Kim and Elwood kick off their season long look at the films of Studio Ghibli co-founder and legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki starting with his directorial debut The Castle of Cagliostro
The second movie adaptation of the long running Lupin the 3rd series as the legendary thief finds himself caught up in a counterfeiting plot while attempting to rescue the kidnapped princess Clarisse and finally discover the hidden treasure of Cagliostro.
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Hi folks and welcome to the The Friday Film Club where both myself and Elwood will be highlighting a film which we feel is worth checking out. At the same time we would love to hear your own selections whether you’re choosing to just name them in the comments section or join us in arguing the case for your film on your blog, let us know and we will share it below.
Elwood’s Pick – Dark Star (1974)
Set in the mid-22nd century were the crew of the scout ship Dark Star are twenty years into their mission to destroy unstable planets which will hamper the future colonisation of space. However when one of their bombs gets stuck in the bomb bay the crew must find a way to deactivate it or face being blown up by their own bomb.
The student film of John Carpenter while studying at the University of Southern California and a project which would see him teaming up with the equally legendary Dan O’Bannon with the duo taking on multiple roles with Carpenter serving as writer, producer, director and composer. He would also overdub the character of Talby after Andreijah “Dre” Pahich proved to have too thick an accent. O’Bannon meanwhile contributed to the script, editing and special effects as well as appearing in the film as Pinback.
Dark Star is a scrappy indie film which somehow manages to work around its budget restrictions and introduces the idea of blue collar space which O’Bannon would further explore to great effect with Alien. Here space is less about brave crews venturing into the unknown but instead it’s just another workplace and this is one is just as crappy as any other with the crew constantly trying to find distractions to break up the tedium, their supply of toilet roll has been lost and the alien they brought on the ship resembles a beach ball with feet.
Peppered with some great comedic moments from Muppet esq antics as Pinback attempts to recapture the alien though to the attempts by the ships Captain Doolittle to reason with the talking bomb threatening the ship. The film constantly manages to be surprising while playing off the 70’s counter culture of the era.
A flop on it’s initial release thanks to limited screenings and poor marketing the film would find a dedicated cult following through word of mouth and midnight screenings and even now it’s a film worth discovering especially when it’s influence can be still be felt in everything from Alien and Snowpiercer through to Red Dwarf.
Kim ‘s Pick – Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax (2012)
Adapted from Dr. Seuss’s children’s book of the same name, this second adaptation is a 3D computer animated musical film which builds upon the story and sets in the future where Thneedville is now an artificial closed city where the air needs to be bought and there are no more real nature existing in this area but replaced by plastic and fake decorations. When Ted (Zac Efron) talks to a Audrey (Taylor Swift), a girl he likes who says that she would love to see a real tree again, he learns through his grandmother (Betty White) the rumor that if he left the city to find the Once-ler (Ed Helms), he could get a tree seed. His encounter of the Once-ler leads to the telling of his story of how he was the to blame for all the trees now being gone with his desire to make success out of his creation the Thneed despite the warning of The Lorax (Danny DeVito) decades ago.
From a story aspect, this adaptation of The Lorax adds a new layer to the original. Its not quite as true to the original source material even in its story told of the Once-ler but rather it expands on the main points to add some comedic elements despite its serious environmental and societal message that it brings at the end. The present setting of Thneedville is also pretty great especially as an animated story point of view in 2012 seeing as nowadays, the future is presented in many movies as losing our natural resources in one way or another as well. Thneedville reflects on society as well and the need for the balance of nature to be present.
This whole story is really brought together by the musical elements. The scenes are pieced together by the songs itself which are colorful and catchy. It spreads evenly throughout the film and fits well with the story. Its probably these moments that add to this adaptation the most since it adds in a lot more fun moments (considering you do like musicals). Much like the animation itself also beautifully animated especially with how the Truffula trees are animated and the contrast of the colorful land versus the dark and dreary one after the land is emptied and polluted.
Adaptations, especially ones loved by many like this one, and their success truly lies on how well their changes and additions work for its viewers in general. As a story for a younger audience, it still works rather well since it does deliver a good message in a fairly straightforward, entertaining and colorful way and adds a “modernized” side to the future of Thneedville. Its a nice and creative angle to take even if some bits are fairly silly. At the very least, the decent voice cast with Danny DeVito, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Betty White, Jenny Slate, Ed Helms and Rob Riggle all also make this worth a watch.
