, which in my view was a great shame, as Rick's unique appearance and presence would have added greatly to the movie's appeal (and is presumably why its publicity and marketing featured him so extensively in the first place). But if you click here, you can watch a fascinating interview with him on YouTube instead. RIP Rick.

47 Ronin contains dazzling CGI and other special effects, and held my rapt attention throughout, but is far greater than a mere showcase for visual spectacle. It is a movie based upon vengeance, but above all upon honour, which means that I should not have been surprised by what for me was its unexpected ending – I was, but I shouldn't have been. Anything else would have been out of character, not fitting to its intrinsic theme.

Something of a rarity among modern-day fantasy-incorporating films, which all too often possess plenty of pazazz but all too rarely contain much in the way of emotional substance or depth, 47 Ronin is a movie that truly moves its viewers – and how!

If you would like to view a thrilling official trailer for 47 Ronin on YouTube, please click here; and Kai's courageous conflict with the kirin (plus a glimpse of Mizuki in her white fox guise) can be viewed here.

To view a complete chronological 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, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

Illustration of a kirin (=qilin in China) (© RootOfAllLight/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA licence)