So you’ve seen our picks for this week’s double feature but what are your movie watching plans this weekend?
Let us know in the comments section below.
Hi folks and welcome to the The Friday Film Club where both myself and Elwood will be highlighting a film which we feel is worth checking out. At the same time we would love to hear your own selections whether you’re choosing to just name them in the comments section or join us in arguing the case for your film on your blog, let us know and we will share it below.
Elwood’s Pick – Taxi Hunter
Released bizarrely the same year as Joel Schumacher’s Falling Down in which Michael Douglas’ engineer went on a rampage across L.A. there is a similarity to be found in the plot of this film from Herman Yau which sees Anthony Wong’s mild mannered insurance salesman Ah-Kin carrying out a vendetta against the scumbag Hong Kong taxi drivers after his wife is killed by a taxi driver when he nightdress is caught in the door of a cab.
Anthony Wong perfectly plays both sides of the coin first as the nice guy and once his wife dies as the grieving vigilante finding an outlet for his pain by hunting down the taxi drivers overcharging for fares or being generally disagreeable. At the same time his best friend and supercop Chung (Yu Rong-Guang) has been tasked with hunting down the killer preying on taxi drivers.
Unquestionably Wong is the real draw here as we see his evolution over the course of the film and how he chooses to process his grief aswell as the frustration he attributes to the local Taxi drivers who don’t especially help themselves due to being so awful to begin with so you can’t help but root for him when he starts making them pay.
The partnership between Herman Yau and Anthony Wong is certainly one of the great over overlooked director / actor partnerships with the pair making some of the most memorable CAT III cinema of the early 90 and certainly it’s a partnership which pays off here even if it’s noticeably lighter than some of the films being made in this era.
Kim ‘s Pick – The Mitchells vs. The Machines (2021)
Most known for his work on Gravity Falls as creative director and writer, Mike Rianda’s debut directorial feature film is one that combines his personal family experiences with his childhood love for robots. The Mitchells vs. The Machines, which was once titled Connected but retitled back to its original name upon its shift to a Netflix distribution due to the pandemic, tells the story of the dysfunctional family The Mitchells who are all a bit odd in their own ways who embrace their quirky daughter Katie’s departure to university by going on a family road trip to take her there however, they collide with a robot takeover as the leading tech company PAL Labs loses control over his virtual assistant who ends up exacting revenge by using the newly designed robots to capture all humans. The Mitchells try to escape together and with their odd ideas and surprisingly lucky twists and turns try to save the world together.
The Mitchells vs the Machines is pretty balanced in all its elements. Its comedy is one of the standouts especially since it features a dysfunctional family on a road trip during a robot apocalypse especially when it includes their silly dog Monchi. Driving in an old car and each of them wielding their gifted tool, the Mitchells bond together in the oddest way and yet embraces their oddities while learning about each other a little more. The story never rests on the drama too long and remembers constantly that its a dangerous robot takeover and that they are on the run. The constant moving keeps the film quick-paced and entertaining as it throws in different obstacles, solutions and things going wrong constantly which adds to the entertainment level.
That’s not to mention that the voice cast also is pretty decent. Maya Rudolph voices Linda, the mother character who is a wild ride while Danny McBride voices Rick, the father character. Katie is the main character and the focus of the show as her relationship with her family is the biggest element here along with her knowledge of technology and social media along with her imagination and creativity. She is voiced by Abbi Jacobson. Her younger brother Aaron is voiced by director Mike Rianda himself. The villain is a virtual assistant voiced by Olivia Colman who also captures a nice villain for an animated film which is has this comedic villain sort of feeling, still a little threatening but very entertaining as the whole thing unfolds. The voice cast also includes these cameo characters of a perfect family that Linda envies secretly The Poseys where the parents are voiced by Chrissy Teigen and John Legend.
The Mitchells vs the Machine is a fun little animated film which plays well with its premise. While the story layout itself isn’t completely unique as most comedic family adventures, animated or not, usually include some type of dysfunctional family but the whole film is constructed really well from the voice cast, comedy and pacing while tackling the themes pretty well.
So you’ve seen our picks for this week’s double feature but what are your movie watching plans this weekend?
Let us know in the comments section below.
Movies and Tea 